7 miles in a pair of sandals?

The road to Emmaus story has always intrigued me – not least the thought of walking 7 miles in a pair of sandals… I have always wondered why they were going to Emmaus when everyone else was still in Jerusalem? Were they going to visit family? Is that where they came from? When they stopped for the night and invited “the Stranger” to stay and eat with them were they at one of their own houses? The bible doesn’t tell us any of this but it does tell us about the journey there.

Another intriguing conundrum… why didn’t the two men walking to Emmaus recognize Jesus when He joined them on the journey…Did they not look at him properly? Did Jesus make it so they couldn’t see him? They were not expecting see him and I don’t know about you but sometimes when you are not expecting to see someone in a certain place you don’t recognize or “see” them. Only recently I walked straight past my son in the supermarket… I wasn’t expecting to see him and only recognized him when he said “uh… Hello Mum”… I felt terrible…. Probably so did the men when Jesus finally revealed himself when He broke bread with them. We don’t have all the answers to these questions but sometimes if would fair to say we don’t recognize Jesus when He is with us and He is with us all of the time.

Our lives are a journey, we can choose to follow Jesus or not. We can choose to believe the events we are told about or not. Jesus was very clear when he showed up again to the Disciples to reveal himself to Thomas.. “Blessed are those who believe but who have not seen”

The Easter journey isn’t over – it’s only just beginning! We can choose to have a relationship with Jesus and God the Father or Not…I know which one I am choosing.