Have you ever noticed that some of the saddest words in the English language begin with the
letter D? For example, disappointment, doubt, disillusionment, defeat, discouragement, despondency, depression, despair and death.
Human hope is a fragile thing, and when it withers, it’s difficult to revive. We need to note the number of people who take their own life because despair and discouragement have sucked the last bit of hope out of their lives. When someone you love and care for is overtaken by a serious illness, which goes on, and on, despair sets in. It almost becomes impossible to hope for recovery. You may even be afraid to hope because you believe that you cannot cope with another letdown.
On the road to Emmaus, as the two men walked along, a Stranger joined them. 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. The last thing they needed was a brisk “cheer up” talk, or being told to “snap out of it”. He simply provides a listening ear. We know that the Stranger was Jesus.
Isn’t that a great picture – Jesus walking along the road with His despondent and confused disciples sharing their troubles? Suddenly 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, revealing Himself to us.
When disillusionment, depression and defeat dominate our lives, Jesus walks with us just as He walked with the two men on the road to Emmaus. He points us to God’s Word of promise in the Bible that tells us again that we are God’s dearly loved children and that He will stand by us through thick and thin. He turns our despair into hope.
The road to Emmaus is a symbol of the Christian life. This story is about ordinary despair, and ordinary Monday-morning drudgery. It is a story about meeting a Stranger, hearing His words of comfort, sitting down at the table and sharing a meal. It enables us to see that the risen Lord gives hope and joy, when all we see is disappointment, discouragement and despair. It enables us to see the world not as a place of death, decay, and defeat, but as a place waiting, groaning toward God’s final victory.
This story is a story for everyday life in 2016. If you are walking the Emmaus road right now or when you will walk it in the future with those sad Ds – disappointment, doubt, disillusionment, defeat, discouragement, despondency, depression, and despair – let’s remember we are not walking alone. The unseen “Stranger”, the risen Jesus is walking with us.
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 and hope. (PASTOR VINCE GERHARDY)