Would You Recognize Christ on the Road to Emmaus?

In Luke 24, we learn of the Messiah’s resurrection. The same chapter tells the story of two disciples headed to Emmaus after the resurrection. As they walk, they run into the now-risen Jesus, who joins them and engages them in a conversation about the recent happenings in Jerusalem.

What is strangest about the encounter is that they, Jesus’s disciples and closest friends, do not recognize Him. As they talk, the disciples are almost shocked by the man’s apparent lack of knowledge about recent events.

A Chance Encounter

I was at the mall once and was in the same checkout line as a celebrity. I remember feeling like I knew them but could not place them. I said hi without using their name so as not to come off as insensitive if I happened to get it wrong.

After the encounter and all the way home, I was bugged, trying to figure out why they were familiar. It wasn’t until days later that I recalled seeing them in a well-known TV commercial.

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Much like the disciples, I did not immediately recognize the celebrities despite their faces appearing on my screen every day before the prime-time news. Unlike the disciples, however, I knew in my gut who they were and tried to find them in my memory.

Having Eyes, Lacking Sight

How many of us, as Christians, are divinely blinded?

The disciples have spent the past three years walking with Jesus. They have seen Him heal lepers, multiply bread and fish with Him, and share meals and conversations with Him. When faced with the resurrected Christ, it almost seems illogical that they cannot tell it is Him.

Sometimes, God allows us not to see Him so He can clarify what we truly know about Him. Jesus asks the disciples about recent happenings and their knowledge of who they think the crucified Jesus was.

He listens to their perspectives along the two-hour journey to best understand them. Perhaps, as they retell the story, it is also clarified for them.

He answers their questions as they travel by referring them to the scriptures. We can also appreciate this lesson today. The answers regarding who Jesus is and His purpose for us can only be found in Him and in the scriptures.

As He reminds the disciples, everything that has happened is already written there.

There is other good news from this passage: the disciples ask Jesus to stay with them where they are lodging, and He is more than willing to do just that. He eats a meal with them, breaking bread as He had done at the Last Supper. Finally, their eyes are opened.

How joyful must they be when they finally see who He is?

Christ with Us

This story is as relevant today as it was for Jesus’s early followers. We may sometimes feel like we are not experiencing God as we would like. But let us not lose heart. Remember that Jesus came to them. The Book of Matthew says,