The Road of Despair

Jesus asked them,
​Why are you so sad?
Luke 24:17 

​Yesterday we had our regularly scheduled worship service in the chapel...

However, because our expected speaker did not show, I was asked to bring the sermon in his place. I then read from Luke’s gospel, the twenty-fourth chapter, beginning at the 13th verse. It was the often told story of two of Christ’s disciples who had been walking on the road to the town of Emmaus where they probably both lived. This was a small town about seven miles from Jerusalem.

The story begins with two very despondent and dejected followers of Jesus who were disappointed and devastated because, as far as they knew, their Messiah was dead and His promise to rise from the grave on the third day did not occur, or so they thought.

Depressed and discouraged, they walked the dusty road to their hometown, I would imagine feeling like fools and failures. After all, they devoted three years of their lives to following Christ, and now their spiritual leader was dead.

I told the men that all of us have walked this road. Not the actual road in Israel, of course, but we all traveled the emotional road of hurt, defeat, and despair. We’ve walked the road of pain, some of us journeying on it for many years, I said.

Emmaus, I told the men, represents the many negative experiences we've all had throughout our lifetime, when we felt our hopes and dreams were dashed. It’s a road that millions have traveled, and multitudes still do.

But as those grieving disciples walked home, no doubt with their heads hanging down in sadness, unbeknownst to them, the Lord Jesus began to walk alongside the pair. Things were about to change. Soon their despondency would be turned in to unspeakable joy.

Since it was getting dark, and because the road would be too dangerous to travel at night where one could easily trip and sprain an ankle or even break a leg, and because of the ever-present threat of highway robbers, the men invited their fellow traveler to spend the night in their home.

And when their guest decided to break bread during supper, their eyes were opened, and they recognized that it was Messiah Jesus himself. It was at this moment when the Lord instantly vanished from their presence, leaving them infused with excitement.

Stunned but overjoyed, the disciples now decided to return to Jerusalem to tell their fellow disciples the news that the Lord was alive. So in the darkness of the night, they left their home to rejoin the group.

I found it humorous how these two individuals, who only a short time ago were lecturing a fellow traveler not to journey in the dark, themselves took off on the long and risky trek back to Jerusalem, and with nothing but a pair of sandals on their feet!

I then asked the congregation if anyone could tell me the name of the second road in this story? They looked puzzled. I know they were all thinking to themselves, “What second road?” I told them it was the road to Jerusalem. When they heard this, many of their faces lit up. None of them knew there was another road until now.

The first road, the one to Emmaus, was the road leading away from God, and away from His presence. While the road to Jerusalem was the road back to His presence. It was the pathway of unspeakable joy.

Gone from the lives of those two disciples were despair and disappointment. They were replaced with happiness and hope.

Jesus was alive after all. His promises were true. And the fire that had apparently gone out in the souls of those two men, was revived.

D.B. 

Please read Luke 24:13-35 in the New Testament for the full account of this story.