As I look toward the cross alongside thousands of others, I begin to notice that the crowds are breaking up and leaving. After I take one more glance at the cross of Christ I turn to leave but I am immediately confronted with two roads. I notice many are choosing the road to the left, but only a few are choosing the road to the right. As I approach these two roads I notice two men. The first one is dead and is lying beside the road to the left. But the other is alive and is pointing to the road on my right. To my amazement many are asking the dead man for directions. I thought to myself, “Why would anyone ask a dead man for directions when there is one who is alive?”Every day we make decisions in life simply because we are creatures of variety. We choose what time we get up, what we wear, eat, and what we will do throughout the day. In fact there are many decisions that beg for our attention right now, but there is only one choice that you and I must consciously choose before it’s too late. And that’s to walk the “narrow road.” It is the road to the right, the road to righteous life. This road is one of decision, discipline, and desire. And like the road to Emmaus it will lead us to an encounter with Jesus, the one who is alive.
ON THE ROAD TO EMMAUS:
It was late in the afternoon of the day of resurrection when two disciples were on their way to Emmaus, a little town about seven miles from Jerusalem. The two disciples were discouraged and depressed. The Master they had revered, loved, and followed, had been horribly put to death. A cruel death of the most degrading kind—crucifixion!
Only a week before, on Palm Sunday, the disciple’s hopes had risen to fever pitch when the excited crowds had hailed their Master as the long awaited-deliverer that would set them free from Roman occupation. But now their Master lay dead in a sealed tomb and their hopes were dashed; the dream was over.
Have you ever noticed that some of the saddest words in our language begin with the letter D? For example, there is disappointment, doubt, delusion, defeat, despair, and death. All of which can damper our hopes. Human hope is a fragile thing and when it withers its difficult to revive. Hopelessness is a disease of the human spirit that is desperately hard to cure. When you see someone you love and care for overtaken by illness, which goes on, and on, despair sets in. It almost becomes impossible to hope for recovery, to even be afraid to hope because of not being able to cope with another letdown.
Each of us have no doubt at times felt blind, distant, and even given up all hope. In fact there have probably even been times when we prayed and prayed and received absolutely no help, which resulted in our losing all hope. There were probably even times when we have prayed and our problems seemed to have only worsened. Maybe it was when we prayed for healing for another or ourselves but the sickness only got worse. During these times of despair doesn’t mean that God has left us alone. We only believe that He has since the problems in life have a way of blurring our vision, our understanding, our faith, and our hope. It makes us want to run away from our difficulties rather than stand and face them. But how fortunate we are that we have a God who not only comes looking for us, but also draws near and travels with us each step of the way and helps us to be able to clearly see again. Remember this: God will never abandon His children, but often His children abandon Him over disbelief.
There wasn’t really a reason for the two disciples to be in the state of mind that they were in other than disbelief. For you see, even though they had received the news of the morning, that Mary had found the grave of Jesus empty and had heard the claims of some of the other women that they had seen angels and had even met the risen Jesus, they did not believe those reports.
God accomplishes His greatest work through us by allowing our hopes and dreams to die, only to bring them back again in rather surprising and unique ways. Job lost his family and fortune, but they were eventually restored many times over. God blessed Abraham and Sarah with a son long after nature would have made that impossible. And the hopes of these two disciples had been dashed when Jesus died upon the cross. They did not realize at the time that the cross and all its horrors were a part of Gods sovereign plan to pave the way of salvation for all of humanity.
Many of us may not like our current surroundings or situations, or even the direction that society appears to be going or all the ungodliness that seems to plague the Church, but remember not all is lost. We merely need to wait upon the Lord to redeem our situations and restore our hope. We don’t need to focus on the negative when there are many wonderful things transpiring within our own lives and the Church that overrides all the negative aspects. We just need to stop long enough to take a serious look around.
As the weary disciples made their weary way toward Emmaus a stranger fell in alongside them. What had begun as a very depressing trip soon turned into one of the most wonderful walks in human history! We know this because the stranger was the risen Jesus. But somehow in the beginning they did not recognize Him. In fact Luke tells us “they were kept from recognizing Him.” It wasn’t by accident that they didn’t recognize who He was. No, they weren’t allowed to recognize Jesus for a reason. And the reason was so that they might be in the same position as we are 2,000 years later.
Many times we do not recognize Jesus when He suddenly appears in our midst. Sometimes He appears to us as a stranger who speaks the right words we need to hear for whatever ails us. Other times He may come to us in the form of a beggar, someone who’s hungry, or some other needy person. He may even come to us, as someone in trouble, someone whose marriage just went south, or someone who has lost a child, a spouse, or some other loved one. It may be that He comes to us through someone in need of friendship, a shoulder to cry on, or someone seeking Himself. How we respond during those times will determine our level of commitment unto Him. Do we dare deafen our ears and look the other way, forgetting the times He met our needs? Or do we respond as He did when He met the two blind men on the road to Jericho? These particular blind beggar’s cried out unto Him, “Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!” But the people commanded them to be silent. But that didn’t stop them they merely cried louder and more intense until the Master commanded they be brought before Him. Then He asked one very simple question, “What do you want Me to do for you?” To which they responded, “Lord, that our eyes may be opened” (Matthew 20:29-33).
We may be the only contact that many will ever have with Christ Jesus. I once heard it said, “There are five Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and us. Many will never read the first four, but all will read the last one.” Christ Jesus didn’t commission us to leave this world, or to sit idle in it, but to disciple it.
For far too long Christianity in America has sat idle living in her own little world. For decades the majority of professing Christians have been going in the direction they have desired instead of going in the direction that God desires. They have distorted the scriptures and cheapened the gospel in such a way that humanity has become riddled with confusion, which is why 1.37 million babies are murdered annually in America; why 40 million Americans indulge in Internet pornography; why divorce is rampant and 50 to 70% of all married people will commit adultery this year. It is also why 10,000 people will be murdered this year alone of which over 5,000 will be between the ages of 10 and 24. And it is also why over 30,000 people will see life as no longer worth living and commit suicide and why Americans are confused about the sanctity and institution of marriage being only between a man and a woman.
To barrow the words of Fr. Tom Forrest, I must also say: “If there were ever a time when sinners needed conversion, if there were ever a time when captives needed to be set free and mountains of pain and depression removed, if there were ever a time when the human race needed sanctification and salvation, if there were ever a time when the whole world needed to hear and follow Christ’s teachings on love, mercy, and forgiveness, that time is now!” Whose cry are you willing to hear? Whose eyes are you willing to open?
To Be Continued…
