Let us walk with these two followers of Jesus today and see how Jesus responds to their needs. How often we have been discouraged and confused by disappointed hopes? How often have we wanted to believe but found it difficult because of the challenges of our lives and the seeming cruelty of others? We have heard second or third hand that the Lord is alive and yet it is hard to believe those reports because we have not experienced his presence first hand. We cannot recognize his hand in the events of our lives. We are tempted to give up and retreat from being hurt again. We turn inwards and want to be left alone to lick our wounds. We have counted on things getting better but they never seem to do so. Our lives stand still and our faces are downcast. Life is difficult.

"What makes life difficult is that the process of confronting and solving problems is a painful one. Problems, depending on their nature, evoke in us frustration of grief or sadness or loneliness or guilt or regret or anger or fear or anxiety or anguish or despair. These are uncomfortable feelings, often very uncomfortable, often as painful as any kind of physical pain, sometimes equaling the very worst kind of physical pain. Indeed it is because of the pain that events or conflicts engender in us all that we call them problems. And since life poses an endless series of problems, life is always difficult and is full of pain as well as joy. Yet it is in this whole process of meeting and solving problems that life has its meaning...Fearing the pain involved, almost all of us, to a greater or lesser degree, attempt to avoid problems...We attempt to skirt around problems rather than meet them head on. We attempt to get out of them rather than suffer through them. This tendency to avoid problems and the emotional suffering inherent in them is the primary basis of all human mental illness." Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled, 16)

How does Jesus respond to the needs of these two disciples? He confronts the problem of unbelief head on. "How foolish you are and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?" How many of our problems are caused by our inability to understand that Christ, representing all humanity, representing us, had to endure suffering in order to redeem us and bring us to glory, and that we have to share in that suffering before we can enter in his glory? "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." (Romans 8:18)

Then Jesus explained to these two disciples what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. What a Bible Study that must have been. Afterwards they would say, "Were not our hearts burning within us, while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?"

This is the pattern Jesus has given us for dealing with our problems. He wants to explain to us in all the Scriptures concerning himself. He wants to meet with us every day, and talk with us as he opens the Scriptures to us. When we read the Scriptures and seek Christ's presence in them, he will reveal to us what we need to know to deal with our questions, our disappointments, our confusions, our hopes. He will make our hearts burn within us as he renews his love relationship with us.

Studies have indicated that personal time devoted to reflecting on Scripture is far and away the most powerful catalyst of spiritual growth. When we make daily Bible reading a priority in our lives we will maintain spiritual health, and bank the resources to deal with the challenges of life. Just as physical exercise is essential to physical health, the spiritual exercise of daily Bible reading is essential to confronting and solving the problems of life. Our level of spiritual development is based on the choices we make every day. How often are we engaging our heart and mind with God's truth by praying and reflecting on Scripture? (Hawkins and Parkinson, Move,71-73)

The two disciples urged Jesus to stay with them that night in Emmaus. At supper "he took bread gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him." After they had feasted on the Word, he celebrated his presence in the breaking of bread. The Lord's Supper became the Holy Communion in his body and blood. This again is part of the pattern Jesus has given us - Word and then Sacrament. He becomes present to us so that we can recognize him as he shares with us the emblems of his love in the bread and the cup.

When we gather together around his Table and celebrate the holy meal he has given us to remember the significance of his death and resurrection, we are united with him and with his people. We enjoy a foretaste of the wedding banquet in heaven. We are cleansed and renewed. We are filled with his grace, his love, and his joy. This gathering together each week in worship as the body of Christ, strengthens us to deal with the problems of life. We are able to face the challenges that life brings because we know that we are not alone. The two disciples did not continue their journey. They got up and returned to Jerusalem and found the Eleven and the others assembled together who reassured them that it was true and that the Lord had risen. Then they shared their experience and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.

Rather than retreating from worship and leaving the company of believers to cope with life on our own, the presence of Jesus, and the eternal life he brings is to be found in regular participation in the Body of Christ. It is when we are at Table together with Jesus presiding, that we will recognize his living presence and be blessed. Word and Sacrament are the means of grace. Through them, we will find our hearts burning within us as the risen Lord walks with us, and speaks to our needs as we journey through life.

Word and Sacrament, Bible and Holy Communion, are means of grace, channels of blessing, given by the Lord to accompany us on our journey through this difficult life so that we might be able to confront and solve our problems. In them Jesus comes alongside us to enlighten our minds, stir our hearts and strengthen our wills. Use them to warm your hearts with his love.

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