An 'AHA' Moment for Jews and Christians!
The video below is the second from Zechariah
in my 10 minute series on those
'Not-so-Minor Prophets'

‘…then He vanished, FROM THEIR SIGHT’
((Luke 24:31)
 
For Cleopas and the other un-named Emmaus Road walker, it was, momentarily, as Jesus broke the bread and gave thanks, just like it had been before that excruciating death. Excruciating physically for Jesus and psychologically for those close to him.
 
Here was this happy moment of recognition, of presence, of certainty. And then suddenly, having walked an hour or two with them, having accepted their invitation to stay, having broken the bread and revealed Himself—He was not there!
(So extraordinary was it that the two immediately walked the 10 kilometres back to Jerusalem to tell the others!)
 
What was going on?
Surely he was preparing them for the new way and the new reality: how things would be from now on, proceeding no longer by sight or senses—but by a new way to access and enjoy His presence…Faith.
 
Their expectations had not included finding the very One they missed so deeply, actually walking alongside them, expounding the scriptures, as they journeyed!
 
This is how it would be from now on for all who would walk with Him. After all, He promised to send Another—an invisible Other—yes, Holy Spirit, to be alongside in the very same, yet different way as when He had walked with them. Different because not dependent on physical sight, but on different eyes—eyes that have been touched by Him and now see, even in the dark: yes, eyes of faith!
And as by faith we walk the road with Him, He will, as then, expound the scriptures to us and be made known to us.
 
There is not another way—‘the righteous SHALL live by faith.’
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THE EYE-GATE…
And…when light is actually darkness! (Luke 11:33ff).
 
What I see—or, more accurately, what I choose to look at is what has the most influence on my mind—and indeed, my heart.
Images are usually the most powerful means of impacting and influencing our emotions and the thoughts and actions that ensue. That is why the images in television advertising are usually more powerful than the words.
So, the eyes, yes our physical eyes, are the means by which light or darkness—and the influences each of these brings, enter our mind and soul. What we choose to look at, gains access and can either enlighten and brighten the inner being—or darken and corrupt it.
 
Here’s the thing…we see things because light reflects from objects and impinges the extraordinary mechanisms of the eye.
 What David SAW from his rooftop, and did not look away from, was because light, reflected off a particular form, travelled via his pupils and retinas to his brain, mind and soul. This particular light which he entertained by continuing to look, actually became darkness. (In a sense it was darkness, masquerading as light).
What Bathsheba was doing—bathing—was probably innocent, unless she was being intentionally provocative, which the text does not indicate.
In choosing not to look away, David turned physical light into darkness within—and corruption of motive, which then led to the greater darknesses of adultery and murder, with a host of unhappy consequences.
 
Jesus said, “if your eye is single your whole body will be filled with light”, and the Greek word used is HAPLOUS meaning ‘unfolded’ or not double (its antonym is DIPLOUS meaning ‘double’). Jesus was likening the way a lamp lights a house to the way the eye illuminates the ‘house’ of our body.
 
He therefore said, “take heed that the light that is in you, is not darkness”.
        INFLUENCER… or FRAGRANCER?  
on HOW THE FATHER ARRANGED THINGS FOR JESUS…
(with a comment about 'engineered' healing meetings!)
(Referencing John 5:19 ESV “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise”)

Repeatedly in the Gospel records we see the outworking of this ‘arrangement’ with His Father—but some remain ignorant of it.
A careful study will show that God the Father was always at work  (see Jn.5:17), setting things up for the ministry of His son.
If we fail to get hold of this we can fall into the trap of dictating what God must do! And that can be the trap of the ‘engineered’ healing meeting—God has to ‘show up’ and heal everyone we think should be healed. Just one problem with this approach is that we may not be hearing or seeing what God wants to deal with in a person’s life first…their physical ailment, or (let’s say), their deceitfulness, or their indolence or their nasty, gossiping tongue and critical spirit!

Can we see that Jesus did not go about attending to every perceived need? Let me explain: in Luke 19 He entered Jericho ‘and was passing through’. Nothing to see here! But then, at the edge of town is something that attracted His attention; a little man up a tree! How I believe this unfolded was that Jesus, in His closeness to His Father, sensed the Father getting His attention, and pointing Jesus to what He required Jesus to attend to. That day, the Kingdom of God came to Zacchaeus, his household, and everyone he had exploited! That was what the Father was doing at that particular time on that day!

Now, you can explore, and you’ll see the pattern again and again. Jesus is heading north to Galilee, through Samaria. It was hot, He was weary, and so He paused near Sychar to rest beside Jacob’s well. A lone Samaritan woman happens along at the well in the heat of the day (rather than with other women in the cool of the day). “Is this you, Father?” says Jesus inwardly; and the answer is yes. Her life was transformed by the encounter. Or—one man, struggling to get into the healing waters of Bethesda Pool where, John tells us there were a ‘great many’—blind, lame, paralysed—seeking healing! Why just one? Because that’s the ONE to whom Father led Jesus!

Dare I say it? This is not ‘rocket science’. It is Jesus listening to, watching for, and being led to what Father was up to. And what about the request from Jairus for his daughter’s healing, and on the way Jesus is delayed by the ‘inconvenience’ of a woman (in the midst of a pressing throng) with a problem. She touches His garment fringe with faith, Jesus senses it, pauses, spends valuable time and heals her. Anxious Jairus is probably becoming over-wrought. The delay results in the death of Jairus’s daughter! But time is of no consequence when dealing with what the Father was getting done, and Jairus’s daughter receives her life and healing too!

The gospels are full of these ‘set-ups’. Jesus has no concern for what the people say or think, and certainly not for what they say or think He should or should not, do. His one concern is to please His Father in heaven; to do only what He sees He is doing! Outcomes He leaves entirely in Father’s hands.

He is our model for ministry. He is the Church’s model for ministry. And this is how the Father is well pleased. And this is how the Kingdom comes.

A Prayer: 'Lord, through your Spirit sharpen my spiritual awareness to discern the strange interruption, the un-arranged encounter, the other-than-expected ‘inconvenience’, or the opportunity to meet a need. Help me discern your directing Hand in all things so that your Kingdom can come in and through my life. Amen!'
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MIRACLES AND THE ONION SKIN (strictly for those who believe in miracles)
My problem with the anti-creation camp is as follows: many are too easily swayed by the mantra, ‘but the science is saying this’ or ‘the science says that’ and automatically jettison any possibility of an actual 6-day creation. I am not anti-science by any means, but science, remember, is forever only the attempt to understand (and explain) what is observed.  What today’s science would have observed (if it could have) when Jesus made wine out of water, was something like the manipulation of time, or the condensing of time. For not only was water made wine in a matter of moments—but the best wine! The maturation process was somehow accelerated within those huge jars.
It is not difficult for me to accept that what he can do in a jar in Palestine, he can do in an infinitely larger space with different matter. What the science would have seen when a lad’s lunch fed more than 5000 people was matter somehow being formed, or at least multiplied—instantaneously. When three men walked unharmed in a furnace that normally consumed flesh instantly, some temporary shift from matter to non-matter appears to have occurred (a reality that Quantum Science now concedes as possibility). What we call miracle, after all, is the implementation of laws that have to date eluded our understanding. You don’t have to read or understand much of quantum physics to see that there is much that baffles the very best scientists—and the best and most modest of these, say so!
We can (and should) go on through all the miracles of the Bible and hear what we call realm of the miraculous is saying. Certainly for the Christian, that becomes our platform when confronted with, ‘but the science is saying this’ and be bold enough to say, ‘yes, but that other realm, the miracle/eternal realm is saying this!’
In my view, something from the eternal realm that we are forced to call miracle, is the pinnacle; miracle trumps currently known principles of physics and miracle is the ground Christians occupy. Just recently it has been announced by scientists studying quantum effects that ‘time may be illusory.’ Well ....hullo!
The sciences are scratching (as they should) at little tiny pieces of the outer layers of an onion that is huge beyond comprehension! Unfortunately, it too often acts as though it has found the core—and that's what offends me! Surely the way God gets things done does not necessarily need to be explicable to science in its current state (or ever?).
Science will forever be catching up to miracle because God is just a little ahead of us! He knew about the quantum world before Max Planck, Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein. As time continues we will probably be allowed to discover more mysteries He knew about before He set this thing in motion! We need to get over ourselves! And ... a lot of scientists need to get over themselves. As one secular scientist—Jeff Forshaw, has wisely said, “By overstating science’s power and not acknowledging its limitations, we risk fostering the growth of a religion-substitute, with the scientists as high priests. Such hubris not only irritates people, but more significantly it risks promoting the misconception that science deals with certainty—and that is the very antithesis of good science.”