Brethren, they did not believe! Even though they had been taught, they did not believe the things that appeared in the Old Testament describing the Messiah and His resurrection. And so they did not see the Christ who was with them because they did not expect to see Him! Christ calls them fools. He not only calls them fools, which shows me that He expected them to be able to identify Him, He calls them slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!
I think their hope was really nothing more than a wish. But I think it is significant that it does not say in their response as they talked to Him that they trusted Him. You see, they were not using their faith. They were not using their belief. There is a big difference between hoping and trusting. Trusting requires making choices and having patient endurance.
At the end of all of this, when they finally saw Jesus, when they perceived who it was that was with them, then everything that they experienced - including the crucifixion and resurrection - made sense. Do you get the point there? If you can see God working in your life, then everything will begin to come together. It may not come all at once like with these people with whom it was a flash of recognition. Everything came together, and they vividly saw the experiences that they had just gone through in their proper perspective.
But, if you can see God involved in the circumstances of your life, as you walk this walk with Jesus Christ, then it is going to give shape and form to your life in a way that you never would have had otherwise! Things are going to make the proper kind of sense. Things will be put in to their proper perspective.
