They just stood there, long-faced, like they had lost their best friend. Then one of them, his name was Cleopas, said, “Are you the only one in Jerusalem who hasn’t heard what’s happened during the last few days?” He said, “What has happened?”
Luke 24:18

The long faced disciples remind me of the joke told by Geraldine Grainger, Vicar of Dibley, at the end of one of her shows. “A horse walks into a saloon. When he sits down the bartender asks him: ‘why the long face’?” What’s probably more funny is the response of Alice. “What’s so funny?” “Don’t you get it Alice? Horses have long faces.” “I didn’t know horses get depressed…”

What I appreciate about this resurrection story is the way in which the risen Jesus walks alongside these depressed guys who don’t even recognise him for who he is. Jesus listens. He draws out of them their grief, their version of the story. And gradually helps them get some perspective.

“What has happened” is such a great question to open up a review of recent events. It’s a question that Jesus continues to ask as he comes alongside us now.