On The Road to Emmaus

But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel; and besides all this, it is now the third day since this took place - Luke 24:21

On the very same day Jesus rose from the dead, He also met two of His disciples on the road to a town called Emmaus. The two were debating back and forth on the events of the past week, Jesus' death and the fact that some women said they had seen Him, so when Jesus approached them they didn't even recognize Him! How could you not recognize someone you love? There were a lot of factors at play besides the fact that Jesus was now in a glorified body. As this verse says, they were really hoping Jesus would be the one to change everything for them, but it seemed their hope died with Jesus. You put all your effort and faith into something and then to see it just taken away from you is beyond disappointing. These two felt lost. It was really the last thing they had expected. Of course they weren't going to think this man on the road was the man they were mourning. In fact, their "debating," as Luke writes, about all that was going on was also working against them being able to see Jesus. They were most likely arguing back and forth about whether or not they should believe. They were too caught up to recognize Jesus.

The journey these two men took on the road to Emmaus is very similar to our journey of faith. Think of all the setbacks we've experienced and how we handle them. When our hopes are as dead as these two men saw Jesus, do we trust because our faith tells us to keep on trusting? Most of us don't. Most of us let our faith die and resentment set in. Most of us take to telling others about how our faith has failed us as these two men did when they encountered Jesus. But these men were wrong. With God, we need to keep on trusting because even death, what used to be the ultimate end, is not final. When things take a turn for the worst and we feel our faith failing us, instead of debating, we need to pray and stay vigilant. If they would have been praying, they would have been able to recognize Jesus immediately, as we see Jesus at work in our lives when we live in faith and trust in Him.

Today's Prayer:
Jesus, death has no hold on You. You've conquered darkness and I know that nothing will ever prevail over my faith in You. You have shown me there is nothing You can't do for me and that You will always be my hope. In Your Name we pray, amen.

Lumineux: Letting God's Light Shine
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