The Road To Emmaus

13 Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 15 As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16 but they were kept from recognizing him.

- Luke 24:13-16

On Sunday afternoon of the very day Jesus rose from the grave, two men were walking along a road to a village called Emmaus. They were talking about everything that had happened in Jerusalem that day… when Jesus showed up and began walking with them. As Luke tells us, they did not recognize Him.

I have to wonder how often that happens in our lives. We are walking along on the journey of life and Jesus shows up, but we don’t recognize Him. We keep walking and doing the same things we have always done, wondering why things don’t turn out differently. You’ve heard the definition of insanity, right? Doing things the same way as we have always done them and expecting a different result. It simply does not work out.

Like these two men, whose faces were downcast (see v. 17) due to the circumstances and situation they found themselves in, we, too, put our head down and seek to plow through the negativity of the circumstances around us, never realizing Jesus is right there beside us, waiting for us to recognize Him and allowing Him to help us out. Instead, we ignore Him and either try to fix the circumstances on our own, which rarely works, or simply resolve ourselves to the fact they will not get better.

No wonder all seems lost. No wonder it seems like our situation will never improve.

As the two men on the road to Emmaus eventually discovered, even though Jesus had already disappeared by then (see v. 31), it was He who been with them the entire time. When they figured it out, they said to one another, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32).

They realized it was Jesus, and as a result, their hearts overflowed with joy, and they immediately returned to Jerusalem and proclaimed what they had witnessed.

Fortunately, for us, when we enter into a relationship with Jesus, not only does He walk alongside us in every circumstance, waiting for us to recognize Him and seek His help and guidance, but unlike what happened with the two men on the Road to Emmaus, when Jesus disappeared from their sight, He will never disappear from our sight, for He is always with us, and will never leave nor forsake us.

We can count on Jesus to always be there for us and help us through every circumstance and situation in life. All it takes is that we recognize Him and ask Him to step into both the good and the bad of our lives.

He will show up, and our hearts will burn with joy at the power of His presence.

Pastor Ken

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