We Had Hoped: Finding Jesus After Disappointment

By Pastor John Erickson

When I picture Jesus, I still remember a room in Arizona.

My grandparents had property there, and my brother and I stayed in a room with a picture of Jesus on a shelf. The night-light was beside it. In the dark, that picture was what you could see.

An image like that stays with you.

We all carry pictures of Jesus. Some come from artwork. Others come from expectations about what he will do, how he will answer, or what life will look like if we follow him.

Those expectations can become so familiar that we confuse them with the person.

Easter gives us a remarkable story about people meeting the real Jesus while struggling to let go of the ending they had imagined.

A conversation full of what went wrong

Luke 24 follows two disciples traveling from Jerusalem toward Emmaus on the day of the resurrection.

They are discussing what has happened. Jesus has been crucified. Their hopes have been shaken. They have heard reports about an empty tomb, but they do not know what to make of them.

Jesus joins them on the road, and Luke says they are kept from recognizing him.

That wording matters. We should not reduce their failure to recognize him to the claim that grief makes people spiritually inattentive. Luke describes something more mysterious than that.

Jesus asks what they are discussing.

One of them, Cleopas, wonders how this stranger could be unaware of the recent events in Jerusalem.

Then Jesus asks for the story.

I love the patience of that moment. The One who knows what has happened lets them say what it has meant to them.

Three words hold the disappointment

As they describe Jesus' power in word and deed and his crucifixion, they explain that they had hoped he would redeem Israel.

We had hoped.

Those words can hold an entire life.

We had hoped the treatment would work. We had hoped the relationship could be repaired. We had hoped this would be the year things finally changed.

A good hope does not make disappointment less painful. Sometimes it makes the loss harder to understand.

The disciples have not stopped caring about Jesus. They are struggling to understand how the cross can belong to the story of redemption.

What looks to them like the defeat of God's purpose is, in the risen Jesus standing beside them, becoming the revelation of it.

Jesus opens the Scriptures

Jesus challenges their slowness to believe what the prophets have spoken. He explains the necessity of the Messiah's suffering and glory, beginning with Moses and the Prophets.

He does not simply hand them a more optimistic interpretation of recent events.

He places the cross inside the scriptural story.

That distinction matters. Easter is not a general principle that our preferred outcome will eventually arrive if we stay positive. It is the announcement that God has acted through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Some disappointments do not resolve the way we want. The resurrection gives us hope larger than the recovery of one particular plan.

It rests on the person who has overcome death.

Recognition comes at the table

As they approach the village, the disciples urge the stranger to stay. At the table he takes bread, gives thanks, breaks it, and gives it to them.

Their eyes are opened. They recognize Jesus, and he disappears from their sight.

The meal echoes familiar patterns in his ministry. Luke does not mention a cup in this scene, so we need not add one to make the connection meaningful.

The disciples then recognize that something had already been happening on the road. Their hearts had been burning as he opened the Scriptures.

Understanding was growing before they could name it fully.

That is a mercy worth noticing. Sometimes we can only recognize part of God's care after we have lived through it.

Let the living Jesus challenge the picture

The picture in that Arizona room was part of my childhood. It was not a complete account of Jesus' appearance, much less his identity.

My expectations need the same humility.

I can believe that I know what his faithfulness must look like. Then, when circumstances do not match, I may struggle to notice what he is revealing.

That does not mean every disappointing event was secretly what I needed. It does not mean hurt should be ignored until I can find a lesson.

It means Jesus is more than the role I have assigned him in my preferred future.

He can meet me with truth and compassion while that future is being reconsidered.

The road does not end in retreat

Once the disciples recognize Jesus, they return to Jerusalem and share what has happened.

The resurrection has not merely made them feel better about a private disappointment. It draws them back into witness and community.

That is part of the invitation for us too.

Bring the sentence that begins with "I had hoped." Tell Jesus the truth about what you expected and what you lost. Let Scripture challenge the parts of your picture that are too small.

And make room for others to walk with you.

The disciples did not begin the road with clear understanding. The risen Jesus came alongside them there.

Your disappointment does not have to be the place where the conversation with him ends.