The journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus is about 7 miles. For most people, especially in that time and place, that wasn’t an unreasonable distance to walk. How much longer it must have seemed, though, when the person for whom they had given up everything to follow was gone, when disappointment and confusion were weighing on them.
When Jesus shows up, he does more than just join them along the way. Jesus gets them to articulate what they experienced. “What things?” says Jesus. It’s almost as if Jesus wants us to know that he won’t just show up, but he will help us to speak the truth of our pain and help us to make some sense of at least part of it. Jesus did more than quietly walk alongside these followers. He helped them to move from “we had hoped” to “the Lord is risen indeed!”
In prayer, consider those losses in your life – those things you’d hoped for – and open yourself to a different truth that Jesus might be speaking into that situation, relationship, etc.