Tag Archives: Road to Emmaus

Resurrection, What is God Like?

Is He, Or Isn’t He?

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A Critical Question About Jesus

Forward

I didn’t know my journey would start when I was so young….

My parents divorced when I was six, and my brother was barely two. I remember when my dad knelt, held me close, and said,

“You can call me uncle now.” 

I had no idea what this meant, but I knew it hurt.  Soon, my mom, brother, and I moved in with my grandmother.   During those early years, my grandmother had a great influence on me for God, but an elder in her church would turn me to atheism even though he thought he was doing the opposite. The questions about God began at age eight.

Mom began working full-time as a switchboard operator for a trucking company. So, for about four years, Ronnie (my brother) and I were raised by our sweet grandmother, whom we called “Mamaw.” She fed us, bathed us, and loved us. Though it seemed large then, the house had only two bedrooms and two showerless bathrooms. I slept in Mamaw’s bedroom on a cot beside an unused fireplace; Ronnie and Mom were in the other bedroom, which was part of an open duplex or apartment.

 In her room at night, just before we all retired for the evening, I heard my grandmother talking to God.  It frightened me initially, but after a few nights, I felt comfortable listening to her talk to her God as if they were close friends, unlike the elders of her church who prayed to Him with choice, carefully enunciated flowery words.

Though I never looked at her praying, I imagined her sitting on the floor with Jesus as they discussed her family and their problems.  As the oldest grandson, my name came up near the end of the lengthy conversation.  I could “see” my name floating to the throne room of God the Father, bore on the wings of the Holy Spirit.  I liked the God of my grandmother; He seemed likable, but I would meet a new god at Vacation Bible School a few years later.  This god, I did not like.  He scared me.

Vacation Bible School was fun.  I especially liked the crafts.  On the last day of VBS, all of us children waited anxiously for our parents to arrive so we could show them what we had made during the week. I had painted a King Edwards cigar box black and put decals and shells on it.  It made a perfect jewelry box.  My mom loved her jewelry.  But, before the moms, dads, and grandmothers arrived, we all met in a little room to hear an elder tell us about the upcoming service and how we could participate.  He wanted us to be baptized, so he began to tell us how much Jesus loved us.  I knew this God!  My grandmother talked to Him every night!

Then, the elder told us what would happen if we were not baptized.  We would go to “hell” and burn forever.  He described hell in disgusting detail. This didn’t sound like the God my grandmother talked to each night!  Something was wrong here. It was my first step toward unbelief.  No one, especially my grandmother’s Jesus, could be so cruel as to let all this happen!  Was my uncle in hell because he didn’t believe in Jesus but was a good husband and father?  Later in my journey, I would figure this out through scripture alone. 

Time marched on for my brother and me. I went through elementary school, high school, and eventually to college. In an ancient history class, I learned more than history; I learned about atheism directly from an atheistic professor. He made sense to me as I considered the contradiction of the two gods I had met when I was younger: one very loving and the other watching to ensure I was good or I would burn forever.

At age 18, I married a sweet, petite Christian gal.  We had three lovely children, but before that, we had some tough times and separated for a while.  When I returned, she (Julie) had been attending some “evangelistic” meetings.  I instantly began to make fun of her, telling her how silly it was to believe such nonsense.  I harassed her so much that she threw a dare at me.

“Eddie, if I am wrong, take this Bible and my notes and prove me wrong.”

My snarky response was, “Sure, this will be easy.”

For months, I went to the library for secular information (no web back in 1975) and began to read the Bible and her notes.  Quickly, I realized my attack had to be on this character, Jesus.  He had made some bold claims about Himself.  So, it came down to three questions: 

1.)  Did He exist? That was an easy question, even in secular history. 

2.) Was He all He claimed to be? and

3.) What was I going to do with what I learned? I had no idea. 

The primary and most critical question was, “Is He, or Isn’t He?  The following is just a small portion of my journey to know for myself about Jesus without the influence of denomination, tradition, or opinion.  The result?   I fell in love with Jesus and was baptized into His church, His body. Julie was right.  I was wrong.  My personal story is in my second book, “The Pig Returns To Its Mud.”

 Along the way, I realized that, as followers of Jesus, we must be united on the core beliefs based on God’s grace, compassion, and love expressed perfectly through Jesus. This is where God’s power is most effective. People can know the real Jesus for themselves if they only take time to look and hear. Too many beliefs, opinions, and traditions block out the sunlight of truth as found in Jesus. 

I will likely step on some toes in this book, but I pray that the initial pain will turn into something that will help the reader understand Jesus, as revealed by the prophets, kings, disciples, and apostles. This is my source material. While other “holy books” are written by one man, the story of Jesus is written by 35 to 40 men throughout thousands of years. That should tell us something.

I have settled these questions about Jesus. My atheism changed to a full-fledged believer in Jesus because I searched for the truth, and God directed my paths. He does this for everyone who will search with “all their heart.” It is not a casual search.  There are obstacles along the way. 

The journey continues. I am by no means perfect, but He is! He is worthy. I am not.  I hope that as you read this, you will discover Jesus’ reality and His faithfulness, whether you are a believer or not.  The reward will be greater than you can imagine.  Thank you, Julie.  May you rest in peace knowing God Himself directed your dare.  He knew what I needed.

“And this is the way to have eternal life—to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth.” John 17:3 NLT

Introduction

The world is full of, to use an old Yiddish word, “Shysters.”  There are a multitude of con artists, liars, and cheats who are typically motivated by money, fame, self-gratification, or even worship! The knowledge of a person’s true identity can have life-and-death outcomes.

As I write this, countless writers and speakers are making money and fame from conspiracy theories, health-related topics, and merchandise that have no basis in facts, science, or common sense. They exist off the pocketbooks of the naive, uneducated, and those without critical thinking abilities. Deception includes marketing products, broadcasting news, education, music, and, of course, philosophy. These “industries” make billions of dollars of their victims each year.

Recently, I heard of a woman whose name I will not mention. She writes books and charges money to her fans to listen to her speak on various naturalistic remedies for almost every ailment, including cancer.  You would think she would be a doctor or someone with excellent credentials and that her presentations would include facts and figures to demonstrate her success rate.  On the contrary, this person failed in the medical industry and has been banned in several countries because of her unfounded and often dangerous instructions.  What confounds me is that she packs the house whenever she speaks!  Those in her audience are the anti-doctor, anti-vaccine, anti-science, anti-everything they don’t like.  In my opinion, it would seem that if we want something to be correct, we can find those who will help us feed our disillusionment.  Instead of searching for truth systematically, they search for confirmation from flawed information, reasoning, or feelings. This routine has been going on since the beginning of time.

Then comes Jesus onto the scene. In one of His prayers, he boldly states, “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” John 17:3 A knowledge of God the Father and Jesus Christ leads to eternal life. If this is true, we need to know if He is true. Is He, or isn’t He?

He walks, talks, teaches the ordinary people, and tries to reach the religious people who feel they have everything to know about Jehovah.  The religious leaders, the Pharisees, Scribes, and Sadducees prided themselves in thinking they had God all figured out and processed the authority to speak on behalf of God and express His will.  But Jesus claimed to be four things. He states, without hesitation, that he is “ The way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father (Jehovah) except through me (Jesus).”  John 14:6

       The question is, “Is He? or Isn’t He?  Is Jesus like one of the many Shysters of history and today that prey on the naive, uneducated, and those without common sense? Either Jesus is all He claims to be, or He is not.  His statement in John has no middle ground or room for compromise.  He is either the only way, or He is not.  His disciples took three and a half years to conclude that Jesus was real. What convinced them to die for their faith in Jesus as “… the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Matthew 16:16 was not in wars between cultures but at the hands of those of their culture who hated them.  What convinced them should also convince us, although we aren’t able to physically handle and touch Him as they did.  They could rightly say, we have “…heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life—” 1 John 1:1We cannot.      

However, others existed before Jesus was born who never saw or touched Him but saw Jesus in the future. These were the many prophets, kings, and inspired writers of the Old Testament. On the other hand, modern society has had all this testimony from people for many generations. Those before Jesus looked forward in faith; the disciples and apostles lived by faith at the moment, and we today live in faith, looking back at the record of those before us. There is a need to study these patriarchs to determine Is He, or Isn’t He.  As we discover Jesus, our faith will grow in Him.  Therefore, we can say, “Little time with Jesus and the Bible will result in little faith in Jesus.  Conversely, much time with Jesus and the Bible will result in much faith in Jesus.    “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.”  Romans 10:17

After the resurrection of Christ, Jesus first saw Mary and then showed up on a dusty road talking with two men who thought he was a stranger who just happened to walk up and begin a conversation.  They were walking away from the discouragement and sorrow of Jerusalem on a journey to a new beginning in Emmaus,

 As they walked along, Jesus gave them a study from the scriptures.  What is unusual about this study was that there was no New Testament pocket Bible for Jesus to pull out of His robe because printing, as we know it, had not been invented. Still, even more important, the New Testament had not been written yet!  So, this was a “Scripture” study from what we call the Old Testament and what the modern Jews call the Tankah.  It contains the writings of the many prophets and inspired writers.  Something happened to these men that greatly increased their faith in Jesus and set their hearts on fire: “Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” Luke 24:27. Jesus did this from memory! 

The men were familiar with these writings, but now they had meaning about Christ (the long-awaited Messiah).  Their eyes were opened, and their hearts were greatly encouraged by Jesus because they had heard Him and later looked across the table at Him!    They were so amped up that they ran back the seven miles to Jerusalem to find the other eleven disciples behind closed and locked doors, afraid of what might happen to them. (A side note from a former runner:   If they were seven miles away and ran back within the hour (Luke 24:33), this was equivalent to less than a seven-minute mile pace.  That is fast!  I’ll bet today’s runners could not do that in a robe and sandals!) 

When these two speed-runners made it back to Jerusalem and found the original disciples, they noticed they weren’t gathered to conduct Sunday worship in honor of the resurrection.  No!  They were in a state of disbelief and thought that the body of the One they loved was dead in a tomb in the beginning stages of decay (John 20:9).  Just as our two runners show up, Jesus pops into the sealed room.  The disciples think He is a spirit! (Luke 24:37).  After inviting them to touch him, He said some critical words for us to hear that I will discuss later.  “Look at My hands and My feet. See! It is I, Myself! Touch Me and see for yourself. A spirit does not have flesh and bones as I have.” Luke 24: 39

Then, Jesus did something that conflicted with their expectations of a resurrected immortal body: He asked for food, and they gave him fish and a honeycomb, and he ate it in front of them! (Luke 24: 42, 43).  What does that say about our resurrected immortal bodies and our heavenly experience?  At the very least, we will have bodies that enjoy eating, and we will live in flesh and bone bodies!  Our bodies will be just like His!  I don’t know about you, but that is much more exciting than sitting on a cloud plucking a harp as a ghost! “…we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”  1 John 3:2

So, after the short meal, Jesus conducts the second Scripture study of the day. This time, He has the eleven disciples plus the two believers who ran back to Jerusalem from seven miles away in less than an hour. Wow! I’m still amazed by their athleticism, but I digress. 

Jesus expands the scripture study to include the Psalms (These are the poetic books of the Bible that include Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon.). From these writings of thirty-five men, he showed them “all the things that must be fulfilled” about Him! Luke 24 44, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.  And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures” Luke 24 45.  After this study, Jesus covered all of the Old Testament divisions: The first five books of the Bible (Law of Moses), the major and minor prophets (the Prophets), and the poetic books (Psalms).  Jesus is there in those many books!  How could we miss that?  It may be because we are not looking or want it to be true.    

Is He or isn’t He all those things written in the Scriptures and the eyewitnesses of the New Testament?  For us to know that Jesus is all He claims to be, our eyes must be opened to understand the scriptures.  Otherwise, we will be like the pious religionists who knew and practiced religion the way they desired it to be, with all the trappings of pride, power, and control.  They didn’t want Jesus to be faithful.  They wanted a king to come riding on a white horse into Jerusalem with a giant sword, chopping off the heads of the Romans whom they despised. 

There is danger in creating a Jesus we want rather than what He really is.  What He is can be found in the Old and New Testaments, not by a popular speaker, philosopher, or even our particular religion/denomination or set of beliefs. 

I take this journey as a person wanting to discover the depth of the Jesus of Scripture, not of my denomination (not that they are bad) nor of what I want Him to be.  At whatever point I am along the way, I desire to feel the presence of Him in my life.  That is enough even if I never have enough time to reach my literary and study goals, I hope you will join me in this Jesus Journey and that Scripture and the Holy Spirit will lead us into a deeper understanding of the One who claims to be the way, the truth, and the life.

A Week Before The Resurrection

HE IS ALIVE! NOW I UNDERSTAND LIKE NEVER BEFORE!

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The Day That Changed History

 It was like I had been reading the scripture the way I wanted it to read instead of letting it talk to me!

The following is based on Luke 24

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“Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre.   And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus.  And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments:  And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead?  He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee,  Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.  And they remembered his words,  And returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest.”  Luke 24: 1-9

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It was early in the morning and the sky was getting brighter as we walked the dusty road speaking in low tones. My new friend Cleopas talked in pain about the things that had transpired over the last few days.  So many things!  All very bad!

The disappointment started with the arrest of Jesus in the Garden east of the city.   During the night and into the early morning of the Preparation Day (Friday) the soldiers and mob began to move him between the governor and religious leadership. Then they beat him to a pulp. Eventually they crucified him on a Roman cross on the hill outside of Jerusalem later in the afternoon of the Preparation Day.  I watched as he hung his head and took his last breath. I think I saw Peter off in the distance.  He appeared to be on his knees with his face in his hands.  His disappointment must be very great! We all loved the gentle Jesus and will miss him. He certainly went about doing good.  I just don’t understand these series of events. Cleophas and I both repetitively ask, Why?

I will certainly be labeled as a fanatic believer by my brothers, the Sadducees.  The religious leaders have declared Jesus a blasphemer and made sure He was no longer a factor in our religion. They have won and put an innocent precious soul to death. Not just death, but the cruel and tortuous death on a Roman cross. Why were they so determine to do away with Him?

There had been an earthquake and the sun refused to let go of its light.  Darkness took over the land like a thick wet smothering blanket.  Everything seemed out of place. It was frightening.  The large curtain in the temple had been ripped from top to bottom by some unseen hands. There were even reports of people, considered saints,  coming out of their graves and appearing to many in the city! (Matthew 27: 51-53)

My personal disappointment because made me weak. I have a lot to lose. I believed everything He said and was amazed at His great miracles and works of kindness. We thought him to be the Messiah prophesied by many of the prophets hundreds of years ago.  He was going to set up his kingdom and deliver the Jews from the iron rule of Rome.   He was the coming king upon which I hung all my hopes.   But, it seemed like he did not want the office of king.  I had left everything to follow him and learn his teachings, but all this seemed to come to nothing on that Friday afternoon when He died.

Now only doubt, sadness, and breath-taking disappointment draped themselves on Cleopas and me. My head is spinning with confusion.  I  want an explanation, but the reality of possible deception by this Nazarene was creeping into my thoughts and it made me feel sick and foolish.  On top of everything else, the body of Jesus is missing!  The women said He was alive, confirmed by a couple of other disciples, but I know better.  It is just wishful thinking on their part. No one could have survived the beating, the nails, the loss of blood, and finally the sharp sword in the side.  I saw it and refuse to believe anything but what my eyes can confirm. There was no mistaking… the vision of so much blood and the pale appearance of death was real and convincing.

We are on our way to Emmaus to start over;  a walk of about 8 miles.  It will take me the usual 3 1/2 hours or so to walk…maybe longer today because of our conversation and a heavy heart. This dusty walk will give us plenty of time to try to put all the pieces together….to try to understand and make sense of everything and to decide what to do with the rest of our lives. My clothes are now those of the common person.  I have removed my garments worn by the other Sadducees. My self-identification is stuck between tradition and my disappointment.

All of a sudden, and unexpected, a stranger walks up from behind and joins us. He scared us a little then  he asks,

“Why are you so sad and what are you discussing?”

I find these two questions odd in the light of the excitement and well-known events of the weekend. Slightly agitated and amazed Cleopas speaks before I can open my mouth and he answers the question with a question.  He throws in some sarcasm for good measure.

“Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem that does not know the things which happened there this last few days?”

 I am even more amazed when the stranger asks,

“What things?”

In disbelief, we began to explain to the stranger the events of the last few days.  Reviewing everything does not help my mental and spiritual pain. We rush through what we saw as a courtesy to the stranger.

“These things concern Jesus of Nazareth who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people .  The chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and crucified Him.  But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel.  Indeed, besides all this today is the third day since these things happened.  Yes, and certain women of our company, who arrived at the tomb early, astonished us.  Then they did not find His body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said He was alive. And certain of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but Him they did not see.” Luke 24: 19-24

Then the stranger calls Cleopas and me “foolish ones” and that we are “slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken”  This is certainly not so! I have always believed the prophets.  I have come from a family who believes in the Tanakh (Old Testament) and I have read it often.  The prophets said, that the Messiah would come and deliver Israel from its enemies.

But the stranger began to recite the writings of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy) and all the Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Micah, Malachi, etc)  of the Tanakh and explain things I had missed before.

The stranger clearly points out passages that were references to Jesus.  For the next 3 hours, I am amazed at the knowledge and clarity of the stranger’s words.  As I listened to him recite our ancient books, I begin to see that it was necessary for Jesus to die for the sins of the world, but that He would be raised up the third day!  How had I missed that?  Why had we not believed Jesus when he said it was necessary for him to die and that he would rise again?  

It was like I had been reading the scripture the way I wanted it to read instead of letting it talk to me!  Indeed, we felt foolish but encouraged by the words of the stranger.  My heart burned within me!  I wanted to hear more!  This was all exciting and new to me!  Hope was starting to spring up in my heart! What if Jesus really was alive again?

As we near the village, the day is in its final hours. it is getting darker. I don’t want the stranger to go and I look for excuses for him to stay the night so we can hear more. Thankfully, He agrees to have supper with us.

As He breaks the bread, I recognize those hands and the manner in which he breaks it!  I finally look across the table into his eyes about the same time as Cleopas.  

It is Jesus!  

As soon as we recognize him, he disappears!  We had been talking to Jesus the whole time and we didn’t recognize him!

With intense excitement and joy, Cleopas and I jump up and run the 8 miles back to Jerusalem in the dark!   We must tell the others who were behind closed doors…those who share our confusion and disappointment.  When we arrive,  we find them huddled in a group in fear and disappointment.  Out of breath, we begin to tell them what had happened over the last several hours.  As we are telling them, Jesus appears in the room!

Everyone jumps back.  They think they are seeing a spirit, but Jesus tells them it is Him and that He is not a spirit. To prove it, He invites them to touch Him and He asks for something to eat.  They give Him some fish and some honeycomb.  After everyone settles down and the scales of their eyes begin to fall away, Jesus repeats the same type of study Cleopas and I heard on the road to Emmaus.  This time, He uses the entire Tanakh including the Psalms to explain how He is found all through scripture. All the disciples begin to understand that He had to die, but that He would rise on the third day.  How could we have been so slow to understand?  It was right there!

Then He said to us,

“These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you.  that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.  And He opened our understanding that we might comprehend the Scriptures.”

Now I understand! He is alive! It is right there in the scripture that He must teach us, die for us, and then rise up for us! He is all about us. We now must be all about Him!

The only disciple not with us is Thomas.  The disappointment of the cross was too much for him.  We have not seen him since Friday.  It will be 8 days before Thomas shows up…

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 Next, we will take a look at Jesus through the eyes of one who is a well-known doubter (Thomas) and attempt to understand why the resurrection of Jesus is an absolute cornerstone of the Christian faith. In fact, without it, Paul says we are most pitiful of all men (1 Corinthians 15: 12-19). But, after we see through the eyes of Thomas we will exclaim as he did:

“My Lord and My God.”  John 20:28