Encountering the Unfamiliar God

One of the earliest Bible stories I've read and loved is the account of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35). The story tells of two of Jesus' disciples who were walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus on the day of Jesus' resurrection. We might be wondering: how in the world did these two disciples not recognize Jesus while they were walking with Him? Let us reflect on these three points.

Hope comes when all hope seems to be gone. Traditionally, Emmaus was a town situated west of Jerusalem. The sun sets in the west. Sunset reminds us that the day is done. But it is also a promise of a new day tomorrow. The two disciples might have lost all hope because of what happened to their Master in Jerusalem. But who would have thought that on their sorrowful walk to Emmaus, the place where they might have planned to forget everything about Jesus, was where they actually encounter the Hope of all hopes? They did not recognize Jesus because their hope was only based on what Jesus did during His ministry. Their hope was misplaced – their hope must have been rooted in Christ Himself, the Hope of all hopes.

God shifts our familiarity with Him. The disciples were with Jesus for a good amount of time. They have witnessed His miracles and heard His teachings. They have seen His power. And for a time, they were accustomed to seeing Jesus in such a magnificent status. They became familiar with this kind of Jesus. However, after seeing the events of Good Friday, they might have faced a crisis in their faith. “How is this possible? The Master that we have been following is a fake! He was so powerful during His ministry, and yet He did not save Himself!” But Christ radically changed the way we ought to see Him. He is the “Familiar yet Unfamiliar God” – the God who is mysterious in His ways. When we are too familiar with God, we often lose the sense of His mystery. We are putting God in a box made by our expectations of Him. And when we are too familiar with Him, He shakes off our own conceived beliefs about Him by showing us a completely different perspective about Him. By letting the mystery of the mysterious God unfold, we are letting God be God in our lives.

In Word and the Eucharist, God stays with us. Christ opened the eyes of the two disciples when He was at the table with them and broke the bread. After recognizing who this Stranger was, the two disciples confirmed what they had been feeling all throughout their walk – “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?” Jesus now has given us an unfamiliar way of recognizing Him: listening to the Word and the Eucharist. Each time we attend the Mass, may we recognize Christ in the Scriptures and the Eucharist.

As we walk through life, we may feel lost and alone at times. We may wonder where God is in the midst of our struggles, and we may feel as though we are walking in darkness. But just as the disciples encountered Jesus on the road, we too can encounter Him in our daily lives. Jesus walks with us on the road of life, even when we do not recognize Him. He speaks to us through the Scriptures, and He reveals Himself to us in the breaking of the bread. He is with us always, even in the midst of our doubts and fears.