Have you ever gotten news so good you couldn’t wait to tell someone? You didn’t rehearse it. You didn’t schedule a convenient time. You just picked up the phone and told the first person who answered what had just happened.

That’s basically what happened in Luke 24.

The resurrected Jesus had been with these two men who were heading toward Emmaus from Jerusalem. They were walking, talking, and then sitting at a table for supper with him. They didn’t realize it was Jesus, but when He broke bread and gave it to them, their eyes were opened, and they knew it was Him. But then He was gone.

But here’s the important part: what they did next. Jesus had barely vanished from their sight before those two guys abandoned their destination of Emmaus and headed straight back to Jerusalem. No deliberation. No debate about whether it was too late or too far. Luke tells us they rose “that same hour and returned to Jerusalem,” (Luke 24:33).

They had been in the presence of Jesus. They commented about how their hearts had burned within them as He talked and taught them along the road. They had witnessed the resurrected Jesus with their own eyes. And what they had seen was simply too good to keep to themselves. So, they ran back and told everybody!

Beloved, that is the natural reaction of a genuine Easter encounter. The risen Christ doesn’t leave people sitting still. He sends them back—back to the city, back to the community, back to the people who need to hear what Jesus has done. The heart that has truly met the living Jesus cannot find a reason to stay quiet.

When was the last time you felt that urgency, a compulsion to share your encounter with Jesus and what He has done for you? The Emmaus disciples remind us that a real encounter with the risen Lord produces a person who cannot keep quiet. News this good is too good to not tell. So, go tell somebody this same hour.

Change begins in you!