A Journey Towards Hope: The Emmaus Road (Updated 3/4/24) Series

A Journey Towards Hope:

The Emmaus Road

Luke 24:13-35

With all that is happening in our world today, there is simmering just beneath the surface Three Basic Secrets no one wants to admit, but the truth is more than evident.

1. We Feel Exhausted

The first one is that most of us just feel exhausted and worn out. In the fast-paced world, where everything is instant, we just can’t seem to keep up. And so, we say to ourselves, “I’m tired, and I just can’t keep up this pace much longer. I’m just too overloaded with everything, and when I get home, all I do is crash and burn.”

With all that is going on in our world, and the governments of this world taking over most everything including the way we think and feel, most of us are just worn out. We’re out of energy and exhausted with life. In fact, if we had to do it over again, we’d be too tired to try.

2. We Feel Empty

The second secret is just how empty many of us are feeling. We try everything to keep connected. We belong to this group and are involved in that event. Whereby the end of the day, we’re not only tired, but we feel an overall emptiness inside. We wonder, “What’s the meaning of it all? I have more, but that doesn’t help, and when I go out to get more, this still leaves me unsatisfied. So, what’s the point of even trying?”

We face the world much as Solomon who in Ecclesiastes 1:2 said, “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity” More literally this reads, “Useless, useless, it is all useless.” And we feel empty inside because of the uselessness of it all.

Now, if I were to ask how many have this secret, no one would raise their hand, and that’s because if it’s a secret, no one is going to admit it.

3. We Feel Trapped

The third secret is an overall feeling of being trapped. Many things trap us.

• We’re trapped by debt and don’t know how we’re going to get out of it.

• We may feel trapped in a relationship with nowhere to turn.

• We may feel trapped by the expectations of others, followed by guilt, fear, or anger, which are themselves traps.

• Others are trapped by bitterness and resentment over what someone has done, and this usually ends with us feeling that no matter what we do it isn’t going to help.

These are three overall secrets almost everyone is keeping and feeling this way in one form or another.

Today I’d like to introduce you to two such people and the road they found themselves walking on and feeling these same things. However, after they met the risen Lord Jesus, their lives were radically altered. Not only did they find joy, but also a renewed hope, a hope that erases exhaustion, emptiness, and enslavement.

Further, they were walking on a road that led them away from Jerusalem and towards the town of Emmaus. Now it is important to see this picture. These disciples were moving away from Jerusalem, the city of God, capital of the Jewish people, and the city associated with the promise, purpose, and presence of God. And they are on their way to a small insignificant town known as Emmaus, whose name means “obscure,” and “despised.”

Get a sense of this picture with me if you would.

Two disciples were walking away from the purposes and promises of God towards obscurity, and in the end, despised, unless they get turned around.

Let’s look at this story and the journey that started out hopeless with the ending being one that’s filled with hope. Why? It’s because like all the other roads we’ve looked at, it’s ending, or destination was the risen Lord Jesus.

Read Lk. 24:13-35

What we see then are two disciples, not of the original twelve, mind you, but ones that followed Jesus’s ministry and traveled with Him. One of them was Cleopas, (KLEE-oh-puhs), but the other disciple we have no name or description. And that’s a good thing, because it allows us to place ourselves in this story. It other words, we’re this second person.

As disciples they had followed Jesus, but they thought, like all the others, that things would turn out better, not only for them, but for the nation, because they expected Jesus to overthrow Roman rule of their beloved land, the land of Israel, and land of promise.

But Jesus’s death upon the cross and the empty tomb meant that something different and unexpected occurred, and they didn’t have a clue as to what it was. And it is with this overall attitude that we find these two disciples walking away from Jerusalem and towards Emmaus, heartbroken, downhearted, and with all their hopes and dreams shattered.