Emmaus Road: Unexpected Grace Revealed in Communion

God gives first. He doesn't wait for us to confess or contribute or turn our lives around. He did this with Paul. Right? Paul is traveling to a new city to persecute more Christians on special assignment from the high priest, letters in hand. And what does God do? Knock him off his horse, blind him because he wanted Paul to do some special work for him. God takes the first step. He lavishes grace upon us before we prove ourselves worthy. [00:31:13] (32 seconds)  #GodGivesFirst

God's grace is super abundant. The scale of God's gift is off the charts. If you see something coming and you think where in the world did all of that come from, well, that might be likely a gift from God. It's overflowing. It's excessive. It's maximal. It's more than you could have in, bought up in your own mind. It's more than you could have imagined. God gives and gives and gives. We see this over and over. Seeing these three characteristics reminds us how radical God's grace really is. [00:31:44] (40 seconds)  #OverflowingGrace

Thinking of the road to Emmaus, if Jesus surprised me while I was walking down the road with a friend talking about whatever, I think my first reaction would be, oh, I imagine you're probably here for this other person, not me. That would be my first guess because I would think, how do I deserve the incredible gift of Jesus just showing up on my afternoon walk? But Jesus would pick me. He does pick me. He did pick me. And he would pick you and you and you and we pick you every time, not because we deserve it, not because of anything great we did, but because of his super abundant incongruous gift of grace that he lavishes upon us every day. [00:35:08] (49 seconds)  #JesusChoosesYou

It's something to consider if we only subscribe to the system of deservedness. What happens when things go wrong? Everything should be blamed on us. It's all of our fault even when it isn't. You know, the pharisees asked Jesus, who sinned? This man, this blind man, or his parents? He was born blind. Right? The pharisees operated under the old order of things where you needed to deserve it to get it. But Jesus came to change the narrative. No one sinned or everyone sinned, but that's not the point. This man is blind so you can watch me heal him so you will believe. [00:32:24] (38 seconds)  #GraceOverMerit

And then he vanishes. They chastise themselves. How did we not know? I mean, weren't our hearts burning within us? On the road, they knew there was something different about this man, about this Jesus. They knew there was something up, but they didn't quite get it. Jesus is revealed to them through scripture and also through communion just like he reveals himself to us. So the story has me asking myself today, do I always notice when Jesus shows up to bless me in some way in my life? [00:25:24] (42 seconds)  #RecognizeJesus

And isn't that true? Jesus told them again and again and again. He told them what was gonna happen. It's a lesson to us today too to listen to Jesus nudging when he's talking to us in our lives. They walk with Jesus to the city and it seems like Jesus is gonna go on but they invite him to stay at their house and it is only at the table when Jesus takes the bread, gives thanks, breaks it, and hands it to them that their eyes are opened and they know it's Jesus in front of them. [00:24:44] (39 seconds)  #ListenToJesus

He made a little shelter for himself and he sat outside the city and pouted. He said, God, I knew you were gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in love, a God who relents from calamity. Now just take away my life, it's better for me to die. I think Jonah was a little bit of a drama queen too. A little bit, a little bit maybe. But God said, Jonah, is it right that you're angry? Should I not have relented from punishing a 120,000 people who do not know their left hand from their right? [00:29:08] (44 seconds)  #JonahAndMercy

Grace, the relief from deserving. We're going through this book a little bit, the big relief after Easter because this is why Jesus came into the world to change our everyday life. And I really like this chapter, the relief from thinking that I have to earn something that I have to earn something to deserve it to get it. The author talks about how the systems of our world are built upon a meritocracy. You win and you lose depending on how hard you work. That sounds fair. Right? Sounds reasonable. It's an easy system to remember. It's predictable, manageable. [00:27:04] (46 seconds)  #ReliefFromDeserving