"walking With God"

“Walking with Jesus”

Luke 24:13-35

In our Gospel Lesson for this morning we find, on Easter day, two of Jesus’ disciples walking on their way back from Jerusalem to Emmaus.

And as they are walking, Jesus comes and walks with them.

At this point, they thought Jesus was dead, and they didn’t recognize the Resurrected Christ.

Many people, over the years, have wondered, “How couldn’t they recognize Jesus when He was walking there on the road with them.”

I don’t know for sure, but I do know it can be difficult to recognize people in unusual settings or in places where we are not expecting them.

Not long ago, I was in the hospital with a family who had a very sick father and grandfather on life-support.

Family members were allowed to visit the person in pairs in the ICU.

When the son of the man in ICU came back, his first words were, “I didn’t even recognize him.”

I had the same experience when I went in.

I would imagine many of us have experienced this sort of thing at wakes with open coffins or with family members who are terribly sick.

In any event, the last time these disciples had seen Jesus, His body was bloodied, ripped to shreds, hanging from a wooden Cross.

And that, no doubt, was the image which was seared into their memories as they walked the Road to Emmaus, faces twisted in grief.

And so, even though Jesus Himself came up and walked along with them…they did not recognize Him.

I wonder how often we walk through life not knowing or remembering that the Risen Christ is walking with us?

I know it happens to me.

And when I do forget that Jesus is with me, that is when fear, panic and loneliness threaten to take over.

It also tends to be when I slip up and fall into sin.

Perhaps I lose my temper more easily.

Maybe I hurt someone with my words or actions.

And when this happens, I tend to lose the “peace of God which transcends all understanding.”

It is so important for us, to, at all times remember that Jesus Christ walks with us always—even during times of isolation, stress, loneliness and pain.

On the road to Emmaus the disciples’ faces were downcast.

And Jesus basically asked them why they were so sad.

And they told Him the whole story about what had happened.

And they were able to tell Him a lot.

It was, after-all, a seven-mile walk.

And Jesus listened.

They were absolutely heart-broken.

They had put all their hope in Jesus being the Christ.

And now, in their minds, Jesus was dead.

What was there to live for?

A pastor friend of mine played basketball in high school.

He made all conference several times.

He was good.

He didn’t get recruited or given a scholarship, but he was a good basketball player.

He went to the major basketball playing university in his state.

This was back in the day when they all had freshman teams.

He tried out and made the team.

He played quite a bit on that freshman team, he kept working in his game over the summer, spending almost every day in the gym as he had done since he was 12.

About six weeks into his sophomore year he went to the college gym for the announced try-outs for the varsity team.

He knew most of the spots were taken by the scholarship players, he knew there were only two places for walk-ons, he knew there were a lot of people trying out.

But he thought he could make it, he had made the freshman team without a scholarship, surely the coaches had noticed his talent.

He told himself they had not offered him a scholarship because they know he had an academic award.

And 30-minutes into that try-out, an assistant coach came over, patted him on the shoulder, said, “Thank you for trying out,” and pointed him to the door.

He found himself standing outside, sitting on the steps with the other rejects; dazed and confused and disappointed and wondering to himself, “What do I do now?”

Like the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus, my friend had had his high hopes dashed and was left to wonder not only what might have been, but also where do I go from here?

And that is a question our Gospel Lesson leads us to wonder today.

Where do we turn when things fall apart?

Fall apart not only for us personally, but also for the world?

What do we do when the when the things we have trusted in, believed in, hoped in, seem to have failed us?

And so, the two disciples in our Gospel Lesson for this morning were headed to Emmaus, to do what, we don’t know and they probably didn’t either.