Luke 24:13-35 English Standard Version On the Road to Emmaus 13 That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14 and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15 While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. 16 But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17 And he said to them, “What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?” And they stood still, looking sad. 18 Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” 19 And he said to them, “What things?” And they said to him, “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. 21 But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. 22 Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, 23 and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. 24 Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.” 25 And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. 28 So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther, 29 but they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.” So he went in to stay with them. 30 When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. 31 And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. 32 They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” 33 And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, 34 saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” 35 Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread. We are still on Resurrection Sunday (which is also the date of the Feast of Firstfruits). Since the Feast of Firstfruits is not a pilgrimage feast, many of the Jews that had travelled to Jerusalem for Passover were heading home now that the Sabbath was over. These two disciples of Jesus must have made their required sacrifices and offerings for the Feast of Firstfruits early in the morning so that they could leave and head back home.
On their way home, they were talking to each other about everything that had happened and Jesus joins them and starts walking and talking with them, yet neither of them recognized Him as God chose to not reveal His identity to them yet. He asked them what they were talking about and then played dumb when they asked Him if He was the only one in Jerusalem who had not seed or at least heard about Jesus and all that had happened to Him, but Jesus wanted them to tell the story so that He could hear their perspective on things. A nice summary statement of how they perceived things is in verse 21, "But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened." They appear to have been around long enough to hear the report of the women returning from the tomb and even to hear back from Peter and John, but, yet, they did not believe. This is where Jesus jumps in to correct them and He shows them from Scripture starting in the books of the Law and going all the way through the Prophets (the entire Old Testament) how He had to come and suffer and die and be raised again on the third day. Everything they needed to understand current events correctly had been in their Old Testament Scriptures the entire time. Now, they did not have access to the text like we do today. Today, everyone that lives in a Western country that wants a Bible can have at least one in most any language they want and maybe in one or more versions, translations, or paraphrases. In fact, if you have a smart phone of any kind, you have access to several different free apps that allow you to read and study the Bible. I say this all to say that even though these men heard the words of Jesus for a few years, there probably would be an even greater expectation on us today that we would know the Scriptures and be able to perceive the events of today through that lens. Yet, many of us choose to use other filters through which to examine current events and we too feel helpless and hopeless when we do not first look at the Word of God. Even though the message of the gospel is clearly stated in the Old Testament, that does not mean that everyone who reads it will immediately understand it, nor does it mean that all who understand it will immediately repent and believe. We know from the book of Acts that men like the Ethiopian eunuch owned a copy of the book of Isaiah and read it, but he did not understand it until God sent Philip the Evangelist to him to explain it to him. Jesus is doing much the same thing for these disciples only they do not have a scroll in front of them, but instead they have the one who is the Word of God who is called the Word of the Lord in the Old Testament who spoke to the patriarchs and the prophets to inspire them to write about His story hundreds or even thousands of years before it happened. If you're interested in studying the Bible from this perspective, I encourage you to join our Discord and take the Gospel Foundations class that we have available there as the main point of that course is to reveal the gospel of Jesus Christ through mostly the Old Testament and to show the expectation that Israel should have felt and that Jesus came at just the right time that had been planned from before the beginning of the world. They had travelled about seven miles with Jesus and they invited Him to spend the night with them as Jesus had pretended that He was going to be travelling further as they were really enjoying talking to Him and didn't want to end the conversation here. The Jewish people were also quite hospitable to one another, and beyond that, they seem to have at least found someone among the Jews who like them loved Jesus and was not afraid, even in the current political climate, to talk openly with them. This must have been refreshing since so many of the disciples were in hiding and scared to speak the name of Jesus or be called by His name for fear of imprisonment, torture, and death. They too might be offered up for crucifixion, so this is probably their way of offering a safe home for someone they consider to be a friend of theirs to stay. It was only at dinner time when Jesus took the bread and blessed it and broke it, probably in the same manner that He did at the Last Supper, that their eyes were opened and they recognized Jesus because God allowed them to see Him for who He truly was. Jesus disappeared from their midst as soon s as they recognized Him, but these same disciples who had slowly walked these seven miles that day and insisted that it was too late and getting too dark for Jesus to even carry on a little further by Himself now RAN all the seven miles all the way back to Jerusalem to get there that night and probably woke up the disciples in the place they were staying--probably thinking they were going to break the news to them, but Jesus had a body unlike theirs and as soon as He had disappeared from being with them, He was instantly at the next place that He wanted to be. So as they are in the middle of saying all these things to the disciples still in Jerusalem, Jesus is going to crash the party in a way that only Jesus could--by showing up in their midst as only He could. We'll talk about that next time. I gave just a very cursory overview of today's passage, but I encourage you to dig in even deeper and find all the nuggets that are there. Comments are closed.
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Daniel WestfallI will mostly use this space for recording my "journal" from my daily devotions as I hope to encourage others to read the Bible along with me and to leave a legacy for others. Archives
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