WWUTT 2526 Jesus on the Road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-16)

After Jesus rose from the dead, he encountered a couple of his disciples on the road who did not recognize him. But he explained to them all of the things concerning himself in the Law and the Prophets when we understand the text.

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Luke’s Emmaus Account in the Gospel of Luke

Thank you, Becky, and greetings everyone. We come back to our study of the Gospel of Luke. We've been in chapter 24 following the resurrection of Jesus. And today we get to an account of two disciples on the road to a town called Emmaus.

They encounter the risen Christ, but they don't know it's him. Let me pick up reading in verse 13 and we'll go through verse 35. Hear the word of the Lord. That very day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem.

And they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him.

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. 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?

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. And how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him.

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. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning.

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. 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. And he said to them, Oh, foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?

And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther, 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. When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed it and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognized him and he vanished from their sight.

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? And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the 11 and those who were with them gathered together saying, The Lord is risen indeed and has appeared to Simon.

Then they told what had happened on the road and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread. What an incredible story. It's one of my favorites in the resurrection narrative, and it's unique only to Luke's gospel.

As I mentioned, when we were in chapter 23, there are some things that are said there concerning the crucifixion of Jesus that are unique to Luke and we don't find in any of the other three gospels, particularly some of those things that Jesus said from the cross.

So likewise, we have in the resurrection account, there are things that Luke records that we don't find in the other three gospels. Although this encounter in in Luke 24 on the road to Emmaus is mentioned in some sense in Mark chapter 16, but Mark did not write it.

So, as I said before about the Mark and appendix, Mark 16 verses 9 through 20 are not Mark's writing. It's something that was added later. And it's enough in your Bible that there's brackets around it and saying that these verses are not contained in the earliest manuscripts.

And there's enough evidence for us to confirm that indeed Mark likely was not the writer of the close of his gospel, hence why it's called the Mark and appendix. But it's there in that appendix, verses 12 and 13,.

Where we read,.

After these things he appeared in another form to two of them as they were walking into the country. And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them. So those two sentences right there, whoever it is that wrote this appendix and tacked it onto Mark, thought that Mark's gospel was incomplete, so it needed a little help.

They were grabbing things from other gospels, and the account that Luke records of the disciples encountering Jesus on the road to Emmaus, that was just summarized in these two verses that we have in Mark 16.

So Mark does record it in the sense that it's in the gospel of Mark, but it wasn't actually penned by Mark. We do have the account here in Luke 24 as penned by Luke, and this is what we're going to be looking at this week.

This is pretty long. We've got 13 to 35, and about half the chapter is this narrative of the two disciples on the way to Emmaus encountering the risen Lord. So let me start here in verse 13. That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus.

Now the two of them is not very specific, except we know that one of them is Cleopas. So that comes up, but we don't know who the other disciple was. Cleopas, as you will recognize, was not one of the 11.

And the account does specify that the 11 are not where these two disciples are going. So they're going to Emmaus. The other 11 are still in Jerusalem. They go back to Jerusalem and encounter the 11 disciples at the end of this particular narrative.

So these are two other disciples that were not part of the 11. And as I've mentioned before regarding the disciples, there were many, many others. Like, for example, previously in Luke's gospel, Jesus sends out the 72.

So there are the 12 apostles, but then there are 72 that are sent out. These are many other disciples who were followers of Jesus, who likewise believed the things that he said, but they were not part of that inner 12.

When Jesus eats the Last Supper with his disciples, there only would have been 12 in the upper room. It was just those 12. But when he goes to the garden to pray, many of those other disciples who would not have been in the upper room with him probably joined them and went to the Garden of Gethsemane with them.

Now, what makes me say that? Like, what evidence do I have that that took place? Well, because in Mark's gospel, there is the record of that young man who ran away naked when Jesus was arrested. I'm reading from Mark 14, verses 51 and 52.

And a young man followed him with nothing but a linen cloth about his body, and they seized him, but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked. And there are many who believe that this was autobiographical.

This is Mark talking about himself. So he was among the disciples. He was just not one of the 12. So there were other disciples along with him. And whether or not that's Mark, it still indicates to us that there were other people with them who were not just the 12.

So there were other witnesses to Jesus being arrested, not just, well, it wouldn't have just been the 12, although Judas was there, but he's now the betrayer. So this is not just coming from the account of the 11, but there are other disciples that are present there in the garden when Jesus is arrested, are among those sheep who are scattered when the shepherd is struck, as Jesus had talked about.

So these two disciples that are being talked about here in Luke 24 would have been among that company. And when we later read about, this is also from Luke, but it's in Acts 1. When we read about them gathered in the upper room after Jesus ascends into heaven, it is said that there's 120 of them upstairs in the upper room.

And it was probably the same upper room that they had been in for the Last Supper. Same person had dedicated his upper room to the disciples being able to meet up there. The 12 apostles, well, the 11 now at this point, adding Matthias, and then also mentions Jesus' mother and brothers there in Acts 1.

We're going to get to that soon. We're pretty close to the end of our study in the Gospel of Luke and are going to jump into the book of Acts next. So among those other disciples, they would have included that company of disciples that were not limited to the 12 or to the 11.

So in this instance, in this narrative, we have two disciples that are followers of Jesus, just not among the 11, one of them being Cleopas. So that very day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus.

We don't necessarily have to chart on a map exactly where Emmaus is because Luke tells us it's about seven miles from Jerusalem. Now, this is a very important detail for Luke to tell us that Emmaus was seven miles from Jerusalem.

It's not just a little factoid that he threw in there. Why would it be relevant for us to know that Emmaus was that far away? Because Jesus is going to walk with them. Jesus is going to show up. The risen Christ will begin walking with them to Emmaus and explaining to them how the Scriptures spoke of the Christ and how he has fulfilled all these things that were talked about in the Law and the Prophets.

Jesus had just been crucified. He had just been brutally beaten, scourged. He had been beaten up by the Jews when they had that kangaroo court falsely accusing him. They beat him, and when they struck him, they said, hey, prophesy to us, who was it that hit you?

Remember that? That was in the previous chapter. That was in chapter 23. And they would grab chunks of his beard, and they would pull his beard out. He was brutally beaten by the Jews. Then he's turned over to Pilate, and Pilate, just trying to calm the crowd, he doesn't want to crucify Jesus because he doesn't find him guilty of anything, but he figures, well, I'll scourge him.

We'll beat him, and at least they'll see that, so he'll stop talking in this way, and maybe that'll be enough for the crowd. Of course, we know that it wasn't. They still demanded that Jesus be crucified, but they scourged Jesus.

He was lashed, so his back was torn up, and then he's got to carry his cross, which he can't do. Simon of Cyrene ends up carrying it for him, but that also testifies to just how weak Jesus was after not sleeping the night before, getting beaten up by two groups of people, and now he's got to walk his road all the way to the place where he's going to be crucified.

Jesus had been brutally beaten and then nailed to a cross and forced to hang there for six hours. Now, that was a short amount of time compared to how long most people hung on their crosses when they were crucified.

They would hang there for much longer, sometimes for days, as we talked about this when we were in the previous chapter. Jesus had his side pierced, so John records that. John doesn't record this walk on the road to Emmaus, but he does record that Jesus' side was pierced by a spear, so John, including that detail, was further evidence that Jesus was truly dead.

He didn't just swoon, but he was actually dead. But lest anyone believes that Jesus just could have been faking it, right? Maybe he wasn't really dead. Six hours, there were people who hung on crosses for longer than that, and they remained alive for days.

So maybe Jesus wasn't really dead. They take him down off the cross, they wrap his body, they put it in a tomb. Maybe he just came back to himself. Like, as these people are talking about him being resurrected, maybe he wasn't really resurrected.

Maybe he just revived and came out of the tomb. There is a theory that exists even today that's called the swoon theory. I think it's the most popular theory concerning the resurrection of Christ. Okay, these skeptics will say, okay, we'll give it to you.

Jesus was alive after he was crucified. But he didn't die and come back to life. He was just, like, mostly dead. What is it, the princess bride? He's not really dead, he's just mostly dead. And mostly dead is not all the way dead.

I don't remember the line from the movie, but anyway. So maybe there are these people who think that. This is part of the swoon theory, that Jesus was just swooned, or he was swooned, rather, back to life.

He was only unconscious. It was the cool air of the tomb that revived him and brought him back to his senses. But he wasn't really all the way dead. He was mostly dead, he just wasn't all the way dead.

But this account in Luke 24, on the road to Emmaus, just obliterates that theory, obliterates the swoon theory. Because Jesus had been brutally beaten and crucified. And you think that just after Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in a tomb, that he's just going to wake up and go on a seven-mile jaunt?

That he's somehow going to recover from all of that beating and being crucified, having holes in his feet, and he's just going to go for a walk for seven miles to Emmaus? So that, we have this account, and eyewitnesses to it, testifies to the fact that Jesus really rose from the dead with a glorified body.

It was not simply that he came back to life, but that he was raised even from the immense beating that he endured before he was nailed to his cross. Jesus received a body that had conquered not just death, but even the brutality preceding his death was overcome by Christ as he rises from the dead.

So when we read in Philippians 3, that he will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him to subject all things to himself, we can see that Christ even demonstrated that power in his own resurrection to overcome his death and the brutal beating that he endured prior to his death.

So that's why Luke includes this detail that Emmaus is seven miles away. This couldn't just have been that Jesus was revived. He really rose and received a body that was even better than the one that had been put to death.

Still the same body. Like, it's not like that body is still in the tomb and he's given a new body that's different than the one that had just been killed. It's the same body. But that body had been healed and risen from the dead.

And so here's Jesus with the disciples on the road to Emmaus, seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. And while they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.

So they don't see, they don't understand that it's really him. Now, on the one sense, I think that even logically we could understand, we could relate to this particular situation. Why would they just automatically assume that Jesus is all right and he's just going to show up on a road with them and start walking with them?

So in the logical sense, it makes sense that they would not immediately recognize him. They don't have anything in their disposition, even humanly speaking, to think a body's going to rise from the dead and just go for a walk with us all the way to Emmaus.

There are all kinds of accounts that I've heard from popular actors and rock stars and things like that. They will go into a public place and no one will recognize them. There was an account that I read just recently of an actor who was talking to a man who had a tattoo of the actor on his arm.

And he goes up to the guy and he's like, wow, that's fantastic. What great tattoo work. And the guy that he was talking to very obviously did not recognize that the actor he's talking to is the actor that he got tattooed on his arm.

Like doesn't even recognize him. There's the tattoo on his arm. Here's the actor talking with him, but he doesn't recognize the actor. So I've heard stories like this all the time. There's another one of one of the actors who played Superman going out into Times Square, New York, where there is a big advertisement for Superman up on the display there at Times Square.

One of the many video billboards that they have out there. And the actor playing Superman was just wearing glasses like Clark Kent, but he was wearing a Superman T-shirt. And as he's walking around in Times Square, no one recognized him.

So the joke being that, oh, look, the glasses were enough to disguise Clark Kent from anyone recognizing him as Superman. So I've read accounts of this like this, and perhaps you know of a story like this as well.

So it's common for people to not just recognize other people, especially when they're not automatically assuming that Jesus is going to rise from the dead and start walking with them. So of course they don't recognize him in that sense, but verse 16 does seem to indicate that there is a kind of a spiritual blindness that has come upon them and not a spiritual blindness in the sense of that blindness that we're in before we come to Christ.

But they're just kept, their minds are kept from recognizing Jesus, that it is the same Jesus of Nazareth that they had been taught by, they saw miracles from, that they walked with in other places that he journeyed throughout Galilee and Judea.

They just don't see that it's him. Now, when Jesus later says to them, oh, foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken, he's not calling them foolish because their eyes have been kept from seeing him.

He's calling them foolish because they should have understood everything that had been written down in the prophets. They should have understood it because Jesus explained it to them when he was alive.

And yet they're slow of heart to understand those things that had been spoken to them, even by Christ himself. But this not recognizing him, this is not because they're hard-hearted in any sense, but just so this encounter can happen and they can explain to Jesus all the things that had happened in Jerusalem so Jesus can explain to them all that was written in the prophets concerning the Christ.

And it's the scriptures that testify to the truthfulness of this, not just that there are eyewitnesses to Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection, which are still very important, and that's why Luke is recording all of this.

There must be eyewitnesses to this, but even the scriptures testify to the truthfulness of what we read. We don't just read it in the New Testament. We read it in the Old. And so even as we go through the rest of the gospel of Luke here, what we're going to read through in chapter 24 this week and next week, we are going to see even what is said in the Old Testament concerning the Christ.

So I hope you'll come back as we continue to read these things together. And behold, the risen Christ, risen for our justification, as said in Romans 4 .25, whoever believes in him will not perish under the judgment of God, but our sins are forgiven and we have everlasting life in Christ.

Christ’s Resurrection Body and the Swoon Theory

Heavenly Father, I thank you for what we've read today, and I pray that you would bless us in our reading, that we would see Christ all the more, that our love for Christ would grow all the more, and that we would desire to serve him and honor him in our obedience to Christ who has called us.

Lead us in paths of righteousness for your name's sake. We ask these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

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