The Road to Emmaus

I marvel that our Creator, who laid the foundation of the earth and stretched out the heavens with His hand,  seeks fellowship with fallen man. I can relate to David’s wonderment in Psalm 8:4, “What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?”

Sometimes it’s a surprise visit. In the gospel of Luke a stranger approaches two disciples of Yeshua (Jesus) on the road to Emmaus. And asks them, “What kind of conversation is this that you have with another as you walk and are sad?” The men, whose eyes are restrained from the identity of the stranger, are grieving over the recent arrest, trial and crucifixion of Yeshua.  They thought the Prophet would redeem Israel. They also are troubled by reports that His body is missing from the tomb.

The stranger responds, “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?” Beginning with Moses and the prophets He opens the Scriptures to reveal all things about Israel’s Messiah.

At dusk the disciples near their destination, a village in Judea. The stranger says He would have walked farther with them but accepts their offer to take shelter for the night. While breaking bread at a table Yeshua reveals His identity, then vanishes. The stunned men say to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?”

The takeaway is that Yeshua would have gone farther. And He will with us. But will we go the extra mile with Him?

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