Desire: Jesus Desires the Two on Emmaus to Urge Him to Stay
Luke 24:28 is a fascinating passage! Jesus has overcome death. And now He starts appearing to people. For various reasons He wants people to start knowing Him, not based on His physical appearance, but based on who He is! Two disciples are walking on the road going to Emmaus, which is about 7 miles from Jerusalem. As they walk and talk the Lord appears to them but in an appearance different than usual. As He talks to them their hearts begin to burn with life and the presence of the Spirit.
They come near the village and Jesus does a very interesting thing. He “acts” as if He is going further! Now, you have to ask yourself, why? He clearly wants to talk to them and continue opening the scripture to them. He is explaining all of the old testament passages that speak about Him (prophesy) to them. So why act as if He were going on?
I think this reveals something profound about the God-man, Jesus. Amazingly, He wants to be wanted!
It is a deep thing – but voluntary friendship and love is central to Jesus and to the very heart of God. Believing in the Master is never to be ‘forced’ by any religious person. The Lord has ordained that grace & salvation is offered to everyone. And He requires free-will un-coerced response. Voluntary love.
There is another passage in which you see this. Mark 6:48. After Jesus feed the 5,000+ people He makes the disciples get in the boat and go back across the Sea of Galilee. Several hours later, Jesus goes to the boat that is in the middle of the sea. He approaches the boat walking on the water. The text says, “He was about to pass by them… “ Now that is interesting. Why would He almost pass them by? Perhaps it is a similar thing as Emmaus?
God doesn’t just want us… He wants us to want Him! As basic as this is, we can miss this. Sometimes in our Western Culture we reduce the salvation of God to legal courtroom terms. The fact that He is “justifying us” is true. However, it is more than just legal acquittal! He actually wants us. And He wants us to want Him. Healthy fully blown desire is at the core of the person of God! But then again, isn’t any real relationship a two way street?
The desire of Jesus to be wanted, reveals the desire of God to be wanted. God isn’t just adopting robots, the whole goal of salvation and the resurrection is that God is creating a family and a bride for His Son! Free will, voluntary response is absolutely “critical.”
*Note – if you are interested, something similar occurs in Judges 13 as Jesus (Angel of the Lord) shows up like a mere man to talk to Sampson’s mother, and later his father. At the end the figure out it is not a regular human, but God/Jesus.