Sand Mountain Sermonette 94
Luke 24:30-31; Luke 24:13-35.
The Table and the Photograph
“When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight.”
Luke 24:30-31
Summer, twenty-nine years ago, Nancy and I were visiting family for several days in my hometown. While we were there, it had already been arranged that I would present one of my “Magic-with-a-Message” Gospel Illusion shows for the congregation and guests of my Mamaw and Papaw Mabrey’s church, The First United Methodist Church of Albertville. The show was presented in the church’s fellowship hall where we had a great time visiting with family and making new friends.
Several weeks later I received a letter and a photograph I wasn’t expecting in the mail. The mother of a girl I graduated Albertville High School with in 1974 was in the crowd and her gift to me was a treasure—an 8x10 black and white photograph of she and her husband taken with my grandparents Mabrey eating supper in the original “Food Basket” Restaurant in Albertville. The gentlemen were dressed in suits and their wives in dresses and jewelry as common to adults eating out in the 1960’s. But it was the note attached to the photograph that touched my heart in equal fashion. It spoke of how the sender’s husband had “just loved” my grandfather and how my grandfather would have enjoyed the show so much! She also expressed how much they enjoyed my grandmother’s company as well. And every time I look at that photo, my heart stirs with the joy of those who shared the table with my grandparents on that particular weekly theme night the Food Basket was featuring “fried chicken!”
Having left Jerusalem late afternoon of the original Resurrection Sunday, two pilgrims were walking to their hometown of Emmaus located about seven miles from the city. And as they walk, the resurrected Jesus draws near them and begins to listen and to converse with them about what has just happened, but the Bible says these two folks are prevented from recognizing the stranger as Jesus at that time. And while they share their discouragement as to others having seen the resurrected Lord but their having not seen Him for themselves, the Bible says as they drew near their home, they invited Jesus to dine with them. And Luke tells us that it was in the familiar breaking of the bread that their eyes were opened, and they recognized the crucified and risen Lord for themselves before He literally vanished from their sight! And note the next verse, “They asked each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
Spiritual joy is manifested in the heart and lives of those who have encountered the crucified and risen Lord! “A burning heart” blazes ever brighter to the one who spends time daily at the table with Jesus opening his or her heart to His Word and sitting quietly to listen and to talk to Him in prayer! That’s why each time we partake of the Lord’s Supper (Holy Communion), we are invited into the grace and blessing of the Lord Jesus who died and rose for us!
May our hearts burn with the passion of the Holy Spirit to the glory of God.
See you at the table of the Lord! Read the whole story in Luke 24:13-35.
Pastor Louie