"didn't our hearts burn?" Easter, emmaus, and... john calvin
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One of my favourite Easter stories takes place immediately after the resurrection. It happens on the same day that Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and several other women take spices to Jesus’ tomb and discover that his body is gone. An angel appears to declare that Jesus is risen, and the women stumble off to proclaim this news to the other disciples...
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On the same day, two disciples are walking on the road to Emmaus, discussing the women’s astounding announcement and everything that had taken place up to that point. They are shocked and confused on so many levels: their friend has died brutally, they had hoped he was the Saviour of the world, and now his body is gone and they don’t know what to think. As you can imagine, these disciples are reeling and they are trying to make sense of it all. And right in the midst of their loss, their chaos and their confusion… Jesus appears. But they do not recognize him.
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I love this moment of Jesus’ presence in their everyday lives (as they walk a dusty road), and in their everyday struggles (as they navigate discomfort, pain and confusion). And I love it that they don’t recognize him. Isn’t this so human? Doesn’t this happen to us all the time? The presence of the risen Christ is with us, but our eyes are so focused on the road that we do not see him. In a beautiful twist, it’s not until the disciples break bread with Jesus (they take their minds off their own struggles long enough to welcome a stranger to their table) that the scales fall from their eyes, light dawns upon them, and they realize who has been with them. Then they look back over their time with him that day and realize how powerful his presence had been. “Didn’t our hearts burn within us?” they ask. It is a direct experience of Paul’s declaration: “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). It’s in the everyday moments of our trouble and joy that the presence of Jesus is revealed to our hearts.
The point is that since the resurrection, that presence of Christ is everywhere, in everything, all over the place. Jesus is no longer in bodily form, but present with us in the everyday moments of our lives, animating each moment with life and light. Like something sparkling in our peripheral vision, that we just need to turn toward to see. That’s not to say that we won’t experience darkness, pain or confusion, but that there is One with us in the darkness who walks with us on the road and who is leading us to the table of life. Call me crazy, but this reminds me of a quote by John Calvin:
The point is that since the resurrection, that presence of Christ is everywhere, in everything, all over the place. Jesus is no longer in bodily form, but present with us in the everyday moments of our lives, animating each moment with life and light. Like something sparkling in our peripheral vision, that we just need to turn toward to see. That’s not to say that we won’t experience darkness, pain or confusion, but that there is One with us in the darkness who walks with us on the road and who is leading us to the table of life. Call me crazy, but this reminds me of a quote by John Calvin:
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“The final goal of the blessed life, moreover, rests in the knowledge of God [cf. John 17:3]. Lest anyone, then, be excluded from access to happiness, he not only sowed in [our] minds that seed of religion of which we have spoken but revealed himself and daily discloses himself in the whole workmanship of the universe. As a consequence, [we] cannot open [our] eyes without being compelled to see him. Indeed, his essence is incomprehensible; hence, his divineness far escapes all human perception. But upon his individual works he has engraved unmistakable marks of his glory, so clear and so prominent that… folk cannot plead the excuse of ignorance…in the creation of the universe he brought forth those insignia whereby he shows his glory to us, whenever and wherever we cast our gaze…wherever you cast your eyes, there is no spot in the universe wherein you cannot discern at least some sparks of his glory.”
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I love this. God is revealed to us and disclosed to us in the everyday moments of our lives; wherever we cast our gaze there are some sparks of God’s glory. If we have but eyes to see.
To be sure, we are walking our own Emmaus Road right now. We are between Christ’s resurrection and his coming again. We are dealing with the uncharted territory of pandemic life. We are navigating changes and losses in our own denomination and the usual trouble and joy of our personal lives. And yet Jesus walks with us. Quietly, powerfully, he is revealing his love and truth. God is present everywhere, like light in our peripheral vision. Like sparks of glory.
I hope if the resurrection teaches us anything, it is to look for the presence of Christ in all things. It is to have eyes to see those sparks of God’s glory, even in our discomfort and confusion. It is to ask at the end of each day, after walking the dusty road, “didn’t our hearts burn within us?” Didn’t they, indeed.
To be sure, we are walking our own Emmaus Road right now. We are between Christ’s resurrection and his coming again. We are dealing with the uncharted territory of pandemic life. We are navigating changes and losses in our own denomination and the usual trouble and joy of our personal lives. And yet Jesus walks with us. Quietly, powerfully, he is revealing his love and truth. God is present everywhere, like light in our peripheral vision. Like sparks of glory.
I hope if the resurrection teaches us anything, it is to look for the presence of Christ in all things. It is to have eyes to see those sparks of God’s glory, even in our discomfort and confusion. It is to ask at the end of each day, after walking the dusty road, “didn’t our hearts burn within us?” Didn’t they, indeed.
