April 19, 2026
Message

This morning, I want to talk about recognizing the presence of Christ in the midst of our disillusionment.  Have you ever had a “Monday morning soul” on a Sunday afternoon?  By Monday morning soul, I am referring to a state of emotional and/or spiritual exhaustion or disappointment—it speaks of the feeling of being “back in the grind” after a significant loss.  We have all been there at one time or another.  You had a plan, a hope, or a dream that felt like a “sure thing”, and then it fell apart.  Maybe it was a relationship you thought would last, a career path that hit a dead end, or a prayer that seemed to go unanswered.  In our Scripture for today, we read of two disciples, Cleopas and an unnamed companion.  Many Bible commentators suggest the unidentified person was Cleopas’ wife.  Whoever the second individual was, the two disciples were walking the seven-mile stretch from Jerusalem to Emmaus.  It was the first Easter Sunday, but they did not know it yet.  To them, it was just the third day since the hope of the world entered a borrowed tomb.

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Think of the feeling after a major event does not go the way you had hoped.  The workers have torn down the banners, the streets are quiet, and there is a hollow ache in your chest.  The two disciples in our text for today were not part of Jesus’ closest twelve followers.  Nonetheless, these two distraught devotees of Jesus were traveling away from the “scene of the crime”.  They were not just walking; they were retreating.  They were processing their grief with each step; they were mourning.  They knew about Jesus: they knew He was a prophet; they had heard rumors of an empty tomb, but they did not know Jesus was alive.  How often do we look at the ruins of our expectations—a broken relationship, a lost job, unanswered prayers—and conclude that God has left the building?

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As they talked about the horrific turn of events back in Jerusalem, Jesus Himself drew near to them, but our text says something haunting: “. . . their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him.” [Luke 24:16, NKJV] We often falsely assume that if God is present, we will unmistakable know it, but here, the Resurrected One Himself was walking right next to them, and they just saw a “stranger”.  They were walking with the risen Lord, yet they did not recognize Him because their eyes focused on their loss, not on His promise.

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Why could they not see Jesus as who He is?  I think their overwhelming grief contributed heavily to their spiritual blindness.  The New International Version tells us that as they talked to Jesus, the two disciples eyes were sadden and downcast [Luke 24:17].  When we focus on our feet and our failures, we can easily miss the Face of Grace.  Another reason for their inability to see was their preconceptions.  They, like most of Israel at that time, expected a political King, not a crucified Savior.  They could not see Jesus initially because He did not fit the “box” they had built for Him; that is sometimes true of us, as well.  Do you remember those “Magic Eye” posters from the 90s?  You would stare at a mess of dots, and if you squinted just right, a 3D image appeared.  The image was always there, but your focus was wrong.  Jesus is often the “hidden image” in our trials.  He is there; our focus is just stuck on the “dots” of our problems, so we do not see Him.

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I want us to notice something very important in our text for today, and that is that Jesus did not immediately reveal His face to His traveling companions.  Instead, He progressively revealed who He is through the Scriptures.  Jesus did not scold them, at least not initially, for nor recognizing Him; instead, He listened to their sorrow, but then, He brought clarity, as He asked them—“‘Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?’” [Luke 24:26, NKJV]  Jesus took them through Moses and the Prophets, showing them that the Messiah had to suffer.  Our faith in Christ is not reliant on our feelings or even our sightings; instead, our faith is based on and sustained by the Word of God.  Jesus used the Old Testament portion of the Bible to reframe the disciples’ pain.  He showed them that the cross of Calvary was not a devilish detour; but rather, it was the divine destination.

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When we read the Bible without looking for Jesus, we are walking on the road to Emmaus, but missing the point.  God designed His Word to burn in our hearts, turning our despair into hope.  When life feels like a mess, we go back to the Easter Story.  In so doing, we remind ourselves that God has a history of bringing life out of death.  If we do not know the Scriptures, we will often misinterpret our circumstances.  We will think the “Seven Miles to Emmaus” is a journey to nowhere, when it is actually a classroom for the soul.

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Once they reached Emmaus, after a two-hour or so walk and Bible study, Jesus “. . . indicated that He would have gone farther.” [Luke 24:28, NKJV]  Evening was soon approaching, so whether out of common courtesy or a desire to keep the conversation going with their new Friend, the two disciples strongly insisted that Jesus stay with them in their home; I suspect it was the latter.  Do not miss this point: Jesus did not force His way into their home; instead, He waited on their invitation before He entered.  The same is true for our lives today.  Though the details are not given by Luke, we can reasonably assume that they cleaned up from their journey and someone prepared the evening meal, even if was just dragging out leftovers.

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Once they sat at the table for the meal, a peculiar transition occurred the “Guest” became the “Host”.  As the “Host”, Jesus took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to the two disciples, then their eyes were opened; that is, then they recognized Jesus.  It was not during the theology lesson, but at the dinner table—when Jesus took, blessed, broke, and gave the bread—that their eyes finally opened to His identity.  On occasion, someone asks me why we observe Communion on Maundy Thursday and again only three days later on Easter Sunday.  The answer is simply that this sacred meal vividly shows us who Jesus is.  I would go as far as to suggest that we most clearly see Jesus in the “breaking”.  He was broken on the Cross of Calvary; the bread is broken at the Table; and our hearts are often broken before we can truly see Jesus.  In Japan, there is an art called Kintsugi, where artisans repair broken pottery with gold lacquer.  The pottery piece actually becomes more beautiful and valuable because it was broken.  These disciples had broken hearts, and Jesus filled those cracks with the “gold” of His presence; He wants to do the same with our hearts.​

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I am sure to their great disappointment, after the resurrected Jesus revealed Himself to His travel companions; He instantly and mysteriously disappeared.  The next time His followers encountered the risen Jesus was later that same night, when He instantly and mysteriously entered the locked room where they had gathered in fear.  That was the focus of the sermon last week, but back to our text for today.  Immediately after Jesus vanished from their sight, the two disciples realized something equally astonishing, as they asked themselves: “. . . ‘Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?’” [Luke 24:33, NKJV]  Their burning hearts both erased their disappointment of Jesus’ physical absence and caused the fatigue from their journey back to their home to evaporate.  They immediately rushed back to Jerusalem, at night, to testify to the Twelve that the Lord has truly risen.  They had just walked seven miles in sadness and confusion, but, filled with the excitement of encountering the risen Jesus, they immediately walked, maybe even ran, back to Jerusalem; the resurrection changes our direction.

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The story of the Road to Emmaus highlights that Jesus often walks beside us in our grief and “dark nights” long before we recognize His presence.  It further establishes that the entire Bible is a cohesive story centered on Christ, intended to move our faith from intellectual knowledge to “burning” conviction.  You may have walked into this Worship Service today feeling like you are on the road to Emmaus—disappointed, tired, or confused, but the story does not end in Emmaus; it ends in us.  Jesus walks with you in your despair; He meets you in your confusion.  Let the Word of God burn in you; do not just read the Bible, let it tell you who Jesus is.  Invite Jesus into your home, to your table; recognize Him in the daily “breaking of bread”.  Jesus is alive, and He is walking with you.