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.
Does this describe any of us?
Have you ever noticed how some of the saddest words begin with the letter “D?” For example, there is disappointment, disillusionment, discouragement, despair, doubt, defeat, and death.
And then there is the name Dennis. When they were looking for the perfect name to associate with Menace, they didn’t choose Jimmy, Bob or Elliot. No, it was Dennis, Dennis the Menace. Further, when I was looking through all the saints of the Catholic Church I ran across Saint Denis, and do you know what he was the patron saint for? Headaches! That’s right; I am the patron saint of headaches. So, when you leave here with a headache, you’ll know why.
Yet here these two disciples were on the road to Emmaus, and they were dispirited to say the least. You see, their master, Jesus, the One they revered, loved, and followed, had been horribly put to death. He had been beaten, mocked, spit upon, and subjected to the most degrading and humiliating death ever to be devised by humanity, crucifixion.
Jesus, who just the week prior was hailed by the masses as the coming Messiah sent by God to save them as they cried, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” were now shouting for His death.
So, as these two walked from Jerusalem to Emmaus, we have the distinct impression that they did so with their heads down. Their hopes and dreams dashed. Even the reports of Jesus’s tomb being empty didn’t raise their spirits; it only seemed to confuse them even more. In fact, their mood is best summed up in their own words, “We were hoping.”
Human hope is a fragile thing, and hopelessness is a disease of the human spirit that is hard to cure. And so, here you have the Emmaus two, who had erected such a wall of hopelessness that they were trapped in their own world of misery. “We had hoped,” they said, or to say it another way, “We had our expectations, but they were not met, so we now expect very little.”
Maybe this road describes the one you’re on. Notice that they were discussing the events of the past week, trying to figure out just what happened. With all that is going on, it’s hard to keep up. We don’t know what’s happening, and we’re desperately trying to figure it all out. Often times we don’t know what has happened, but we know that something has, and we’re desperately trying to figure it out.
And into such despair and confusion comes Jesus, and it says that they couldn’t recognize Him, which may very well be because when we’re so caught up in our own problems and difficulties, caught up in the trials and tribulations of life, we really don’t recognize anything other than ourselves and our own problems, even if the Lord Himself is walking besides us.
A little boy’s mother asked if he knew the name of God’s Son. The boy replied, “Yes,” to the absolute delight of his mother. She then asked if he could tell her, he replied, “His name is Andy.”
“Andy,” replied the mother, “Where on earth did you hear that His name was Andy.”
And the little boy said, “In church. We sing a song with His name in it.”
“What song is that” said the now shocked mother.
And the boy sang, “Andy walks with me, Andy talks with me, Andy tells me I am His own.”
Now it says one more thing concerning these two when they met Jesus on the road. It says that their eyes were restrained, which means that there was a purpose and a plan behind it. Maybe it was so they could be in the same condition that all the rest of us are in when we travel down these roads of despair, and we don’t recognize when Jesus is walking next to us, and we respond to His questions the same way these two disciples did.
And so, Jesus came to these two in order to turn them from obscurity and despair, (or Emmaus) and back to the purposes, promises, and the presence of God, (or Jerusalem). And by taking the time to come and accompany them on this road and taking the time to explain to them all that God had said in the Old Testament concerning the coming of the Messiah and how all of it fits the events surrounding His death, burial, and resurrection, reveals just how much He does care.
And in the same way He cares for you and me. Now, how do we know that He cares?
How Does Jesus Care?
1. He Knows Where We’re Going
Jesus knew exactly in which direction these two were walking. He knew exactly which road and where upon this road they were. He didn’t stop off at the local hay and feed store to see if anyone had seen them. He knew exactly where they were, and He knows exactly where we are.
Further, we see that He cares because He didn’t wait for them to come to Him, rather He took the initiative and went to where they were, because He wanted to walk with them and to give them a future and a hope, something they had lost.
Jesus knows just where we are and where we’re heading. He knows and cares about what is happening in our lives. And He comes along side to help steer us back to the purposes, promises, and presence of God.
Literally, Jesus goes out of His way to come to us. Jesus cares and loves us so much that He pursues us down these roads of heartache and pain, hurt and confusion to turn us around and start us back upon the right road, or the same road, but now in a more positive direction.
2. He Knows What’s On Our Hearts
Clearly Jesus knew what was on their hearts when He asked them what they knew. But He was drawing out what they knew, what they thought, because the first thing that must be done is to get our thinking straight about just who Jesus is and what He accomplished upon the cross.
Jesus’s death was not in vain as they supposed, rather it accomplished what Jesus and the Father had intended, and that is to pay the penalty price for sin.
And how they described Jesus is much the same as people do today. They say He is a prophet and that His words were powerful, but that isn’t who Jesus is.
Jesus is more than a prophet, or even a good man. What Jesus said about Himself gives a person only three options, options spelled out by C.S. Lewis, who said that Jesus is either a liar, a lunatic, or that He is exactly who He said He was, Lord. Jesus didn’t give us any other options when He called Himself by God’s Holy Name.
Further, these two didn’t have the right understanding of the empty tomb, as they spoke of Jesus in the past tense saying that he “was” a prophet. Jesus was right there next to them, alive. People make the same mistake today believing that Jesus lived two thousand years ago and died. But they don’t talk about Him in the present.
Jesus is present with us today, as the Bible declares where two or more are gathered in His name, that He is in their midst (Matthew 18:20). And so, Jesus is here with us today, and not in some far away galaxy, and He is mighty to heal and to help us in our time of need, just as He was available to those disciples on the road to Emmaus.
But, as He begins to tell them the truth and of the events of His death, burial, and resurrection, He didn’t use philosophical arguments, rather He pointed them directly back to the Scriptures, because in God’s word there is not only life but understanding.
God’s word, the Bible, is as the Apostle Paul describes, that is, it’s powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, dividing and piercing through the soul, that is, to our very emotions and into our spirits (Hebrews 4:12).
How else could these disciples describe their time with Jesus as a burning that occurred deep within their hearts? This was truly a heartburn that neither Rolaids nor Tums could cure. This was no acid reflux from the morning meal, rather this was what Jesus does, and this is what God’s word does, when both are received in the heart of a person.
Maybe this speaks to you. Maybe you’re like these disciples, knowing some but not the whole story. Maybe you have an understanding that Jesus died, was buried, and rose again, but you have never allowed Jesus to die for you, that is, for your sins, and you have never allowed Him to come alive in your heart, where your heart burns with a love for Jesus and for the things of God.
Just as Jesus drew near and traveled with these disciples, He’ll draw near and travel with us. But Jesus doesn’t just want to hang out. He wants to make an intrusion. He wants to probe into areas we’d rather not have Him probe into, but it’s for our own good, because He wants to bestow a blessing.
But it still boils down to whether we’re willing to let Him. Do we welcome His intrusion to minister into our lives, or do we still want to keep on talking and explaining things from our perspective. While the things Jesus reveals are uncomfortable, they’re for our good if we would listen and obey.
Notice Jesus’s rebuke. “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” (Luke 24:25-26)
Maybe you may doubt God’s love. Maybe you doubt God’s concern. Maybe you doubt God’s plan and future He has for you. This brings us to the last aspect of why we know He cares.
3. He Knows How To Renew Our Hope
By and large we live in a society that has forgotten what hope looks like. Now it isn’t that we’ve forgotten the word; rather we’ve reversed its meaning. Let me give you a few examples.
• Let’s say I tell you I have decided to preach for only 10 minutes. Now some may respond, “Well we hope so.” But really what you are saying is that you doubt the possibility. Smart people.
• We’ve also changed the meaning of hope making it more into wishful thinking, like when we go 65 MPH in a 25 MPH speed zone, and we see a police car with its lights flashing, and we say, “I hope I don’t get pulled over.” That’s not hope, it’s wishful thinking.
Biblical hope is a confident expectation. It is anticipating something with a full assurance that it will come to pass. Such hope is the basis of our faith, as the writer of Hebrews tells us, that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). So, without this hope there is no faith, and without faith, it’s not only impossible to please God, but there’s no salvation without it.
What we see on the part of these two disciples is that their hope was wishful thinking. “We had hoped,” they said. They hoped that Jesus would come and kick some Roman butt, but that wasn’t His purpose. Yes, Jesus will kick out the bad guys when He returns as King, but He came the first time as that suffering servant who would take upon Himself the sins of the world.
What we see is that when they lost hope, they lost their vision of God as well. They were hoping in false hope, and because of that they stopped hoping in the Lord. They had built up a false hope and were moving from hoping in Jesus to a past tense version of hope.
This is what will happen when our hopes are based upon the temporary instead of the eternal: when our hope is based upon anything or anyone else other than the Lord.
The disciples said, “We were hoping,” but in what? They were hoping it would be done their way, and in their timing. And in the process, they stopped hoping in the promise of the Messiah. They were saying, “We didn’t think it would be like this. This I not what we were expecting. And it isn’t what we signed up for.”
And that just like us? We’ve gotten our eyes and our hopes, off the only One who can meet our expectations, and that is Jesus.
In 1834, Edward Mote wrote a song that speaks to this very thing. He wrote,
Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness
I dare not trust the sweetest frame but only lean on Jesus name
On Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand
All other ground is sinking sand.
The disciples’ hope was renewed though time with Jesus. Prior to His arrival it was all in the past tense, but not after He revealed Himself. Now Jesus is not only the God of their past, but He is the God of their present and future as well.
If your hope has taken a hit, remember that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever, and if your hope has waned, then make sure you place your hope in what really counts, and that’s in Jesus Christ.
Conclusion
After their eyes were opened to the Risen Jesus, they couldn’t keep the good news to themselves, but that selfsame hour traveled back to Jerusalem to tell the others.
They stopped their march into obscurity and despair and started back towards the purposes, promises and presence of God. The road was no longer one of shattered hopes, but now it was a road of endless possibilities: A road where hope is alive.
That is what Jesus can do for you. He can take what seems dead or hopeless and make it into something new. And all you can do is tell somebody else the good news.
And that is what I hope all of us will this week. Tell people the good news, that Jesus is alive and that He cares for them. And then give them the invitation and personally invite them church where they will hear about Jesus Christ, the Risen Savior of their lives.
And here’s the promise:
• Confusion will become clarity.
• Discouragement will be turned to hope.
• Darkness will become light.
• And worship will replace worry.
The reason I can say this is because Jesus Christ rose from the dead. He is the only One who can give real life, and that’s because He lives.
And so, Jesus is with us here today. Remember where two or more are gathered in His name He is there. So, Jesus is here, and He’s been speaking to us and into our present feelings of the hopelessness, a hope that we have somehow and in some way lost upon this journey. But today, Jesus wants to turn us back to Himself and the plans and purposes He has for our lives.
