Every hospital has one hallway that seems seven miles long. I’ve been to many hospitals and even though hospitals don’t all look alike, they all look like hospitals – and every one of them has one corridor that seems like its seven miles long.
It doesn’t matter how long the hallway actually is. It doesn’t matter if it’s daylight, in the midst of the hustle and bustle of patients, family and staff, or in the middle of the night when it’s eerily quiet.
There is a story in the book of Acts that talks about a road (see Luke 24:13-35). The road from Emmaus to Jerusalem is seven miles long. Cleopas and his companion are walking that long road, walking in shock and bewilderment. Trying to make sense of it all. They’re talking of the past few days, of loss and hope and mystery and confusion.
Disappointment, doubt, disillusionment, defeat, discouragement, despair and death – all of these words sum up how Cleopas and his companion were feeling as they trudged up the road toward Emmaus. They had just left the downhearted and confused band of disciples who were afraid and bewildered over what had happened to Jesus on Good Friday. The two men, walking on that road, were also sad and disillusioned.
The One they had loved and followed had been horribly put to death, a cruel and degrading death on a cross. Jesus had been made a public spectacle, exposed to the jeers of all who passed by. Only a week before, their hopes had risen to fever pitch when the excited crowds welcomed their Teacher waving palm branches and shouting “Hosanna.”
But now Jesus was dead. Their hopes were dashed, the dream was over! Even the report of the women that Jesus’ tomb was empty didn’t raise their spirits; it only confused them even more.
The two despondent disciples walking the road to Emmaus summed up the situation when they said, “We had hoped that he would be the one who was going to set us free!”
Human hope is a powerful thing, yet, a fragile thing, and when it withers, it’s difficult to revive. “We had hoped …” Cleopas and his friend had said. They were saying, “We don’t expect it now, but once we did. We had high hopes for the future, but now those hopes are gone and all we have left is disappointment.”
Can you identify with the feelings of these two disciples in any way? For each of us, the cause of feeling down might be different, it’s a rare person who could say that they weren’t affected by any of those D words: disappointment, doubt, disillusionment, defeat, discouragement, depression, despondency or despair.
As the two walked along, they realize they are not alone. The stranger asked them what they were discussing. And, so they poured out their story to someone who seemed willing to listen. They tell the stranger all about their hopes and their disappointments. He simply provided a listening ear.
We know that the stranger was Jesus, but they didn’t. It’s a wonderful image, Jesus walking along the road with his despondent and confused disciples sharing their troubles.
This 2,000-year-old story is brought into the present. When disappointment, doubt, disillusionment, defeat, discouragement, despondency, depression and despair fill our lives, Jesus is the unseen stranger walking alongside us, listening to us. And if we are willing to hear his voice, he is revealed to us.
As Cleopas and his friend talked about the cross, their confusion and sorrow, Jesus reassured them and helped them. How did he do it? Luke tells us, “Jesus explained to them what was said about himself in all the Scriptures, beginning with the books of Moses and the writings of all the prophets.” Jesus must have given the Emmaus travelers the best-ever lesson on the Old Testament!
Jesus speaks and carries them with him, and suddenly, the road is not so long. The two and a half-hour walk to Emmaus must have seemed like five minutes. The two disciples could feel the despondency and sorrow they felt in their hearts change into understanding and hope, as the stranger explained that Jesus’ death was a part of God’s great plan of love and salvation.
When disillusionment, depression and defeat dominate our lives, Jesus walks with us – just as he walked with the travelers on the road to Emmaus. Jesus turns our despair into hope, our sorrow into joy.
The two disciples asked the stranger to stay with them for the night, and Jesus stayed with them. At the evening meal he, “took the bread, and gave thanks for it; then he broke the bread and gave it to them.” Suddenly, it dawned on them who the stranger was. Their eyes were opened, and they recognized him.
Jesus, himself, had ministered to them in their sadness. Now they knew why a change had come over them as they walked on the road. They now knew why their despondent hearts had been changed to hearts filled with hope and renewed faith.
The road to Emmaus is a story about ordinary despair, and ordinary, Monday-morning drudgery. It’s a story about meeting a stranger, hearing his words of comfort, sitting down at a table and sharing a meal. It enables us to see that the risen Christ gives hope and joy, when all we see is disappointment, discouragement and despair. It enables us to see the world around us through eyes of faith and victory.
When our Emmaus road is filled with discouragement and despair, let’s walk it with Jesus. Walking with Jesus, our road will become a great highway of companionship, conversation, belief, new life and hope. Rev. Dan Koeshall is the Senior Pastor at The Metropolitan Community Church (The Met) in San Diego, California, themetchurch.org.
