DID NOT OUR HEART BURN WITHIN US?
"Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight. And they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:31–32)
The two disciples got to the village of Emmaus. As they came to their journey’s end, it appeared that the stranger they were travelling with had to go further. Because dusk had set in, the two travellers pressed on their travel companion to spend the night with them. At this point, the two disciples were still not aware that the stranger in their midst was Jesus. They had been impressed with his exposition of the Bible but had not discovered who He was. Had they not pressed him to stay, they would not have known Him.
The lesson here is that Jesus stays with those who invite Him.
At the table, Jesus blessed the meal they were about to eat. Usually, the host was the one who blessed the meal but, the disciples yielded that role to the stranger they had brought home. As the Lord started the process of blessing and breaking the bread, the two disciples had a revelation of Christ.
Since the two disciples were not at the Last Supper, they would not have known about Jesus instituting the Communion. However, something about what the Lord did at the table struck a chord. Perhaps they saw the nail-marks in Jesus’ hands for the first time.
Their eyes were opened, and they knew Him. This is what God wants us to have. He wants the eyes of our understanding to be enlightened when we encounter Christ. When they recognized that it was the Lord with whom they had walked, the two disciples understood the feelings they had when Jesus explained the scriptures to them.
Did not our heart burn within us while He talked? From the first time when Jesus joined them on the journey, they had sensed something unusual in their hearts. They did not know what it was at the time but they came to understand.
When we truly encounter God’s word, our spiritual eyes open and our hearts become awakened. We cannot stay under the power of God’s word and go back the same.