Doesn’t your heart burn?

Didn’t our hearts burn…?

That’s officially my favourite line from Luke. He was writing to his friend, Theophilus, who never met Jesus in the flesh. Luke was trying to convince him that Jesus is for real and the message of the gospel is true.

Luke, a medical doctor, took time to carry out an investigation into the claims of the gospel. He interviewed several eye witnesses of Jesus’ life on earth to write his letter. He said that he was doing it for Theophilus but I feel he was also looking for some sort of certainty for himself too.

They were confused and did not know what to believe

Luke ends his letter with accounts of people who say that Jesus has risen from the dead. Jesus appeared to several people on different occasions over a period of 40 days after Mary Magdalene and the other women met the empty grave.

Of course, their intense grief could have caused them to have corporate hallucinations (or corporate lying); but for the one minute it’ll take you to read this, let’s assume that wasn’t the case.

In one of the accounts, Cleopas and another follower of Jesus were walking from Jerusalem to a village called Emmaus. They had just heard the women saying that Jesus had risen from the dead. They were confused and did not know what to believe. The dead don’t rise.

Get content delivered to you! Click to follow the blog

As they walked, they met Jesus; but they did not realise that it was him. They discussed the matter with Jesus for their entire journey to the point of inviting him to stay and have dinner with them. Yet, they still did not recognise him.

When they sat for dinner and Jesus began to pray and break the bread, they finally realised it was him. At that point, Jesus disappeared.

Then they said my new favourite line, “Didn’t our hearts burn within us as he talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?”

The gospel makes sense to something deep within us, though it abuses logic

Didn’t your heart burn the first time you truly listened to the story of Jesus? How did it really make you feel when you heard about his love, sin and salvation, and his death and resurrection?

There’s this particular feeling we all have that we are often too scared to admit. We push it down beneath the hysterical laughter and justifiable doubt because it simply doesn’t make any sense. So, we move away from that weird preacher or turn off the radio.

In a way, the purpose of Luke’s letter was to remind us of the ‘burn’, the way the gospel makes sense to something deep within us, though it abuses logic.

This is my own personal summation of my burn: If this gospel is true – because it is true – there’s nothing else for me to do but give it my all.

How inconvenient.

They said to each other, “Didn’t our hearts burn within us as he talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?”
Luke 24:32 (NLT)