Now we turn to Luke’s accounts of meeting with the risen Christ. If you are alert you will have spotted that I didn’t look at Mark. Simply because Mark doesn’t have any words of the risen Christ – at least not in the bit we definitely know is from Mark. And so we move to Luke, and what we find in Luke is very intriguing. The women who go to the tomb encounter the angel, and then Luke doesn’t record their meeting with the risen Christ. Instead they tell the disciples who don’t believe a word – the women’s words seem like nonsense. Then Peter goes and looks – but doesn’t see Jesus – though he goes away marvelling at the empty tomb.
Then Luke switches the scene to two disciples walking to Emmaus – a village some 7 miles from Jerusalem. Luke chooses to tell us of this appearance of Jesus first. The two disciples – perhaps Cleopas and his wife – are walking and Jesus appears – presumably a little way off so that it can look like he has reached them naturally, and they don’t recognize him – “their eyes were kept from recognizing him” – whether kept by God directly, or simply kept by their utter sadness and desolation as they walk we don’t know.
13 Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 15 As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16 but they were kept from recognizing him.
17 He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”
They stood still, their faces downcast. 18 One of them, named Cleopas,asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”
19 “What things?” he asked.
Luke 24:13-19a
He begins a conversation: “what are these things you are discussing (perhaps even arguing about)?” Luke tells us they have been discussing Jesus’s death and the events of the weekend. They are sad. They are broken. And this stranger begins by asking what they are talking about. Luke tells us poignantly that they didn’t answer straight away. They stood still, looking sad. Almost too heartbroken to speak. And when they do it is to respond with a question of their own – are you the only one who doesn’t know about these things that have happened. Jesus’s response is just one word in the Greek – “what-kind-of-things?” It sounds at first almost deliberately obtuse, but he is drawing them out. The conversation is a strange one, but his intention is to lead them to explain what has happened.
And so they tell him about what had happened, and even about what the women had said. Jesus’s response is a mild rebuke – how foolish they are, and how slow to believe what the prophets have spoken about. And then, Luke tells us he launches into a bible study – beginning with Moses he opened up what was said in Moses and the Prophets concerning himself. When we read about Jesus doing that, we shouldn’t imagine him just reading a few prophecies and saying how he interpreted them – but rather about how he explained the whole OT story reaches its climax and fulfilment in him, and how his life makes sense of all that they had grown up reading and knowing.
“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. 20 The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; 21 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. 22 In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning 23 but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive.24 Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.”
25 He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” 27 And beginning with Mosesand all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
28 As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. 29 But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.
30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. 32 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?”
Luke 24:19-32
They still don’t recognize him, but they do invite him in, and it is as he breaks the bread that they recognize him – their eyes were opened – again, whether directly by God or finally as a result of the familiar action they realize who it is we don’t know for sure. And then he vanishes. He is gone. And they are left alone – to recall how their hearts burned within them on the road as he opened the scriptures to them.
Why does Luke tell us this story here in this way? I think he is reminding us who have not seen the risen Jesus that it is the open book of his word and the broken loaf of his people gathered round the table that we encounter him today. The Bible points us to Jesus. Knowing our Old Testaments will mean we can come to know him as he wants to be known. We come to recognize who Jesus is in the same way as those who first encountered him as risen. We sometimes think if we could have been there it would be so much easier. But I doubt that. Many of those who saw the risen Christ only saw him once. And for many he was there, and then he wasn’t – their encounter lasted just minutes, and it must have been possible in moments of darkness to rationalise it away. There is something about this Emmaus road encounter that testifies to the fleeting nature of much of our relationship with Christ.
When we read the breaking of the bread we are likely to think communion. I’m not sure we should narrow it to that. Giving thanks and breaking bread was something that Jesus did repeatedly with his disciples. It was how they did life together. The disciples would recognize this signature act of Jesus because eating together was a central part of their life with Jesus. And so I think it is a good reminder to us that we can encounter the risen Christ when we meet and eat with other Christians.
The other thing that telling this story like this is that it highlights the reticence of Christ. He doesn’t burst in on the two disciples making everything clear immediately. Instead he takes seriously their grief and their sorrow. He takes seriously their confusion, and enters their world by asking questions. He shows them reality by opening the book that testifies about him, and as he does that their hearts burn and they realise they have seen him.
It’s an encouragement to us to open our bibles and gather together at a table and read. And then we will find times of being surprised and rejoicing because in our confusion, our sorrow, our despair, or whatever other state of mind we are in, the risen Christ has come among us.
Perhaps now is the time to imagine ourselves on that road to Emmaus. I wonder what that event is for you that throws all else into confusion. Is it a tragic family situation? A broken relationship? A sense of betrayal in a church community? The loss of a job? An illness for someone you love?
Whatever the situation is, sense the presence of Christ as he asks you to name that thing. Bring it to him. Listen to him. Perhaps he has more questions for you. Maybe that situation is going to bring more about you to the surface. Maybe it is going to show you new aspects of how Christ is present with you, and how he wants to change you.
The first step on that journey is to pause. And to be still. As you come to that place perhaps pray too about who could share that Emmaus road with you. Ask God to bring someone into your life who you can walk this road with. Listen for the Risen Christ and his probing gentle questions that lead you to the next steps.
Joshua's Tree Rooted 