seeing Jesus
So this is how I roll…
I started this post the Monday after Easter… A few weeks later and I’m still chewing on some truths I discovered as I have let my mind dwell on what this holiday means to me. I’m not known for being timely… {sigh}
I’ve found myself thinking about the crazy despair the followers of Jesus must have felt when they thought their Messiah was dead.
{can you imagine?!}
Well, He was dead… but, what they didn’t realize was that His death was not the end of the story.
I was reading in Luke 24 about 2 of Jesus’ followers walking to a village about 7-8 miles from Jerusalem. As they were walking and talking about all the things that had happened – someone shows up and starts walking with them. They had no idea who this person was… but they spent the walk in deep conversation with them sharing their grief of Jesus’ death and listening to this man list all of the prophecies since Moses that were fulfilled by Jesus.
They still had no idea who this man was.
Finally reaching their destination, they invited this man to come in and dine with them because it was getting late.
This man came in… and you know what He did?
He broke bread.
“He sat down at the table with them.
Taking the bread,
he blessed and broke and gave it to them.
At that moment,
open-eyed, wide-eyed, they recognized him.”
(Luke 24:30)
It was in this instant that they finally recognized that this was Jesus.
Isn’t it interesting that these two followers didn’t recognize Jesus until the bread was broken?
“This is my body… eat it and remember me.”
They came to see Jesus in the breaking of the bread.
…and they found LIFE.
I don’t know about you, but I have often found myself in a place where I am caught up in the ugly… so much so that I don’t recognize that my Savior is right there walking with me.
Sometimes I am so busy in my grief (no matter how justified) that I completely miss Jesus…
until I come to the table with Him.
And, I remember.
Just because we don’t recognize or hear Him doesn’t mean that He is not with us.
When I remember…
when I come to the cross…
and remember His body broken for me –
my eyes are OPEN and I see Jesus,
my Savior.
my King.
my Redeemer.
my LIFE.
Are you surrounded by ugly right now?
Drowning in laundry and a sink full of dishes?
Wondering how you will pay the bills?
Struggling in your marriage?
Hurting from broken a relationship?
Grieving over terminal illness?
Just wondering how you will face your day?
Maybe you are struggling to see Jesus in the midst of it.
Come to the table friend…
break bread and remember who He is and how He loves you so… and you will find life.
John 6:53-54 says,
“So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
