Welcome back again to another podcast of Struggling Well, and we are now in the week after Easter and, that means all the things like the Easter baskets and everything else have been used, put away, and now we move on with life.
Can I ask a question?
Sure.
Who where did the Easter egg come from? I mean,
who decided that there was an Easter bunny and Easter eggs filled with chocolate or money? I'm stunned.
No, I don't know. I'm going to take a wild curious. I'll be, you know, we'll get texts telling me I'm wrong, but I don't know. This has to do with spring and new beginnings and all that kind of stuff and bunnies.
I don't know. So,
all right. Just asking.
But, you know, I mean, it we tend to move on like, okay, it's over. It's done. It's a reality. It's a fixed reality. But even that first resurrection Sunday
and the days after, it was not a smooth, easy transition for the disciples and those who had been following Jesus. And, one passage that gives us an indication of their struggle with it and just not knowing is in Luke 24 and the two disciples on the road to Emmas. they're going on the road to Emmas. They're talking about the events that have just happened. They were in Jerusalem when Jesus was crucified. And it says in the middle of it he asked the question to them what things like he wasn't he didn't know. And they said concerning Jesus of Nazareth. And then they say in verse 21, we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel but he died. and he's there he is walking with him.
Wow.
And yet they don't see and understand because they don't believe what he said which was I will be crucified. I will die and 3 days later I'll rise.
And they don't believe him. And so it's for them a startling reality when they come to understand later that it was Jesus who was walking with them all along and he was the one who opened up the scriptures to them. But life was not an easy transition for the early disciples.
There was a lot of disappointment and a lot of discouragement. I think they were the disciples initially were in a room. They were afraid. these guys I don't know which disciples these are, but they're walking away and they're you know you've been in that situation where a situation sorry say that word twice where a particular thing that you thought was going to happen didn't or not to the degree that you thought and you walk away disappointed and were wondering and these guys were they also had to be a little frightened about what would happen to them.
Yeah. Jesus later on says to them, the foolish one slow to believe of what the prophets had spoken. So it wasn't just his words that he had said to the disciples, it was all the recorded words of the prophets leading up to his coming into this world that they didn't believe. But I wonder I don't mean to pick on them because I think the same is true for us. How many times do we not believe things that he has said, things that are written in the word of God that we should take to heart because yes, Easter is a particular Sunday, but the realities of Easter should impact us every day of our lives.
Well, and I think back in my life of the many times that Jesus did exactly what he promised in his word. he showed compassion, he showed mercy, he gave me guidance, and then I get into another situation and I forget what he's done. And these disciples had been with him. They'd watched him heal the sick, raise the dead, encourage people, cast out demons, all these things cuz there's so much that wasn't recorded that we have, but there's so many things that they saw him do. And yet still they walked away. And it kind of reminds me of the, you know, we've talked about this before, but you know, remember when he fed the 5, 000? Then I don't know what the time span was, but then he feeds another 4, 000. Then they're out on the boat in the middle of the water and they're terrified. And my translation would be, "Hey guys, did you not see what I did?"
And with these guys too, they knew the scriptures, but they saw what he did. Shortterm memory loss is what it looks like to me.
But, you know, I want to give these guys some credit because once they realize their eyes have been open and they recognize Jesus and he vanishes from their sight, They get up that same hour. Now, they just walked all the way to Emmas. They get up that same hour and go back to Jerusalem to find the 11 and to tell them what they had seen.
And I love it when they said, "Didn't our hearts burn within us as we as he talked with us on the road and explained the scriptures to us?" That's a fascinating phrase, too.
Yeah. And so, I open God's word. When I open God's word, what I have to remind myself is Holy Spirit Please reveal what you've written in scripture cuz I want that same sense in which my heart burns within when I see the words of Jesus and I see who he is and I see what he's done for me and how he asked me to live.
Later on in the passage in Luke it says then the two from Emmas told their story of how Jesus had appeared to them as they were walking along the road and how they recognized him as he was breaking the bread and just as they were telling about it Jesus himself was suddenly standing there among them and he says peace be with you but the whole group was startled and frightened thinking that we're seeing a ghost and I love the way that Jesus just he speaks plainly he doesn't you know there's no tada but he says why are you frightened why are your hearts filled with doubt look at my hands look at my feet you can see that it's really me touch me and make sure that I'm not a ghost because ghosts don't have bodies as you see and I do and he spoke And he showed them his hands and his feet. And still they stood there in disbelief, filled with joy and wonder. And he said to them and asked them, "Do you have anything here to eat?" What a crazy question. But he's being who he was. He's being Jesus.
Yeah. And so as Easter is now passed and some of the things that we relate to the Easter season are over, what we want and we hope and pray for ourselves and for you is that Easter is an ongoing celebration in your heart about who Jesus is and what he's done for you and that his words are trustworthy and you can trust him.
Thanks so much for joining us and we hope that you listen again next week.