"What things?"

Ever had the bottom fall out?  Everything you had depended on, all you had dreamed of, what you thought was the real deal, gone. Crushed. Vanished. Poof. 

You thought you had life figured out. You had worked hard to get to this point. You sacrificed. You made choices, many of which can't be unchosen. 

It's a sick, empty feeling. Despair is not too strong of a word to use. 

This is exactly what ol' Cleopas and his buddy had to feel on that day they decided to walk to Emmaus. Hey, why not?  Some fresh air and excercise just might clear the fog a bit. 

The pain was so real and deep that they couldn't help but to speak of it. Disillusionment had sat in. Deeply. "I still just can't believe it," Cleopas must have said. "I know," said his walking companion, "I feel like I'm waking up from a bad dream. It just can't be real."

"I should have seen this coming. It was all too good to be true," said one. 

"No!  There has to be another explanation. You know how he taught as one with authority. You saw the blind man see again," said the other. "We're missing something."

"No," the first man said, "the only thing we are missing is our brains. We were stupid to be taken in."

"I didn't forget my brain, but I didn't harden my heart either," the other said.

"I really thought he was the One. I still do....I just...I just don't know...."

"Hi there," said a stranger. Kind of odd to see someone else on this trail but it happens. It was strange because neither of them saw the man approach. 

"I saw you discussing something. You both seem very passionate about it. What's going on?" the stranger said. 

Cleopas nearly guffawed out loud. "What rock have you been hiding under?  Haven't you heard the things that happened in Jerusalem these days?"

"What things?" the stranger asked. 

"Oh dear Lord," Cleopas thought to himself. But he didn't want to be rude. Clearly this man is out of touch with current events. Or maybe he's just a simpleton. Cleopas went on to explain to the stranger all the events that had recently taken place with this Jesus of Nazareth. He told all about his teachings, his miracles, his triumphant march into Jerusalem. Then it just all slipped away. Confrontation led to accusations. Accusations led to betrayal. Betrayal led to arrest, and then finally, horrible execution at the hands of the hated Romans. 

"But we were hoping that He was the One who was about to redeem Israel," Cleopas said, his sentence trailing off without a definite conclusion. So much dispair. 

But then the stranger said to them, "How unwise and slow you are to believe in your hearts all that the prophets have spoken! Didn’t the Messiah have to suffer these things and enter into His glory?" Then beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted for them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.

Boom. 

"What things?" 

Yeah, right.