Soul Cravings

This is a great lead in video to set up my thoughts as we continue to understand what it means to cultivate as followers of Jesus. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIaEVN2BHDI

 

As I watched Erwin McManus’ “Crave. The Documentary.” there were three things that really stuck out to me and that was his sense of narrative, destiny and intrinsic desire that leads us to understand that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and that He is ultimately He is the one who began our story and ultimately the only one who can finish our story, He is our manifesto!

I also recognize how Jesus’ ministry to Cleopas and his companion on the road to Emmaus is about spiritual hunger, a longing to find meaning and hope.  It is about destiny and intrinsic desire within all of us that when we seek Him with all of our heart, we will find Him.  It is also about the beautiful realization that God seeks us. “ Jesus Christ, God the Son, knocks at your door and asks if you can come out and play.”  Leonard Sweet

Luke 24:13  Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. ¹⁴They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. ¹⁵As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; ¹⁶but they were kept from recognizing him.

Narrative

What I love about this passage is that Jesus doesn’t come out right away and reveal his identity.  He doesn’t ‘show his cards’ so to speak.  He begins by helping these two men learn to find their place in the human story.  I think we may have this tendency to rush in, to ‘tell it like it is’ and miss what Jesus is telling us.  He begins by asking them questions about the journey that they are on.  Everyone has a story and we are called to listen, to understand, to appreciate that God has been on the scene for a long time before we even begin.  So, it is about learning where and how He is already doing His thing!

Destiny

Luke 24:19 "About Jesus of Nazareth," they replied. "He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. ²⁰The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; ²¹but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.

Destiny is the belief about calling, that tomorrow will be better than today and it really didn’t feel that way for these two men.

But we had hoped that he was the one…

 It has that ‘matrix’ like feel to their deep disappointment.  There has been this incredible sense of expectation that Jesus was going to fulfill their deepest need for the destiny they believed He would fulfill. Unfortunately that is the trouble with expectations because they are exactly that, ‘my expectations’ of how things are meant to turn out.  The problem is that when God moves and works outside of the box of my expectations that I have created, I can easily lose hope and meaning and purpose.  Better as one devotional so accurately pointed out, followers of Jesus need to live with ‘expectancy’ .  We need to live with expectancy that is fuelled beyond my definitions of how and when things should happen.  We get to the place where hope overrides even the worst of outcomes.

Intrinsic Desire

It is the desire to create a better world, the need to belong to someone, something, to be part of a movement, something that is bigger than me.  It is that desire not just to be loved, but know someone who wants to receive my love.    

Luke 24v32 “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” 

Jesus allowed the work of the Holy Spirit to bring them to a place of incredible revelation.  Their eyes were opened  and it was their ‘ah ha moment’. 

We need to keep praying that their eyes will be opened because for those who haven’t seen Jesus in all His fullness, there is a huge battle going on in the invisible world.  2 Corinthians 4:4 shows us that it is the god of this age who blinds and keeps understanding darkened.

 

The Takeaway

We need to stop arguing, stop trying to prove we are right and instead learn to come alongside them.

We need to cultivate love.

We are most alive when we find it, most devastated when we lose it, most empty when we give up on it, most inhumane when we betray it and most passionate when we pursue it.

Erwin McManus in Soul Cravings 

We need to cultivate intimacy.

We need to cultivate uniqueness.

This is especially true in a world that pushes us towards conformity.

Finally, we need to cultivate hope.  One of the most famous metaphors that has come from the early followers of Christ is the butterfly.  It is the realization that God is the one who continues transform our lives and the lives of those around us.

It is fear that keep us in prison and it is hope that sets us free.

Truth is about trust and eventually the truth about who Jesus is really come to the forefront.  We need to know what it means to gain the trust and respect of those around us.  When people see it in our eyes, we need to be ready to share!