As two men journey one afternoon from Jerusalem to a village called Emmaus, another man joins them, whom they do not recognize and regard as a stranger. ^{See Luke 24:13–32 .}

This stranger is actually Jesus, who asks what the two disciples are discussing between themselves. Cleopas and the other disciple tell the stranger about Jesus of Nazareth, a great prophet, who spoke and acted with God's authority. They tell him how the chief priests and rulers had condemned Jesus to death and caused him to be crucified. And now, they say, some women claim to have been told by angels that Jesus is alive. And when some disciples went and investigated the tomb, they found it empty!

After rebuking their little faith, the stranger lovingly instructs them on how Jesus' life and ministry fulfilled all Scriptural prophecies about the Messiah and his spiritual kingdom. Not only does Jesus walk with them toward Emmaus; he walks them through Scriptural prophecy about his mission. As they hear his explanations their hearts begin to open to a bright new hope and promise.

Yearning to hear more, they invite the Master to stay with them that evening. Apparently they now see Jesus' career in a new light and are able to accept the promise of the resurrection made possible by the events of the past three days. This leads them to recognize that the man who has just broken bread and offered a blessing is Christ Jesus, the risen Saviour.

At that moment Jesus disappears, but the spiritual idea of Life—the impersonal and deathless Christ—remains in their hearts and minds. Turning to each other, they say, "Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?"

Yes, their hearts burned; they burned from the spiritual fire that must have been ignited by the realization that life is much more than materiality—infinitely more. The promise of the resurrection had been fulfilled! Life for them could no longer be regarded in the same old way—a cycle of material birth, growth, maturity, decay, and death. More than before, they saw something of the divine law that Jesus demonstrated—the great truth that Life is God, the eternal cause that never had a beginning and can never have an end. And they felt the exultation of knowing that man's life is indestructible and eternally in God's hands.

The wonderful news of the resurrection can also fill our lives today with new purpose and resolve. As we understand that we belong to the eternal Life that is Spirit, God, our thoughts and actions more easily conform to the divine influence of Christ, the true idea of Life. To the degree we accept this divine idea, we too are resurrected to a new life of spiritual consecration and power. We bring to bear upon sin and sickness the redeeming power of understanding that man is the perfect, sinless child of divine Love. We realize that man's true being is to be found in the spiritual and not the material. And like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, our hearts begin to burn with a deeper love for God and man.

It is Life's spiritual animus that eventually impels us to express more of divine Love. When our spiritual affections are renewed and strengthened, society's conventional attitudes cannot hinder us from doing what is moral and honest. Fear of social stigma and peer pressure are disarmed by the vibrant desire to be Christ's disciples. We are made ready to do things according to Christ's way. Courageous and determined, we go forward, knowing that Truth is sustaining our resolve. And in the process we are surprised to find more satisfaction in doing right than we previously thought possible.

Even before his crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus was resurrecting others from a material sense of existence to a fresh view of life as spiritual. His mighty healings of moral and physical deformity had a deeper meaning and impact than that which is detected on the surface. Ease in matter for himself or those he healed was not his goal. His healings were practical revelations of man as God's spiritual idea.

With his own victory over the grave, Jesus gave us the clearest proof possible of man's immortal, spiritual existence. By sacrificing his human body on the cross and showing it restored three days later, he proved that man's real being remains forever safe in God, who is divine Life and Love. Undeniably, he showed mankind that infinite Spirit is man's true substance; even more, that it is the substance and reality of all being—the All-in-all.

Mrs. Eddy, who in the latter part of the nineteenth century discovered the Science of Christ, expressed the profound meaning that Christian Science attaches to Jesus' resurrection in one of its six religious tenets. She writes in Science and Health, the Christian Science textbook, "We acknowledge that the crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection served to uplift faith to understand eternal Life, even the allness of Soul, Spirit, and the nothingness of matter." ^{Science and Health, p. 497.}

When Jesus' disciples understood more of the deeper meaning of the resurrection, they became filled with the Holy Ghost and went forward to preach and heal. Boldly and with unity of heart, they confronted and overcame persecutions, jailings, and beatings. The spiritual idea of life in God—the Holy Ghost— reigned in their thought and empowered their actions. The New Testament explains, "And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all." ^{Acts 4:33.} And they healed the sick, saved sinners, even raised the dead.

The spiritual message of the Scriptures comes across loud and clear in Science and Health. For many its study has been like a walk to Emmaus, for its pages have opened their eyes to the Christ message of man's spiritual existence in God. Divine Love's allness and man's existence as Love's spiritual and deathless child are the glorious truths that can be found in a spiritual interpretation of Jesus' mission. Confronted by this truth, incorrect concepts of man as a sinful mortal condemned to sickness and suffering no longer seem so plausible. Human consciousness is thereby dematerialized and more clearly sees that man is Love's pure reflection.

Consistent Bible study and prayer, enlightened by Christian Science, keep our spiritual fire burning and develop a firmer understanding of our God-given spirituality. If always humble and ready to repent, we will be baptized daily by the Holy Ghost and gain the spiritual sense of being. This will bring to our daily experience greater grace and harmony. Stubborn character faults will yield, and the natural holiness of our actual being will be more obvious. This shows that we are gaining a measure of the rich grace that was upon the early Christians, the spiritual sense of eternal Life that sets one's heart on fire.