The Road to Emmaus

It had been an intense few weeks for the two disciples as they replayed in their minds some of the events and conversations they had experienced. The triumphal entry into Jerusalem and the clearing of the temple. The Passover in the upper room. Jesus’ prayers in Gethsemane. Judas’s ugly betrayal. The trial, the mocking, the beating. Jesus’ bruised body hanging on a cross and His final words before He breathed His last as the afternoon sky turned black. The loud rip of the temple curtain. The open graves of the righteous. Gently taking Jesus’ body off the cross and laying Him in the tomb before Sabbath. And then the confusion, discouragement, and questions in the disciples’ minds. How had they gotten it so wrong?

Jesus’ followers were disappointed, discouraged, and confused. This was the greatest setback of their lives. What they didn’t see was that this was merely a moment in the greatest story of all time. As two of them walked on the road to Emmaus, Jesus appeared and walked with them.

Once their eyes were opened, the two followers rushed to Jerusalem to share the things that had happened to them on the road (Luke 24:33–35). As Jesus came and stood in their midst, they were terrified. Notice His questions to them: “ ‘Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts?’ ” (Luke 24:38, NKJV).

This is also Jesus’ message for us today. Too often, we forget that He walks beside us in our valleys. Too often we don’t recognize Him. Too often we forget that there’s much more to the story. Too often we feel troubled and allow doubts to arise in our hearts, forgetting that Jesus holds our lives securely in His hands. And too often we think we know better than Jesus does about what’s really happening in our lives (Luke 24:18).

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Additional Reading: Selected Quotes from Ellen G. White

On the first day of the week after Christ’s crucifixion, the disciples had everything to fill their hearts with rejoicing. But this day was not a day of joy to all. To some it was a day of uncertainty, confusion, and perplexity. . . . The women brought tidings that . . . positively affirmed that Christ had risen from the dead, and that they themselves had seen Jesus alive in the garden.
But still the disciples seemed unbelieving. Their hopes had died with Christ. And when the news of His resurrection was brought to them, it was so different from what they had anticipated that they could not believe it. . . . From eyewitnesses some of the disciples had obtained quite a full account of the events of Friday. Others beheld the scenes of the crucifixion with their own eyes. In the afternoon of the first day of the week, two of the disciples, restless and unhappy, decided to return to their home in Emmaus, a village about eight miles from Jerusalem. . . .
They had not advanced far on their journey when they were joined by a stranger. But they were so absorbed in their gloom and disappointment that they did not observe Him closely. They continued their conversation, expressing the thoughts of their hearts. . . . Jesus knew that their hearts were bound up with Him in love, and He longed to take them in His arms and wipe away their tears, and put joy and gladness in their hearts. But He must first give them lessons that they would never forget. . . .
They told Him of their disappointment in regard to their Master, “how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him.” With hearts sore with disappointment and with quivering lips they said, “We trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, today is the third day since these things were done.”
Why did not the disciples remember Christ’s words, and realize that events were to be as they had been? Why did not they realize that the last part of His disclosure would be just as verily fulfilled as the first part, that the third day He would rise again? This was the part they should have remembered. The priests and rulers did not forget this.—Christ Triumphant, p. 295.