By Guest Writer
I didn’t know who he was. I stood in line at a fundraiser next to a man who introduced himself as Scott. I then asked him what he did for a living, and he told me he was the Attorney General for the State of Oklahoma.
Aha. Okay. So much for being aware of my own important state officials!
In Luke 24:13-35, followers of Jesus were walking back from Jerusalem. They’d just witnessed the Messiah’s death by crucifixion. Their hopes and dreams had been dashed. Nothing was what they had expected it to be. It was a profoundly disappointing journey.
Perhaps you can relate. Your dreams didn’t turn out either. Your career isn’t going as you had hoped. Your marriage isn’t what you wanted, or else you want to be married and aren’t. You have a deep rage or shame or unease in your life. You’re trapped or stuck or mad. You can’t seem to get out of the hole. You’re never good enough, or handsome enough, or wise or strong or capable enough.
We can feel like we’re walking these roads alone.
But we’re not. It very well may be that when we wake up or come to our senses, we’ll realize we’re talking to a Very Important Person. It’s not the Attorney General, but the resurrected Christ! Jesus was there with these disciples on this lonely, sad road. They weren’t alone. He was with them. He explained to them all about what He was doing and how He was working all throughout time and even then. Even now He is working.
We read, “Their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him. And He vanished from their sight. They said to each other, ‘Did not our hearts burn within us while He talked to us on the road, while He opened to us the Scriptures’” (Luke 24:31-32)?
That made all the difference. Jesus opened their eyes so they could see Him, to know He had been with them and to understand what He had been doing, teaching, showing, and saying to them.
Their response? “They rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, ‘The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!’ Then they told what had happened on the road, and how He was known to them in the breaking of the bread” (Luke 24:33-35).
They rejoiced to know the Lord, and they couldn’t help but tell others about what they’d just witnessed. They had seen the risen Lord! Jesus was alive! Death was not the final answer. They perhaps hadn’t understood it all, but Jesus had met them in their sadness and He had turned it to gladness. He had been patient with them in walking with them in their confusion, but He had shown them the way.
That’s better than a surprise meeting with Attorney General (but I’ll recognize him next time!).
Written By Doug Serven
24 thoughts on "Encounters with Christ: On The Road to Emmaus"
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Jonathan says:
This wasn’t an isolated circumstance. Christ stopping and explaining the fulfilled prophecies is confidence building. As if we need anything more than seeing a dead man raised again. And I think we somehow do, or at least think we do. God knows what’s coming and is intentionally working for our good each step of the way. The Gospel in our lives isn’t made up on the fly it’s organized and intentionally orchestrated by someone with perspective on our lives.
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What have you done for me lately? That seems to be the demand and motto of humankind, myself included. We seem so weak. Why is it so he’d to act in this confidence and see the connected dots as they’re happening in our lives?
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It surprises me a little how clearly he demonstrated why he needed to do what he did. Why then and not before he died? Before he told them In parables and let other people point out his fulfilling of prophecies. Now he’s looking back and clearly pointing out exactly how perfectly he knew what was happening.
It reminds me of the footprints analogy that I have seen framed and mounted on countless bathroom walls.
Why is God so happy to explain afterwords how he had us all along? In the midst of the fray he wants faith. Always more faith than than the last challenge required. Its like showing up to swim practice thinking you’ve finally gotten strong enough to handle the workout only to discover that it’s doubled from the day before.
Looking at the world and believing that God has a plan for his glory through each challenge is exciting and encouraging. But only when you have the guts to believe it’s true. Lord God give me courage! -
I will ask for faith to believe that both adventures and challenges in my life are part of the plan.
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Mike Dsane says:
Throughout this resurrected life series, each encounter of man with Christ has started with man’s inability to perceive Christ under his own power. Whether it was the soldiers and Pharisees at the tomb, Mary on Resurrection morning or the two disciples headed to Emmaus, man is not sufficient for the task of perceiving the Lord without the Lord being merciful.
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It is amazing that Christ thinks of the Scriptures as sufficient enough to display his majesty and person. It would have made more sense for Jesus to either perform miracles or recount experiences that only he and these disciples would have shared, but instead he explains the cross as the climax of the plan of God from the Law, the Prophets and the Writings.
It is amazing that the Lord would condescend himself to the Scriptures that we may find him timelessly.
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That Christ’s suffering neither diminished nor derailed his glory, but rather it was the pathway to it. That my redemption is bought with a necessary substitution that I can neither fully accomplish nor comprehend.
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I think this passage crushes arrogance. Often, my posture is one of elitism because I pursue the Lord and I have some theological knowledge. But regardless of how well studied I am, if the Lord doesn’t grant me grace. I will not perceive him. This is humbling in the best possible way.
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That the Lord would grant me humility in my pursuit of him. That I would not just hear the exposition of the Word, but rather that I would hear his voice speaking it.
That my memory would be fresh and my heart tend to moments when he acts in ways that remind of when his past faithfulness was displayed.
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Mark says:
It is a beautiful gift wrapped by God himself, given to us with love and patience.
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We are do blessed for Jesus to live us this much. We are so remedial in our knowledge of God.
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In gratitude. With amazement at His love for me. Cheer up! Jesus personally met these men to teach them and turn their attitude around. Which turned their direction back to Jerusalem. They were retreating in defeat but now they were returning to be witnesses of the gospel!
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Amazing patience with us in our ignorance. So much love for us! He came and met them on the road. He let them speak their thoughts and feelings. He taught them personally.
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Lord help me to have the proper response to your generous grace. To go in the direction YOU send me.
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Jared Diley says:
Listen to God’s voice when I’m afraid. Find a quiet place and a Bible and just be still. He is with me. I just need to be still enough to notice him.
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Jesus you are here. You have never left. You are constant and true. You never forget or break your promises. You are the one good thing. Forgive me of the lesser things on which I’ve focused my attention. Forgive me for trying to fill myself with idols instead of you. Thank you for never leaving. Give me the wisdom to remember your word. Give me the grace to fight satan’s armies and expand your kingdom.
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Payton Sanislow says:
This shows that man is very foolish because we never realize when God is right in front of our very eyes. When Christ broke the bread for them, it was like an official wake up call that presented who was with, and had been, Cleopas and the other one.
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God has and always will be with us and it teaches us that God is the behind the scenes person that is putting all of the prices together in the puzzle. Sometimes we either don’t know that God is behind the scenes or we forgot.
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Prayer adds into our response. We need to pray that God will give us that wake up call of who he is in our lives and when we need him the most but forget searching for him.
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The Gospel tells us stories that can give us examples of what is going on in our lives. In this story it seems to be a slap in the face saying, “DUDE, GOD IS RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU! LOOK!!!” It makes us feel stupid in a funny way so then we see how the Gospel was giving us that push to open our eyes.
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To respond to something like this is by going through the Word and asking God to reveal Himself to us during any moment in our life, good or bad.
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Landen Howell says:
God meets us where we are, not where we think we should be.
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Our first reaction is to turn away. In reality, our first reaction should be to turn towards Jesus
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