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were doing or saying that we barely even recognized what was going on around us? If you
don’t think this really happens, try asking your spouse or children something completely off the
wall while they are watching sports or playing video games. Well that’s about where these two
travelers were; they were caught up in their conversation and were so busy with all the pressures
of what they thought their life was that they could not see what their life really could be.
Think for a moment, how many of us are really comfortable in expressing our political or
religious beliefs to a complete stranger or, for that matter, even comfortable expressing them to
those whom we know but who we know disagree with us? And yet, even in a time when these
two men are leaving for Emmaus, when they are leaving behind a city and a people in both
political and religious turmoil, a situation of which they have every right and expectation to be
afraid of, they still somehow manage to welcome this stranger into their midst. In doing so, they
open a dialogue that clearly shows them heading away from all that has happened in Jerusalem.
According to the Interpreter’s Bible commentary, “surely it must be said that no one will find
anything at all if [they] have [their] back toward what happened there. Those who see
nothing, how often is it because their most vital energies are all spent in some other
direction? They keep talking of what Jesus said about living, and never seem to think very
long of what he did about living by dying.” These two knew the point, but they still missed it.
They had expected that Jesus “was the one to redeem Israel.” They were still so concentrated on
Jesus’ living that they could not see in his dying the new life that he had established. They could
not fathom how Jesus could be the Messiah if he were dead, so they certainly could not yet see
him alive again.
It is not until they have welcomed this stranger, not only into their conversation, but also
into their home, that they see him for who he truly is. In the most basic extension of hospitality,
in the sharing of a meal, in taking the time to rest and reflect on the events around them they
finally recognize Jesus in their midst. To quote again from Susan Andrews, “On Sunday
morning in contemporary America, modern disciples come straggling through the church
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