Walking the Emmaus Road - Part 1

Daily Byte

What do you do when it seems like your whole world is falling apart? What do you do when you discover that your most cherished dreams have been dashed? What do you do when it appears that death has destroyed everything that you hold dear? When love is dead. When hope is dead. When purpose is dead. When dignity, and truth, and goodness, and integrity, and your very identity are dead. What do you do?

Where do you go when it seems like your whole world is falling apart? Where do you go when feelings of anguish and despair and utter desperation are so overwhelming that they are like a flood, like a surging torrent that cannot be restrained? Where do you go when the pain becomes too much to cope with? When the grief becomes too big to bear. When the chaos becomes too hectic to handle. Where do you go?

Well? What DO you do? Where DO you go?

It was these very questions that Jesus’ disciples faced in the chaotic and confusing aftermath of his death. What were they to do? Where were they to go? For them, it must have seemed like their world was falling apart. For Jesus’ death spelt the death of so many other cherished things for them. This wasn’t simply a friend who had died, but someone on whom their very lives had been centred. It’s difficult for us to imagine the feelings of anguish and despair and utter desperation that must have overwhelmed them. Or maybe it isn’t, because there are many people reading these words who are well-acquainted with such feelings.

In these devotions this week we will explore the story of two of Jesus’ disciples who were faced with questions like these. In their response, and the remarkable encounter they had with the risen Christ, may we find echoes of our story and the promise of Easter breaking over our lives.

Maybe you would like to start reading their story now. It is found in Luke 24:13-35. The first part of it is included below:

Pray as you go:

Lord God, when things fall apart in my life, I’m often unsure what to do or where to go. I pray that through the scriptures and devotions of this week you would help me to realize that in desperate times you are a God who is present and active in my life, making the decisive difference that I need. Thank you Lord. Amen.

Focus scripture
Luke 24:13-27

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

He asked them, "What are you discussing together as you walk along?"

They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, "Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days?"

"What things?" he asked.

"About Jesus of Nazareth," they replied. "He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; 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 him they did not see."

He said to them, "How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?" And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.