Road to Emmaus

“Then He asked them, ‘What is this dispute that you’re having with each other as you are walking?’” And they stopped walking and looked discouraged. The one named Cleopas answered him, “Are you the only visitor in Jerusalem who doesn’t know the things that happened therefore in these days?” “What things?” he asked them. So they said to him, “The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet powerful in action and speech before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him. But we were hoping that he was the one who was about to redeem Israel. Besides all this, it’s the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women from our group astounded us. They arrived early at the tomb, and when they didn’t find his body, they came and reported that they had seen a vision of angels who said he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they didn’t see him.” He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Wasn’t it necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things and enter into his glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted for them the things concerning himself in all the Scriptures.”
‭‭Luke‬ ‭24‬:‭17‬-‭27‬ ‭CSB‬‬

The two men are not uninformed. They know the facts. They recount them clearly: Jesus of Nazareth, powerful in word and deed, was handed over, crucified, and buried. They even know the reports of the empty tomb. What they lack is not information, but understanding. He walks them back through the story, not rewriting it but showing that it always pointed here. The suffering wasn’t an interruption of the plan. It was the plan. The cross was not a failure before the resurrection. It was the doorway to it.

When God does not meet expectations, people do not abandon belief altogether; they reduce it to something smaller, something that fits what they can explain. The issue is selective belief. They accepted the promises of glory but ignored the promises of suffering. They believed in a Messiah, but not in a suffering one.

People trust God up to the point where His actions contradict their expectations. When that happens, they assume something is wrong either with the situation or with God Himself. Rarely do they assume the problem is their own understanding. The two men had Scripture, but they did not have the full picture. They read it through their desires, not through its intended meaning. Jesus corrects that by re-centering everything on Himself. Not just as a teacher. Not just as a prophet. But as the fulfillment of the entire narrative. The Law and the Prophets were not separate ideas pointing in different directions; they were all pointing to Him, including His suffering.

If Jesus is only a prophet, then the cross is a tragedy. If He is the Messiah, the cross is the plan. They experienced truth and presence but didn’t yet recognize the Person. We decide what kind of soil we are at any point in time. So the real question becomes, what keeps you from recognizing Him? They walked seven miles away from hope, speaking as if the story had ended. And all the while, the author of the story walked beside them. They knew the facts. They felt something burning. But they did not yet recognize Him.

A prisoner does not free himself. A debt is not erased by intention. If freedom is real, it had to be bought. That is why the cross cannot be reduced to inspiration or example. It is a transaction. It is substitution. It is completion. For freedom, Christ set us free. Because He lives, we have life. And if it weren’t for the cross, none of this would be possible.

One of the first church songs I memorized was “Hallelujah for the Cross.”

“🎵 Hallelujah, thank You, Jesus. I was a prisoner; now I’m not. With Your blood, You bought my freedom. Hallelujah for the cross. All my shame was met with mercy. Now your mercy will be my song. 🎵

All of it. The things nobody knows. The things I know about myself that I’ve never told anyone. The patterns I can’t break. The depths I’ve seen in my own heart. All of that met with mercy. Not met with anger. Not met with condemnation. Met with mercy and conviction. The kind of mercy that doesn’t erase the reality of what you’ve done but erases its power over you.

“🎵And by Your stripes, I’m healed. And by Your death, I live. The power of sin is overcome. It is finished, it is done.🎵”

The song repeats these lines. Over and over. Four times through. And I think that’s exactly right; we need the repetition because we forget. We need to hear it again and again until it sinks deeper than our doubts, our failures, our stubborn belief that we still have to earn something, that we still have to fix something about ourselves before we’re acceptable.

By His stripes. Isaiah 53. The physical reality of the cross, the broken body, the torn flesh, the agony. It’s not abstract. It happened. And through it, healing. Not just spiritual healing. But forgiveness. Healing. Restoration. The power of sin is overcome. Everlasting life. For all. And He’s not asking us to believe this while white-knuckling our way to righteousness. He’s asking us to believe that it’s finished. Done. Complete. The work is over. We’re invited into the rest that follows the work.

I’m so thankful for the Bible. I say that, and I mean it with everything in me. It’s only possible to convey a message with this much power, redemption, freedom, mercy, and resurrection if God authors it through His Spirit. Only the living God could give us a book that speaks across centuries and cultures and speaks directly into the exact place we’re broken. And all glory belongs to God. All of it. Not because we earned it or deserved it or figured it out, but because He made us, He loves us, He bought us, and He’s not done with us yet. I’m a wretched man whom He has saved. He’s given a broken instrument like me a platform. A voice. A place to speak and write and lead. Not because I’m qualified, but because He qualifies those He calls, and He calls because He loves.

So on this Easter, my thanksgiving is simple and total: Thank you, Jesus. Forever. All is you. It is finished, and we are free. Hallelujah for the cross.

https://youtu.be/xKNz91LUuP4?si=op5EQNjng6-q0V_V

Happy Resurrection Sunday. God bless us, everyone. Happy Easter.

𝕹𝖔 𝖌𝖚𝖎𝖑𝖙 𝖎𝖓 𝖑𝖎𝖋𝖊, 𝖓𝖔 𝖋𝖊𝖆𝖗 𝖔𝖋 𝖉𝖊𝖆𝖙𝖍, 𝖙𝖍𝖎𝖘 𝖎𝖘 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖕𝖔𝖜𝖊𝖗 𝖔𝖋 𝕮𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖘𝖙 𝖎𝖓 𝖒𝖊 𝖋𝖗𝖔𝖒 𝖑𝖎𝖋𝖊’𝖘 𝖋𝖎𝖗𝖘𝖙 𝖈𝖗𝖞 𝖙𝖔 𝖋𝖎𝖓𝖆𝖑 𝖇𝖗𝖊𝖆𝖙𝖍. 𝕵𝖊𝖘𝖚𝖘 𝖈𝖔𝖒𝖒𝖆𝖓𝖉𝖘 𝖒𝖞 𝖉𝖊𝖘𝖙𝖎𝖓𝖞!!!!
𝕭𝕰𝕹 𝕬𝕹𝕿𝕳𝕺𝕹𝖄 𝕾𝕴𝕸𝕺𝕹
Writing as 𝖂𝕴𝕷𝕷 𝕱𝕺𝕽𝕲𝕰
𝕻𝕴𝕷𝕲𝕽𝕴𝕄 𝕻𝕺𝕹𝕯𝕰𝕽𝕴𝕹𝕲𝕾 𝕸𝕴𝕹𝕴𝕾𝕿𝕽𝖄

4/5/2026