Walking the Road to Emmaus

The Emmaus story has always been a source of endless inspiration for me. Three figures walking on a long and dusty road, talking about recent events in their lives, two burdened with sorrow, the other listening with a caring heart and the hearts of the other two dejected persons were soon burning within them.

The man listening has always listened to the longings in the hearts of those who listened to Him, even when these longings were unspoken. Thousands had followed to listen to Him and stayed with Him for days. In the end they were hungry. He took some loaves of bread, blessed them, broke them and had these distributed and He fed the thousands who were there with just a few loaves. That could have been the end of the story: a wonder-worker working wonders for His people.

He walks into Jerusalem and He is acclaimed as the Messiah.The throngs were singing His praises. But that same evening, he breaks bread with His disciples, blesses the bread and declares that the bread is His body which will be broken for them, The disciples of course did not believe Him. Just that morning, the crowds would crown Him king and now He is talking about dying? There has to be a good ending to the story: this Jesus we have been following will be king and we will be given prestigious positions in His kingdom.

Indeed, He is handed over to the High Priests who wanted Him broken. He is made to suffer and condemned as a rabble-rousing pretender to the throne of David. And things just went spiraling downward and Jesus was crucified like an ordinary criminal. This is definitely the end of the story. A sad ending indeed and, well, it was good while it lasted. They could just live on with the memories of their happy times with Him.

But three days after, He starts appearing to the women, then to the Twelve, then to many other disciples. All His followers were unbelieving at first. Sure, He said He will rise again but this is just too good to be true. Somebody must have stolen His body. This must be a ghost they were seeing, not a man of flesh and blood. This must be because of their extreme sadness, they had started imagining things. But slowly, they realized that it was true: He is Risen. What a wonderful and totally unexpected ending to the story.

The best part of the story for me is what happens next. He appears to the two disciples on their road to Emmaus. For this couple, they have come to the end of their dalliance with this person Jesus. And He joins them as they are walking dejected and resigned to the fact that the adventure has come to an end. And this is the part I love best. He appears to two ordinary people, no one really special. I am ordinary person but He has come into my life. And by coming into my life, He has made it extraordinary. He joined them while walking on the road. I love it knowing that He walks with me in my journey of life. He came when they were totally broken and dejected. I need Him to be around when I most feel empty and in the dark. He taught them as they were talking about the events of the recent days. I relish the times I spend in prayer talking about my pains and my longings and He makes me understand them. Indeed, I could have been one of those disciples walking the road to Emmaus.

Lord, you will show us the path of life.

And it happened that, while he was with them at table,
he took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, and gave it to them.
With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him,
but he vanished from their sight.
Then they said to each other,
“Were not our hearts burning within us
while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?”
Luke 24:30-32