The two disciples walked and talked, finding that the person they had known and had followed for so long had been taken from them. They were devastated, to say the least.
They knew Him so well, watched Him on every occasion, and noticed how He spoke like no other man and walked with that sure, steady, and restful stride. Wherever they went, they heard Him laugh. They knew that look He would give them, which was all too familiar: His smile with that wry grin when they had messed up. He never spoke with any tone of guilt toward them.
His company assured them that life was going to be ok. They walked with assurance also, each step towards a great future hope that pervaded their hearts. No one could snatch that away. Jesus was their strength, their motivation for getting out of bed in the morning. If anything, they just wanted to be with Him. He had so much to say; in fact, John said that if every one of the many other things that Jesus did were written about, then the world itself could not contain the books that would be written (John 21:25).
His company was unparalleled and unmatched, bringing peace and rest. ‘We loved Him so much.’ And then… gone.
As they walked along, their conversation wove in and out of the events, miracles, words He spoke, and hope He raised in the hearts of all the people. He then appeared to them again and joined them, walking alongside and listening to their conversation. They did not recognise Him.
This demonstrates how we are to get to know God. At some point in our walk, He will begin to appear to us in ways we are not familiar with. This is a deepening of our knowledge and experience of Him. What we had previously known, walked in and drew courage and strength from will at some point disappear from view. It will vanish, and the familiar will become the unknown.
The risen Christ entered the journey home with these two disciples, yet they did not know it was Him. He had become unfamiliar to them. In fact, He had become a stranger, Scripture says. The story and events they described to the stranger as they walked home were expressed in painful detail. They had known this Jesus so well. The familiar was gone.
In the same way, we enter a new part of the journey, growing in knowledge, learning to trust differently, and walking by faith rather than by sight. We learn to follow a new set of senses. Not only that, even this new journey will change and deepen once again into another new knowing at some future stage.
At specific times, God will move from the known into the unknown. Why? Because He is that big. We can only handle Him in small doses, and I don’t mean that in a negative way. But how can you gather the ocean into a teacup? How can the boundless be bound? How can infinity be measured? We are so small, infinitesimal. God is so indescribably beyond our capacity to comprehend that we would separate into particles smaller than quarks and leptons if we did see Him in all of His glory!
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? (Psalm 8:3-4 NIV)
The element of mystery is still in God’s favour. He has the upper hand in all things. So, when He started this new leg of the journey with those two disciples and met with the rest of them, He showed up in a way that left them frightened, questioning, wondering in amazement, even doubting who He was (Luke 24:36-43). They had to learn Him all over again.
God will continue this process right throughout our life. He wants us to know Him, and it is His highest delight to unveil Himself in ways we have not previously known Him. When He does this, we move from despair to delight.