And He
said to them, "What are these words that you are exchanging with one
another as you are walking?" And they stood still, looking sad. One of
them, named Cleopas, answered and said to Him, "Are You the only one
visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these
days?" And He said to them, "What things?" And they said to Him,
"The things about Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and
word in the sight of God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our
rulers delivered Him to the sentence of death, and crucified Him.”
Luke 24:17-20
Luke 24:17-20
This week we are looking at the story of the Road to
Emmaus. Two disciples are travelling and
meet a stranger, the risen Jesus. But
they don’t know it is him. Let’s find
out how Jesus helped them deal with their doubt.
·
He
Becomes a Companion - “I am
with you always." (Matthew 28:20)
It's a wonderful image -
Jesus walking along the road with his despondent and confused disciples sharing
their troubles? Suddenly this
2,000-year-old story is brought into the present. When all of the
"D's" hammer our lives (disappointment, doubt, disillusionment,
defeat, discouragement, despondency, depression, and despair), Jesus is an
unseen "stranger" walking alongside us, listening to us. The loneliness of emotional pain is a common
problem. The only ones we seek out are
those who have experienced it. That's
why these two walked together. Pity Party.
The problem when we build relationships around our pain is that we keep
"picking at the scab" and centering our lives around the pain. Jesus
brings a fresh perspective to our lives.
Jesus comes to them and asks a very simple question: "What are these words that you are
exchanging with one another as you are walking?" This is no different than
you taking a walk through your neighborhood when all of a sudden a friendly
stranger approaches and asks, "What are you talking about?" The response by Cleopas is very interesting.
He says, "Are You the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the
things which have happened here in these days?" Jesus response is comical and shows the humor
and subtlety of God. It seems obvious that there is a ring of humor to Jesus'
voice when He answers Cleopas question with, "What
things?" The ironic thing
is, Jesus was the ONLY ONE in Jerusalem who actually knew what had taken place
in the past few days, yet Jesus longed to hear what these two disciples would
have to say.
·
He Begins
a Conversation After Jesus
gives His comical response they begin their story, talking about Jesus the
Nazarene, who was a prophet, mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and
all the people. Then they began to say how the chief priests and the rulers
delivered Him to death and crucified Him.
Then they begin to tell Jesus the surprising claims that were being made
by some women they knew. They said that
they had gone to the tomb early in the morning, but they didn't find His body.
What's more, some angels had apparently told them that Jesus wasn't dead, He
was alive. But again, they didn't quite
seem to believe that this had actually happened. They probably believed that Jesus' body had
just been stolen or that someone was trying to deceive them. And after all,
these were women! No one really gave women that much credibility in first
century Israel, so they were probably just making it up.
They poured out their hearts to Him
about how they were counting on this Jesus to redeem Israel. They had placed
all their hope in Him and when He had died their hopes died with Him. These did
not pull any punches or try to hide their feelings. This is a good lesson for us when we talk to
Jesus. For the only one we are hiding
our feelings and doubts from is ourselves. He is waiting for us to open our hearts to Him
like these two strangers did.
Scripture to Claim:
…but we had hoped
that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the
third day since all this took place. In
addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning
but didn’t find his body. They came and
told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb
and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.” Luke 24:21-24