On the Road to Emmaus

On the Road is such a well-worn term in our culture. It speaks of the grueling work of the sale-person out Sunday night on a plane and home Friday evening exhausted, slumped, drained. Then out again Sunday night to the next anonymous city, hotel room and conference room. On the Road does not have the same romantic cache of Jack Kerouac's 1957 novel of the same name. For many the adventure of travel has turned into the bland monotony of brand-name hotels, restaurants, airport concourses and airlines.
On the Road to Emmaus was, I think, more modern and less romantic. These two guys were returning from Jerusalem exhausted, disappointed, and weary. Their hope in Jesus as the promised Messiah was shattered at the cross. In his death their dreams and hopes died, and they were now going back to the backwater town of Emmaus where they had their routine jobs handed down from generation to generation, more of the same.
And that's where Jesus met them; on the road, and into their lives. Guess where Jesus still is? On the road.