Easter: Walking to Emmaus

Luke 24:13-35

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Have you ever walked with Jesus and not realized it until later? Like the famous Footprints poem, and like the disciples walking to Emmaus, we can feel lonely and abandoned when He is with us. Whatever the reason preventing us from recognizing His presence with us, these confusing experiencing invite us to deepen our faith. The two disciples has thought that Jesus was the Messiah before His death, knew that His tomb was empty, and had been told about the encounters others had experienced with the risen Lord. They had the opportunity to choose to believe in Him before they knew His presence with them. Yet Jesus shows such mercy toward them in their confusion, explaining His own death and resurrection and then revealing Himself to them. While we can look back on our difficult moments and realize that Christ was with us in the midst of every trial, what a gift to our faith life it would be to hold onto that knowledge as we encounter various trials in the present and future. We can choose to believe that He is with us even when we can't see Him. We can choose to deepen our trust in Him when we feel abandoned by Him. We can choose to strengthen our faith relationship with Him when we are confused, lonely, desperate for His help.