On the Road to Emmaus

I have been asked by a pastor to lead a night at Bible study and the passage being covered is Luke 24:13-35 which most modern translations have dubbed "On the Road to Emmaus." It's a story unique to Luke among the Gospels and one of my favorite passages. The story is about two people who had followed Jesus and were present during his execution. They are walking home from Jerusalem stunned and grieving what they had witnessed when they encounter Jesus on the road but don't recognize him. He asks them what they are talking about and they ask him if he is the only one visiting Jerusalem who didn't know what had happened. They then explain how Jesus was a prophet of God and how they thought he was the Messiah but that he was murdered by the rulers and now all their hope had come to nothing. Jesus walks with them and teaches them from Moses and the Prophets that the Messiah must suffer and die before entering his glory and explains how the Torah pointed to himself. By dusk they had made it to the home of the two men who invite Jesus to stay with them. As he gives thanks and breaks bread they recognize that it's been Jesus all along and then he vanishes. They then run all the way back to Jerusalem to find Jesus' disciples to tell them that they had seen him...

I like this passage for so many reasons. First of all it's really funny. Here are these two guys that walk with Jesus all day long talking to him about himself but not recognizing him. Was Jesus playing a joke? Testing out his new resurrection powers? Were their faces just continually downcast with sorrow that they never actually took a close look at his face? And then once they recognize him they immediately travel all the way back to Jerusalem after urging Jesus to stay with them because it was too dark to travel. This passage is funny and intentionally so.

Secondly I like this passage because Cleopas (the one who explains his understanding of Jesus to Jesus) embodies the hopes of the reader and, from his perspective, Jesus lost big time and now his hope is crushed. He says with is face still downcast,

"he was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place."

From the perspective of Cleopas and every other one of Jesus' followers, it looked like this was the end and you can taste the pain in these words. They had trusted in Jesus and he had let them down. But what is more, they are also confused and don't know what to make of other things they have heard about Jesus after his death, He goes on to say,

"in addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus."

So here they are; hurt, confused, feeling utterly alone, walking home with Jesus and not recognizing him. The reader is expecting the punch line when they finally clue in to who they've been hanging out with this whole time and Luke drags it out by having Jesus explain himself and the necessity of his death to them and they still don't recognize him. Finally, as Jesus prays over the food and breaks bread with them do they realize who it is and Jesus vanishes.

The effect of this encounter is evident.

They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.

Then a verse later Jesus appears to all of them and they receive Luke's version of the Great Commission. But wow, the absolute joy and amazement in these passages. Cleopas, and by extension, the reader, is taken through the pain, sorrow, and confusion of what looks like defeat which is transformed to the absolute joy and amazement at God's victory!

This is a pattern in the way God works. He often takes to places where we think that we or God's work are in defeat, and by the world's standards it's a very decisive and evident defeat, but God uses that defeat to bring about his victory. This is the pattern of the prophets who were forerunners to Jesus, Jesus who is the template by which God brings life and victory through death and defeat, and all who have followed him. Glory through the way of pain, a divine riddle, God choosing the weak things of the world to shame the strong and the foolish things of the world to shame the wise (1 Cor 1:28).

This passage gives me hope that the pain and suffering I encounter is not just redeemable but will be redeemed and vindicated because Christ was redeemed and vindicated, the template of glory that all f those who put their faith in Jesus be conformed to.


One last reason why I like this passage. It links the Old Testament to the New Testament.

He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

I really wish that Luke had maybe written a full account of Jesus exact words in how Moses and all the Prophets specifically pointed to himself. Sometimes I have difficulty seeing how all the Scriptures are related to Jesus but maybe that's not the point. What we have hear is an invitation to search the Old Testament to see how it relates to Jesus. To a Messianic Jewish Rabbi the entire Torah points to Jesus in big fiery banners that light up the sky and an unmistakable voice. To me this shows God's faithfulness and the greatness of his plan for salvation, that it was always something he was building up to and that his interactions with us in this world evidence that. Ever since that fateful journey to Emmaus the Church has looked back to the Scriptures and have explored them as they were meant to be, in relation to Jesus the God's Savior of Mankind.