Undercover Reporter

By Grant Gaines

It was the first day of the week as the pair of companions slowly shuffled their feet along the long road towards Emmaus, a small town, “…about seven miles from Jerusalem” (Luke 24:13, NIV). But this wasn’t just any Sunday for these two young fellas, it was the worst Sunday they had ever known.

You see, just two days ago their Fearless Leader and Best Friend had been brutally crucified after being found innocent on every legal account. The Man they had followed for quite some time now was dead—as was their hope.

In the haze of shock and confusion the two gingerly rehashed all the events that had just taken place over the past week (Luke 24:14). Jesus—their Rabbi, Teacher, and Messiah—had healed the sick, calmed the storms, and raised the dead from the grave and what did He get in return for all of this? A cross—a cold, rugged cross. It didn’t seem fair. It wasn’t fair, they continued to mumble as their heads hung as low as their hearts.

As they sluggishly went along, “…talk[ing] and discuss[ing] these things with each other, Jesus Himself came up and walked along with them” (Luke 24:15, NIV). But the disappointed disciples did not jump with joy nor shout with glee when the risen Savior—their risen Savior—appeared among them because, “…they were kept from recognizing Him” (Luke 24:16, NIV).

Are you picturing this? The two men were sadly reminiscing their times with Jesus when all of the sudden, bam, there is He is. The Topic of their conversation suddenly became a participant in their conversation. But they didn’t recognize Him because Jesus didn’t want to be recognized at the moment. It seemed that the Famous One wanted to do a little undercover investigation first.

“…What are you discussing so intently as you walk along?” Jesus asked abruptly, snapping the two out of their hopeless murmuring (Luke 24:17, NLT). “…They stopped short, sadness written across their faces. Then one of them, 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’” (Luke 24:18, NLT).

For someone to say that they had not heard of Christ’s cruel crucifixion on that particular Sunday morning in the early First Century would be like someone walking around in New York City on September 12, 2001 and claiming not know that the twin towers had collapsed the previous day. It was a ludicrous thing to ask, but then again, it was the perfect thing to ask since it was the Perfect One who asked it.

“What things?…” (Luke 24:19, NIV) Jesus continued to press, not ready to reveal Himself yet.

Amazed at this stranger’s perceived ignorance of the events that had just taken place, the men went on to explain the story of Jesus, to…Jesus. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed Him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified Him; but we had hoped that He was the One who was going to redeem Israel….”

The men carried on, claiming that some of their friends had reported that the tomb was empty (Luke 24:22-24), but how could they know what had truly happened?

No longer satisfied with being a mere spectator of their story, the One whom they were talking about—whom they thought was dead—bluntly interjected, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter His glory?” (Luke 24:25-26, NIV).

“Whoa! Easy there, bud! We’re just telling you what happened. No need to tell us Your opinion, after all, we are His disciples, we know what we’re talking about,” had to be the men’s response to Christ’s interruption. But the One who had just conquered sin, death, and Satan continued on to prove His point, “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself” (Luke 24:27, NIV).

I don’t know about you, but that is one conversation I cannot wait to hear when I get to heaven! Starting with Moses (the first five books of the Old Testament) and going all the way through the Prophets (the 17 prophetical books of the Old Testament), Jesus explained every prophecy that was ever spoken about Him and how He had fulfilled it while on earth. How cool is that!?

But rather than focusing on Christ’s prophesies, I want to focus on His outbreak. Why did Jesus so harshly rebuke these men when they were simply relaying a story?

I don’t think you need to look any further than Luke 24:21 (NIV, bold mine) when the disciples said, “…but we had hoped that He was the One who was going to redeem Israel….” We had hoped. That’s the problem right there. Up until that point, Jesus was nodding His head in agreement with their story. But then the men threw in a past tense verb that threw their whole story out of whack. We had hoped.

The reason they had hoped and didn’t still have hope that Jesus was, “the One who would redeem Israel” was because God answered their request in a different way than they expected Him to. That’s what bothered Jesus so much. He had fulfilled their hopes right before their very eyes. Jesus was the One who redeemed Israel. But because Christ freed His people from their spiritual slavery and not from their physical slavery in His first coming as they thought He would, the men lost hope. They went from having hope, to had hope.

Are you guilty of the same shortcoming as these men? You pray, plead, and petition for God to answer your requests, but when you don’t see the responses coming in the way you expected, you lose hope. You move from a point of having hope to a point where you had hope.

You had hoped that God would bring you a spouse by now, but here you are in your mid-twenties, thirties, forties, or even fifties—still waiting. You had hoped that the Healer would provide a cure for your illness by now, but here you are, five, ten, or even twenty years into your illness—still waiting. You had hoped that your prodigal child would return to the Lord by now, but here you are, tens, hundreds, even thousands of prayers in—still waiting.

From the looks of things, your hopes are just as dead as Jesus was on that Friday evening in the first century but take heart by remembering that Sunday is on its way. You see, we can still have hope because we still have a living Savior.

God is always working, always moving, and always on time. Often we can’t see His going forth because 1 Corinthians 2:9 (NLT) declares that, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him.” His plans so greatly surpass our wildest dreams and expectations that we can’t even begin to fathom what He has in store for us! Isn’t it great to know that we have a Father who can do, “…exceedingly more than we can ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20, NIV)?

Though your situation may seem bleak at the moment, I can guarantee you on the authority of God’s Word (Jeremiah 29:11, Romans 8:28) that He is up to something great in your life right now, no matter how hopeless your situation may seem. Hosea 6:3 declares that the Lord’s going forth is as certain as the rising of the sun. It may be dark in your life right now but it’s always darkest before the dawn. It’s always darkest before God reveals His plan to us.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead”

– 1 Peter 1:3 (NIV, bold mine)

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