Sometimes We simply need to go for a walk

​The first thing Jesus did when he rose from the dead?

He went for a walk.

Here's a guy who'd just risen from the dead. Not your every day miracle, right? And his instinct wasn't to call together the masses that had watched him die on a cross to flaunt his superpower. He didn't take time to show off the grandest I told you so moment ever.

Nope, he simply went for a walk.

And along a rural road he encountered two of his disciples. The bible says they were sad. My guess is they were devastated, having watched their friend, Jesus, die on a cross.

Jesus didn't immediately make it known to them who he was. He didn't let them know the friend they were grieving was the friend walking beside them. Jesus simply started talking to them and comforting them with scriptures from the old testament.

The two men invited Jesus to dinner. And it was at dinner when Jesus made it known to them that it was indeed Him, their friend, the risen Jesus.

The friends shared sort of an "I knew it" moment. They say to one another, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?”

He is interesting, this Jesus. Here he was, just risen from the dead, making his first order of business to walk alongside grieving friends. This risen Jesus, picking up where he left off with his last breath on the cross.

Burning hope and light into the hearts of the struggling.

Too often, when we experience darkness, we try to rearrange the order of things on the outside of our lives. We try to piece together the puzzle of the outside of our lives we've convinced ourselves is the answer.

When the answer is actually to just go for a walk.

When Jesus walked out of that grave and went looking for his friends who were sad, I think he was making a point that he wasn't an external cure, but an internal and eternal comfort.

When Jesus walked out of that tomb and went looking to reconnect with friends, he was reminding us that when we feel locked in a tomb, he's wanting to go for a walk with us.

He's wanting us to be reminded of his light.

I believe he also wants to remind us that as long as his light lives in us, we ARE his light. And maybe we need to make a walk our first order of business. A walk alongside the hurting. The grieving. Those longing for burning hearts.

“Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?" (Luke 24:32)

Go for a walk with him. For you; for others.