Have you ever seen someone who looked very sad? Maybe you walked up to them and said, “Are you okay? Can I help?”
That’s how Jesus approached two of His followers on the road to Emmaus. He said,
“What are you discussing so intently as you walk along?” (Luke 24:17 NLT).
Cleopas replied,
“You must be the only person in Jerusalem who hasn’t heard about all the things that have happened there the last few days” (verse 18 NLT).
In other words, “Buddy, what planet are you from? Everyone knows about what happened in Jerusalem.”
Cleopas went on to say,
“We had hoped he was the Messiah who had come to rescue Israel. This all happened three days ago” (verse 21 NLT).
Basically, they were saying, “He meant well. His heart was in the right place, but clearly, it was a massive failure. Something went horribly wrong.”
Yet earlier, Jesus said of himself,
“The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of his enemies. He will be killed, but on the third day he will be raised from the dead” (Matthew 17:22–23 NLT).
Could He have been any more clear? But they all missed it, even though He talked about it constantly.
It’s easy for us to be critical of these disciples, but I think we probably would have done the same. After all, we do the same thing today.
We don’t pay attention to what the Bible says and let our emotions get the better of us.
Instead of praying, we panic.
Instead of trusting, we run away.
We lose sight of what the Word of God says, and we lose sight of Jesus.
Jesus stirred their hearts and restored their hope by taking them to the Scriptures.
And it’s the same way we will keep our hearts on fire for God today.
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