Easter Meditation

Two of the friends of Jesus went to their home in Emmaus. They had left Jerusalem, the city of blood, where their hope had all but perished when the dead body of Jesus was laid in the grave in Joseph’s garden. With heavy heart and sad face they shuffle along the dreary road. Leaving the city they felt they were only leaving behind death and desolation, a cross and a grave. But what would they find at home? They were bringing with them hearts full of dead hopes. Do you understand the language of these friends?

As we read this story we can see them walking with head bowed, face sad, feet shuffling along as if of lead. O wonder when we understand these two men. Only memories left of Easter 1965: “When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with the multitude that kept holyday.” O, yesterday, come back!

As these two men walk wearily along a stranger unexpectedly, suddenly, falls in step with them. The stranger was none other than Jesus Himself. Jesus Himself came near and went with them. There is a need only Jesus Himself can meet. O wonder, when we have no peace on earth. It becomes more and more impossible. There is a work to be done in the hearts of His own that only Jesus can perform. Only He can satisfy the thirst of these men. By nature no one thirsts after God. Because of sin we are all enemies, and it is a serious matter that we do not know this.

A person who becomes a subject of grace unconditionally thirsts for God. His sins grieve him, he begins to cry, “I have lost God”. They become concerned with their actual sins and try to reform, but it becomes impossible for them. They think it is possible for others but not for themselves. They receive impressions of the justice of God and they run to and fro through the earth crying to God for mercy. These are they who thirst for God. The cause of their misery is that they have fallen from communion with God through their own sins. They yearn for the Water of Life: their souls being faint and dry like a desert land. They need a Surety for eternity. Their every expectation was built upon Jesus, but Jesus is dead.

And Jesus said unto them: “What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?” So they pour out their hearts to Him about the sorrowful way of Jesus, their hope and their joy. And now Jesus is dead. His voice is silent. “We trusted that it had been He who should have redeemed Israel.” We trusted in days gone by, when He was alive, but who can trust in a dead man? Jesus patiently listens to the outpouring of their troubles and sorrows. O that we might tell Him our troubles this day. Shall we unburden our hearts in prayer? May it drive you to the throne of grace. But why tell God what He knows even better than we? Well, the Lord Jesus asked these men to tell Him what their troubles were, while He knew all about it. And the Lord has not changed His mind. That is His way of leading His own out of darkness into the light. These two men had been considering only one part of God’s promise to redeem Israel. They were looking to the end purpose of God in sending the Messiah. They overlooked the revealed way by which the Messiah would enter into the glory of Redeemer of His people. All God’s prophets had spoken of the sufferings of Christ, which must be endured if He was to reach the glory. The journey of God’s church is a journey through the wilderness. First He led in the path of humiliation. Is not then the way of salvation onesided, free and sovereign?

“And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” To that testimony of God we must give our attention if we would know Him as He is. If we may receive one drop out of the Fountain Head it becomes an eternal wonder. When the storm is at its highest the voice of the Lord will be heard.

“Foes may hate, and friends forsake me,
‘Twill but drive me to thy breast,
Life with trials hard may press me,
Heaven will bring me sweeter rest.”

In nature the day was done. But wonder, in their soul the night was gone. Therefore, people of God, you who are no strangers of the fruitful ministrations of grace, must be aware that there are many broken cisterns which hold no water. Christ alone has living water and what a glorious promise Jesus gives: “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst”.

Our two friends would have more of Jesus’ instruction, more of His presence. Therefore they invite the stranger in for the night. Come in stranger, come in. You know so much. Tell us more about Jesus. Tell us, O tell us. Their invitation to Jesus to come in was occasioned by Jesus coming to them. No one ever invited the Lord, until the Lord had first invited Himself. O wonder of free and sovereign grace.

“I sought the Lord, and afterward I knew
He moved my soul to seek Him, seeking me;
It was not I that found, O Savior true;
No, I was found of Thee.”

And even after He found us and endeared Himself to us, how often have we closed our heart against Him and wandered far from Him. Always He comes to seek the wandering one, and to lead the confused on the sure way. Blessed Jesus, Blessed Savior.

“And he went in to tarry with them.” He was walking with them, and talking to them, but as yet they did not recognize Him. “And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them.”

“God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform.”

What tumultuous thoughts must have surged through their minds as the stranger took the bread and broke it and gave it to them. That was the way Jesus did things in the past. But wonder, their eyes are opened, and they know Him. O what a wonder, their Lord Jesus is alive from the dead. One drop of Jesus’ love in our cup of bitterness will make it sweet. “And he vanished out of their sight.” But not out of their eyes of faith, nor out of their hearts.

Have you become a sinner? Oh, that you might receive grace to surrender the weapons of enmity. Destitute and wretched is man, full of misery, on the way to hell. Grace is a sovereign deed of God. It is not pleasant to hear, yet it is an eternal truth that we must be born again. On the other hand, if Jesus has found us on our dark and hopeless way, if we, by the grace of God, have come to know Jesus as the lover of our soul, then the night will hold no terrors for us. Then the way will not be dangerous, for at the end of the often dark and heavy road will be Jesus. Sweet, sweet gospel. O that it might be our prayer for Easter 1965: “Dear Lord Jesus, draw near to us on our pilgrim way, go with us, abide with us.”

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