Also - on a side note, I love that God never ceases to speak to us through the word. No matter how many times we've read it, heard it, studied it or taught it. God's Word is Living and active, and always ministering truth when we turn our eyes and ears to it - I love it.
I'm sure you're most likely, more than familiar with the Easter story - and so am I. But I realized this morning that remembering Christ is very different from remembering a story. So, here goes...I'm starting on the third day. After Jesus was crucified a couple ladies went to prepare the body with perfumes and spices (a Jewish tradition) and, of course we know, the body wasn't there because Jesus had risen like he promised. As some ladies were walking down the street chatting about everything that had happened, "Jesus himself came up and walked along with them" (Luke 24:15), but they didn't recognize Him. And so Jesus joins in on their conversation and continues to walk with them, talking about the Messiah's death and suffering being God's will as it fulfilled scripture.
Just as their about to part ways, the ladies invite Jesus to join them for the evening. They sit down together and are about eat, when Jesus takes the bread, gives thanks, breaks it and gives it to them (this is the Lord's supper, or Communion). It is at this very moment that "their eyes were opened and they recognized him" (24:31). And this is what spoke to me and why.
The ladies were walking with Jesus, talking with Jesus, talking about Jesus, and still its as though their hearts didn't see Him. And when they sat down to break bread with eachother, it says that Jesus "took the bread, gave thanks, broke it, and began to give it to them". It was in this moment that "their eyes were opened". A couple chapters earlier, we see a similar picture moments before Jesus was handed over to be crucified. During his last supper with His disciples he "took bread, gave thanks and broke it , and gave it to them saying, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me". He called them to Remember HIM, but didn't really clarify why the ought to.
And so the for the ladies who had been talking to Jesus and about Jesus, their eyes were opened to see Jesus only when they took time, as Jesus led them, to intentionally remember.
In taking the time to intentionally Remember Christ, eyes are opened to see Him. It's more than talking about Him, it's more than listening to stories about Him, its about individually, turning our hearts to Remember Him. And in so doing our eyes are opened to See Him and to embrace Him. And so, it made so much sense to me why the early Church was so intentional on gathering together to break bread, for Communion - it was to remember. And in so doing their eyes were opened to see and recognize Christ among them, in their lives.
Let us see Him as we remember
Love the Hartins
