Wonderment: How Do We Attain Wonderment Today?

Luke 24:27-32

Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all he Scriptures…Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight. 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?’ 

Studying The Four Gospels

To the novice, all four gospels seem the same. However, a closer look reveals unique features about each of the four narratives. We have been looking at the uniqueness of the gospel of Luke as he (Luke) emphasizes the aspect of wonderment and amazement produced by Jesus. 

The passage above reveals that there is an extra measurement of wonder for those who discover the connectedness of the Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation.  For the two men on the road to Emmaus, their hearts burned when the scriptures were revealed to them. 

Are you searching for wonderment? The wonderment of Jesus is the understanding of Jesus in all of scripture.

Pursuing Wonderment

We all want to ‘feel’ the wonderment of Jesus. It is refreshing; it is glorious; it is thrilling. Understandably, we want it and yearn for it in order to enlighten our lives, help us cope, bring us hope and lighten our way. Give us Jesus in all His wonder and splendor. We want Him! 

The yearning for the wonderment of Jesus is a blessing from God. The longing of our hearts for Jesus is a gift from him. Cherish this longing; nurture this longing; pray for this longing. 

In the passage above, Jesus opened their eyes and they recognized Him.  We all should pray, ‘open our eyes Lord to see You and understand You.’ Their hearts burned because they understood.

Is Wonderment in the mind or the heart? YES!

But like every good thing in life, pursuing the wonderment of Jesus does have excesses that can, in some cases, takes us down a slippery slope. There’s something we can learn from this story of the two men on the road to Emmaus. 

We learn from them that there are two aspects of wonderment: 

1. The source of wonderment (understanding scripture with our mind)
2. The expression of wonderment (praise and worship from our heart)

Paul explains the two aspects of wonderment in his prayer for the Philippian church:

Philippians 1:9-11 “And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment (real knowledge and discernment comes from scripture), so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ, (knowledge from scripture helps us discern what is good and live it out), having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God, (the expression of our knowledge of God is PRAISE).”

After carefully reflecting upon this passage in Philippians, I hope you can see that abounding love and wonderment of Jesus comes from real knowledge and discernment (scripture) and expresses itself in praise to God, (Worship).

The slippery slope I referred to earlier happens when we skip the source of wonderment (knowledge and discernment from Scripture) and pursue the expression of wonderment only (emotional worship). This is similar to skipping a healthy meal and going straight for dessert. This is the pursuit of a sugar high.

More on this next time as we conclude our series on the Wonderment of Jesus.

Father, forever in heaven, we are going to praise you out of an elevated knowledge that we don’t have right now. All of our doubts and questions will be brushed aside and in perfect knowledge, our hearts will soar with wonder and praise. You are kind in that you gave us new minds when we were saved so that we can begin to understand all that Scriptures teaches about you. Greater wonder comes as we seek You in Scripture and learn about You from every book in the Bible. It’s a huge task for us but You make it easy, when we give ourselves to You one day at a time. Amen!