Time to finish up our story of the couple on the road.

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They had hospitality with a stranger.

We have no idea where they invited him. If it was their home, remember they had been gone. But they were more concerned with the safety of their new friend on the sometimes wild roads of Judea than with their own comfort. They took whatever they had and put it on the table.

And invited their new teacher friend to bless it.

It would have been a polite thing, a deferring thing.

And he blew it up.

There was such intimacy as the son talked with the father, that they knew it was Jesus. They had heard this before. A style of teaching could be hidden. But you know how sometimes relationship shines through when you eavesdrop? Like that.

I think it was God-granted discernment. They got a glimpse, one of the first views, of Father and Son talking after the work was done, after the death was over and the life was everlasting.

Then Jesus was gone. And everything made sense.

Which leads to our final observation.

They responded immediately.

They didn’t finish eating. They didn’t wash up. They started their two hour walk back to Jerusalem to share the news.

The roads that they had been concerned about Jesus taking didn’t scare them now. Their confusion was gone. They may not have understood everything about what had just happened, but now their lack of understanding was confirmation. This was too great to comprehend. Jesus actually was alive and talking with people, appearing and disappearing at will.

They had to take the news back to the rest of the team.

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So what do we learn?

• Ask your questions even after the formal religious events. After church. After miracles. After life and death moments. It’s okay to wonder what is going on. It’s okay to not immediately jump to, “here’s what it means.”
• Converse with God and scripture and others to discern the answers. Jesus walked them through all the scriptures. Just like he says the Spirit will do. Not an all at once understanding but a bit at a time.
• Invite the conversation into your own home, into your own lives. Even when we don’t know it’s Jesus, we can invite the strangers into our lives. And, as Jesus taught in Matthew 25, we may discover that it’s really him.
• Expect that God will give understanding as we engage with him.
• And when you get glimpses, embrace them.

As I pictured this story unfolding, I laughed a bit at the understanding. We can laugh in delight and awe when we understand again and again, after difficult moments, that Jesus is resurrected. And with us.