Imagine having high hopes, only to have them shattered. Perhaps, you don’t even have to imagine it because you have had a firsthand experience. Maybe, you have had major disappointments more than once in your lifetime. Then, you may be able to identify with the two men on the road to Emmaus who were traumatized by the crucifixion of Jesus, and were filled with grief, perplexity, and hopelessness. They had the belief that Jesus would have been the One to deliver the Jewish people from Roman rule, but instead He was in a grave instead of on a throne.
Jesus rose from the grave on the third day, however, just as He had said He would prior to His death. He told this to His disciples and other believers such as these two men of Emmaus, but they had no recollection of His words. The Bible says that while the two men were talking of the events that had transpired surrounding the crucifixion, Jesus Himself joined them on their journey. Though they were sad and overwhelmed with grief, He began to expound on the prophecies, beginning at Moses. Jesus reasoned with them from a prophetic standpoint, to give them correct ideas of His mission, to encourage faith and to inspire hope. He chose to comfort them only after giving the prophetic teachings.
Jesus knew how beneficial it was to give a potent dosage of what declared Him to be the world’s Redeemer. He knew that trauma tends to cause self-focus and that, typically, the response to cope with such a challenge is often faulty. One’s response to trauma may not always be as severe as turning to a substance in order to self-medicate, but it usually leads to a false way of thinking. And Jesus wanted these men to have a correct understanding that what they had witnessed was “the fulfillment of the covenant made before the foundation of the world was laid. . . . All this was to be, but it was not to end in defeat, but in glorious, eternal victory” (DA 583). It was Jesus’ effort to save the world from sin. And everyone who has been traumatized in this world of sin needs this very Savior who prophecy reveals.
