The Day of New Beginnings

On the Road to Galilee

 

There is a cycle of death, burial and resurrection we could call the “Cycle of Three” that operates again and again in our lives as God lifts us higher into Himself.
 
Mat. 16:10:
And Jesus called His disciples to Him, and said, "I feel compassion for the people, because they have remained with Me now three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the way."
 
The multitude was with Him three days with nothing to eat. So it is with us. As God puts us through death, burial and resurrection, we seem to languish, we are parched and hungry for a meeting with God. But it’s at the end of the “three days” that the Lord feeds us. He feeds us with a fresh revelation of Himself. What’s interesting, as we shall see in later passages, is that the Lord is with us through the “three days” although we can’t perceive Him. It’s actually Christ being manifested in us as we die to one realm to live in another. But He is not revealed to us afresh until we attain the new realm He is establishing in us. Thus, when we say we are entering a new realm because we perceive it, it’s not something we are coming into, it’s something already established and completed, that’s why we perceive the Lord in a new way. 
 
It’s in the end of a thing that Christ is revealed. By end we mean not an abrupt stop on a time line, but a completion of a particular work.
 
Ecl. 7:8: “The end of a matter is better than its beginning; …”
 
Mat. 28:
5  The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified.
6  "He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying.
7  "Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead; and behold, He is going ahead of you into Galilee, there you will see Him; behold, I have told you."
 
10  Then Jesus *said to them, "Do not be afraid; go and take word to My brethren to leave for Galilee, and there they will see Me."
 
The Lord had risen from the dead, completing a cycle of death, burial and resurrection. The cycle was not just the Lord’s, but it was also a mystical example of how He meets us. The disciples had gone through a great trauma with Jesus’ crucifixion. But they were being prepared to know the Lord on a new, higher level. First the angel tells the women that Jesus has risen and to go quickly and tell the disciples. He also tells them to tell the disciples that Jesus was going ahead of them to Galilee and there they would see Him. Then Jesus reveals Himself to the women and tells them again to tell His brethren to leave for Galilee and they will see Him. Why Galilee? Why didn’t Jesus just appear to them where they were? Galilee holds a mystical truth for us. Galilee means “circuit.” A circuit is something that brings completion, such as electricity flowing from one source to another. It’s interesting that Jesus began His ministry in Galilee at the wedding in Cana. John 2 begins, “And on the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee…” Mystically, Jesus appearing to the disciples in Galilee was completing His earthly ministry to the disciples. The disciples had to go on to Galilee to meet the Lord in His resurrection. They couldn’t know or perceive Him in His higher state until they reached Galilee, the place of completion. 
 
Luke 24:
13 ¶  And behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem.
14  And they were talking with each other about all these things which had taken place.
15  While they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself approached and began traveling with them.
16  But their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him.
17  And He said to them, "What are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you are walking?" And they stood still, looking sad.
18  One of them, named Cleopas, answered and said to Him, "Are You the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days?"
19  And He said to them, "What things?" And they said to Him, "The things about Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people,
20  and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to the sentence of death, and crucified Him.
21  "But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened.
22  "But also some women among us amazed us. When they were at the tomb early in the morning,
23  and did not find His body, they came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said that He was alive.
24  "Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just exactly as the women also had said; but Him they did not see."
25  And He said to them, "O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!
26  "Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?"
27  Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.
28  And they approached the village where they were going, and He acted as though He were going farther.
29  But they urged Him, saying, "Stay with us, for it is getting toward evening, and the day is now nearly over." So He went in to stay with them.
30  When He had reclined at the table with them, He took the bread and blessed it, and breaking it, He began giving it to them.
31  Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight.
32  They said to one another, "Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?"
 
Our relationship with the Lord is just like the two on the road to Emmaus. As we travel the road to a higher place in God, the Lord comes and walks with us. But our eyes are prevented from recognizing Him. It’s only as He completes His particular purpose in us that our eyes are opened to perceive Him in a new way. As we walk along through the “Cycle of Three” we begin to recognize the Lord as He is manifested to us through what we have been through. We never perceive the Lord in a new revelation until we reach “Galilee”, and there He appears to us in a new form.