The calendar doesn’t lie. Easter is slowly creeping up on us and it is time once again for stores to pull out all the stops: Easter rabbits, chocolate eggs, lilies and all manner of unnecessary paraphanelia to help distract people yet again from another religious holiday. I’m amazed that given all the hubbub in the world folks can actually find Jesus in this holiday. Much like Christmas, Easter too has been hijacked.
Then Jesus said to them, “You foolish people! You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures. – Luke 24: 25 NLT
And yet, we Christ-followers can have our faith hijacked too, can’t we? We make a commitment. Diligently commit to discipling someone, faithful to tithe, dedicated to a church…the list is there to check off. And yet Jesus can be conspicuously absent.
Recently I had the pleasure of sitting under the teaching of a NavPress author and a pastor from Denver, Robert Gelinas. He was sharing from the passage in Luke where the disciples were on the road to Emmaus. These two disheartened disciples are moping along, too deep in conversation to apparently notice or know it was Jesus that accompanies them.
I love how Eugene Peterson writes this scene in THE MESSAGE.
“So thick-headed! So slow-hearted! Why can’t you simply believe all that the prophets said?”
After all, had these disciples not just spent all this time with Jesus to know better? Hadn’t he foretold them of this. And they didn’t know it was Jesus with them.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be a dunderhead.
I want to be a Christ follower who KNOWS, without any shadow of a doubt Jesus has risen and is present and alive with me today.
Amen?
(And hopefully there are “Amens” heard around the global ethers!!!)
Hello Disciple-makers, publisher Don Pape here. I mentioned my friend Robert above. He has a terrific book for you to consider. It releases this summer and you can preorder it now. It is called, Discipled By Jesus, and is sure to be a beneficial read for all present day disciple makers.