On The Road to Emmaus

Here is something I learned about through study and in a conversation with a friend:

The dear friends of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, appeared early in the morning on the sacred ground of the sepulchre. Upon their arrival, they discovered the stone was rolled away from the tomb. When they entered in, they “found not the body of Jesus” (Luke 24:3). Two men in shining garments spoke to the disciples inquiring, “Why seek ye the living among the dead?” The disciples and friends bowed their faces to the earth in fear, but they remembered the words, “He is not here, but is risen.”

Two of them that same day traveled to the village of Emmaus. As they were walking, they talked about the things that had happened that day. While they communed together another man traveled with them along their way. This man was Jesus Christ, “But their eyes were holden that they should not know him” (Luke 24:16). When they arrived closer to the village, Christ “made as though he would have gone further” (Luke 24:28). The two men constrained him, wishing that he would abide with them. “And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them” (Luke 24:30). As soon as he blessed and broke the bread of sacrament, he vanished out of their sight. They then turned to one another and asked, “Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened unto us the scriptures?” (Luke 24:32). Jesus Christ walked with them and they didn’t even recognize it was him until they felt the burning in their hearts.

There is a painting of Christ on a bench in the middle of a beautiful park. Across the bench is a teenage boy. The boy had a pack and a bed roll beside him next to a bench. It seemed as if the boy was far away from home. This painting struck me because I have always seen Christ with the little innocent children, but what about a struggling, imperfect teenager? It touched me so deeply, thinking about how lost this boy must have felt. I pictured myself on this park bench, weary and far from home, from a heavenly and earthly home. The Savior of the world would take the time to sit next to me with nobody else around. I felt so overwhelmed thinking about the time he would spend listening more intently than anyone I have ever known would. He would not only sit with me, but He would cry with me as I cried, laugh with me as I laughed, and hold me when I needed to be held. He takes time specifically for you and for me. Just as with the two men traveling to Emmaus, we sometimes fail to recognize the Savior walking beside us during our times of trouble until we are looking back at our experiences in retrospect. I hope more than anything that I can recognize the Savior’s presence alongside me. I want to allow the Savior to be more involved in my life because he is not only my Savior and my redeemer, but my friend.