The Road to Emmaus

The first person to see the resurrected Jesus Christ was none other than Mary Magdalene. Before she saw Him though, she heard a voice, asking her why she was crying. "She [then] turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus."

Peter, James, John and a few other apostles were fishing on the Sea of Galilee when a man called out from the shore, saying unto them "Children, have ye any meat?" They, not having caught a single fish all night, answered him "no". And he said unto them, "cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find". Keep in mind that by this point, these Apostles have already seen the resurrected Lord, at least once, some of them twice. These same apostles even had a very similar experience when they first encountered Jesus on the shore of Galilee, a few years back. And yet, the did not recognize Him. Nonetheless, they did as the man on the shore suggested, and sure enough, they were not able to draw in the net for the amount of fish it held. Then, and only then, did it dawn on them, "It is the Lord."

On the road to Emmaus, two Apostles came alongside a man. The man heard their distraught conversation and asked something to the effect of "why are ye sad?" To put this into perspective, it would be like asking a New Yorker why they were sad three days after 9/11. These Apostles, caught off guard at the man's striking ignorance, assumed he must be a foreigner. So they explained to him all that had gone on in the last few days regarding the unjust condemnation and crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and how His tomb was found empty as of that very morning. As they continued walking, the stranger listened patiently as they caught him up on all the current events. The man then began to teach the Apostles why those things happened the way they did. He "expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning [Christ]". This conversation went on for most of the day as they travelled, so when nightfall had come, the stranger was about to part ways with his earnest yet oblivious friends. But these two Apostles loved their conversation so much that they asked the man to stay with them for the night, then carry on his journey the following day. The man agreed and sat down to eat dinner with them. It was not until "He took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them," that the Apostles eyes were finally opened and knew it was Him. 

"they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?"

These two apostles, along with Peter, James, John and Mary, had to learn to recognize Jesus.

And so do we.

3 ways we can learn to recognize our Savior.

1. We can learn to see God by spending time with Jesus

When I left on my mission, I didn’t know much. I knew there was a guy named Nephi, something about brass plates and a boat, but after that it was just a blur of names and events. During my mission, I had a companion, who for better or worse, kind of put the standard missionary lessons on the shelf and wanted to just read the scriptures with our investigators. Watching these Paraguayans discover the Book of Mormon for the first time and feel God’s love and spirit pour into their lives... well this was wayyyy better than 6am seminary. This was real life. These were people who had nothing, and had all the more reason to resent God for the cards they’d been dealt. To see these people find answers to deep held questions in a book that is almost 2,000 years old...

Well, that is when the Book of Mormon came to life for me.

Fast forward about 5 or 6 years. I felt like I knew the scriptures. I felt like I knew everything that goes on in the temple. I kept looking for the next new thing, the next new doctrine to wrestle with. I was ready for more more more. But, I was rapidly running out of new things to discover. Eventually these new discoveries came more and more infrequent, and my scripture study began to feel stale and repetitive. I was at a spiritual plateau that lasted quite a while.

One day I went to an institute class that I will remember for a long time. The goal of that class was not to learn anything “new” per say. There was nothing flashy. No deciphering revelations 12 trying to find out when the 2nd coming will be, etc.

As my teach called it, just "good ole fashioned spending time with Jesus”.

From then on, when I read the scriptures, I decided to do a few things differently. Simple things. State of mind kind of things. I remove my shoes, imagining myself standing on holy ground, and I read the scriptures, not trying to find the next hidden gem, but simply trying to spend time with Jesus. And you know what the funny thing is? I now find “hidden gems” even more often than before.

When I attend the temple, I am not looking to unlock the mysteries of heaven. I simply play some of my favorite Christian music while I put on a shirt and tie, imagining myself being separated from the world just a bit. I arrive at the temple, change out of those clothes and into all white clothes, again separating myself from the world a bit more. Then I change again, depending on the ordinance, separating myself a little bit more. All the while, my only goal is to spend time with Jesus. Imagining his hand on my shoulder. Imagining Him next to me.

I invite you to think about ways you can simply spend time with Jesus. I promise that as you do so, you will see Him more and more as He really is. You will recognize Him in parts of your life you previously had not.

Maybe it will be how you approach your scripture study, or your calling. Or Maybe it will be how you approach the sacrament. For example, each week you could pick a scripture to think about while the young men are passing the bread and water. One of my favorites is to think of the women with the issue of blood in Luke 8. Read that passage and imagine Jesus coming to your sacrament meeting, and after taking the sacrament, He takes the stand and asks “who touched me? Who came to the sacrament table broken, and now feels healed? Who came with heavy burdens, and now feels me next to them, shouldering the weight? Who came praying for a miracle, and is now certain it will come their way? Who reached out, and felt my virtue flow into them?”

Spending time with Jesus, yes it’s about what you’re doing. Jesus probably won’t play nintendo with you. But it’s so much more about what you’re thinking about.

2. We can learn to see God through serving others

I’ve never heard service better described than this one paragraph:

"to serve in this Church is to stand in the river of God’s love for His children. This Church is a work party of people with picks and shovels trying to help clear the channel for the river of God’s love to reach His children at the end of the row. Whoever you are, whatever your past, there is room for you in this Church. Grab a pick and shovel and join the team. Help carry His love to His children, and some of it will splash on you." - Elder Robert M Daines

For this river to get where you are now, there have been many saints working hard to dig that channel. I hope the channel of God’s love doesn’t end with any of us. There are many at the end of the row who still need it.

Since Elder Daines hit nail on the head with service, I will do a 180 and talk about what keeps us from serving, a pitfall we may one day find ourselves in.

There is a very common saying among my generation. “I’m not religions, I’m spiritual”. This train of thought almost certainly leads to the channel of God’s love ending at our feet.

I do not believe you can really be spiritual while not being religious. I'm not saying you cannot be good people and live happy lives… let me explain.

What are the 2 great commandments:

1. Love God (that’s spirituality).

2. Love thy neighbor (that’s religion).

After all, religion is basically being spiritual with other people, together.

If we each lived on our own mountain top with no one else around for hundreds of miles, then sure, we could just be “spiritual”. But if we have neighbors around, whom we choose not to love and care for, do we really love God?

Think of these two things:

1: Think how much God loves his children.

And 2: think of all the gifts and talents he has given you.

Let those sink in. And you’re telling me, you're going to sit in your room, pray & read the scriptures, only focusing on your spirituality? Something tells me God would be quite sad. Sure He’d be happy you have made such effort to come closer to Him, but sad that his love has ended at your feet. That you put a kink in the hose, per say. All that love, those gifts, those talents, they did not reach the end of the row.

Now I may be preaching to the choir if you already consider yourself as one who loves God and makes an honest effort to love their neighbor. But imagine how easy it is to slip into auto-pilot as far as religion goes. We go to church, we check the boxes, but we don't go out of our way to make friends with the new family in the ward. We visit those we are assigned to minister to, but we hope they say no when we ask if there's anything we can do. We pay attention in church so we can learn, but we don't contribute our thoughts to the class. We come to take take take, instead of to give give give.

If you ever want to increase your love for others, I hope you think about this imagery that Elder Daines paints for us. Think of yourself digging the channel to extend the river’s reach, making sure that God’s love gets to the end of the row.

I promise that as you do, you will see Jesus as He really is.

3. We can learn to see God through covenants.

As a teenager, I thought Covenants were about following the rules. The more I learned, the more I saw them as a “two-way promise”, you hear that term a lot in the church. But even then, covenants seem like some sort of social contract. I promise to do X and God promises to do Y.

This perspective puts the focus on the X and the Y, the rules and blessings.

Covenants are about neither.

Covenants are about relationships.

Yes we promise to God we will do things and live a certain way. Yes He in return promises many gifts and blessings to us. But if we leave it there and get nothing more out of it, a covenant is merely transactional.

Covenants are meant to be transcendent.

In the categorically underrated film of 1984, the Karate Kid, Daniel son asked Mr Miyagi to teach him Karate to defend himself from some school bullies. Mr Miyagi eventually agrees. Daniel son, stoked to learn from the master, begins each day with an exhausting chore, chores that seem to only benefit Mr Miyagi. One example was white washing a fence. Even worse, he couldn’t do it however he wanted, he had to do it in a very specific way that seemed very slow and tedious. You may have heard of the famous “wax-on, wax-off”.

Spoiler alert, counter to what Daniel son thought at the time, the chores were not a form of payment for his karate lessons.

The chores were the karate lessons. He was being taught certain muscle memory that would help him in his endeavor.

Our covenants are not a way to pay God back for His love or His Grace. We are not earning our salvation. He already gives those to us free of charge. Covenants are teaching us a certain spiritual muscle memory that will help us in our eternal endeavors: Exaltation and Eternal life. Essentially to become like our Savior.

Covenants are far more about relationships than they are about rules and blessings.

Yes there will be commandments to obey, But I hope you consider them as your own fence to white wash. Just remember to think about the spiritual reflexes you are creating, and about the person you are trying come closer to.

I promise that as we live our covenants with a full heart, we will see Jesus as He really is. And not only see Him, but become like Him.