Two of them. Two of the disciples. The name of one of them was Cleopas, Luk 24:18. Many have supposed that the other was Luke, and that he omitted his own name from modesty. Others have supposed that it was Peter. See Luk 24:34; 1Co 15:5. There is no evidence to guide us here. Dr. Lightfoot has shown that Cleopas is the same name as Alpheus, who was the father of the apostle James, Mat 10:3.

Emmaus – In regard to the locality of Emmaus, it seems quite probable that it is the same village which is referred to by Josephus (Jewish Wars, vii. 6, Section 6), who states that, after the destruction of Jerusalem, Titus gave Emmaus, distant from Jerusalem threescore furlongs, to 800 of his troops, whom he had dismissed from his army, for their habitation. Dr. Thomson (The Land and the Book, vol. ii. p. 307, 540) regards it as the present Kuriet el Aineb, which Dr. Robinson identifies with Kirjath-jearim. Of this place he says: Kuriet el Aineb itself would be the proper distance from Jerusalem, and being on the road to Jaffa, and on the dividing ridge between the plain and the mountains, the Roman emperor might have deemed it an advantageous post for a colony made up of his disbanded soldiers, who could keep in check the surrounding country. Certain it is that in these later ages the occupants of this place have controlled the whole adjacent region, and for many a generation exercised their lawless tyranny upon helpless pilgrims.

It took just three hours moderate riding from Kuriet el Aineb to Jerusalem: first, a long descent into Wady Hanina, which passes between it and Soba; then a similar ascent, succeeded by a very steep pass, and a very slippery path down to Kulonia. At this place are some heavy foundations of church, convent, or castle by the road-side, which may be of almost any age, and also gardens of fruit-trees, irrigated by a fountain of excellent water. Kulonia is on a hill north of the road, and appears in a fair way to become a ruin itself before long. The path then winds up a valley, and stretches over a dreary waste of bare rocks until within a mile of the city, when the view opens upon its naked ramparts and the mysterious regions toward the Dead Sea.

Threescore furlongs – Sixty furlongs, or about seven or eight miles. It is not certain that these were apostles, but the contrary seems to be implied in Luk 24:33. See the notes at that verse. If they were not, it is probable that they were intimate disciples, who may have been much with the Saviour during the latter part of his ministry and the closing scenes of his life. But it is wholly unknown why they were going to Emmaus. It may have been that this was their native place, or that they had friends in the vicinity. They seem to have given up all for lost, and to have come to the conclusion that Jesus was not the Messiah, though they naturally conversed about it, and there were many things which they could not explain. Their Master had been crucified contrary to their expectation, their hopes dashed, their anticipation disappointed, and they were now returning in sadness, and very naturally conversed, in the way, of the things which had happened in Jerusalem.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Luk 24:13-35

Two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus

The journey to Emmaus

I.

WE SEE IN THIS APPEARANCE, AS IN THE OTHERS, SOMETHING VERY CHARACTERISTIC OF OUR LORDS HABITS AND WAYS DURING HIS LIFETIME, His disciples and followers were always craving for publicity and display. He was always retiring from too much of that, carrying on His work as quietly as possible. And so here. Jesus rises alone–at the break of day. No mortal sees Him put on immortality. Bright angels stand as sentinels while He arrays Himself. It is enough that His disciples see the empty tomb, the grave-clothes, and the place where the Lord lay.

II. WE MAY SEE HOW EASILY STILL, IN THAT RISEN LIFE, HE ENTERS INTO COMMUNICATION WITH MEN; HOW LITTLE DIFFICULTY HE HAS IN JOINING ANY COMPANY, OR ANY TWO OR THREE WITH WHOM HE WISHES TO BE!

III. THIS APPEARANCE OF CHRIST IS LIKE A MESSAGE OF FRATERNITY AND DIVINE REGARD, ESPECIALLY TO PLAIN, SIMPLE, ORDINARY MEN–to what we may call common men, who wear no distinction and possess no advantage whatever over their fellows. For who were these two men? No one knows anything about them. In all probability there was not much to know, except that they were disciples, that they loved Him.

IV. WE HAVE AN INSTANCE HERE OF THE ATTRACTIVE POWER OF SORROW TO HIM. They walked, and talked, and were sad. And then He drew near and went With them.

V. THIS, HOWEVER, WE MUST OBSERVE, THAT IT IS NOT TO EVERY KIND OF TROUBLE AND SADNESS THAT HE GRANTS IMMEDIATE ASSUAGEMENT. Here you see He draws near at once to two sad men. But what are they saying? They are talking of Him Why are they sorrowing? They are sorrowing about Him. So our sorrow, if it is to be sanctified and turned into joy, must have Christ in it.

VI. THERE IS A SORROW AND A DARKNESS EXPRESSLY SENT BY CHRIST, OR, AT ANY RATE, HELD BY HIM AROUND HIS PEOPLE. A sorrow kept, as it were, beyond the time when it might naturally be ended, kept for the accomplishment of some purposes of grace which could not be so well attained, perhaps not attained at all, if the darkness were melted away. To take the language of the passage, Our eyes are holden that we should not know Him, even when He is with us. So, oftentimes, our eyes are holden that we should not know Him. Strange things happen to us, and we think not that His hand is upon them all. All the instruction we get in the darkness is from Him; but we do not know that it is from Him directly, and immediately, until the darkness is over.

VII. IT IS A BLESSED MOMENT IN LIFE WHEN WE KNOW HIM, COME WHEN, AND HOW, AND WHERE IT MAY–WHEN WE ARE SURE THAT HE IS NEAR! In those moments we are glad of the present, and we look to the future without a fear.

VIII. THEY ARE BRIEF, THEY ARE TRANSIENT AS THE GLOW OF THE MORNING–NOT SETTLED AS THE RADIANCE OF THE DAY. They knew Him and–what next? A long happy conversation, until the evening wore into the night, and the stars came out on high? A journey into Jerusalem again the next morning, with still more delightful discourse, to meet His surprised and rejoicing disciples there? Not so. And their eyes were opened, and they knew Him, and He vanished out of their sight! Such is the end of all high communion times, of all vision-hours in this life. They are but brief. They can but be brief; there is more work to do, and more sorrow to drink, and more time to travel through; and Jesus in His glory retires, that these things may be done, and that He may come again when need shall be! He comes down to lift us up, to intensify our longings for heaven, to entice us home. And of course He does not stay. He is always coming, and always vanishing out of our sight, that we may the more long for and labour after the place, the glory, the life in which He would have us for ever be. (A. Raleigh, D. D.)

The walk to Emmaus

I. THE WAY.

1. To these two disciples that was the way of sadness and gloom.

2. The sadness of those two disciples sprang from doubt or unbelief.

3. Though that was the way of sadness and doubt to those two disciples, yet they communed and reasoned together on the best themes.

II. THE METHOD OF CHRISTS COMMUNICATIONS BY THE WAY. He talked with us, and opened to us the Scriptures. The manner was simple, clear, and cogent. Two or three things about Christs method of communing with these disciples are worth a little attention.

1. It was sympathetic. He strikes a chord in their troubled hearts that vibrates at the touch of His matchless sympathy.

2. It was instructive. Seek instruction rather than rapture.

3. This talk by the way was animating. Not only did it relieve their gloom and sadness, it cheered, revived, and filled them with ardent icy, for they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us by the way?

III. THE REST AND THE REVELATION WHICH AWAITED THE DISCIPLES AT THE END OF THE WAY.

1. A triumphant joy.

2. An intelligent faith in Him as the Redeemer of Israel.

3. The disclosure of Christ to those two disciples filled their hearts with confident hope. (J. T. Higgins.)

The disclosure at Emmaus

I. We note, in the beginning, THE NATURALNESS OF A POSTURE OF MIND AKIN TO DOUBT AND CONFUSION. Heavy providences bear us down under them. Sudden, almost inexplicable, depressions settle upon our souls. The devil watches always for these opportunities, and plies us with adroit attack.

II. Next, we see here THE POSITIVE VALUE OF FRATERNAL CONFERENCE AND EXCHANGE OF VIEWS. The larger part of our seasons of hypochondria are to be dispersed by a frank conversation with sympathetic friends in relation to the matters of supreme interest to us both.

III. THE ACTUAL NEARNESS OF CHRIST ALWAYS, TO THOSE WHO NEED HIM. Would it alarm us, if we suddenly discovered we had been talking with Him in person, instead of some boon companion we had met in our freedom?

IV. Then we have a fine lesson concerning THE DIVINE REMEDY FOR ALL DOUBTS AS TO OUR SAVIOUR AND OUR SALVATION. These bewildered disciples are led directly to the Divine Word (see Luk 24:25-27).

V. In the next place, we may note here THE PERSONAL INTEREST JESUS HAS IN EVERY TRUE BELIEVER WHO IS IN NEED OF HIS HELP. A whole afternoon did our Lord give of those forty days He had left to these disciples who were not known enough even to be described. Lot in life has nothing to do with the estimate which the Saviour forms of His followers. He came with those modest brethren to their destination.

VI. We have now a lesson from the story which might give a help to any Christian at the communion table; THE REAL JOY IN EVERY SPIRITUAL FEAST IS TO HAVE THE LORD JESUS CHRIST DISCLOSED TO US. Jesus has kept coming again ever since He went away.

VII. A single lesson more remains: we see THAT THE FIRST DELIGHTED IMPULSE OF A SOUL, REJOICING AT HAVING FOUND JESUS, IS TO GO AND TELL OTHERS OF HIS PRESENCE AT THE FEAST (see Luk 24:32-35). These happy disciples could not wait even till morning. The Lord had vanished, but His argument remained; while they were musing the fire burned. Now they began to remember peculiar experiences along the way. Oftentimes a new disclosure of Christs presence turns the believer back upon hours in which he now sees the Holy Spirit was dealing with him; why did he not recognize it sooner? Memories of communions are always precious, if the joy has remained. Life gathers a fresh impulse from the disclosure. We are sure that walk out to Emmaus with Jesus in companionship was wonderfully sweet; but the walk in back again over the same path was not without comfort. Every stone and bush would make them think of Him. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.)

Easter Monday

I. NOTICE THE CHARACTERS BROUGHT TO VIEW. Two men. Devout Jews. Disciples of Jesus. They were in great perplexity and trouble of heart. Their faith had received a blow under which it greatly staggered. They reasoned the case with each other; but reason was too weak an instrument to give them relief. Mere earthly reason, when it comes to matters of faith and salvation, can do very little for us. They were moving through one of the most interesting and beautiful districts. Their way from Jerusalem to Emmaus lay by the tombs of the ancient Judges, by the old dwelling-place of Samuel, and through mountainous scenery as attractive as any in the Holy Land. But no charms of nature, however intermingled with sacred story, could soothe the trouble that was upon their souls. Those scenes of blood and murder which had been enacted at Jerusalem, and the sore disappointment which those scenes had entailed upon their most precious hopes, followed them, and clung to them, in spite of all the pleasant things around them. Nature, in all its loveliness, cannot supply the place of Christ, or give comfort to the soul that has lost Him. Yet the Saviour was with them, all unknown to themselves. In the form of a common traveller, journeying the same way, and after the same manner with themselves, He overtook them, and made one in their little company. There are many ways in which He comes to His people. He comes to them sometimes in the form of a plain gardener, or a servant. He comes sometimes in the form of a fellow-traveller. He comes sometimes in the form of a poor beggar. But, in some shape or other, He is never far from those who are in spiritual earnest, and devoutly struggling for the light. In our earthly way of looking at things, we do not always recognize the presence of our Saviour, and our eyes are holden that we do not know Him. It is the fault of our feeble faith, that we only think of Christ as far away–as hidden in the grave–or in some remote world to which the grave is the mysterious doorway. Hence so much of our trouble and doubtfulness. But it is an erroneous way of thinking of Him. He is not in the grave. He is not far off in some realm which separates Him for ever from all connection with this present world. He is risen. He is not far from every one of us. Wherever two or three are gathered together in His name, there He is. He is in the city, and He is in the country. He is in the garden among the flowers, and He is in the dusty highway. He is in our assemblies for devotion, and He journeys with us in our travels. He is with us, and speaking to us, even when we do not at all suspect that it is He.

II. NOTICE HOW THE RISEN JESUS DEALS WITH THESE PERPLEXED AND SORROWING ONES.

1. He drew near, and went with them. It is the will of our gracious Saviour to be near us, and to have us near Him. We have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities Heb 4:15). When grief and trouble are upon His disciples, He takes it to heart, and is drawn towards them in loving sympathy. But, in addition to their mental troubles, these pilgrims were earnestly engaged with each other, trying to solve and master them. Earnestness of spirit is never unnoticed in heaven.

2. He questioned them as to their troubles and sadness. He said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another as ye walk? and why are ye sad? It was a call to review the character of their trouble, as the basis for the formation of a better judgment. They had not looked at matters rightly. They had not gone deep enough into the facts for the proper conclusions. The cure for their disturbance was in the very things that disturbed them, if they would only learn to see them in their true aspects and relations. Did Christian people but view their anxieties aright, they would find in them cause for joy rather than discomfiture. Desponding soul, Jesus asks thee, Why art thou sad? Canst thou give Him a reason for thy disheartenment at what has happened? Review thy ground, and come to a better mind.

3. Having drawn out their story, He directed them to the Bible. After all, there is nothing that can so settle, satisfy, and comfort our troubled hearts and anxious doubts, as the records of the holy prophets. There the portrait of the Christ is fully drawn, and all that concerneth Him is amply disclosed. From them these disciples might have fortified themselves against all such sorrowful perplexities over their Masters death. The very first promise that was made of Him, told of a suffering as well as a triumphing Saviour. He was to be bruised, as well as to bruise. All the appointments of the law pointed to death and bloodshedding as the only possible way of remission of sins or recovery from condemnation. Precious indeed are these blessed Scriptures. Herein is light which giveth understanding to the simple, and which maketh wise unto salvation. Herein is balm for the troubled heart more than Gilead can furnish. Are we shaken in faith, and disturbed in our hopes? Jesus directs us to the Bible.

4. And having set them right in their reading of the Scriptures, the Saviour yielded to their entreaties, entered with them into their home, and made Himself known to them in the breaking of bread. Those who love the truth will be kindly disposed toward those who teach it; and those who admit Christ into their hearts will be anxious also to have Him abide in their homes. And those who in grateful consideration of His kindness receive Him into their houses, though they should not yet know with whom they are dealing, will soon have Him disclosed to them in all the certainties of an unmistakable faith. (J. A. Seiss, D. D.)

The walk to Emmaus

I. THE SORROWS AND DOUBTS OF THE TWO DISCIPLES.

II. THE SORROWS AND DOUBTS OF THE DISCIPLES ARE MET BY A DIVINE EXPLANATION.

1. He first rebukes their spiritual ignorance and unwillingness to believe.

2. They were, without being aware of it, mourning over the very things which formed Christs peculiar glory and their own redemption.

3. To show this, He began at Moses, and explained in regular succession what the prophets had foretold concerning Himself.

III. THE SORROWS AND DOUBTS OF THE DISCIPLES WERE LOST IN THE SUPREME JOY OF THE RISEN JESUS FULLY REVEALED. Lessons:

1. This narrative is an irrefragable proof of the reality of our Lords resurrection. He was not an apparition nor a subjective vision.

2. God is ever near us, if we only had the spiritual vision to discern His presence.

3. To talk of Jesus and the things of the kingdom, is wise. At such seasons He draws near, and by His Spirit communes with us until our hearts burn with new hopes, and our eyes are filled with a revelation of His presence.

4. The Old Testament prophecies, inclusive of everything relating to Christs Church, are, according to His own showing, an integral part of the Scriptures.

5. Failure to believe the Scriptures was the cause of the disciples blindness and sorrows.

6. How precious is a Christians company. (T. S. Doolittle, D. D.)

The walk to Emmaus

I. TWO REPRESENTATIVE DISCIPLES.

1. They were on a journey. So are we all.

2. They were in earnest conversation.

(1) To converse is natural.

(2) Our conversation should be wise, spiritual, helpful.

3. They were full of sadness.

(1) Their sadness was natural.

(a) Bright hopes were blasted.

(b) ,an awful tragedy had been enacted.

(2) But their sadness was sinful.

(a) Because it arose from their unbelief in the testimony of the prophets.

(b) Because it arose from their unbelief in the testimony of Christ Himself.

(c) Yet how common is such unbelief among Christians?

II. CHRIST IN HIS REPRESENTATIVE CHARACTER.

1. As ever near His sorrowing disciples.

2. As ever entering into their experience.

3. As rebuking their unbelief.

4. As the opener up of the Scriptures.

(1) Christ ever honours the Scriptures.

(2) Christ ever testifies to the genuineness and inspiration of the Scriptures.

(3) Christ ever teaches that tie Himself is the central subject of the Scriptures.

5. As unexpectedly revealing Himself,

(1) While their hearts were full of doubts, their eyes were holden that they should not know Him.

(2) The expounding of the Scripture restored them to a believing condition.

(3) Their quickened faith resulted in hearts that burned.

(4) Hearts that burn alone can see Jesus to know Him. (D. C. Hughes, M. A.)

The walk to Emmaus

I. THIS WALK TO EMMAUS SUGGESTS THE STRANGE MINGLING OF UNBELIEF AND FAITH IN THE SAME BREAST.

1. The fact of their unbelief.

2. The unreasonableness of their unbelief.

3. The reality of their faith.

II. THIS WALK TO EMMAUS SUGGESTS THE LORDS INTEREST IN HIS PERPLEXED BUT INQUIRING DISCIPLES.

III. THIS WALK TO EMMAUS SUGGESTS THE CHARACTER OF THE TRUE INQUIRER, THOUGH PERPLEXED.

1. He is ever interested in those who unfold the Scriptures.

2. He is ever open to conviction.

3. His heart is ever stirred by the truth.

4. When he learns the truth, he is ever anxious to proclaim it to others.

Lessons:

1. We learn that unbelief arises from the heart, and is an evidence of unwisdom.

2. That unbelief not only brings trouble to the heart, but blindness to the mind.

3. That perplexities are not solved by reasoning, but by the study of Gods Word.

4. If our Lord and His apostles found in Moses and the prophets evidences of His Messiahship, why may not we? (D. C. Hughes, M. A.)

The journey to Emmaus

After He has comforted the weeping, disconsolate Magdalene, and graciously restored the fallen Peter, He hastens to lay hold of those sad wanderers who have ignorantly turned away from where they might have found light and consolation. The first word He addressed to them, after He had drawn out their thoughts and feelings by two questions which He needed not to ask, but which it was well they should answer, was a word of rebuke–O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Thus do chiding and reproof oftentimes precede the most gracious manifestations. Our faults must be corrected before any real and lasting comfort can be administered. To remove all discomfort and distress, without touching the evil state of mind from which they spring, would be like relieving the patients pain at the expense of aggravating his disease; it would be to countenance and encourage us in the wrong thoughts and feelings which it behoves us to abandon. Not thus does the Great Physician deal with the souls whom He loves. Injudicious earthly teachers may try to minister relief to distempered minds, by simply soothing their sorrows without correcting their faults, making them believe that all their troubles spring from something without themselves which will shortly be put right, instead of leading them to look within that they may correct what is wrong there; pleasing them with flattery when they should first pain them by rebuke; and thus, for the sake of yielding them a little momentary pleasure, inflicting on them a permanent injury. Not so the Saviour. How prone we are all to close our eyes to the things which we dislike–to believe only in those we like! The disciples were ready enough to listen to what seemed to justify their hopes of a coming kingdom: when He spoke of His sufferings they were equally ready to say, Be it far from Thee, Lord. Whatever we may think of the manner in which the Old Testament writers were inspired–a question on which bold theorising is but a bold mistake, the conduct of our Lord on this occasion places the fact of their inspiration beyond all dispute among those who recognize His authority. Abide with us, they said, for it is towards evening, and the day is far spent. The reason of this request was the fascination of His speech–the effect it had produced on them in dispelling their doubts, reviving their drooping hopes, and quickening their languid affections. Such is the invariable consequence of converse with the Saviour. Such experience naturally awakens the desire that the fellowship may be prolonged. From souls who thus earnestly seek Him the Saviour will not withhold His gracious presence. He went in to tarry with these disciples, and sat at meat with them; thus condescending not only to become their guest, but to place Himself so much on an equality with them, as to sit at the same table and partake of the same meal. Be this as it may, this portion of the narrative is beautifully representative of what often takes place in the experience of believers. Where the Saviours presence is earnestly desired and prayed for, He not only grants the request, but enters into more intimate fellowship with the longing soul. But delightful as fellowship with Christ is to the truly Christian soul, the passage may very well remind us that there is something for us to do besides gratifying our desire, even for the highest spiritual enjoyment. Peter, on the Mount of Transfiguration, though he said, It is good for us to be here, was not permitted to build tabernacles as he desired, because at the foot of the mountain there were distresses to be relieved. The two disciples, though they would fain prolong their interview with the Lord, must, just when their gratification is at the highest, be deprived of His presence, and return to Jerusalem to share their joy with others. And so we, sometimes, when we might greatly prefer quiet meditation and devotion to active service, must nevertheless, because the world needs our ministrations, go forth from communion with our Master to do the Masters work. I cannot conclude without calling attention to that which appears so conspicuously throughout the whole of the narrative–the marvellous condescension of our Lord. These are but weak disciples when He finds them–foolish, slow of heart to understand the Scriptures–their faith much clouded, though it does not relinquish its hold of Him. And how He condescends to their weakness, suits His instruction to their case, gradually leads them to a full preception of the truth and apprehension of Himself. Tenderly He deals with them, not breaking the bruised reed, nor quenching the smoking flax; but gathering the lambs in His arms, and carrying them in His bosom. (W. Landels.)

Communion with Christ

I. THIS CONVERSATION SHOWS WHAT LIFE WOULD BE WITHOUT CHRIST.

1. When we fail to discern the presence of Christ our hearts are overwhelmed with grief.

2. When we fail to discern the presence of Christ our minds are clouded with doubt.

II. THIS CONVERSATION SHOWS WHAT LIFE MAY BE WITH CHRIST.

1. We should never forget that Christ is near to His disciples in all their sorrow.

2. We should never forget that Christ instructs His disciples in all their sorrows.

III. THIS CONVERSATION SHOWS WHAT LIFE SHOULD BE FOR CHRIST.

1. What did these men do? They rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem. It was night, and the distance considerable, but they went immediately to proclaim the Saviours resurrection. If we have any word to speak, or any work to do for Christ, let us do it at once; for time is short, and life is uncertain.

2. What did these men find? And found the eleven gathered together. Men are drawn together by common sympathies and common beliefs. Why were they together? For counsel and prayer. Why together at midnight? For secrecy and security. Seasons of personal danger should be seasons of united communion with God.

3. What did these men hear? The Lord hath risen indeed. What joyful tidings these must have been! They not only heard of Christs resurrection from others, but they had seen Him themselves. This is loves reward. The givers were receivers. Thus experience answers experience in the Divine life.

4. What did these men say? Told what things were done in the way, etc. Personal testimony to the fact of Christs resurrection. If Christ has appeared to you, rise up at once, and acknowledge Him before His people. It will cheer them, and confirm you. (J. T. Woodhouse.)

The absent Lord appears

I. THOUGH JESUS BE ABSENT, HIS DISCIPLES MAKE HIM THEIR THEME.

II. THE ABSENT JESUS COMES NEAR WHILE HIS DISCIPLES TALE OF HIM. Blessed sequel to their saintly converse. And so it is to-day. Where two or three, etc. It was a tender superstition which our fathers held–that to speak much of the absent or the dead brings them near. And the beautiful fiction becomes blessed fact, when we refer it to Jesus. He is the true Mentor whom Homer ignorantly celebrated. We have but to think of Jesus, talk of Jesus, wish for Jesus–and He is by our side. (A. A. Ramsey.)

Jesus near, but unrecognized

I. We shall note, first, REASONS WHY, IN THE VERY PRESENCE OF THEIR MASTER, SAINTS MAY NOT KNOW THAT HE IS NEAR. The first reason, then, why these good men did not perceive the presence of their Master was that their eyes were holden. There was a blinding cause in them. What was it?

1. By some mysterious operation, their eyes, which were able to see other things, were not able to detect the presence of their Master, but they thought Him to be some common traveller. Still we are permitted to say that in their case, and in the case of a great many disciples, eyes have been holden through sorrow.

2. Again, in their case, in addition to the mysterious operation which held their eyes, which we do not attempt to account for, we have no doubt their eyes were holden with unbelief. Had they been expecting to see Jesus, methinks they would have recognized Him.

3. Whatever may have been mysterious about the holding of the disciples eyes, they were also somewhat holden by ignorance. They had failed to see what is plain enough in Scripture, that the Messiah must suffer, bleed, and die. At other times they may not see Him, because of something in the Master. Mark, as I have told you, says He appeared unto them in another form. I suppose he means in a form in which they had not seen Him before. Perhaps you have only seen Jesus as your joy and consolation; under that aspect may you always see Him, but, remember, He shall sit as a refiner; He shall purify the sons of Levi. When you are in the furnace, suffering affliction and trial and depression of spirit, the refiner is Christ, the same loving Christ in a new character. Hitherto you have seen Christ as breaking the bread of life to you, and giving you to drink of the water of life, but you must yet learn that His fan is in His hand, and He will throughly purge the floor of your heart. He is not another Christ, but He puts on another aspect, and exercises another office.

II. Secondly, let us speak of THE MANNERS OF THE SAINTS WHEN THEY ARE IN SUCH A CASE. When their Master is with them and they do not know Him, how do they conduct themselves? First, they are sad; because the presence of Christ, if Christ be unknown, is not comfortable, though it may be edifying. It may be for rebuke, as it was to them; but it certainly is not for consolation. For joy we must have a known Christ. Next, these disciples, though they did not know that their Master was there, conversed together–a good example for all Christians. Whether you are in the full joy of your faith or not, speak often one to another. He who is strong will help the weak brother; if two walk together, if one shall trip perhaps the other will not, and so he will have a hand to spare to support his friend. Even if both saints are unhappy, yet some good result will come from mutual sympathy. Note, again, that though they did not know their Master was there, yet they avowed their hopes concerning Him. I cannot commend all that they said, there was not much faith in it, but they did confess that they were followers of Jesus of Nazareth. We trusted that it had been He which should deliver Israel. And, besides all this, to-day is the third day. And they went on to let out the secret that they belonged to His disciples. Certain women of our company made us astonished. They were under a cloud and sad, but they were not so cowardly as to disown their connection with the Crucified. They still avowed their hope. And oh, beloved, when your comforts are at the lowest ebb, still cling to your Master. But, passing on–these poor people, though very sad, and without their Master as they thought, were very willing to bear rebukes. Although the word used by our Lord should not be rendered fools, yet it sounds somewhat bard even to call them inconsiderate and thoughtless: but we do not discover any resentment on their part because they were so severely chided. Souls that really love Jesus do not grow angry when faithfully rebuked. And then, they were willing to learn. Never better pupils, never a better Teacher, never a better school book, never a better explanation. Again, notice that while the two were willing to learn, they also wished to retain the Teacher and His instruction, and to treat Him kindly too. They said, Abide with us; the day is far spent. They had been benefited by Him, and therefore they wished to show their gratitude to Him. Have you learned so much that you are willing to learn more? And, once more, though they did not know that their Master was with them, they were well prepared to join in worship. Some have thought that the breaking of bread that night was only Christs ordinary way of offering a blessing before meat; it does not seem so to me, because they had already eaten and were in the middle of the meal when He took the bread and blessed it.

III. Lastly, let us try to set forth THE ACTIONS OF BELIEVERS WHEN THEY DISCOVER THEIR LORD. Their eyes were opened, and they knew Him. What then? Well, first, they discovered that there had been all along in their hearts evidences of His presence. Did not our hearts burn within us while He spake with us by the way? This heavenly heartburn never comes to any but through the presence of the Lord Jesus. The next thing they did was to compare notes. The one said to the other, Did not our hearts burn within us? It is always a good thing for believers to communicate their returning enjoyment. Somehow we are rather chary as to speaking of our joys. Ought we to be so? Once again. These disciples, when they saw the Master, hastened to tell others about it. I notice that while they told of their Lords appearing, they made mention of the ordinance which had been blest to them, for they especially said that He had been known to them in the breaking of bread. I like to see them mention that, for, though ordinances are nothing in themselves, and are not to be depended upon, they are blest to us. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Present, but unknown

I. THE TIME WHEN THE WALK OCCURRED.

1. On the first of the forty days between resurrection and ascension.

2. Probably the longest period of intercourse with disciples between resurrection and ascension.

II. THE NEW METHODS ADOPTED BY OUR LORD TO OPERATE ON THE MINDS ON THESE TWO MEN. He makes them first define their grief, and then state their belief. Here are two of the most instructive lessons in the Scriptures of the human soul as well as the Holy Scriptures. The first lesson is: measure your sorrow, see its nature and extent, and know exactly its bearings on your happiness. The second is: if you are in doubt and apprehensions, if you are tempted to distrust God and Christ, if scepticism or the worst horror of infidelity threaten your heart, go back to what you do assuredly believe. Find honest footing for yourselves. Rest on the great fundamentals that lie imbedded in the instincts, the granite substratum of nature and the basis of all real characters. Let us learn from the walk toward Emmaus what Christ expects of us in hours of darkness and dismay, and then we may hope that, when we get to Emmaus, He will reveal His glory. (A. A. Lipscomb, LL. D.)

Jesus drawing near

He drew very near, solemnly uttered a youthful believer within a few hours of death. Who drew near? anxiously inquired a friend who was present, fearful to hear her pronounce the word death. Jesus, she replied, with an unutterable earnestness of expression. I felt just now as if He stood close beside me. Soon after she was asked by her sister if she would like her to pray with her. She gladly assented. But while she prayed the countenance of the dying one changed, the expression of supplication was succeeded by one of adoring contemplation–it would have been rapture but for its perfect calm. A kind of glow suffused her features, then faded gradually away, and before that prayer was ended she was gone. Her amen, to it was her first hallelujah in heaven. Jesus had come again and received her unto Himself. (Clerical Library.)

Emmaus

I. CHRIST HIMSELF THE THEME OF HIS DISCIPLES CONVERSATION.

II. CHRIST HIMSELF THE EXPOSITOR OF HIS OWN SUFFERINGS.

III. CHRIST HIMSELF THE GUEST OF HIS OWN DISCIPLES.

IV. CHRIST HIMSELF THE OCCASION OF HIS OWN RECOGNITION. Practical lessons:

1. There is no teacher like Christ.

2. There is no friend like Christ. (J. R. Thomson.)

The walk to Emmaus

It may be asked, Why should not our Lord have declared Himself at once to these burdened friends? Why not with one word have assured them, as He did faithful Mary in the garden? The answer is suggestive. In them the stupendous miracle of the resurrection was to be established, not by one appearance, but by many; not by evidence of one kind, but of all kinds. Each fresh proof of the fact was to be a separate link in a chain of proofs, on which ages to come might hang their faith. The particular link to be wrought and welded on the road to Emmaus was the complete identity of the slain Jesus of Nazareth with the Messiah of Moses and Daniel, of David, Isaiah, and Malachi. Had He too soon revealed His personality to these oppressed disciples, they would have been unfitted, by their great joy, to receive this lesson and to witness its truth.
But now they take it in eagerly. Their ears thirst for knowledge. Such was the sacred drama of the Emmaus road, and from the whole story we may instruct and comfort ourselves in several ways:

1. It is good for disciples to be together. Every appearance of the Lord immediately after His resurrection, save one, was made to disciples in groups.

2. The Lord may be much nearer to doubting disciples than they dream.

3. The source of much modern doubt about Christ is ignorance of the Scriptures as a whole. The real cure of doubt, therefore, lies in a more comprehensive study of the Word of God, and the only study that can be a perfect cure is that which shall begin with Moses, and end with the Apocalypse. (J. B. Clark.)

The hidden Christ

No more picturesque and beautiful scene is depicted in the life of Christ, than this walk, after His resurrection, out to Emmaus. The innocent unconsciousness of the disciples pleases us like a scene in a drama. That trait, too, in the Lord, which led Him to keep in disguise, is peculiarly interesting. It interprets much of the Divine nature. One would have looked, according to the ordinary ideas of the Divine mind, and of its methods, for an open and prompt disclosure of Himself. But no. It was pleasant to Him, for some reason, to be with His disciples, to love them, to perceive their embarrassments, to instruct them, without letting them know that He was there. It was not deception. It was only a permitting them to have their own notions of Him undisturbed, while He exercised the full mission of love. This cannot be an unintended disclosure of the Divine nature. I will not call it mystic; and still less will I call it secretive; but there is a love of non-disclosure of personality during the operation of merciful grace, which has illustration in various other parts of the Gospel. One cannot but see that the Lord carried Himself to them just as in nature Divine providence is always carrying itself. Mercies move with wide-spread benefaction; set without interpreting themselves. Nature is blessing without saying, I bless. Messages are coming through the air, and through Divine providence, from God; and yet, they do not say God. God is present in a silent way always. A certain hidden element, or hiding element, there is in the Divine mind, Gods blessings steal into life noiselessly. They are neither self-proclaiming, nor even self-announcing.

I. THE LORDS PRESENCE IN UNPERCEIVED WAYS IN THE DAILY WANTS OF HIS PEOPLE. He is to be found wherever the soul is ready to receive Him.

In some tender moment, amidst cares and toils and sorrows, often there starts up the thought of the Divine presence with such majesty and beauty as a thousand sabbaths could not shadow forth in the ordinary experience of Christians. Though they did not see the Saviour, yet they saw His messengers–His blessed angels. Travellers over wide spaces that are unpopulous, hide their food in what are called caches, that, returning, they may have it at fit and appropriate points for their necessities. God fills the world with these spots of hidden food; and we meet Him and His mercies not alone in appointed places, in houses of entertainment, but in the wilderness–everywhere. Christ may be found at the well, if you come there to draw. Christ may be found at the receipt of custom, where Matthew found Him. Christ may be found behind the bier, where the widow found Him. Christ may be found on the sea, where the disciples found Him when they were fishing. He is moving with world-filling presence everywhere. But notably we may mention that Hod comes to His people in an undisclosed and unrecognized form in the hours of their despondency, as in the text. Or, to put it in other words, that which seems to us to be a cloud and darkness, is, after all, but the garment in the midst of which Christ is walking. All right occupations likewise, all duties, all daily fidelities, bring along with them a Divine presence. We are never alone. We are never doing things that are merely secular, if we know how to make them Divine. The most menial callings, routine occupations, things not agreeable in themselves, but necessary, and things of duty, all of them have or may have with them a Christ.

II. THE FULL PRIVILEGE OF THE SOUL IN GODS PRESENCE AND PROVIDENCE DISCERNED WHEN THE GIFT IS VANISHING AWAY. Man never is, but always to be blessed, has become a motto. Our joys are seldom with us. They are either remembered or they are anticipated. When we come where they are, how few of us there are that are soundly happy; how few there are that are full of joy and know it. How few there are that have a power in them of blessing, in any hour or in any day, or, still less, series of days! How few there are that can pluck from fortune, or from providence, or from Divine grace itself, fruits that shall be sweet to the taste while they are walking along the road of life! It is trite, that, Men do not know how to value health till they lose it. It is the same with wealth. It is so of youth and age. For we take our measures as little children take snowflakes to examine them, and they are gone. They dissolve in the looking at them. Especially is this true of moral things–of moral treasures. Hours of religious peace, hours of spiritual delight, never seem so precious to us, hours of religious duty are never so dear to us, while we have them; and they are as it were, in their ministration, as when they are gone. In our religious life we are finding fault with our fare. In like manner is it in respect to our privileges in being workers together with God. While we have the privileges, how little we esteem them! and how much, often, we reluctate and begrudge both time and strength! Now it is an exceeding privilege for any one to be a worker together with Christ in the work of the Lord in this world. And so is it with the sanctuary. So is it with the blessings of the soul itself. Our inward thoughts, our inward strifes and resolutions, our very tears, our prayers, all that sacred history of the soul that is inherited upon earth, but is more heroic and more wonderful than the history of the battle-field or the history of empires–that lore unexpressed, that literature of eternity, the souls inward life–at the time how little is there to us in it! how little of Christ! Ah! what a pity, my Christian brethren, it is that Christ should vanish out of sight just at the moment when He discloses Himself! What a pity it is that just as our mercies are going beyond our reach, they should for the first time seem to be mercies! In view of these simple remarks, may you not derive a motive for the better use of the present in all the relations of your life than you have been accustomed to? And ought we not, bearing this in mind, to make more of one another; more of our children; more of our parents; more of our brothers and sisters; more of our neighbours; more of the Church; more of the Bible-class; more of the Sabbath-school; more of all works by which we cleanse the morals of men, and raise up the ignorant, and prosper those that are unfortunate? May not life be filled fuller of blessings, if only we know how to redeem the time, and appreciate the opportunity to perceive the God that is near us? (H. W. Beecher.)

The walk to Emmaus

I. And, first–the first truth taught us by narrative–see here the importance of searching and understanding the Scriptures, and how a neglected or perverted Bible will bring sin and sorrow into the soul.

II. As these two disciples pursue their melancholy journey–the deepening shadows of evening a feeble type of the gloom gathering on their souls–we have seen a third join them. LET US NOW TURN OUR ATTENTION TO THIS STRANGER. His fellow-travellers knew Him not, but we know Him. I have said that we know not the name of one of these disciples. But the name of this wayfaring man we know. He is The Wonderful. Wonderful was He in the glory which He had with the Father before the world was. Wonderful was He in His deep humiliation. But He is, above all, wonderful now, as He stands upon the earth, a mighty conqueror returned from His expedition into the territories of the King of Terrors–having by death destroyed death, and become the resurrection and the life. He might have entered the city in regal pomp and equipage, with a retinue of angelic legions; but He prefers to enter these desolate hearts, and to awaken festive joy and triumphal acclamations there. What I desire to mark in the conduct of the Redeemer is the manner in which He makes himself known to these two disciples. For observe, my brethren, in the first place, that He does not at once reveal Himself to them; and why not? For reasons most obvious. They had, as yet, no idea of the atonement. When He foretold His crucifixion, declaring that it was necessary, Peter was indignant, and said, Be it far from Thee, Lord, this shall not be unto Thee. Had He not instructed them before showing Himself, they would have been wholly unprepared rightly to welcome Him; they would, perhaps, like the apostles, have been terrified and affrighted, supposing they had seen a spirit. It is certain they could not have been filled with the intelligent joy which sprang up in their souls when He was made known to them. In the next place, see how He prepares them for the manifestation He is about to make. It is by opening the Scriptures to them. He will not let their faith rest on the testimony of men or of angels. Convincing as was the vision on Mount Tabor, Peter, who was there and beheld the glorified Jesus, says, We have a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed. And it is to this sure word that Jesus turns the minds of these disciples. He magnifies His word above all His name. He teaches them that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.

III. WHAT IS THE EFFECT OF THIS INTERVIEW UPON THESE TWO DISCIPLES? Their souls are first consoled, then warmed, then heated. While Jesus is speaking the fire kindles; His words fall upon train after train of memory and hope and love, until everything is in a glow, and their hearts are burning within them. A burning heart! what a noble expression; there is something contagious in the very words; we cannot utter them without feeling a sacred ardour in our own hearts. Do you ask me what emotions burned in the hearts of these disciples? I answer, first, love. In the whole account of the Saviours resurrection, we see the difference between the nature of women and of men. The former are less suspicious, more prompt, unhesitating, unquestioning in their confidence; and more true in their affection. Hence Jesus appeared first to women. It is to love that Jesus hastens to manifest Himself, and during the three days between the Saviours crucifixion and resurrection it was only in the hearts of women that love would know no abatement. These disciples, however, had never ceased to love. To me the very ground of their unbelief is a tender proof of their affection. Him they saw not–had they but seen Him; they saw a vision of angels, but saw ye Him whom our souls love? No, Him they saw not; and what if they saw thousands of angels, what if all the angels of heaven should appear, they cannot console us for our bereavement. They still loved, but their hearts bad been crushed by such a blow. The fire was almost extinguished; it is now fanned; the dying embers begin to glow, the smoking flax blazes up. They know not the stranger, but He speaks to them of One dearer to them than life; how much sweeter the memory of Him than the presence of all besides! Do you ask me what emotions burned in the hearts of these disciples? I answer, joy. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. There is vouchsafed to them now a foretaste of the Pentecostal fire. Their hearts burn within them, burn with joy. In a word, and not to dwell too long upon this topic, the hearts of these disciples burned, not only with love and joy, but with the strangest, sweetest surprise. Their astonishment and rapture must have been overpowering an hour later, when their eyes were opened and they knew Him, and He vanished out of their sight. What a moment that! What ages crowded into that moment!

IV. In finishing this discourse, LET US EXTRACT FROM THIS HISTORY TWO LESSONS, and let the first be, The duty of living by faith, not by sight. When we open the sacred Volume we find that to faith nothing is impossible; but where is this omnipotent grace? Yet this entire narrative–the Saviours rebuke of these disciples–the manner in which He instructs them–His sudden vanishing–all teaches us that it is not by the senses, but by faith in revealed truth that we are to walk. He appears to convince them of His resurrection, and to assure them of His constant care and faithfulness. He disappears, to teach that, though they have known Him after the flesh, henceforth they are only to know Him and commune with Him spiritually. Another lesson. Let us seek burning hearts. Faith is a great word; but there is a greater, more imperial word, it is Love. The life of love is a truer, higher life than that of faith; its strength failed not amidst all the unbelief of these disciples; and it will be perpetuated and perfected in heaven, when faith shall cease for ever. Let us seek burning hearts. Intellect is good, and imagination is good; but a heart on fire, a heart inflamed with love, is best of all. (R. Fuller, D. D.)

What manner of communications are these?—

Easter consolations

The Lords question was the language, not of reproof, but of sympathy. Something like reproof came later on: but as yet He can think only of their sadness. Their sadness was written, so the original word implies, in their countenances: but He, of course, saw deeper. And whether the allusion to the sadness formed part of His question, or belongs, as is probable, to the evangelists description, does not really matter: the drift of the early part of His question was plain enough.

I. WHAT WAS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SADNESS OF THE TWO DISCIPLES?

1. It was, first of all, the sadness of a bereavement. They had been with Jesus, we know not how long; they had seen and heard Him: He had conquered a great place in their hearts. They had seen Him arrested, insulted, crucified, dead, buried. So far their sadness was that of the Magdalene, when she asked the supposed gardener where they had laid the sacred body. We most of us know something of the heartache of a great bereavement.

2. But, then, secondly, the sadness of the disciples was also caused by mental perplexity. Here, as elsewhere in the Gospels, we see the different bearing of men and women in the hour of sorrow. A woman is most distressed when her heart has lost its accustomed object. A man is by no means insensible to this source of sorrow; but he commonly feels a distress, which a woman does not feel, at least equally, when his intelligence, his sense of truth, is perplexed.

3. Once more, theirs was the sadness of a forfeited object in life, of a shattered career. They had, as they thought, given themselves to Jesus, to His cause and work, for good and all. They had embarked all the energy and resolve of life in that service, in that companionship, so full, as it seemed, of coming blessing and triumph: when lo! as it appeared, all had collapsed.

II. IN OUR MODERN WORLD ARE TO BE SEEN, NOT SELDOM, DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN NAME, DOWNCAST AND SADDENED, WHO ARE LEAVING JERUSALEM, AS IF ON THE POINT OF GIVING HIM UP. And He, as of old, joins them in another form, so that their eyes are holden, and they do not know Him. He comes to them in His Church, which is in their eyes only a human institution; or in His Scriptures, which seem to them but a human literature; or in His Sacraments, in which they can discern nothing more than outward ceremonies. Yet He has a question to put to them, and a word of comfort to address to them, if they will but listen. For they are sad; sad for nearly the same reasons as were the two disciples on the Emmaus road.

1. First of all, there is the sadness of mental perplexity. The understanding has its fashions as well as the heart; its fashions of distress as well as its fashions of enjoyment. In our day, many men, who have not wholly renounced the name of Christ, are oppressed by what they call, not unreasonably, the mystery of existence. They see around them a world of nature, and a human world too. Each in a thousand ways creates perplexity and disappointment. Whence comes the natural world? If we lose sight of what faith teaches as to the creation of all things out of nothing by God, all is at once wrapped in darkness. Our risen Lord offers us the true solution.

2. Next, there is the sadness of the conscience. Where distinct acts of wrong-doing are not constantly and vividly present to the memory, there is a moral cloud brooding over the soul, from whose shadow escape is rarely possible. Our risen Lord reveals Himself to those who are weighed down by sin, as pardoning and blotting it out. He bare our sins in His own body on the tree; and it is the blood of Jesus Christ which cleanses us from all sin. But what is it that gives His death this power? It is that the worth and merits of His Person are incalculable, since He is the everlasting Son of God. And what is the proof of this which He Himself offered to His disciples and to the world? It is His resurrection from the dead.

3. Thirdly, there is that sadness of the soul which arises from the want of an object in life; an object to be grasped by the affections, to be aimed at by the will. This is a kind of melancholy which is common enough among persons who have all the advantages which money and position can secure: they do not know what to do with themselves. They devote themselves to expedients for diminishing the lassitude of existence; they apply first to this excitement, then to that: they spend their lives in trying to kill time. What a disclosure of the hopeless misuse of life lies in that expression, killing time! To persons who are thus living without an object, Christ our Lord appears, once it may be at least; to teach them that there is something worth living for; the known will of the eternal God. (Canon Liddon.)

Our Lords question

1. This inquiry may be regarded as an instance of our Lords tenderness and compassion towards His disciples.

2. Our Lords question was an indication of His authority. He speaks not on]y as a friend, but as their Lord and Saviour.

3. The question might be proposed in order to teach both them and others the propriety of frequently putting a similar inquiry to themselves.

1. Is the general tenor of our conversation light and indifferent, or is it serious and edifying?

2. Does our conversation never border upon profaneness, even while it is free from the grosser expressions of it?

3. Is our conversation seasoned with salt, so as to minister edification to the hearers?

4. Are we careful as to the manner of our conversation, as well as to the matter of it; to see that the spirit of it corresponds with the subject of discourse?

As spiritual things can only be spiritually discerned, so they can be communicated only by such as are spiritually minded. When our tongues are fluent, are our hearts warm and lively? In order that our conversation may be as becometh the gospel of Christ, let us observe the following directions:

1. Get a good treasure in your hearts, and let them be well stored with Divine truth; for it is out of this that the good householder bringeth forth good things. If the truth dwell in us richly in all wisdom, it will be like a well of water, springing up unto everlasting life.

2. Meditate much upon Divine subjects. Whilst I was musing, says David, the fire burned. What God communicates to us by our thoughts, we shall be ready to communicate to others in our words.

3. Seek Divine direction, and say with the Psalmist, Open Thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Thy praise. If we were as full of matter as Elihu, yet what we utter would not tend to the glory of God, unless we are under the influence of His Holy Spirit (Psa 51:15; Eph 5:18-19).

4. Carefully avoid whatever might prove an impediment to spiritual and edifying conversation. Shun carnal company, disregard the reproaches of ignorant and wicked men, and seek the society of experimental Christians. He that walketh with wise men shall be wise; but a companion of fools shall be destroyed (Pro 13:20; Hos 14:9). (B. Beddome, M. A.)

A wise method of dealing with mourners

Observe that, when the Saviour did come to these mourning ones, He acted very wisely towards them. He did not at once begin by saying, I know why you are sad. No; He waited for them to speak, and in His patience drew forth from them the items and particulars of their trouble. You that deal with mourners, learn hence the way of wisdom. Do not talk too much yourselves. Let the swelling heart relieve itself. Jeremiah derives a measure of help from his own lamentations; even Job feels a little the better from pouring out his complaint. Those griefs which are silent run very deep, and drown the soul in misery. It is good to let sorrow have a tongue where sympathy hath an ear. Allow those who are seeking the Lord to tell you their difficulties: do not discourse much with them till they have done so. You will be the better able to deal with them, and they will be the better prepared to receive your words of cheer. Often, by facing the disease of sorrow the cure is half effected; for many doubts and fears vanish when described. Mystery gives a tooth to misery, and when that mystery is extracted by a clear description, the sharpness of the woe is over. Learn, then, ye who would be comforters, to let mourners hold forth their wound before you pour in the oil and wine. (C. H.Spurgeon.)

Sad hearts

Samuel Rutherford used to say, I wonder many times that ever a child of God should have a sad heart, considering what the Lord is preparing for him. When we shall come home, and enter into the possession of our Brothers fair kingdom, and when our heads shall find the weight of the eternal crown of glory, and when we shall look back to pains and suffering, then shall we see life and sorrow to be less than one step or stride from a prison to glory, and that our little inch of time-suffering is not worthy of our first nights welcome home to heaven.

What things?—

Faith and fact

We naturally inquire, why did He ask this question? Not for His own sake, certainly. He not only knew, but was Himself the very subject of the narrative which He would obtain from their lips. What things? He asks.

I. Notice, first of all, the important circumstance that HE CALLS THEIR ATTENTION TO FACTS. It is an important circumstance. In the world, fact is our master; the truth is, after all, that which we need, and which controls us. No alchemy of logic, no splendour of fancy, can dissolve this. A man may live in an ideal world while he dreams, but waking brings him to solid earth, and to the slow and real steps of daily life. The ultimate question for us, with reference to everything that demands our allegiance or assent, is this: Is it fact? Christianity must submit to this test, as all other things. Men fancy that it does not meet the requirement. The impression is widely prevalent. We may not stop to enumerate all the circumstances that lead to this impression, and yet a few may be referred to. First of all, those circumstances that have existed in connection with widely-spread revivals of religion have impressed upon the minds of many critical observers the conclusion that Christianity is all a romance, a dream. It may be impossible, by any mere human criteria, to discriminate between that which is passional and earthly and that which is the work of the Spirit. God knoweth His own. It is not necessary for me to know whether my neighbour be a Christian; it is necessary for me to know that I am in communion with God. I am not bound to anatomize, dissect, and understand the working of his heart. I must deal with my own heart. A second circumstance that leads to this impression is the wide disparity between the profession of Christians and the manifestation of the power of the gospel in their lives. They cannot probe nor understand hidden life. Christianity seems unreal to them, because it is still and unobtrusive. A third cause of the impression is the persistent and earnest efforts, often reiterated, and especially prominent in our day, to do away with the historic basis of Christianity, and to construct a God out of human consciousness. They tell us that Christianity, after all, is only the religion of nature: it found a temporary manifestation here; but it existed before, and exists now, without revelation. That it is, indeed, the religion which nature demands, the outcry of the soul among all nations, civilized and barbaric, affirms; but that it is the religion that nature offers, the agony of the crucified, and the wail of the philosopher in the early ages, and the burden of those who in heathenism to-day cry out for light and confess their despair, all these deny. And yet we have those who placidly tell us that religion is storax, and chlorine, and rosemary; a mountain air, and the silent song of the stars is it. A mountain air, indeed, is such religion–very thin and very cold, where men soon gasp and die. Not thus did Christ and His apostles deal with the historic facts of Christianity. Here, you observe, He appeals to certain things, upon the reality of which all His further dealings with these men, and all their hopes, are based. If these things have not occurred–if these things are not brought back vividly to their memory–if upon these things and their actuality He cannot build His subsequent words, they are deluded and defrauded, and their hopes are vain. The Gospels themselves are a compend of almost naked facts. Men now, as well as then, have to deal with concrete actualities in Christianity and its attendant evidences. Let me refer to two or three. You remember that famous answer to the king who demanded a visible miracle: Your Majesty–the Jews. They are an anomaly, a perpetual miracle among the nations. Living in every country, yet having no country; intermixed in trade, yet not in blood, with other nations; preserving their distinct identity; a people with a memory and a hope, who look longingly and passionately back to empty Jerusalem, and claim it still as their own, though for hundreds of years they have been only permitted to touch the precious stones of the foundation of their temple. How shall we explain their presence in the world? How are we to account for the circumstances which environ them? I see upon them the brand of blood, and I remember how, at the transaction in Jerusalem, they said, His blood be upon us. If this Bible gives the true history of the Jews, their condition is explained; if not, no theorist, no philosopher, no student of the science of history can explain it to me. I look to the Church of God–and, that I may be more specific, to a single Church–not to the Church universal, whose outlines are not clearly visible. I look to a single Church, as an existing institution, as a fact in the community. I put it alongside of earthly institutions–of those various organizations which men have framed for benevolent, social, and literary purposes. I point to the perpetuity of the individual Church. I come to individuals. It is sufficient if there be a single man who realizes, in any considerable degree, that which the gospel promises concerning the restoration of man to ideal perfectness. Read over that wonderful catalogue which Paul gives us of the Christian virtues, in the thirteenth chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians. Think of a man who is wise, and patient, and pure, and long-suffering, and charitable, and unenvious, and hopeful, and truthful–all the virtues that you can catalogue. But he tells you all this is built upon his companionship with Christ–upon the power of faith in actual redemption through Christ. Is not such a case a fact in life, and has not such a fact come within your reach? But take another case. Let it be a woman, who, in her early womanhood, has given her heart, full of overflowing affection, to the one she trusted as her husband. He has deceived her. The world has dealt coldly with her. She has no longer a home or a husband, and her children look despair into her eyes as she turns to them. Yet there is a Book she clings to, and a sacred place of comfort; and the heart does not burst with agony. Alone! She declares she is not alone. That which no human sympathy could give–that which no human wisdom could teach–has been given and taught; strength has been put into that dismayed soul that makes her master of herself and of the world, notwithstanding its crushing power. Is not this a fact? And now I insist that these facts of which I have spoken have no significance, except they relate back to the facts to which these two men referred. The Lords Supper, celebrated month by month, would have no explanation in facts, and no meaning as a ceremony, if it had not been an uninterrupted and perpetual memorial of an event that transpired. The Church has no foundation, if it be not founded on a real Christ and His authentic work among men. You will find that this monument of fact in the world rests upon Calvary; and Calvary itself thrusts its deep roots down to the earlier world. A solid basis of history is given us, such as no other religion has. Christianity gives us a historic record from the foundation of the world; and the New Testament is knit upon the Old as the subsequent history of the Church is knit upon it. Now I say that, if it be not literal truth, as these men reiterated it, that Christ was crucified; if it be not a fact, as revealed to them, that Christ is risen; if this basis for our faith be swept away, then the Church is dissolved like the fabric of a vision. I look back through the centuries to Paul, and hear him say: If Christ be not risen, your hope is vain; ye are yet in your sins. I hear the army of martyrs cry: Our blood is spilt in vain. I hear Luther lifting up his voice, crying: I have deceived the nations, declaring that the just shall live by faith. But, admitting the need that these facts should exist, why does He ask these men to recount them? Why does He bid them go back again over those painful, thorny steps which they have just trod, and view again those agonizing scenes, and recall the mournful words? Before we answer the question, let us ask another: Why did these facts, so momentous, influence so few? Why was not Palestine convulsed morally as well as physically by the mighty earthquake when Christ died? What things? And, first of all, I recognize the fact that He would fix their attention upon the events that have been transpiring. We must distinguish between the mere open eye upon which passing objects paint their unnoticed outline, and the observing eye. We must distinguish between things which are just seen and then dismissed, and those which are retained by voluntary effort. These men are about to dismiss the subject of their thoughts. He calls it back. What things? They have fallen into mere musing, mere droning over the past. He brings them back to active memory and active study again.

I. In the second place, He asks them, What things? that, in recounting, they may PERCEIVE THE RELATIONS OF THE EVENTS NARRATED. This is the greater part of knowledge. The mere mob of motley transactions that are flowing before us in the world, cannot, as such, be of service to us. He who would learn from nature, must study the order of nature–must bind up like with like, and, study the dissimilarities of things that differ. He who will fairly study Christianity in the earth, must take the dominant facts of Christianity, and impartially weigh them in their relations. Christianity must be contrasted with error, in the whole breadth of each. Things that are alike must be noticed and marked out, as the algebraist strikes out, from the two sides of an equation, elements that correspond, retaining only those that differ. The accidental must be distinguished from the necessary, the formal from the essential; and so a broad and impartial vision must measure the outlines. Compare the godly man with the ungodly, and when you have sifted the two, and so reached radical character, how much is left in the godly man, and how much is left in the ungodly? These are the inquiries with which you have to do. In the history of Christianity as a force among nations–socially and governmentally–in the historic development of doctrine, and its bearings on life–in the history of individual Churches–it is the question for men fairly to consider: What are the facts, the residuary facts? So comes the conclusion of the whole matter. These disciples had not forgotten, but remembered confusedly and in fragments. They must pass the whole in review, in broad vision see the relation of part with part, lest they lose the benefit of the lesson which has been given them. There are two difficulties in attempting fairly to weigh facts. One is, the disposition to prejudge–to test history by theory. These men had a theory. It was perfectly clear to them. God had not given it to them; intuition had not disclosed it; but they had concluded it–they were sure that, when the Messiah should come, He would be a triumphant Saviour; that He would march boldly into Jerusalem, lay His hand upon the sceptre and throne, and the Roman power dissolve before Him. This had not been. They had seen Him hang pale and lifeless upon the cross, and consigned to the tomb stark and dead. How could He be the Messiah? The matter was disposed of in their minds. A second difficulty that lay in their way is a common one. With half glimpses, and a confused idea of facts, they had begun reasoning together. This is almost instinctive. Men get two facts of a ease, and presume a third; and, upon the two facts and a presumption, go to work to build a conclusion. Here is a surveyor who wishes to measure the height of yonder tree. He measures the base-line; he knows the tree is perpendicular, and so has a right-angle; now, he guesses at the angle from here to the top of the tree, and on these data seeks to find the height of the tree. Will he ever get it? Science offers to us two or three data; to these known, we add certain unknown quantities, counting them as also known, and so set off to map out the heavenly spaces. These men had a part only of the facts, and they had begun at once to draw general conclusions. There was a fairer way. They remembered Christs words–they alluded to them. They remembered the event of the crucifixion, and that three days had transpired, and they had heard the words of the women, that He was gone from the tomb. Did they count this a mere vision of enthusiasts, who, by reason of their femininity, might be supposed to be peculiarly imaginative? Still, it was confirmed by their calmer brethren. So far as the testimony went, it was all in the direction of fulfilment of His word. It was no time to deny or surmise, but rather to hope and wait and watch. Philip said to Nathaniel, when he asked, Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Come and see. So far as the facts you have seen go, do they point to the truth of Christianity? Do not pause at that point to argue, much less to deny, but, if you would have confirmation, come and see. It is Gods own method. Once more. It was NOT SUFFICIENT FOR THEM SIMPLY TO THINK OVER the facts–they must also SPEAK them. Now, this may at first seem strange to us; but consider how vital is the relation of human speech to the development of character, and to self-acquaintance. We see now the process by which Christ leads these men out of their bewilderment into perfect light. The facts were all accessible, but, though within reach, they were not grasped, and would soon have been swallowed up in forgetfulness. He calls up again these flitting forms and sets them in array; and beside them sets a prophecy uttered four hundred years before, and shows them how, item by item, it corresponds with these. He goes farther back, from Malachi to Isaiah, and from Isaiah to David, and from David to Moses. He sets a torchlight on every hill, until their wondering eyes look back along the pathway to the gateway of Eden, and they see the glowing words, The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpents head; It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. They understand now the gigantic conflict which has transpired, and that from it the Messiah must come forth, having trodden the wine-press alone, with garments blood-red, to lift His sceptre over a redeemed universe, His bruised heel upon the crushed head of the monster. Their hearts burn within them; they longed for the truth, and now, the truth being come to them, their hearts are aglow, and they constrain Him to abide with them. They have learned the lesson–their faith is confirmed. He is known to them, and vanishes from their sight. This method in the revelation of Himself to a soul, commends itself to reasonable men; proceeding from facts to conclusions–from the known to the unknown–from the natural to the supernatural. (Jesse B. Thomas, D. D.)

But we trusted

A mistaken here

I. THEIR PREVIOUS CONFIDENCE.

1. The object of that confidence. They had formed defective views as to the

(1) needful atonement, and

(2) attendant benefits.

2. The ground of that confidence. In part substantially and in part visionary. They were misled by prevailing misconceptions.

II. THEIR PRESENT DESPONDENCY.

1. Its extent. Heartfelt dejection.

2. The occasion of it (see Luk 24:20).

Lessons:

1. To shame our low distrust. The things we fear are for us

Rom 8:28).

2. To confirm our highest hope. Sufferings, death, and resurrection of Jesus established. (F. Fitch, M. A.)

Sunset sorrow and lost hopes

Here we have an illustration of men who had hoped great things, and God had disappointed them. But we learn that God had disappointed them by making His fulfilment larger than their hope. They hoped too little. It is so yet with many whom sunset sorrow overshadows. It is not easy for us to realize that the world of God is larger than our world. In ancient times the imperfect knowledge of men reduced the world to a mere fraction of its actual size and contents. The entire globe rested on the shoulders of Atlas then; the Mediterranean was the Great Sea; the Straits of Gibraltar formed the worlds end. But with the advance of knowledge the earth widened; Atlas lost the honour of being the supporter of the globe; an Atlantic was discovered beyond the pillars of Hercules at Gibraltar, stretching immeasurable and unknown towards the west. Religious geography has fared no better. The gods of ancient days were mostly lords, with uncertain divinity and still more uncertain morality.
Theology was superstition. Life was an idle dream. But are we sure that our religious geography, even in the present day, is so advanced as to be as broad as Gods world? Councils, and synods, and creeds have eagerly striven to keep enterprising voyagers from passing beyond settled limits. Men have ever been frightened of Gods open seas. They prefer a tideless Mediterranean to the broad swell and shoreless ranges of an Atlantic. We hoped–what? That God was much less than He has turned out to be; that His kingdom would fall peacefully within the limits we had ordained for it! A child, brought up in a deep and narrow glen, never having ventured out of it, has reduced the sum of visible things to a very insignificant item tie has seen the sun rise over the hill, the wheel of its chariot evidently grazing the summit before mounting higher; he hopes to touch the sun some day, and put his hand to hide its face. And the stars that look down upon him at night–such little things, so near and so many–they would be charming to play with. And the blue summer sky–whatexquisite joy it would be to place his cheek for a moment close to the cool sweet surface! The day arrives; the child stands on the hill, with all the pretty dreams of childhood vanished for ever in the painful and overwhelming surprise of new thoughts. The sun has climbed very high, and the summer sky is very far off. Creation has widened, but it has spoilt many a pleasant hope. His former world is judged; it is a very little place! This is only a special case that is typical of a great deal in universal human history. In the star-guesses of ancient days the earth was made out to be a planet of the first order–it was the centre of the universe, having sun and moon and stars under its command. It was the earth–and the rest of creation. We have changed all that. The earth has slowly and quietly sunk into its proper position, a little orb of light and shade in the midst of a thousand orbs much larger than it. But, let it be remembered, it is not the earth that has grown smaller, but the conception of the creation that has widened. The same is true with regard to our spiritual attainments. Thoughts of God and of His kingdom that we had cherished long have to be given up–not because they are too great, but because they are too little. He does away with our hopes by outshining them. We hoped that we might touch the sun and stars and eternal sky; hut God lifts them very high and makes the world very large. It is thus that God, in loving wisdom, disappoints the hopes of men, lest they should satisfy themselves too soon. The hand that breaks our fondest wishes is full of larger mercies than we had expected ever to see. God sends us the pain of a heavy loss in order that we may be led out of our narrowness and self-completeness into broader fields of thought and action. Little hopes make life little; great hopes make a great life. When we limit God we make ourselves poor; when we enlarge our conception of Him we enlarge our whole being. (H. Elvet Lewis.)

But Him they saw not

Him they saw not

I. WE HAVE HERE AN UNBELIEVING SEARCH.

II. WE HAVE ALSO HERE FINDING WITHOUT A SEARCH. An anxious, honest doubt will not shut out visions of God from the soul.

III. WE HAVE HERE THE DISCOVERY OF CHRIST BY WOMANS LOVE.

IV. APPLICATION. Him they saw not. To see Him is the characteristic and end of all true life.

1. Him they saw not–a sad confession when made in reference to our stated worship hours. To meet Him we ostensibly assemble and join in the outer forms of reverence and worship, and yet of how many may our text apply, Him they saw not.

2. Him they saw not, a sad confession when made in relation to the service of work. We see the terrible aspects of human misery, poverty in a thousand forms, and sin in many of its loathsome shapes. Do we see Him in those scenes? In our daily toil how true it is of many–oh, so many–Him they see not!

3. Him they saw not. How sad in relation to earths sorrows! Sad, yet true. The brotherhood of sorrow and trouble is a worldwide brotherhood. There runs a chain of sorrow through time; this is all dark and mysterious if Him the sufferers see not. (W. Scott.)

O fools, and slow of heart

The folly of unbelief

I. UNBELIEF IS FOLLY.

1. It is folly because it arises from want of thought and consideration. Not to think is folly. To give way to sadness, when a little thought would prevent it, is foolishness. If these two disciples had sat down and said, Now the prophets have said concerning the Messias that He shall be led as a lamb to the slaughter, and thus was it with our Master, they would have been confirmed in their confidence that Jesus was the Messiah. In the Scriptures they would have found types, and figures, and plain words, in which the death and the rising again, the shame and the glory of Christ are linked together, and His cross is made the road to His throne. Had they compared the testimony of the holy women with the prophecies of the Old Testament, they would have obtained ground of hope. How many a precious text have you and I read again and again without perceiving its joyful meaning, because our minds have been clouded with despondency! We take the telescope, and try to look into heavenly things, and we breathe upon the glass with the hot breath of our anxiety till we cannot see anything; and then we conclude that there is nothing to be seen.

2. Unbelief is folly because it is inconsistent with our own professions. The two disciples professed that they believed in the prophets; and I have no doubt that they did do so. They were devout Jews who accepted the Holy Books as Divinely inspired, and therefore infallible; and yet now they were acting as if they did not believe in the prophets at all.

3. Folly, again, is clearly seen in unbelieving sadness, because the evidence which should cheer us is so clear. In the ease of the brethren going to Emmaus they had solid ground for hope. They speak, to my mind, a little cavalierly of the holy women as certain women. I say not they speak disrespectfully; but there is a slurring of their witness by casting a doubt upon it. If those who were at the empty sepulchre were to be believed, why did they doubt? The evidence which they themselves detail, though we have it only in brief in this place, was conclusive evidence that Christ had left the tomb; and yet they doubted it. Now, you and I have had superabundant evidence of the faithfulness of God, and if we are unbelieving, we are unreasonable and foolish.

4. Unbelief is folly, because it very often arises out of our being in such a hurry. They said, Beside all this, this is the third day. Although the Saviour had said that He would rise on the third day, He had not said that He would appear to them all on the third day. He told them to go into Galilee, and there they should see Him; but that meeting had not yet come. He that believeth shall not make haste; but they that do not believe are always restless. Well is it written, Ye have need of patience. Gods promises will be kept to the moment, but they will not all be fulfilled today. Divine promises are some of them bills which are payable so many days after sight; and because they are not paid at sight we doubt whether they are good bills. Is this reasonable? Are we not foolish to doubt the sure handwriting of a God that cannot lie?

5. Yet, again, I think we may well be accused of folly whenever we doubt, because we make ourselves suffer needlessly. There are enough bitter wells in this wilderness without our digging more. There are enough real causes of sorrow without our inventing imaginary ones. No asp ever stung Cleopatra so terribly as that which she held to her breast herself.

6. I want you to notice yet further that it was folly, but it was nothing more. I feel so thankful to our Lord for using that word. Though we ought to condemn our own unbelief with all our hearts, yet our Saviour is full of tenderness, and so freely forgives, that He looks upon our fault as folly, and not as wilful wickedness. He knows that it is true of his children, as it is of ours, that folly is bound up in the heart of a child.

II. In the second place, our Lord rebuked them for SLOWNESS OF HEART TO BELIEVE.

1. First, we are slow in heart to believe our God, for we are much more ready to believe others than to believe Him. I am often amazed with the credulity of good people whom I had credited with more sense. Credulity towards man and incredulity towards God are singular things to find in the same person. Let us henceforth accept every syllable of Gods Word as infallible, while we turn our unbelief towards man and his philosophies and infidelities!

2. Is it not clear that we are slow of heart to believe, since we judge this of others when they are mistrustful?

3. There is another point in which we are very slow of heart to believe, namely, that we do believe, and yet do not believe. We must be very slow of heart when we say Yes, I believe that promise, and yet we do not expect it to be fulfilled. We are quick of mind to believe mentally, but we are slow of heart to believe practically. The very heart of our believing is slow. They talk about believing in the Lord for eternity, but for this day and next week they are full of fear. True faith is every-day faith. We want a faith which will endure the wear and tear of life–a practical, realizing faith, which trusts in God from hour to hour.

4. These two disciples must have been slow of heart to believe, again, because they had enjoyed so much excellent teaching, and they ought to have been solid believers. They had been for years with Jesus Christ

Himself as a tutor, and yet they had not learned the elements of simple faith.

5. Once more, these two disciples were very slow of heart to believe, because there is so much in the Word which ought to have convinced them. See how the Saviour puts it–Slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. What a mighty all that is! Brethren, are you half aware of the treasure bidden in the field of Scripture?

III. Now I want to speak on this matter TO THE UNCONVERTED. Some of you are really seeking the Lord, but you say that you cannot believe though you long to believe.

1. This unbelief proves you to be foolish, and slow of heart, for there are other parts of His Word which you easily believe. If there is a text that speaks of judgment to come you believe it. You are ready enough to take in the hard things, but the gracious promises of the loving Christ you will not believe. How can you justify this? How foolish you are t The promises are in the same Book as the threatenings, and if you believe the one, believe the other.

2. Next, you are very foolish, because your objections against believing are altogether poor and puerile. One man cannot believe in Jesus because he does not feel humble enough; as if that affected Christs power to save. If he felt more humbled, then he could believe in Jesus. Would not that be just believing in himself, and trusting in his own humility instead of trusting in Christ?

3. Though you find it so hard to believe Christ, you have found it very easy to believe in yourself.

4. Moreover, you are very apt now to believe Satan if he comes and says that the Bible is not true, or that Jesus will not accept you, or that you have sinned beyond hope, or that the grace of God cannot save you.

5. Then you know how ready you are, you seekers, to stop short of Christ.

6. And then some of you are foolish and slow of heart because you make such foolish demands upon God. You would believe if you could hear a voice, if you could dream a dream, if some strange thing were to happen in your family. What I Is God to be tied to your fancies.

7. You are foolish and slow of heart because, to a great extent, you ignore the Word of God and its suitability to your case. If a soul in distress will take down the Bible, and turn it over, he need not took long before he will light upon a passage which describes himself as the object of mercy. Those two disciples did not, for a while, see how the prophets met the case of the crucified and risen Christ; but as they did see it, their hearts burned within them. As you also see how God has provided for your condition in His Word, in His covenant, in His Son, your sadness will flee away. (C. H.Spurgeon.)

Ought not Christ to have suffered?—

Gain from the sufferings of Christ

I. IN CONSEQUENCE OF THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST, AN INNUMERABLE MULTITUDE OF OUR RACE WILL BE RAISED FROM A STATE OF SINFUL DEGRADATION AND MISERY, AND EXALTED TO THE SOCIETY OF ANGELS AND OF GOD.

II. IN CONSEQUENCE OF THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST, ALL WHO FINALLY BELIEVE AND TRUST IN HIM, AS THE SON OF GOD, WILL BE CONFIRMED IN A STATE OF PERFECT HOLINESS AND HAPPINESS FOR EVER.

III. IN THE PROPITIATORY SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. THE DIVINE CHARACTER, IN ITS VARIOUS ATTRIBUTES, IS GLORIOUSLY DISPLAYED. Reflections:

1. From this subject we are led to admire the character of Gods government.

2. We are led to mourn how exceedingly limited are the views of those who think that the only object of Christs coming into our world was to publish a good system of morality, and to set us a good example!

3. We learn how very imperfect are the views of those who suppose that the only object of Christs coming into our world was to save sinners. But oh! what is the salvation of millions who creep on earth–what is this compared with those glorious displays of Gods character, or compared with that eternal confidence in His government which is inspired among the loftier and wider provinces of His empire?

4. We ought not to distrust the wisdom of Providence, even in those events which seem dark and mysterious.

5. Let Christians be provoked to self-denying sacrifices in the cause of humanity, and untiring devotedness to the Saviour.

6. Let the wicked and the worldling, amid the blaze of gospel light, be constrained to repent and believe.

7. The reflection very naturally follows, that incorrigible sinners must be punished with immeasurable severity.

8. We learn from this subject the great propriety of frequently commemorating the dying of the Lord Jesus. (A. Dickinson, M. A.)

The sufferings and the glory of the Christ

I. THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE SUFFERINGS AND THE GLORY OF CHRIST.

II. THE MORAL OBLIGATION.

1. In reference to the fulfilment of inspired prophecy.

2. In reference to the eternal purpose of God.

3. In reference to the conscious needs of our own nature. (J. Waite, B. A.)

Ends proposed in the sufferings of Christ

1. It was requisite that Christ should suffer, in order that He might verify His own predictions.

2. A succession of prophets had foretold His sufferings.

3. That the salvation of mankind depended on His death, and could not have been effected without it.

4. The full display of the glorious character of God required that Christ should suffer.

5. A farther end, a subordinate one, I confess, was that Christ, in suffering, might give us an example of holiness and virtue. (R. Hall, M. A.)

The sufferings and glory of Christ

I. THE PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS OF CHRISTS SUFFERINGS FOR SIN.

1. He had a clear view of the unspeakable hideousness and odiousness of sin.

2. He was conscious of the Divine displeasure on account of sin.

3. He was conscious of the absence of the Divine favour, and the presence and power of Satan.

II. THE CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH RENDERED THESE SUFFERINGS NECESSARY.

1. They were necessary for the full manifestation of the Divine character in the work of redemption.

2. They were necessary to prevent the salvation of sinners from infringing on the authority and government of God.

III. THE GLORY WHICH IS THE RESULT AND REWARD OF THE SAVIOURS SUFFERINGS (see Php 2:9-11).

1. The glory and honour thus bestowed on Christ, are conferred on Him in His character of Mediator.

2. The glory of Christ arises from His superiority over the hosts of heaven.

3. Christ possesses glory as the Governor of the world.

4. Christ is glorious as the Sovereign Head of the Church. (W. L. Alexander, D. D.)

He expounded

Christs first sermon after His resurrection; or, Christ the theme of the prophets

I. LET US FIRST CONSIDER OUR LORDS SERMON ON THIS OCCASION.

II. LET US CONSIDER THE BENEFITS WE MAY DERIVE FROM THIS SERMON.

1. It encourages us to search and understand the Scriptures.

2. It encourages us to preach Scripture sermons.

3. It calls the people to listen to Scripture sermons.

4. This sermon should move the preachers of the gospel to imitate their blessed Master in preaching Christ, as suitable opportunities are presented, even to small congregations.

5. This sermon strengthens our faith in the truth of the Scriptures.

6. This sermon tends to increase our abhorrence of sin.

7. This sermon should increase our love to Christ.

8. This sermon should revive our zeal for Christs cause, and for the salvation of our fellow-creatures.

9. This sermon confirms our hope of heaven.

10. This sermon affords great encouragement to penitent, believing souls.

11. This sermon should be a warning to us that the threatenings of the Bible will be fulfilled. (E. Hedding, D. D.)

The Bible a rich storehouse

There are promises in Gods Word that no man has ever tried to find. There are treasures of gold and silver in it that no man has taken the pains to dig for. There are medicines in it for the want of a knowledge of which hundreds have died. It seems to me like some old baronial estate that has descended to a man who lives in a modern house and thinks it scarcely worth while to go and look into the venerable mansion. Year after year passes away, and he pays no attention to it, since he has no suspicion of the valuable treasures it contains, till at last some man says to him, Have you been up in the country to look at that estate? He makes up his mind that he will take a look at it. As he goes through the porch he is surprised to see the skill that has been displayed in its construction; he is more and more impressed as he goes through the halls. He enters a large room, and is astonished as he beholds the wealth of pictures upon the walls, among which are portraits of many of his revered ancestors. He stands in amazement before them. There is a Titian, there is a Raphael, there is a Correggio, and there is a Giorgione. He says, I never had any idea of these before. Ah! says the steward, there is many another thing that you know nothing about in this castle; and he takes him from room to room, and shows him carved plate and wonderful statues, and the man exclaims, Here I have been for a score of years the owner of this estate, and have never before known what things were in it! But no architect ever conceived of such an estate as Gods Word, and no artist, or carver, or sculptor, ever conceived of such pictures, and carved dishes, and statues, as adorn its apartments. Its halls and passages cannot be surpassed for beauty of architecture, and it contains treasures that silver and gold and precious stones are not to be mentioned in connection with. (H. W. Beecher.)

Abide with us

Disciples at Emmaus

I. THEIR REQUEST. Abide with us.

1. As a companion.

2. As a teacher.

3. As a comforter.

4. As a guest.

II. THEIR PLEA. Toward evening. Christ makes the night to be light about us.

III. THEIR EARNESTNESS. Constrained.

1. Hearty.

2. Prompt.

3. Persistent.

IV. Their success. He went in. Wonderful power in prayer, Peasants of earth can prevail with Prince of heaven. Creatures of a day can detain Creator of universe. (W. Jackson.)

Christ constrained to abide

I. CHRISTS PRESENCE IS EXCEEDINGLY DESIRABLE TO THE SAINTS. This appears from their earnest desires after it, and their sorrows when deprived of it.

1. The presence of Christ is an evidence of His love. Fellowship is the fruit of friendship.

2. Christs presence is attended with the most desirable effects; none can enjoy it without deriving the greatest advantages from it. It conveys light into the understanding, as well as warmth into the affections; so that in proportion to the measure of Christs revealing Himself to us will he the measure of our profiting in the knowledge of Him.

3. Present communion with Christ is an earnest of everlasting fruition.

II. A SEEMINGLY DEPARTING SAVIOUR MAY BE CONSTRAINED, AS IT WERE, TO ABIDE WITH HIS PEOPLE. Speaking after the manner of men, there are three ways of constraining Christ to abide with us.

1. By the exercise of a lively faith.

2. By fervent prayer.

3. By a suitable conduct towards Him. If we would have Christ abide with us, we must do what we can to delight Him and make His stay pleasant. (B. Beddome, M. A.)

The blessed Guest detained

I. COMPANIONS LIKELY TO PART.

1. Observe the reason of parting. If Jesus had gone further, it would have been entirely because they forgot to invite Him or failed to urge Him to stay.

2. The point at which they were at all likely to part company with Christ.

(1) A point of change.

(2) A point where something had been accomplished.

(3) They were now about to rest for a time.

3. Had they parted company, the act would have been most blameworthy on their part.

II. THE GUEST NEEDING TO BE PRESSED.

1. He could not very well have tarried otherwise.

2. This is a characteristic of the Son of God at all times.

(1) He is jealous of our love.

(2) Another reason is His anxiety to do us good. He wisely wishes that we should value the mercy which He gives, by being led to consider what a case we should be in if He did not give it.

III. A GUEST WORTH PRESSING.

IV. AN ARGUMENT WITH WHICH TO HOLD HIM.

1. They would be dreary and lonely without Him.

2. The night was coming on, and they could not think of His being out in it. (C. H.Spurgeon.)

The evening prayer of Christs friends

I. NOTICE SOME OF THE FEELINGS WHICH MUST HAVE BEEN IN THE HEARTS OF THOSE WHO PRESENTED THIS PRAYER.

1. Grateful interest in a spiritual benefactor. When a soul has become truly alive to God, and to eternal things, there is no tie so pure and deep as that which binds it to the scenes and instruments which opened its view to the higher life. It is when Churches and families and friendships are held together by such ties as these–by helping one another in the way of God and life eternal–that they are united and strong, that they can feel there is no nightfall which has any right or power to part them, and that they must turn in at the journeys close, and dwell together in the same abiding home. One of the enjoyments of that home will be to review and renew the intercourse of the journey, and to discover how the ties were deeper and the benefits higher than our hearts at the time understood, and how these sojourning associations were preparing the way for the unending union of souls. And Christ desires to have a personal share in these ties of grateful affection. He is the Author of spiritual light and life to all who receive it, but here He becomes also the direct instrument–He is the channel as well as the fountain–teaching us that His heart lies hidden behind every other heart that is made a source of blessing to us, and also that He wishes to attach us to Himself as a man speaketh to his friend.

2. A desire to have such conversation continued. He who has had such fellowship in the thoughts of God on the way will desire to have them also in the house at nightfall. He cannot surrender them at the setting of any earthly sun, but will pray as these disciples did, Abide with us, for it is toward evening.

3. The last feeling we mention in the hearts of these friends of Christ was the presentiment of something more than they had yet seen or heard. They had gratitude to the speaker, they had love to the theme, but they felt that there was still a mystery behind. They had learned much, but their heart told them they had not learned all. The sense of a great presence hovered near them; a great truth floated before them ere yet it disclosed itself to their eyes. They fear to ask Him of it; they shrink from whispering it to themselves; but there is a beam of light in the strangers look which promises to lead to fuller revelation, a tone of hopeful confidence in His words that reminds them of a voice which once before spoke from the gloom. What if now, amid a severer storm and out of a denser darkness, that beloved form should step forth again, and the words be heard, It is I; be not afraid? Such a hope of a risen Saviour, and that this was He, unuttered even to themselves deep down in their soul, and fighting with fears as once their ship did with waves, was surely present in their hearts when they urged this request: Abide with us, for it is toward evening.

II. SOME OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES IN WHICH THIS REQUEST MAY BE OFFERED BY US. It may be said to be suitable to the whole earthly life of every Christian. The Church of Christ, and every member of it in this world, is pursuing this Emmaus journey–travelling from the death of Christ on to the house where He shall give the manifestation of His resurrection. We feel that He who sustains us on the way, and drops into our soul great desires and deep presentiments, will answer them when we reach the heavenly house, and show us there things which eye hath not seen, neither hath it entered into mans heart to conceive. Our life is now hid with Christ in God, but when He who is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in glory, and therefore we hold Him fast to the close. Abide with us. Next, it is suitable to those who are suffering under some special despondency of spirit. It is then we need to cling to Him most, and then that He is accustomed to reveal Himself. It is His to lighten mens darkness, lest they sleep the sleep of death. If He seems to be passing by, constrain Him. Abide with us, for it is toward evening. I will not let Thee go until Thou bless me. Oh, faithful heart, thou hast wrestled and overcome. Another time suitable for presenting this request is in approaching the evening of life. Last, we remark that this request is suitable to those who live in an age of the world such as ours. It would be unwarrantable to say that this is the evening of our earths history, and that we are close upon the second coming of Christ. The world has probably much to look on yet before the final end. But there are various days and nights in Gods dispensations, and one of these evenings seems now creeping in upon us. There is a cold vapour of materialism spreading over the minds of many, chilling their conviction of a living God who made and superintends His world. There is only one duty and one source of safety for any man who wishes to have a life that rises above the most barren materialism; it is to seek a close and personal contact with the Saviour as the life of His Spirit, to know Christ as the risen Son of God, who quickens dead souls. These evening shades and doubts and trembling fears, that settle down ever and again on the worlds way, are permitted, to compel us to this–to urge us to seek His fellowship with a closer access, and to constrain Him to enter the house with us and reveal Himself in such living power that we, for our parts, can never doubt His truth any more. We need not fear for the gospel of Christ, whatever dangers threaten it. Calvary has still its Olivet; the shades of the Cross, the ascension glory; and every night of trouble in its history, a brighter day-dawn. (J. Igor, D. D.)

How to detain Jesus in the soul

I. Doubts as to the use of holy things we do, or of Gods gifts to us, or even of the faith, and of the reality of every thing unseen, are parts of Satans assaults against us. Men cannot but see that God does promise, in His Word, that He will hear prayer, bless fasting, enrich those who give alms; that by baptism we are clothed with Christ, in the Holy Eucharist are made one with Him; that the Church is the appointed channel of His gifts and of salvation. But men come short of Gods gracious will for them; and so they are tempted to doubt of His promises altogether. Just so the disciples of Emmaus. They had believed that Jesus was He who should redeem Israel. But He redeemed it not in the way they looked for. He had foretold that He should arise from the dead on the third day; To-day, they say, is the third day since these things were done, and He had not appeared. Had they, upon this, gone away, He never would have appeared unto them. They were saddened, perplexed, yet still they mused on Jesus and His promises. And so, as and when they looked not, relief came. Jesus drew near, and went with them, while they knew not, hoped not, that it was He. And so in the like cases now, doubts will have no real hold upon us while we hold fast to Jesus.

II. Then, while thus communing with Jesus, take we heed that we act as He teacheth. Our deeds are the fruits of our faith, but they fix it and secure it in our souls. Without deeds love grows chilled, and, with it, faith. Nothing shall hurt thy faith while thy heart is whole with God; nothing shall warp thy heart while, for love of Christ, thou dost deeds of love.

III.
There is yet another and larger teaching of this history, which extends over the whole of life, relates to every communion, to every fervent prayer which any, by Gods grace, prays, to every melting of the hard heart, to every drawing of the soul to serve God better.
So is it with the soul.
Jesus visits it many ways.
Every visitation of God, in awe and mercy, is a visit of Jesus to the soul.
It feels His presence.
It is troubled, and turns to Him; it is alarmed at itself, or with fears of hell, and flees to Him; or He brings before it its own crooked ways and the loathsomeness of its sin, and it would fain escape out of itself to Him; or He gives it thoughts of His own everlasting love, and the bliss of ever loving, ever being beloved; and kindles some longing for Him.
Everything which deadens the soul to the world, or quickens it to heavenly things, is a visit of Jesus. And now, what should we do, when, in this fleeting world, nothing, not even virtue, abideth at one stay? What should be our hope, when all fleeteth, but in Him who alone abideth, who alone is our stay? And now, Lord, what is my hope? Truly, my hope is even in Thee. Abide with us, Lord. He giveth His grace, that we may know His sweetness; He seemeth to withdraw it, that He may draw us up after it to Himself. He showeth Himself, that we may love Him; He hideth Himself, that we may long for Him, and the more we seek Him the more may find Him. Abide with us, Lord! For without Thee this worlds light, and all the purest joys of the whole world, were but a false glare, cold and comfortless to the soul. With Thee, who art light and love, all darkness is light and joy. Precious, above the price of the whole world, is every moment in which Christ speaks to the soul. Only, in all we say, think, do, fear, hope, enjoy, let us say, Abide with us, Lord. We fear our own unsteadfastness; Lord, abide with us! The foe is strong, and we, through our sins, weak; Lord, abide with us, and be our strength. We are ever subject to change, and ebb, and flow; Abide with us, Lord, with whom is no change. The pleasures of the world would lead us from Thee; Abide with us, Lord, and be Thou our joy. The troubles of the world would shake our endurance; Abide with us, Lord, and bear them in us, as Thou didst bear them for us. Thou art our refreshment in weariness; Thou our comfort in trouble; Thou our refuge in temptation; Thou in death our life; Thou in judgment our Redeemer. If our Lord give thee any fervour in prayer, say to Him, Abide with me, Lord! Use the fervour He giveth, to stretch on to some higher fervour, to long for some more burning, deeper love; not as though thou couldest gain it for thyself, but, as emboldened by Him who hath held out His golden sceptre of His righteousness and mercy unto thee, that thou mayest touch it, and ask what thou wilt. If Satan would withdraw thee from prayer by weariness, hold thou on the firmer. Say, Abide with me, Lord, and He will be with thee in thy prayer. (E. B. Pusey, D. D.)

As He sat at meat with them, He took bread

The meal at Emmaus

I. THE BREAKING AND DISTRIBUTION OF BREAD.

1. The old, familiar, blessed intercourse between Christ and His disciples had not been put an end to, then, by all that had passed during those three mysterious days. Death vanishes as a nothing in their intercourse; they stand where they were; the fellowship is unbroken; the society is the same; all that there used to be of love and friendship, of peaceful concord, of true association–it abides for ever.

2. The true idea of the relation which results from Christ and His presence is that of the Family. He takes His place at the head of the table; He is the Lord of the household, though it be but the household of two men, and they belong to the family and the society which He founds.

3. Where Christ is invited as a Guest, He becomes the Host. Our Master never comes empty-handed. Where He is invited, He comes to bestow; where He is welcomed, He comes with His gifts; when we say, Do Thou take what I offer, He says, Do thou take Myself.

II. THE DISCOVERY. The consequence of this assumption of the position of Master, Host, Bestower, is that their eyes were opened, and they knew Him. Where Christ is loved and desired, the veriest trifles of common life may be the means of His discovery, There is nothing so small but that to it there may be attached some filament which will bring after it the whole majesty and grace of Christ and His love.

III. THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE LORD.

1. When Christs presence is recognized, the senses may be put aside. We have lost, it is true, the bodily presence of our Master; but it is more than made up to us by the clearer knowledge of His spiritual verity and stature, the deeper experience of the profounder aspects of His mission and message, the indwelling Spirit, and the knowledge of Him working evermore for us all.

2. When Christ is discerned, there is work to be done. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Their eyes were opened

The spiritual eye

It is quite certain that there is an inward faculty in the mind which accurately corresponds to the natural eye. It is the power by which we morally see and morally apprehend truth. And that eye, just like the bodily eye, admits of being either closed or opened. This eye of the soul is a part of mans original constitution. Familiarly we have known it under the name of faith. Faith is that eye of the soul. This eye is born blind. But while nature, in this matter of our blindness, has done much, we ourselves have done much more. The closed eye is being continually closed more and more, and sealed in its closeness. The mistakes of education–the bad early training–youthful prejudice–every neglect of a duty, and every violence done to conscience–the grievings of the spirit, each secret sin and wilful act of disobedience–all our proud tempers, and impure desires, and self-willed thoughts–all that has not God in it–the whole contact with this wicked world–almost every act, and word, and imagination of our lives–all has, every day, been fastening up the fast eye faster and faster. And so at last it comes, that a man can really see nothing but what is material. He has no perception of Divine things. Jesus is practically hidden. Neither his sin, nor its pardon, nor its punishment, nor peace of mind, nor the higher love, nor the heavenly life, nor another world, nor God, does he descry. And yet, all the while, all these things are near him and about him every moment–he moves in that beautiful circle, heaven is round him, but there is a thick curtain before him, it is an unknown thing, it is all to him as if it were not. How is the shut eye opened? Now, it might be enough to say that it is done by an act of sovereign grace and power. That is true; but that would not practically help you. You would then say, I must wait till that act of sovereign power passes upon me. Therefore, let me look at it rather differently. There is the eye of the body, which you shut and which you open. How does the physical eye open? There is an act of will in the brain, and that act of will in the brain moves the organ. It is a perfect mystery how the will can take effect upon the nerves, and so upon the muscles, of any part of our body; but it is done. The will acts naturally; but there is another power, an appointment, and a secret omnipotence, which is wanted. So it is with the opening of the spiritual eye. There must be will. True, God gives the will; but He is always giving it, and you are always resisting it. The will begins–the will produces an effort–the effort puts certain things in motion–and God being in it all–in the will which He has created, and in the effort, and in the process–the thing is done–the eye opens, vision is restored. It may be gradually, it may be with more or less of clearness and growth, but it is vision–the eye is opened–and things which were invisible come in through the new avenue, and make their mark, and stamp their impression on the inner man. And the man, the highest part of the man, sees; he finds he is in a new world, and because he is in a new world, he is a new creature. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)

Did not our heart burn within us

Christ talking–hearts burning

I. CHRISTS METHOD OF REVEALING HIMSELF.

1. Scripture exposition.

2. Talking. The grandest things demand the simplest presentation.

II. LOOK NOW AT SOME OF THE EFFECTS OF THIS REVELATION ON HIS DISCIPLES.

1. The first effect was deeply interior and experimental. Their hearts began to burn within them. There was an unusual interest–a feeling they had never had till now–a longing and a love, and a begun enthusiasm which all their after-life was to express. What effect can be finer than this? or more desirable?–the effect of the burning heart. It is well enough to have an idea, and a sight of things; to see the things that can be seen, and know the truth that can be known. But it is yet better to have a deep, warm, inward sense of them; to have them burning in the breast, and all the breast aflame with the holy fire. No better effect could come to us of our talkings together by the way; and of our endeavours to open to each other the Scriptures.

2. The next effect is what we may express in the phrase: the willing feet. They rose up the same hour and returned to Jerusalem. The feeling was instinctive that something must be done, and done immediately. All this good news which has turned their hearts into fountains of joy, must, in some way, be told, and told without delay; in what way may best remain to be seen; but the first thing to be done is to return to Jerusalem. There their hopes were buried three days ago, and they go now to tell of their resurrection. There, their friends are; and probably their work, and possibly their sufferings. No matter. They must go. Is it not always thus with those to whom Christ makes Himself known? Arising out of the feeling of His presence, along with the burning of heart that makes that presence known, is the immediate and ineffaceable conviction that something must be done for Him. Here am I, send me. Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? At least, I feel that whatever my hand findeth to do, I must do it with all my might, and without delay. I must go; and when I reach the end of the little journey, I must speak.

3. Thus we come to another effect of the relation of Christ, which we may call the effect of the ready-tongue. When they came to Jerusalem, they told what things were done in the way, and how He was known of them in the breaking of bread. (A. Raleigh, D. D.)

Hallowed feelings

Our emotions are connected with our intellectual states, yet distinct from them and beyond them, because the result of them. The text records the way in which the feelings of the two disciples were excited by the conversation of the unknown stranger who joined them on the way to Emmaus. It suggests a twofold observation.

I. THE GOSPEL APPEALS TO THE FEELINGS OF MEN. It is a religion intended for man in the sense that it meets the wants of his entire nature. And the emotional is as really a part of mans nature as any other. It would not be a sufficient religion for man if it merely issued its commands as to what should be done in the shape of bodily service, or even in the exercise of a discipline intended for the subjugation of the body; nor if it only furnished the intellect with instruction and elevating material. It must address itself also to the moral and emotional nature. Accordingly, Christianity seizes on the passions, sympathies, and susceptibilities of our nature. The Old and New Testaments are alike full of them, as the experience of the godly. It follows that those whose feelings are not touched by it are unacquainted with its saving power.

II. THE GOSPEL IS ADAPTED TO EXCITE THE FEELINGS OF MEN.

1. The truths of the gospel are in themselves adapted to excite feeling. You attempt to produce emotion by the exhibition of objects that are suitable to that end. Take, as illustrations, the feelings of joy and of love. Could anything be more adapted to their production than the truth that God loves the world of sinners; that He gave His Son to death for them; and that whosoever believes in Him receives pardon and eternal life?

2. This is especially the case when they are addressed to men in certain states of mind. You would never expect to interest a dying man by placing on his pillow the crown of an earthly kingdom. A word of comfort respecting the future is incomparably more to him than all the splendours of this world. Thus, when you laboured under deep conviction of sin and consequent distress, perhaps amounting to hopelessness, the nature, sufficiency, and freeness of salvation in Christ was expounded, and you found it exactly what you wanted. Thus, when you have come to the sanctuary with some trouble on your heart that has almost shaken your faith to its centre, the theme of the ministry has been Gods faithfulness and love, or the mystery along with the benevolence of His providence; and your fainting soul has felt like a falling child whose mother has tenderly taken it up and saved it from hurt.

3. Some circumstances are specially favourable to the excitement of the feelings by the gospel. The public worship of the sanctuary. The communion of Christian friends. The retirement of the closet.

4. Spiritual feelings must be sustained by the means which first produces them. Do you wish to keep your heart warm in this sense? Often walk and talk with Jesus. Let Him be much in your thoughts. (John Rawlinson.)

A suggestive question

I. This question which these disciples asked themselves, illustrates THE DIFFICULTY WE HAVE IN UNDERSTANDING AT THE TIME THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF EVENTS IN OUR LIVES, AND ESPECIALLY OF THE RELIGIOUS EVENTS IN THEM. We are naturally disposed to think that the Important events must be striking; that they must address themselves powerfully to the imagination; that they must stand out, in obvious prominence, from among surrounding occurrences. Whereas it may very well happen that what is most important in reality, that is to say, in its bearing on our prospects in the future life, is in appearance commonplace and trivial. Of course in this world we look at the plan of our lives from below, not from above. We deal with the task of each day, of each hour, as it comes; we have no time or capacity to make a map or theory of the whole and to arrange the several parts in their true proportion and perspective. It is with our conceptions of life as with a landscape painting; some tree in the immediate foreground fills up a third of the canvas, while the towers of a great city, or the outlines of a mountain range, lie far away in the distance. In another state of existence the relative worth of everything will be clear to us: here we constantly make the wildest mistakes, partly from the narrowness of our out look, and partly from the false ideals which too often control our judgment. We look out for the sensational, which never comes to us quite as we anticipate it; we walk near Jesus Christ, who veils His presence, in the ordinary paths of life; perhaps we never get beyond a certain passing glow of emotion, which dies away and leaves us where we were. Our hearts burn within us. But what this has meant we only find out when it is too late.

II. Another point suggested by the words is THE USE OF RELIGIOUS FEELING. Did not our heart burn within us? The disciples ask each other the question in a tone of self-reproach. While our Lord explained to them the true sense of the Hebrew Scriptures with reference to His person and His work, His sufferings and His triumph, their whole inward being, thought, affection, fancy, had kindled into flame. They were on fire, and yet it all had led to nothing. Ought it not to have led to something? Ought it not, at the least, to have convinced them that, within the range of their experience, One only could have spoken as He did? Certainly, my brethren, true religion cannot afford to neglect any elements of mans complex nature; and so it finds room for emotion. That glow of the soul with which it should hail the presence of its Maker and Redeemer is as much His handiwork as the thinking power which apprehends His message or the resolve which enterprises to do His will. Yet religious emotion, like natural fire, is a good servant but a bad master. It is the ruin of real religion when it blazes up into a fanaticism that, in its exaltation of certain states of feeling, proscribes thought, and makes light of duty, and dispenses with means of grace, and passes through some phase of frantic, although disguised, self-assertion, into some further phase of indifference or despair. But, when kept well in hand, emotion is the warmth and lustre of the souls life.

III. A third consideration which the words suggest, is THE DUTY OF MAKING AN ACTIVE EFFORT TO UNDERSTAND TRUTH AS IT IS PRESENTED TO US. I say, an active effort; because, as a rule, our minds are apt to be passive. We let truth come to say what it can; we do not go out to meet it, to welcome it, to offer it a lodging in the soul, and, if it may be, to take its measure and understand it. If we have serious thoughts now and then, and look into our Bibles in a casual way, and attend some of the Church services, we think we have good reason to be satisfied that we know all that it concerns our souls health to know; perhaps even that we know enough to discuss religious questions of the day with confidence, We drift through life in this way, some of us; malting our feelings and preferences the rule of truth; assuming that what is popular for the passing hour, or what comes readily to us, must be the will of God. He indeed is near from whom we might learn the truth; walking by our side, ready and longing to be inquired of if we only will; but we dispense ourselves from the necessity. Religious truth, we say to ourselves, is very simple and easy of acquirement; that which is intended for all must be open to all, and cannot be the monopoly of those who make efforts to know it. And yet nothing in the Bible is clearer than that it makes the attainment of truth depend upon an earnest search for truth (Mat 7:7; Pro 8:17; Jer 33:3; Pro 2:3-5). In conclusion, let us reflect that our Lords presence with His disciples during the forty days after His resurrection was in many ways an anticipation of His presence in His Church to the end of time. His religion wears a commonplace appearance; its sacred books seem to belong to the same category as the works of human genius; its Sacraments are, St. Augustine said, rites chiefly remarkable for their simplicity; its ministers are ordinary, and often erring and sinful, men. But for all that, the Incarnate Son is here, who was crucified and rose from death, and ascended and reigns in heaven, He is here; and the trial and duty of faith is what it was eighteen centuries ago, namely, to detect, under the veil of the familiar and the commonplace, the presence of the Eternal and the Divine. We, too, walk along the road to Emmaus; and the Divine Teacher appears to us, as St. Mark puts it, in another form; and our hearts, perhaps, glow within us, yet without doing anything for our understandings or our wills. (Canon Liddon.)

Christ warms the heart

I. CONSIDER THE OCCASION, OR THE MEANS EMPLOYED. He talked with us by the way. He opened to us the Scriptures.

II. CONSIDER THE EFFECT PRODUCED BY THAT OCCASION AND THOSE MEANS. Did not our heart burn, etc. There is in real communion that which warms the heart. Away from Christ, all is coldness in regard to God and spiritual things; away from Christ, men even pride themselves in a sort of stoical apathy in regard to the claims of God; away from Christ, the most constraining motives of the gospel are heard with unconcern. There is communion to be had with Christ in prayer. Many pray in a formal way, but have never yet known the heart to burn within them in prayer. So with meditation: My meditation of Him shall be sweet, said the psalmist. Did not our heart burn within us? And whence this effect? They were, you remember, anxious disciples, perplexed with doubts and seeking the truth. Hence, as they heard Him expound the Scriptures, they found their doubts gradually cleared away. It is when you discover your personal interest in the things spoken of–That promise speaks to me, That Saviour is my Saviour, This God is our God even unto death, He is mine, and I am His–that you will again feel the heart to burn within you. (J. H. Hambleton, M. A.)

The means, author, and effects of Christian instruction

I. We have THE INSTRUMENTALITY USED BY OUR LORD IN THE INSTRUCTION OF HIS DISCIPLES, We are told it was the Scriptures. God honours His word above all His attributes–Thou hast magnified Thy word, says David, above all Thy name; i.e., all Thy perfections. Why does He do so? Because it is by His Word He reveals the mystery of His essence, and His moral perfections. Because without His Word there would be no God to be recognized and worshipped.

II. We have to consider, THE AGENCY BY WHICH THIS INSTRUMENTALITY WAS MADE EFFECTIVE. We read that Christ opened the Scriptures. But where was the necessity for opening the Scriptures? What is there so mystical in the nature of this book, that it should have been as written in unintelligible characters which they did not understand? Remember that the Bible is a sealed book to any who are unenlightened by the Spirit of God I It is true of the Bible as of every department of Divine knowledge, that the natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God–they are foolishness to him: he cannot know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

III. But, again, What was THE SENSIBLE EFFECT PRODUCED IN THE MINDS OF THOSE WHO WERE THUS INSTRUCTED BY OUR LORD? Their hearts burned within them. Observe, they got light and heat at the same time, Did not our heart burn within us? With what did they burn?–with shame for their sins; their hearts were melted into penitence, inflamed with zeal, and filled with the fire of Divine love; the Spirit of God kindled within them what the breath of God breathed in them!–the bright light of hope shone within their minds, and they were enabled to take a clear view of Christ–Christ was manifested to them–their heart burned within them. Here, then, we see the sensible effect produced by the instruction of our Lord in the Scriptures. Here we have presented to us the instrumentality employed in the work of conversion; the agent in the work of conversion; and the effect of the work of conversion–we have the Bible as the instrumentality; we have Christ as the teacher; and we have burning hearts as the effect produced by the Spirit of God. (H. H. Beamish, M. A.)

The Bible gives light and warmth

A gentleman approached the fruit stand of an Italian woman, whom he found very intently engaged reading a book. What are you reading there, my good woman, that seems to interest you so much? he inquired. The Word of God, said the woman. The Word of God! Who told you that? God told me Himself, answered the woman. God told you? How did He do that? Have you ever talked with God? How did He tell you that was His Word? Not accustomed to discuss questions of theology, the woman was a little confused. Recovering herself, she said: Sir, can you prove to me that there is a sun up there in heaven? Prove it, said the man, Why do you ask me to prove it? It proves itself. It warms me and I see its light; what better proof can any one want? The woman smiled and said: Just so; you are right. And that is just the way God tells this Book is His Word. I read it, and it warms me and gives me light. I see Him in it, and what it says is light and warmth which none but God can give; and so He tells me it is His Word. What more proof do I need?

Divine influence needed to understand the Scriptures

Unsanctified men cannot read the Bible to profit. If you bring me a basket full of minerals from California, and I take them and look at them, I shall know that this specimen has gold in it, because I see there little points of yellow gold, but I shall not know what the white and the dark points are that I see. But let a metallurgist look at it, and he will see that it contains not only gold, but silver, and lead, and iron, and he will single them out. To me it is a mere stone, with only here and there a hint of gold, but to him it is a combination of various metals. Now take the Word of God, that is filled with precious stones and metals, and let one instructed in spiritual insight go through it, and he will discover all these treasures; while, if you let a man uninstructed in spiritual insight go through it, he will discover those things that are outside and apparent, but those things that make God and man friends, and that have to do with the immortality of the soul in heaven, escape his notice. No man can know these things unless the Spirit of God has taught him to discern them. (H. W. Beecher.)

While He opened to us the Scriptures

The opening of the Scriptures

I. THE SCRIPTURES CLOSED.

1. The mysterious nature of the Bible itself.

2. The degenerate faith of the disciples.

II. THE SCRIPTURES OPENED.

1. It is necessary to have Christ as the interpreter.

2. The disciples must possess a sympathetic heart.

3. Given these conditions, the Scriptures are opened with the utmost ease.

III. THE RESULT OF THE OPENING OF THE SCRIPTURES.

1. The two disciples understood that a thorough unity of design pervaded the whole Bible.

2. They perceived that Christ was the great theme of the Scriptures.

3. They were filled with wonder at the aspect in which Christ was revealed.

4. They experienced true happiness. (H. C. Williams.)

Christ opening the Scriptures

I. OUR LORDS SERMON ON THIS OCCASION.

II. THE BENEFITS WE MAY DERIVE THEREFROM.

1. It encourages us to search the Scriptures.

2. It encourages us to preach Scripture sermons.

3. It calls on the people to listen to Scripture sermons.

4. It strengthens our faith in the truth of the Scriptures.

5. It strengthens our faith in the predictions concerning the increase of Christs kingdom. (Canon Fleming.)

Scripture opened

I. THE HOLY SCRIPTURES ARE THE ONLY SOURCE OF DIVINE WISDOM AND CONSOLATION.

II. FOR THE FULL UNDERSTANDING OF THE SCRIPTURES, WE NEED THE SPIRITUAL TEACHING OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.

III. THIS SPIRITUAL TEACHING IS OFTEN SPECIALLY GRANTED TO TRUE DISCIPLES, WHEN ENGAGED IN HOLY CHRISTIAN COMMUNION.

IV. WHEN YOUR AFFECTIONS ARE WARMED BY DISCOVERIES MADE TO YOU IN THE WORD OF GOD, THEN YOU SHOULD AT ONCE RECOGNIZE THE PRESENCE OF JESUS, AND EARNESTLY ENTREAT HIS CONTINUANCE WITH YOU. (J. Jowett, M. A.)

Christ opening Scripture

I. IT IS CHRISTS WORK TO OPEN AND APPLY THE SCRIPTURES WHERE THEY REACH THE HEART. He is the great Prophet of His Church, who hath already revealed the will of God for our salvation. He opens the Scripture that it may not remain a sealed Book, and opens the understanding, and unbars the heart, that the light may enter to make the first saving change, and to be our strength and comfort afterward.

II. THE OPENING AND APPLYING OF THE SCRIPTURES ARE THE MEANS CHRIST WILL ORDINARILY USE, TO REACH AND CARRY ON HIS DESIGN UPON THE HEART.

III. TIS IN THIS WAY OF OPENING AND APPLYING THE SCRIPTURES, THAT CHRIST IS TO BE CONCEIVED OF, AND REGARDED AS TALKING WITH HIS PEOPLE. He did so personally while He was upon earth, and continues to do so by His ministers and Spirit now when He is gone to heaven.

IV. IN WHAT RESPECTS THEIR HEARTS MAY BE SAID TO BURN, TO WHOM CHRIST EFFECTUALLY SPEAKS. To keep your thoughts distinct, I shall consider this, either with respect to sinners, whom He is drawing to him: or to believers, whom He is acquainting with their interest in Him.

1. As to sinners whom He is drawing to Him. When Christ opens the Scriptures, and talks with such, their hearts may be said to burn–

(1) With a sense of sin, and a fearful apprehension of deserved wrath.

(2) Their hearts are made to burn with ardent desire for deliverance from their sinful wretched state, and for an interest in Christ the only, all-sufficient Saviour.

2. As to believers, whom Christ is acquainting with their interest in Him, and thereby talking with them to their comfort; whilst He does so, their hearts may be made to burn.

(1) With love to Him; and

(2) With longing desires to be with Him. And both these are excited by what He makes the subject of His discourses with them, namely, His sufferings, and His glory. The followers of Christ may have their hearts made to burn, with desire to see, and be for ever with Him.

V. WITH WHAT TEMPER THEY, WHO UNDER CHRISTS SPEAKING TO THEM HAVE FELT THEIR HEARTS TO BURN WITHIN THEMSELVES, SHOULD BE LED TO OPEN IT TO OTHERS. The answer to this is obvious.

1. With deep humility; as having their eye upon their unworthiness, that the Lord of glory should talk with such as them, and in so plain and powerful a manner lead them into an acquaintance with the Word of truth; and thereby with the things concerning Himself, which are so necessary to their safety and peace.

2. With raised wonder; they being ready to say, How strange an ardour did we feel within us kindling into an heavenly flame, while He talked with us, and opened to us the Scriptures?

3. With thankfulness and joy; from a just sense of the value of that distinguishing grace of Christ, which made the remembrance of the time and place where it was vouchsafed so pleasant to them afterwards.

4. With desire and endeavour to bring others acquainted with Christ, by whom their hearts were made to burn within them. (D. Wilcox.)

The right point of view

I go into a gallery where there are illustrious persons hung in portraiture. I see one that I am attracted to, and I look upon it, and I know this much–that it is a man. I know that it is a man of beauty, or, lacking beauty, indicating great intellectual development and power of brain. A number of such external things I know of him, but nothing more. By and by, some one says to me, His name is Goethe. Ah! instantly a vision springs up in my mind. I have read of Goethe. I know his poems. I know his dramas. I know much of the whole German literature which he has created. And the moment I hear his name, and associate it with that portrait, it assumes new life. It is a hundred times more to me than it was before. I say to myself, Then that is Goethe, is it? Well–well–well; and all these wells merely mean that I am thinking, and gathering together all my scattered knowledge, and concentrating it on that effigy. I do not know him personally, though I know him as well as a book could interpret him to me. But suppose I had been in Germany; suppose I had been invited to his house; had seen him in the morning, at noon, and at night; at the table, familiarly; with his manuscripts, in his study; suppose I had seen him when topics came before him for discussion, or in his intercourse with men; suppose I had seen him surrounded by little children, and seen how they affected him; suppose I had seen how noble personages affected him; suppose I had seen him in moments of calmness and silence and reverie; or at funerals; or at great public rejoicings; in all those moods and circumstances which go to show exactly what a man is; suppose I had lived with him, and seen the coruscation, the whole play of his soul, would I not then have a knowledge of him which no portrait could give me? Having gained this larger knowledge of him, I say, I never knew Goethe before; but one exclaims, You never knew Goethe before? Yes you did. I pointed him out in such a gallery at such a time; and now you say you never knew him before! But would it not be true? (H. W. Beecher.)

Understanding the Scriptures

The biographer of Dr. Arnold, of Rugby, when describing his plan of studying the Bible, makes this important observation: There are two methods of reading Scripture, perfectly distinct in their object and nature: the one is practical, the other scientific; the one seeks the religious truth of Scripture as bearing on the inquirers heart and personal feelings; the other, the right comprehension of the literary and intellectual portions of the Bible Only those who feel the Bible can understand it.

Christs method of imparting instruction

There are here several points of very great interest. We have a striking illustration of our Lords method of teaching, which was to give more when that already given had been duly received. We have also a most emphatic warning as to the danger of losing golden opportunities, or of letting slip through ignorance or procrastination the means of acquiring great accessions of knowledge and grace. These truths will open before you as we proceed: at present we need only announce, as the general object of our discourse, the showing you how near the disciples were to the losing the manifestation of their Master, forasmuch as though He made as though He would have gone further, and how certainly they would have lost that manifestation, had they not been enabled to say with perfect truth, in the words of our text–Did not our heart burn within us, while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us the Scriptures? Now, you may all see, if you study with any attention the record of our blessed Saviours ministrations, that He required a peculiar state of mind in those to whom He taught truth, withholding it where likely to be despised or made an instrument of injury, but imparting it where He saw that it would be reverently and profitably received. It was evidently a principle with Christ, as indeed He expressly announced, to give more where what had been given had been duly improved, so that fresh communications were made to depend upon mens use of past. He did not pretend to open truth after truth, just as though His whole business had been to furnish to the world a certain amount of revelation, whether they would hear or whether they would forbear; but He watched with great attentiveness the reception of truth, and He added or withheld according as that reception did or did not indicate Jove for truth and a readiness to obey its demands. And the importance to ourselves of observing the course which Christ pursued upon earth lies mainly in this. We have no reason to suppose that such course was followed only in the days of His public ministrations, bug rather, that it was universally characteristic of Gods spiritual dealings. You will never make way with the Bible by going to it in a spirit of speculation, carrying to it the same feelings as to a treatise on some branch of human science. It is not indeed now, as it was when our Lord personally taught; when the letter, so to speak, of Scripture might be variously distributed, according to mens various dispositions and capacities, but it still is, that the letter, though equally accessible to all, is not equally illuminated to all; and by keeping altogether to Himself the power of illuminating the page, so that He can leave that a parable to one which He clears from all mystery to another, God can cause that now, as much as in the days of the Redeemer, the amount of knowledge shall be proportioned to certain moral qualities and acts. You may be sure that it is as true now as ever it was, and in as large a sense, that whosoever doeth the will of God, he shall know of the doctrine; for there are innermost meanings in Scripture which will never be reached through learning and ingenuity, but which open before the humble and prayerful inquiry; so that passages on which criticism is vainly turning all its strength, and to which it can attach none but an obscure and unimportant sense, reveal to many an uneducated and simple.minded Christian the counsels of God and the glories of eternity; so that it still depends on your love for truth, and on your willingness to act on it so fast as discovered, whether you shall grow in the knowledge of heavenly things; just as it was in the days of the Redeemer, when a parable was employed to veil truth from the careless, or a miracle concealed, to withhold evidence from the obstinate. But never think that an unaided intellect can master scriptural difficulties, or that unimproved knowledge can be a good thing. There is a certain point up to which Divine teaching will advance, but there will pause, in order that it may be ascertained whether you prize what you have learned, and are sincere in the desire to learn more. And all this was imaged by the conduct of Christ with reference to His disciples. This making as though he would have gone further, was but an instance of that cautiousness of which we have spoken as characteristic of His ministry. He just wanted to have evidence whether truth were duly loved; for on His finding that evidence depended, according to His universal rule, His continuing His instruction. There are many, we are thoroughly persuaded, who often miss the manifestation of Christ through the indolently letting slip some presented opportunity; nay, we doubt whether there be any man who is brought within hearing of the gospel unto whom there have not been moments in which he has stood upon the very threshold of the kingdom of heaven, in which it has depended upon his immediately obeying some impulse or hearkening to some suggestion whether the door should fly open or remain closed against him. The mind of the unconverted man, stirred through some secret instrumentality, has felt it proposed to it that it should take into its chambers a Guest who might discipline the passions and remodel the character; but then it has been questioned whether the proposal should be instantly closed with, or longer time given for deliberation, and because the latter course has been adopted–because, that is, the disciples when at Emmaus have parted from their Teacher in the street, and gone alone into the house, the golden opportunity has been lost, and there has been no manifestation of Christ to the soul. You may not be thoroughly aware of it, but we should wish you to be assured, that religion is of such a nature that eternity is very frequently dependent on a moment. You can never be certain that an impulse will be repeated or a suggestion renewed; so that in parting from the Teacher who has awakened some serious emotion, in place of taking Him with you into your dwelling, that the emotion may be deepened, you are perhaps letting go your last likelihood of salvation, and shutting yourselves up to indifference and impenitence. (H. Melvill, B. D.)

While He talked with us

I have lately seen, wrote Mr. Hervey, that most excellent minister of the ever blessed Jesus, Mr.
–. I dined, supped, and spent the evening with him at Northampton, in company with Dr. Doddridge, and two pious clergymen of the Church of England, both of them known to the learned world by their valuable writings; and surely I never spent a more delightful evening, or saw one that seemed to make nearer approaches to the felicity of heaven. A gentleman, of great worth and rank in the town, invited us to his house, and gave us an elegant treat; but how mean was his provision, how coarse his delicacies, compared with the fruit of my friends lips! They dropped as the honeycomb, and were a well of life.

The Lord is risen indeed

Jesus risen

The evidence for the resurrection of Christ is of two kinds, predictive and historical. From the Old Testament it appears that Messiah was to rise; from the New, that Jesus of Nazareth did rise, and therefore is the Messiah. Among the predictive witnesses, the first place is due to that ancient and venerable order of men, styled patriarchs, or heads of families, whose lives and actions, as well as their words, were descriptive of the person, in faith of whom they lived and acted, instructing, interceding for, and conducting their dependents, as representative prophets, priests, and kings; looking forward unto the Author and Finisher of their faith and ours, who, by dying and rising again, was to exhibit to the world the Divine fulness of all these characters. In the class of the predictive witnesses of our Lords resurrection, the second place is claimed by the law. When we see the Levitical high priest arrayed in the garments of glory and beauty; when we behold him purifying all the parts of the figurative tabernacle with blood, and then entering within the veil, into the holiest of all, to present that propitiating blood before the offended Majesty of heaven; is it possible, even though an apostle had not applied all these circumstances for us, to detain the imagination a moment from fixing itself on the great High Priest of our profession; the plenary satisfaction made on the cross; His resurrection in an immortal body, no more to stand charged with sin, no more to see corruption; the purification of the Church by His precious blood; His ascension into heaven, and intercession for us, in the presence of God? Next to the patriarchs and the law, the prophets press for admittance, to deliver their testimony; for the testimony of Jesus, as saith the angel in the Revelation, is the spirit of prophecy. Some of these give their evidence in the ancient way of figure and emblem; others, with less reserve, in express literal declarations. A fact of so extraordinary a nature as the resurrection of a body from the dead, predicted, as we have seen, at sundry times and in divers manners, by the patriarchs, the law, and the prophets, cannot be supposed to have happened without sufficient witnesses of its accomplishment. (Bishop Home.)

The Lord is risen indeed

I. LET US VERIFY THE STATEMENT OF THE TEXT. In attempting this, let me first of all call your attention to Christianity as an existing fact. And the centre of that belief is the doctrine of the resurrection. We can thus trace the doctrine of the resurrection to its source, and see that it was no gradual innovation into the Churchs belief; no doctrine gradually taking shape, as myths do, from ideas which have been floating about in the minds of men; but an alleged fact, attested by those who professed to be eye-witnesses of the event; and behoved in by the Church at a time when these witnesses were still alive. Now, in testing the value of their testimony, two questions present themselves, and give rise to two concurrent traces of thought, both of which, as we think, lead to the conclusion, that no testimony could be more trustworthy than that borne by the evangelists and others to the resurrection of our Lord. This first question, Were they competent witnesses, divides itself into two. Were they deceived themselves? Did they attempt to deceive others? If either of these questions can be answered in the affirmative, their testimony is invalid; if answered negatively, their testimony deserves to be received. That they could not be deceived themselves, is evident from the following considerations–

1. The question to which they bear testimony is not one of doctrine, on which their judgment might have misled them; but one of fact, on which they were guided by the evidence of their senses.

2. The witnesses were not one or two, but a large number–upwards of five hundred having seen the risen Redeemer at the same time.

3. The men were not fanatics, whose excited imagination might cause them to mistake some uncommon appearance for, or to invest it with, the form of their Lord. Their whole demeanour is the very antipodes to anything like fanaticism. No finer specimen of sobriety than their narrative presents can be found in any language.

4. The times and the manner of the Saviours appearing were such as to render deception impossible. He appeared repeatedly–at different times and in various circumstances, and was not only visible to the eye, but palpable to the touch. Lastly, their familiarity with the Saviour previous to His death qualified them for recognizing Him after tits resurrection. They had been with Him in all circumstances. These considerations amply suffice to show that they could not be deceived. But did they attempt to deceive others? One would think the principles they propagated should be sufficient to acquit them of such a charge. Could impostors devise and propagate principles which surpass the practice of the nations almost as much as heaven contrasts with hell–principles which, wherever they obtain, promote the highest morality, making men truthful, honest, upright, generous, and devout–could impostors devise and propagate such principles as these? We think not. Besides, men do not practise imposition without an object. If they attempt to deceive, if is with a view to some selfish end–could there be any such end contemplated by the disciples of Christ? They could not hope to improve their temporal circumstances. Then, did they hope to gain for themselves a reward in heaven? A reward in heaven, for publishing a falsehood, and imposing on their fellows! We pass on now to consider the second question, Would their testimony if false have been believed in Jerusalem and elsewhere? and the concurrent though different train of thought to which it gives rise. All these statements of the history must have been known to be false by those among whom they were circulated; or at least their falsehood might easily have been made so manifest as to render their reception impossible, and to confine them to the parties with whom they originated. And not only were they capable of effectual contradiction; but those who had the power, had also the strongest inducement to make known their falsehood.

II. LET US ACCOUNT FOR THE EXULTANT FEELINGS WITH WHICH THE DISCIPLES PUBLISHED THIS STATEMENT. In attempting this it is necessary to place ourselves to some extent in the position of the disciples, in order that we may judge of the manner in which they were personally affected by the event. It is evident from the Gospels that they were greatly overwhelmed by His death. They had sacrificed all they possessed, and were, as it now appeared to them, to gain nothing. Their temporal prospects were blasted. Their friends were alienated from them; and all they could look for in return was the derision of their neighbours for having indulged baseless expectations. In this state of mind, when it became evident to them that the Lord was risen, when they saw and heard Him, and knew from the old manner and spirit that it was He himself, what a strange revulsion of feeling they must have experienced! What new light must suddenly have flashed upon them! Then He is a king after all, though in another sense than we imagined. Then our expectations are not disappointed; there is a reward for us still, higher than we had dreamed of. Then we have still our friend to lean upon, to care for us, and comfort us, and guide, and help us. Now we have a new conception of our calling and of our Masters reign. Now we can see how our carnal-mindedness kept us from perceiving the full meaning of His gracious words; and that when we attributed to Him hard sayings, He was but holding out to us greater blessings than our hearts were prepared to receive. No wonder that when such thoughts dawned upon them, their hearts were filled with joy! There were reasons, perhaps, for their joy, which even they did not yet fully apprehend–reasons relating to us as well as to them. They did not yet perceive all the results to humanity which were to flow from His death, though ultimately they showed that they knew what importance was attached to it–Peter, e.g., making it the principal subject of his sermons, connecting it with the miracles which he wrought, and in his Epistle attributing to it the new birth of believers; while Paul, in 1Co 15:1-58., to which we have already referred, makes it lie at the basis of the entire Christian faith–If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. The meaning of these words, and the supreme importance of the event to which they refer, may be illustrated by the following considerations: The resurrection was the Divine seal to the Saviours mission. During His life He claimed to be the Son of God in a sense which made Him equal with the Father–to have come from the bosom of the Father that He might reveal His character to mankind, and open a way by which sinners might approach and find acceptance with Him–to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, and, ere His death, exclaimed in reference to this work, It is finished! Now, suppose that after all this, He had not risen. In that case His claims would have been falsified. It would have been evident that He was a mere impostor. God does not own this pretended Son of His, who claimed to be one in nature with Himself. His revelation of the Father is untrue. Whereas the resurrection put the Divine seal to His claims, and made manifest His own Divine attributes. By it God declared before all the worlds that He was all that He professed to be, and had done what He professed to do; that His life and teaching contained a true revelation of the Divine character; that He had opened a way of access to God through the atonement which He had offered for the sins of the world; that through Him the love of God was free to our fallen race; that in Him there was pardon and life for mankind sinners. All this, if His miracles had not previously made it manifest, was clearly revealed in the light which shone on the sepulchre on that first Easter morning. But oh the joy which comes to us from that deserted gravel The Lord is risen indeed! Then woe unto those by whom His overtures of mercy are rejected and His authority set at nought. As the conqueror of death no one can successfully resist His will. The power which rifled the grave can crush the proudest rebel. (W. Landels.)

Christs resurrection

I. THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST IS A PIVOTAL FACT. The key-stone of Christs religion. All turns upon this. Either Jesus rose, or else He is an impostor, and imposture in one thing makes Him false in all. Take away the resurrection, and there is no link left between heaven and earth: preaching is a lie, faith is idle, happy dying is a delusion, and happy living is a greater fiction still. But, with St. Paul, we may challenge the world to disprove the assertion in the text.

II. THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST WAS A MIRACLE. Otherwise impossible. Nature possesses no power to raise a dead body. But once admit that the work is Gods, and all difficulty disappears.

III. WHAT THE RESURRECTION BODY WAS. The same palpable and substantial frame which quivered on the cross. I argue this–

1. From the fact that He prophesied His own personal resurrection, in His own proper identity.

2. From the fact that the disciples recognized that identity, though reluctantly.

3. From the fact that He recognized His own identity. (T. Armitage, D. D.)

The resurrection of Christ

I. HIS RESURRECTION IS THE PLEDGE OF OURS.

1. First, because He promised that it should be–because I live, ye shall live also. His human nature was the grain of seed (Joh 12:1-50.) which, sown by the hand of God in the field of the world, was to fructify in death, to bear a thousandfold in resurrection, He linked our nature with His. It was united not for a season, but for ever.

2. But we have, secondly, more than the identity of our nature with His, to establish the fact that in His resurrection we have the pledge of our own We need to be assured that His triumph will avail for us; and we are. In His Rev 1:18), we are told, are placed the keys of death and hell. No longer is death in Satans power; he was compelled to surrender his dominion to the Saviour.

II. We proceed to view our Lords resurrection as THE PATTERN OF OURS. To be raised in the lowest character in which it were possible, would be an exaltation too glorious to be understood in our present humiliation. Let us examine a few of the particulars of resemblance between His resurrection and ours.

1. And, first, He retained the identity of His person. No change passed upon Him, save that round His humanity glory appeared, like that, perhaps, which He wore for a season on the Mount of Transfiguration. And we, too, shall rise, in the likeness of His resurrection, our very selves.

2. We shall be raised, too, by tim same instrumentality. We are told by the Saviour that He had power to lay down His life, and power to take it up again. We are nowhere told that He did so; on the contrary, it is plainly declared that He was not His own deliverer from the prison-house of death. He is said, in the first of Peter, the third chapter, at the eighteenth verse, to have been quickened by the Spirit; and again, in the eight chapter of Romans, the second verse, to have been raised by the Father. Hence it is evident that God the Father was the Author, and God the Spirit the Agent of the resurrection of Christ. If it should be asked, Why is it so? the answer is, that Christ came to fulfil all the conditions of our salvation; He must be made like unto His brethren in all things, and therefore in His resurrection.

3. Angels were employed instrumentally in the resurrection of Christ; and they will be in ours. Wherefore is the Lord of Hosts indebted to an angels hand for His deliverance? Why does not the prison door fly open as the God-Man awakens from His death-sleep? Why? Because He must fulfil all righteousness; He must travel back to the glory He had left in the character of those He ransomed; He must submit to every condition of that covenant by which the ransomed fallen are to enter into life; He must, in short, return to glory as a Man.

III. We come to speak upon some of THE EFFECTS OF THE SAVIOURS RESURRECTION. These we regard in a twofold aspect.

1. As the resurrection affects our present relation to God. The atonement and resurrection of Christ are inseparably connected. We take but a defective view of the atonemeat when we limit it to the work wrought on Calvary; nay, we will say, that if the work of the Saviour ended here, there could have been no atonement. The work was commenced on Calvary–it is completed in heaven. Without the resurrection there could be no triumph over death, no entrance into glory, and hence no atonement available for our entering where Christ had not gone before.

2. But there is another and most important way in which the tidings of our text affect us. We stand in the same position as Israel of old occupied on the day of atonement, as regards our justification our privileges in other respects exceed. We have lost more than Gods favour in the fall; we have lost our right of access to Him. A rebel may be pardoned, and fully pardoned, and yet never find access to the royal presence. It was so with Israel! they approached God only through the person of their high priest. Ours is the high and holy privilege of access to God.

3. We connect the resurrection of Christ with our own; not as regards its reality for this we have done before, but its glory. But what can we say of this? To tell of the glory which shall burst upon a waiting Church in the resurrection morning, would be to describe that sun which shall no more go down; it would be to fathom the perfections of that God whose glory fills heaven and earth. In conclusion: There is not a being in the universe which will not be affected by the resurrection of Jesus. (A. C. Carr, M. A.)

The necessity of Christs resurrection

The resurrection of Christ was necessary–

1. In order to the atonement.

2. In order to the holiness of the believer.

3. In order to the salvation of the Church. (M. H. Seymour, M. A.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 13. Behold, two of them] This long and interesting account is not mentioned by Matthew nor John, and is only glanced at by Mark, Mr 16:12-13. One of these disciples was Cleopas, Lu 24:18, and the other is supposed by many learned men, both ancient and modern, to have been Luke himself. See the sketch of his life prefixed to these notes. Some of the ancient versions have called the other disciple Ammaus and Ammaon, reading the verse thus: Behold two of them, Ammaus and Cleopas, were going in that very day to a village about sixty furlongs distant from Jerusalem. But the Persian says positively that it was Luke who accompanied Cleopas. See the inscription to section 140 of this Gospel in the Polyglott. Dr. Lightfoot thinks it was Peter, and proves that Cleopas and Alpheus were one and the same person.

Threescore furlongs.] Some MSS. say 160 furlongs, but this is a mistake; for Josephus assigns the same distance to this village from Jerusalem as the evangelist does. War, b. vii. c. 6. s. 6. , Ammaus is sixty stadia distant from Jerusalem, about seven English miles and three-quarters. A stadium was about 243 yards, according to Arbuthnot.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Who those two were is variously guessed; that the name of the one was Cleopas, appeareth from Luk 24:18. Some will have the other to have been Luke, but he in the beginning of his Gospel distinguishes himself from eyewitnesses, Luk 1:2. Some will have it to have been Nathanael; others will have it to have been Simon, from Luk 24:34, and 1Co 15:5. But these things are so uncertain, that all the instruction we can learn from them is the vanity and uncertainty of traditions. This Emmaus was from Jerusalem about sixty furlongs, which make seven miles and a half, according to our computation.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

13. two of themOne wasCleopas (Lu 24:18); whothe other was is mere conjecture.

Emmausabout seven anda half miles from Jerusalem. They probably lived there and were goinghome after the Passover.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And behold two of them went that same day,…. Two of the disciples, as the Persic version reads; not of the eleven apostles, for it is certain that one of them was not an apostle; but two of the seventy disciples, or of the society of the hundred and twenty that were together: one of these was Cleophas or Alphaeus, as appears from Lu 24:18 the other is, by some, thought to be Luke the Evangelist, as Theophylact on the place observes, who, out of modesty, mentions not his name; others have thought that Nathanael was the other person; and Dr. Lightfoot seems very confident, from

Lu 24:34 that the Apostle Peter was the other; but it is not certain who he was: however, this very remarkable affair happened, and therefore a “behold” is prefixed to it, on the “same day”; the first day of the week; the day on which Christ rose from the dead; and the third day from his death it was, see Lu 24:1 that these two disciples travelled:

to a village called Emmaus; whither they might go either to see their friends, or upon some secular affair, or to be retired from the noise of the city, and be secure from danger by their enemies; or it may be this was the place of Cleophas’s abode, who, with the other disciple, was returning home after the celebration of the passover. The place whither they went is particularly mentioned, not because it was a place of note, but for the certainty of the fact. It was now but a village, having been burnt since the death of Herod the great, by the order of Varus, the Roman governors l; though it afterwards became a considerable city, if it is the same with Nicopolis, as Jerom asserts m; though that rather seems to be the Ammaus, or Chammath of Tiberias, since it was situated by the lake of Genesareth. However, it is certain, that Emmaus is reckoned, by Josephus n, one of their chief cities; and Jarchi, and Bartenora o say, it is the name of a city; and Pliny p calls it a toparchy, and says it was watered with fountains; which agrees with the account the Jews give of it q.

“R. Jochanan ben Zaccai had five disciples; all the time that he stood, or lived, they sat before him; when he departed, they went to Jabneh; and R. Eleazar ben Arach went to his wife, , “at Emmaus”, a place of pleasant waters, and a beautiful habitation.”

It is mentioned, in company with Bethoron, and Lud, or Lydda: it is said r,

“from Bethoron, to , “Emmaus”, is the mountain; and from “Emmaus” to Lydda, the plain; and from Lydda to the sea, the valley.”

Bethoron is mentioned as near Nicopolis, by Jerom; and perhaps is the same with Betholone in Pliny: in Emmaus was a market: at least there was a butcher’s market in it; hence we read of,

, “the shambles of Emmaus” s; mention is made of a place so called, as in:

“So they went forth with all their power, and came and pitched by Emmaus in the plain country.” (1 Maccabees 3:40)

“So the camp removed, and pitched upon the south side of Emmaus.” (1 Maccabees 3:57)

“Now when Judas heard thereof he himself removed, and the valiant men with him, that he might smite the king’s army which was at Emmaus,” (1 Maccabees 4:3)

Another Emmaus is here meant:

which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs; or seven miles and a half; for eight furlongs make a mile. Josephus t says the same, and confirms the account of the distance of this place from Jerusalem.

l Joseph. Antiqu. l. 17. c. 12. m Epitaph. Paul. fol. 59. B. Catalog. Script. Eccl. fol. 98. B. Tom. I. & in Dan. viii. 14. Tom. V. n Antiqu. I. 14. c. 18. o In Misn. Ceritot, c. 3. sect. 7. p Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 14. q Midrash Kohelet, fol. 74. 4. r T. Hieros. Sheviith, c. 9. fol. 38. 4. s Misn. Ceritot, c. 3. sect. 7. T. Bah, Cholin, fol. 91. 2. & Maccot, fol. 14. 1. t De Bello Jud. l. 7. c. 27.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

      13 And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs.   14 And they talked together of all these things which had happened.   15 And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.   16 But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.   17 And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?   18 And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days?   19 And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people:   20 And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him.   21 But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done.   22 Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre;   23 And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive.   24 And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not.   25 Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:   26 Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?   27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.   28 And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and he made as though he would have gone further.   29 But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them.   30 And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them.   31 And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight.   32 And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?   33 And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them,   34 Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon.   35 And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread.

      This appearance of Christ to the two disciples going to Emmaus was mentioned, and but just mentioned, before (Mark xvi. 12); here it is largely related. It happened the same day that Christ rose, the first day of the new world that rose with him. One of these two disciples was Cleopas or Alpheus, said by the ancients to be the brother of Joseph, Christ’s supposed father; who the other was is not certain. Some think it was Peter; it should seem indeed that Christ did appear particularly to Peter that day, which the eleven spoke of among themselves (v. 34), and Paul mentions, 1 Cor. xv. 5. But it could not be Peter that was one of the two, for he was one of the eleven to whom the two returned; and, besides, we know Peter so well as to think that if he had been one of the two he would have been the chief speaker, and not Cleopas. It was one of those that were associated with the eleven, mentioned v. 9. Now in this passage of story we may observe,

      I. The walk and talk of these two disciples: They went to a village called Emmaus, which is reckoned to be about two hours’ walk from Jerusalem; it is here said to be about sixty furlongs, seven measured miles, v. 13. Whether they went thither upon business, or to see some friend, does not appear. I suspect that they were going homewards to Galilee, with an intention not to enquire more after this Jesus; that they were meditating a retreat, and stole away from their company without asking leave or taking leave; for the accounts brought them that morning of their Master’s resurrection seemed to them as idle tales; and, if so, no wonder that they began to think of making the best of their way home. But as they travelled they talked together of all those things which had happened, v. 14. They had not courage to confer of these things, and consult what was to be done in the present juncture at Jerusalem, for fear of the Jews; but, when they were got out of the hearing of the Jews, they could talk it over with more freedom. They talked over these things, reasoning with themselves concerning the probabilities of Christ’s resurrection; for, according as these appeared, they would either go forward or return back to Jerusalem. Note, It well becomes the disciples of Christ, when they are together, to talk of his death and resurrection; thus they may improve one another’s knowledge, refresh one another’s memory, and stir up one another’s devout affections.

      II. The good company they met with upon the road, when Jesus himself came, and joined himself to them (v. 15): They communed together, and reasoned, and perhaps were warm at the argument, one hoping that their Master was risen, and would set up his kingdom, the other despairing. Jesus himself drew near, as a stranger who, seeing them travel the same way that he went, told them that he should be glad of their company. We may observe it, for our encouragement to keep up Christian conference and edifying discourse among us, that where but two together are well employed in work of that kind Christ will come to them, and make a third. When they that fear the Lord speak one to another the Lord hearkens and hears, and is with them of a truth; so that two thus twisted in faith and love become a threefold cord, not easily broken, Eccl. iv. 12. They in their communings and reasonings together were searching for Christ, comparing notes concerning him, that they might come to more knowledge of him; and now Christ comes to them. Note, They who seek Christ shall find him: he will manifest himself to those that enquire after him, and give knowledge to those who use the helps for knowledge which they have. When the spouse enquired of the watchman concerning her beloved, it was but a little that she passed from them, but she found him. Cant. iii. 4. But, though they had Christ with them, they were not at first aware of it (v. 16): Their eyes were held, that they should not know him. It should seem, there were both an alteration of the object (for it is said in Mark that now he appeared in another form) and a restraint upon the organ (for here it is said that their eyes were held by a divine power); or, as some think, there was a confusion in the medium; the air was so disposed that they could not discern who it was. No matter how it was, but so it was they did not know him, Christ so ordering it that they might the more freely discourse with him and he with them, and that it might appear that his word, and the influence of it, did not depend upon his bodily presence, which the disciples had too much doted upon, and must be weaned from; but he could teach them, and warm their hearts, by others, who should have his spiritual presence with them, and should have his grace going along with them unseen.

      III. The conference that was between Christ and them, when he knew them, and they knew not him. Now Christ and his disciples, as is usual when friends meet incognito, or in a disguise, are here crossing questions.

      1. Christ’s first question to them is concerning their present sadness, which plainly appeared in their countenances: What manner of communications are those that you have one with another as you walk, and are sad? v. 17. It is a very kind and friendly enquiry. Observe,

      (1.) They were sad; it appeared to a stranger that they were so. [1.] They had lost their dear Master, and were, in their own apprehensions, quite disappointed in their expectations from him. They had given up the cause, and knew not what course to take to retrieve it. Note, Christ’s disciples have reason to be sad when he withdraws from them, to fast when the Bridegroom is taken from them. [2.] Though he was risen from the dead, yet either they did not know it or did not believe it, and so they were still in sorrow. Note, Christ’s disciples are often sad and sorrowful even when they have reason to rejoice, but through the weakness of their faith they cannot take the comfort that is offered to them. [3.] Being sad, they had communications one with another concerning Christ. Note, First, It becomes Christians to talk of Christ. Were our hearts as full of him, and of what he has done and suffered for us, as they should be, out of the abundance of the heart the mouth would speak, not only of God and his providence, but of Christ and his grace and love. Secondly, Good company and good converse are an excellent antidote against prevailing melancholy. When Christ’s disciples were sad they did not each one get by himself, but continued as he sent them out, two and two, for two are better than one, especially in times of sorrow. Giving vent to the grief may perhaps give ease to the grieved; and by talking it over we may talk ourselves or our friends may talk us into a better frame. Joint mourners should be mutual comforters; comforts sometimes come best from such.

      (2.) Christ came up to them, and enquired into the matter of their talk, and the cause of their grief: What manner of communications are these? Though Christ had now entered into his state of exaltation, yet he continued tender of his disciples, and concerned for their comfort. He speaks as one troubled to see their melancholy: Wherefore look ye so sadly to-day? Gen. xl. 7. Note, Our Lord Jesus takes notice of the sorrow and sadness of his disciples, and is afflicted in their afflictions. Christ has hereby taught us, [1.] To be conversable. Christ here fell into discourse with two grave serious persons, though he was a stranger to them and they knew him not, and they readily embraced him. It does not become Christians to be morose and shy, but to take pleasure in good society. [2.] We are hereby taught to be compassionate. When we see our friends in sorrow and sadness, we should, like Christ here, take cognizance of their grief, and give them the best counsel and comfort we can: Weep with them that weep.

      2. In answer to this, they put a question to him concerning his strangeness. Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things that are come to pass there in these days? Observe, (1.) Cleopas gave him a civil answer. He does not rudely ask him. “As for what we are talking of, what is that to you?” and bid him go about his business. Note, We ought to be civil to those who are civil to us, and to conduct ourselves obligingly to all, both in word and deed. It was a dangerous time now with Christ’s disciples; yet he was not jealous of this stranger, that he had any design upon them, to inform against them, or bring them into trouble. Charity is not forward to think evil, no, not of strangers. (2.) He is full of Christ himself and of his death and sufferings, and wonders that every body else is not so too: “What! art thou such a stranger in Jerusalem as not to know what has been done to our Master there?” Note, Those are strangers indeed in Jerusalem that know not of the death and sufferings of Christ. What! are they daughters of Jerusalem, and yet so little acquainted with Christ as to ask, What is thy beloved more than another beloved? (3.) He is very willing to inform this stranger concerning Christ, and to draw on further discourse with him upon this subject. He would not have any one that had the face of a man to be ignorant of Christ. Note, Those who have themselves the knowledge of Christ crucified should do what they can to spread that knowledge, and lead others into an acquaintance with him. And it is observable that these disciples, who were so forward to instruct the stranger, were instructed by him; for to him that has, and uses what he has, shall be given. (4.) It appears, by what Cleopas says, that the death of Christ made a great noise in Jerusalem, so that it could not be imagined that any man should be such a stranger in the city as not to know of it; it was all the talk of the town, and discoursed of in all companies. Thus the matter of fact came to be universally known, which, after the pouring out of the Spirit, was to be explained.

      3. Christ, by way of reply, asked concerning their knowledge (v. 19): He said unto them, What things? thus making himself yet more a stranger. Observe, (1.) Jesus Christ made light of his own sufferings, in comparison with the joy set before him, which was the recompence of it. Now that he was entering upon his glory, see with what unconcernedness he looks back upon his sufferings: What things? He had reason to know what things; for to him they were bitter things, and heavy things, and yet he asks, What things? The sorrow was forgotten, for joy that the man-child of our salvation was born. He took pleasure in infirmities for our sakes, to teach us to do so for his sake. (2.) Those whom Christ will teach he will first examine how far they have learned; they must tell him what things they know, and then he will tell them what was the meaning of these things. and lead them into the mystery of them.

      4. They, hereupon, gave him a particular account concerning Christ, and the present posture of his affairs. Observe the story they tell, v. 19, c.

      (1.) Here is a summary of Christ’s life and character. The things they are full of are concerning Jesus of Nazareth (so he was commonly called), who was a prophet, a teacher come from God. He preached a true and excellent doctrine, which had manifestly its rise from heaven, and its tendency towards heaven. He confirmed it by many glorious miracles, miracles of mercy, so that he was mighty in deed and word before God and all the people that is, he was both a great favourite of heaven and a great blessing to this earth. He was, and appeared to be, greatly beloved of God, and much the darling of his people. He had great acceptance with God, and a great reputation in the country. Many are great before all the people, and are caressed by them, who are not so before God, as the scribes and Pharisees; but Christ was mighty both in his doctrine and in his doings, before God and all the people. Those were strangers in Jerusalem that did not know this.

      (2.) Here is a modest narrative of his sufferings and death, v. 20. “Though he was so dear both to God and man, yet the chief priests and our rulers, in contempt of both, delivered him to the Roman power, to be condemned to death, and they have crucified him.” It is strange that they did not aggravate the matter more, and lay a greater load upon those that had been guilty of crucifying Christ; but perhaps because they spoke to one that was a stranger they thought it prudent to avoid all reflections upon the chief priests and their rulers, how just soever.

      (3.) Here is an intimation of their disappointment in him, as the reason of their sadness: “We trusted that it had been he who should have redeemed Israel, v. 21. We are of those who not only looked upon him to be a prophet, like Moses, but, like him, a redeemer too.” He was depended upon, and great things expected from him, by them that looked for redemption, and in it for the consolation of Israel. Now, if hope deferred makes the heart sick, hope disappointed, especially such a hope, kills the heart. But see how they made that the ground of their despair which if they had understood it aright was the surest ground of their hope, and that was the dying of the Lord Jesus: We trusted (say they) that it had been he that should have redeemed Israel. And is it not he that doth redeem Israel? Nay, is he not by his death paying the price of their redemption? Was it not necessary, in order to his saving Israel from their sins, that he should suffer? Sop that now, since that most difficult part of his undertaking was got over, they had more reason than ever to trust that this was he that should deliver Israel; yet now they are ready to give up the cause.

      (4.) Here is an account of their present amazement with reference to his resurrection. [1.] “This is the third day since he was crucified and died, and that was the day when it was expected, if ever, that he should rise again, and rise in glory and outward pomp, and show himself as publicly in honour as he had been shown three days before in disgrace; but we see no sign of it; nothing appears, as we expected, to the conviction and confusion of his prosecutors, and the consolation of his disciples, but all is silent.” [2.] They own that there was a report among them that he was risen, but they seem to speak of it very slightly, and as what they gave no credit at all to (Luk 24:22; Luk 24:23): “Certain women also of our company made us astonished (and that was all), who were early at the sepulchre, and found the body gone, and they said that they had seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive; but we are ready to think it was only their fancy, and no real thing, for angels would have been sent to the apostles, not to the women, and women are easily imposed upon.” [3.] They acknowledge that some of the apostles had visited the sepulchre, and found it empty, v. 24. “But him they saw not, and therefore we have reason to fear that he is not risen, for, if he be, surely he would have shown himself to them; so that, upon the whole matter, we have no great reason to think that he is risen, and therefore have no expectations from him now; our hopes were all nailed to his cross, and buried in his grave.”

      (5.) Our Lord Jesus, though not known by face to them, makes himself known to them by his word.

      [1.] He reproves them for their incogitancy, and the weakness of their faith in the scriptures of the Old Testament: O fools, and slow of heart to believe, v. 25. When Christ forbade us to say to our brother, Thou fool, it was intended to restrain us from giving unreasonable reproaches, not from giving just reproofs. Christ called them fools, not as it signifies wicked men, in which sense he forbade it to us, but as it signifies weak men. He might call them fools, for he knows our foolishness, the foolishness that is bound in our hearts. Those are fools that act against their own interest; so they did who would not admit the evidence given them that their Master was risen, but put away the comfort of it. That which is condemned in them as their foolishness is, First, Their slowness to believe. Believers are branded as fools by atheists, and infidels, and free-thinkers, and their most holy faith is censured as a fond credulity; but Christ tells us that those are fools who are slow of heart to believe, and are kept from it by prejudices never impartially examined. Secondly, Their slowness to believe the writings of the prophets. He does not so much blame them for their slowness to believe the testimony of the women and of the angels, but for that which was the cause thereof, their slowness to believe the prophets; for, if they had given the prophets of the Old Testament their due weight and consideration, they would have been as sure of Christ’s rising from the dead that morning (being the third day after his death) as they were of the rising of the sun; for the series and succession of events as settled by prophecy are no less certain and inviolable than as settled by providence. Were we but more conversant with the scripture, and the divine counsels as far as they are made known in the scripture, we should not be subject to such perplexities as we often entangle ourselves in.

      [2.] He shows them that the sufferings of Christ, which were such a stumbling-block to them, and made them unapt to believe his glory, were really the appointed way to his glory, and he could not go to it any other way (v. 26): “Ought not the Christ (the Messiah) to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? Was it not decreed, and was not that decree declared, that the promised Messiah must first suffer and then reign, that he must go by his cross to his crown?” Had they never read the fifty-third of Isaiah and the ninth of Daniel, where the prophets speak so very plainly of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow? 1 Pet. i. 11. The cross of Christ was that to which they could not reconcile themselves; now here he shows them two things which take off the offence of the cross:–First, That the Messiah ought to suffer these things; and therefore his sufferings were not only no objection against his being the Messiah, but really a proof of it, as the afflictions of the saints are an evidence of their sonship; and they were so far from ruining their expectations that really they were the foundation of their hopes. He could not have been a Saviour, if he had not been a sufferer. Christ’s undertaking our salvation was voluntary; but, having undertaken it, it was necessary that he should suffer and die. Secondly, That, when he had suffered these things, he should enter into his glory, which he did at his resurrection; that was his first step upward. Observe, It is called his glory, because he was duly entitled to it, and it was the glory he had before the world was; he ought to enter into it, for in that, as well as in his sufferings, the scripture must be fulfilled. He ought to suffer first, and then to enter into his glory; and thus the reproach of the cross is for ever rolled away, and we are directed to expect the crown of thorns and then that of glory.

      [3.] He expounded to them the scriptures of the Old Testament, which spoke of the Messiah, and showed them how they were fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth, and now can tell them more concerning him than they could before tell him (v. 27): Beginning at Moses, the first inspired writer of the Old Testament, he went in order through all the prophets, and expounded to them the things concerning himself, showing that the sufferings he had now gone through were so far from defeating the prophecies of the scripture concerning him that they were the accomplishment of them. He began at Moses, who recorded the first promise, in which it was plainly foretold that the Messiah should have his heel bruised, but that by it the serpent’s head should be incurably broken. Note, First, There are things dispersed throughout all the scriptures concerning Christ, which it is of great advantage to have collected and put together. You cannot go far in any part of scripture but you meet with something that has reference to Christ, some prophecy, some promise, some prayer, some type or other; for he is the true treasure his in the field of the Old Testament. A golden thread of gospel grace runs through the whole web of the Old Testament. There is an eye of that white to be discerned in every place. Secondly, The things concerning Christ need to be expounded. The eunuch, though a scholar, would not pretend to understand them, except some man should guide him (Acts viii. 31); for they were delivered darkly, according to that dispensation: but now that the veil is taken away the New Testament expounds the Old. Thirdly, Jesus Christ is himself the best expositor of scripture, particularly the scriptures concerning himself; and even after his resurrection it was in this way that he led people into the knowledge of the mystery concerning himself; not by advancing new notions independent upon the scripture, but by showing how the scripture was fulfilled, and turning them over to the study of it. Even the Apocalypse itself is but a second part of the Old-Testament prophecies, and has continually an eye to them. If men believe not Moses and the prophets, they are incurable. Fourthly, In studying the scriptures, it is good to be methodical, and to take them in order; for the Old-Testament light shone gradually to the perfect day, and it is good to observe how at sundry times, and in divers manners (subsequent predictions improving and giving light to the preceding ones), God spoke to the fathers concerning his Son, by whom he has now spoken to us. Some begin their bible at the wrong end, who study the Revelation first; but Christ has here taught us to begin at Moses. Thus far the conference between them.

      IV. Here is the discovery which Christ at length made of himself to them. One would have given a great deal for a copy of the sermon Christ preached to them by the way, of that exposition of the bible which he gave them; but it is not thought fit that we should have it, we have the substance of it in other scriptures. The disciples are so charmed with it, that they think they are come too soon to their journey’s end; but so it is: They drew nigh to the village whither they went (v. 28), where, it should seem, they determined to take up for that night. And now,

      1. They courted his stay with them: He made as though he would have gone further; he did not say that he would, but he seemed to them to be going further, and did not readily turn into their friend’s house, which it would not be decent for a stranger to do unless he were invited. He would have gone further if they had not courted his stay; so that here was nothing like dissimulation in the case. If a stranger be shy, every one knows the meaning of it; he will not thrust himself rudely upon your house or company; but, if you make it appear that you are freely desirous of him for your guest or companion, he knows not but he may accept your invitation, and this was all that Christ did when he made as though he would have gone further. Note, Those that would have Christ dwell with them must invite him, and be importunate with him; though he is often found of those that seek him not, yet those only that seek can be sure to find; and, if he seem to draw off from us, it is but to draw out our importunity; as here, they constrained him; both of them laid hold on him, with a kind and friendly violence, saying, Abide with us. Note, Those that have experienced the pleasure and profit of communion with Christ cannot but covet more of his company, and beg of him, not only to walk with them all day, but to abide with them at night. When the day is far spent, and it is towards evening, we begin to think of retiring for our repose, and then it is proper to have our eye to Christ, and to beg of him to abide with us, to manifest himself to us and to fill our minds with good thoughts of him and good affections to him. Christ yielded to their importunity: He went in, to tarry with them. Thus ready is Christ to give further instructions and comforts to those who improve what they have received. He has promised that if any man open the door, to bid him welcome, he will come in to him, Rev. iii. 20.

      2. He manifested himself to them, Luk 24:30; Luk 24:31. We may suppose that he continued his discourse with them, which he began upon the road; for thou must talk of the things of God when thou sittest in the house as well as when thou walkest by the way. While supper was getting ready (which perhaps was soon done, the provision was so small and mean), it is probable that he entertained them with such communications as were good and to the use of edifying; and so likewise as they sat at meat his lips fed them. But still they little thought that it was Jesus himself that was all this while talking with them, till at length he was pleased to throw off his disguise, and then to withdraw. (1.) They began to suspect it was he, when, as they sat down to meat, he undertook the office of the Master of the feast, which he performed so like himself, and like what he used to do among his disciples, that by it they discerned him: He took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. This he did with his usual air both of authority and affection, with the same gestures and mien, with the same expressions perhaps in craving a blessing and in giving the bread to them. This was not a miraculous meal like that of the five loaves, nor a sacramental meal like that of the eucharist, but a common meal; yet Christ here did the same as he did in those, to teach us to keep up our communion with God through Christ in common providences as well as in special ordinances, and to crave a blessing and give thanks at every meal, and to see our daily bread provided for us and broken to us by the hand of Jesus Christ, the Master, not only of the great family, but of all our families. Wherever we sit down to eat, let us set Christ at the upper end of the table, take our meat as blessed to us by him, and eat and drink to his glory, and receive contentedly and thankfully what he is pleased to carve out to us, be the fare ever so coarse and mean. We may well receive it cheerfully, if we can by faith see it coming to us from Christ’s hand, and with his blessing. (2.) Presently their eyes were opened, and then they saw who it was, and knew him well enough. Whatever it was which had hitherto concealed him from them, it was now taken out of the way; the mists were scattered, the veil was taken off, and then they made no question but it was their Master. He might, for wise and holy ends, put on the shape of another, but no other could put on his; and therefore it must be he. See how Christ by his Spirit and grace makes himself known to the souls of his people. [1.] He opens the scriptures to them, for they are they which testify of him to those who search them, and search for him in them. [2.] He meets them at his table, in the ordinance of the Lord’s supper, and commonly there makes further discoveries of himself to them, is known to them in the breaking of bread. But, [3.] The work is completed by the opening of the eyes of their mind, and causing the scales to fall off from them, as from Paul’s in his conversion. If he that gives the revelation do not give the understanding, we are in the dark still.

      3. He immediately disappeared: He vanished out of their sight. Aphantos egeneto–He withdrew himself from them, slipped away of a sudden, and went out of sight. Or, he became not visible by them, was made inconspicuous by them. It should seem that though Christ’s body, after his resurrection, was the very same body in which he suffered and died, as appeared by the marks in it, yet it was so far changed as to become either visible or not visible as he thought fit to make it, which was a step towards its being made a glorious body. As soon as he had given his disciples one glimpse of him he was gone presently. Such short and transient views have we of Christ in this world; we see him, but in a little while lose the sight of him again. When we come to heaven the vision of him will have no interruptions.

      V. Here is the reflection which these disciples made upon this conference, and the report which they made of it to their brethren at Jerusalem.

      1. The reflection they each of them made upon the influence which Christ’s discourse had upon them (v. 32): They said one to another, Did not our hearts burn within us? “I am sure mine did,” saith one; “And so did mine,” saith the other, “I never was so affected with any discourse in all my life.” Thus do they not so much compare notes as compare hearts, in the review of the sermon Christ had preached to them. They found the preaching powerful, even when they knew not the preacher. It made things very plain and clear to them; and, which was more, brought a divine heat with a divine light into their souls, such as put their hearts into a glow, and kindled a holy fire of pious and devout affections in them. Now this they take notice of, for the confirming of their belief, that it was indeed, as at last they saw, Jesus himself that had been talking with them all along. “What fools were we, that we were not sooner aware who it was! For none but he, no word but his, could make our hearts burn within us as they did; it must be he that has the key of the heart; it could be no other.” See here, (1.) What preaching is likely to do good–such as Christ’s was, plain preaching, and that which is familiar and level to our capacity–he talked with us by the way; and scriptural preaching–he opened to us the scriptures, the scriptures relating to himself. Ministers should show people their religion in their bibles, and that they preach no other doctrine to them than what is there; they must show that they make that the fountain of their knowledge and the foundation of their faith. Note, The expounding of those scriptures which speak of Christ has a direct tendency to warm the hearts of his disciples, both to quicken and to comfort them. (2.) What hearing is likely to do good–that which makes the heart burn; when we are much affected with the things of God, especially with the love of Christ in dying for us, and have our hearts thereby drawn out in love to him, and drawn up in holy desires and devotions, then our hearts burn within us; when our hearts are raised and elevated, and are as the sparks which fly upwards towards God, and when they are kindled and carried out with a holy zeal and indignation against sin, both in others and in ourselves, and we are in some measure refined and purified from it by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning, then we may say, “Through grace our hearts are thus inflamed.”

      2. The report they brought of this to their brethren at Jerusalem (v. 33): They rose up the same hour, so transported with joy at the discovery Christ had made of himself to them that they could not stay to make an end of their supper, but returned with all speed to Jerusalem, though it was towards evening. If they had had any thoughts of quitting their relation to Christ, this soon banished all such thoughts out of their mind, and there needed no more to send them back to his flock. It should seem that they intended at least to take up their quarters to-night at Emmaus; but now that they had seen Christ they could not rest till they had brought the good news to the disciples, both for the confirmation of their trembling faith and for the comfort of their sorrowful spirits, with the same comforts wherewith they were comforted of God. Note, It is the duty of those to whom Christ has manifested himself to let others know what he has done for their souls. When thou art converted, instructed, comforted, strengthen thy brethren. These disciples were full of this matter themselves, and must go to their brethren, to give vent to their joys, as well as to give them satisfaction that their Master was risen. Observe, (1.) How they found them, just when they came in among them, discoursing on the same subject, and relating another proof of the resurrection of Christ. They found the eleven, and those that were their usual companions, gathered together late in the night, to pray together, it may be, and to consider what was to be done in this juncture; and they found them saying among themselves (legontas it is the saying of the eleven, not of the two, as is plain by the original), and when these two came in, they repeated to them with joy and triumph, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon, v. 34. That Peter had a sight of him before the rest of the disciples had appears 1 Cor. xv. 5, where it is said, He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve. The angel having ordered the women to tell Peter of it particularly (Mark xvi. 7), for his comfort, it is highly probable that our Lord Jesus did himself presently the same day appear to Peter, though we have no particular narrative of it, to confirm the word of his messengers. This he had related to his brethren; but, observe, Peter does not here proclaim it, and boast of it, himself (he thought this did not become a penitent), but the other disciples speak of it with exultation, The Lord is risen indeed, ontos—really; it is now past dispute, no room is left to doubt it, for he has appeared not only to the women, but to Simon. (2.) How they seconded their evidence with an account of what they had seen (v. 35): They told what things were done in the way. The words that were spoken by Christ to them in the way, having a wonderful effect and influence upon them, are here called the things that were done in the way; for the words that Christ speaks are not an empty sound, but they are spirit and they are life, and wondrous things are done by them, done by the way, by the by as it were, where it is not expected. They told also how he was at length known to them in the breaking of bread; then, when he was carving out blessings to them, God opened their eyes to discern who it was. Note, It would be of great use for the discovery and confirmation of truth if the disciples of Christ would compare their observations and experiences, and communicate to each other what they know and have felt in themselves.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

Were going ( ). Periphrastic imperfect middle of .

Sixty stadia ( ). About seven miles.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Threescore furlongs. Seven miles.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

JESUS MINISTERS TO EMMAUS ROAD DISCIPLES V. 13-35

1)“And, behold, two of them,” (kai dou due eks auton) “And behold two out of them,” of the disciples, of the company of church members, but not apostles, Luk 24:22-23. One was named Cleopas, Luk 24:18.

2) “Went that same day,” (en aute te hemera esan poreuomenoi) “On the same day were journeying,” on the first day of the resurrection, in the afternoon, Luk 24:29.

3) “To a village called Emmaus,” (eis komen he onoma Emmaous) “To a village which is called Emmaus.” The two are also mentioned Mar 16:12-13 as walking, going into the country from Jerusalem; Only Luke recounts this story or resurrection appearance event.

4) “Which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs.” (apechousan stadious keksekonta apo lerousalem) “Which was a distance of about sixty furlongs from Jerusalem,” (a furlong is 582 feet) a distance of about 6 miles, which they walked after the resurrection report had come to them that first Sunday morning; the latter part of which, as they went to Emmaus, Jesus walked with them, Luk 24:15-16.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

Luk 24:13

. And lo, two of them. Although Mark touches slightly and briefly on this narrative, and Matthew and John say not a single word respecting it; yet as it is highly useful to be known and worthy of being remembered, it is not without reason that Luke treats it with so much exactness. But I have already mentioned on various occasions, that each of the Evangelists had his portion so appropriately assigned to him by the Spirit of God, that what is not to be found in one or two of them may be learned from the others. For there are also many appearances (312) which are mentioned by John, but are passed over in silence by our three Evangelists.

Before I come to the minute details, it will be proper to begin with stating briefly, that those were two chosen witnesses, by whom the Lord intended, not to convince the apostles that he was risen, but to reprove their slowness; for though at first; they were of no service, yet their testimony, strengthened by other aids, had at length its due weight with the apostles. Who they were is uncertain, except that from the name of one of them, whom we shah find that Luke shortly afterwards calls Cleopas, we may conjecture that they did not belong; to the eleven. Emmaus was an ancient, and by no means inconsiderable, town, which the Romans afterwards called Nicopolis and was not at a great distance from Jerusalem, for sixty furlongs are not more than seven thousand and four hundred paces. (313) But the place is named by Luke, not so much on account of its celebrity, as to add certainty to the narrative.

(312) “ Car aussi bien il y a pluieurs recits de diverses fois que Christ s’est monstré;” — “for there are also many narratives of various times that Christ showed himself.”

(313) “ Sept mille et quatre cens paas d’Italie, qui font quatre lieues et demie ou environ;” — “seven thousand and four hundred Italian paces, which are equal to four leagues and a half, or thereabouts.”

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

CRITICAL NOTES

Luk. 24:13. Two of them.It is evident from Luk. 24:33 that neither of them were apostles. The name of one of them is given in Luk. 24:18, Cleopas (i.e., an abbreviation of Cleopatros), a different name from Cleopas of Joh. 19:25. Conjectures as to the name of the other are futile. Went.Rather, were going (R.V.). Emmaus.Mentioned in Josephus, B.J., VII. Luk. 6:6. Omit about; omitted in R.V.

Luk. 24:14. They talked.Rather, communed (R.V.); the same word as in Luk. 24:15.

Luk. 24:15. Reasoned.Rather, questioned together. (R.V.).

Luk. 24:16. Their eyes were holden.A certain change had passed over Jesus, so that He was not instantly recognised in all cases by the disciples after His resurrection (see Luk. 24:37; Mat. 28:17; Joh. 20:14; Joh. 21:4). In the present instance St. Mark refers to this in saying that He appeared to these two disciples in another form. St. Luke, however, speaks here of a subjective impediment to recognition in the disciples themselves: perhaps their absorption in grief. A supernatural restraint may possibly be indicated: cf. Luk. 24:31.

Luk. 24:17. What manner? etc.Lit., What words are these that ye exchange one with another? As ye walk and are sad.A better reading is, and they stood still, looking sad (R.V.).

Luk. 24:18. Art thou only? etc.Rather, Dost thou alone sojourn in Jerusalem? (R.V.) or Dost thou sojourn alone in Jerusalem? (R.V. margin). Cleopas thought that the supposed stranger was one of the numerous persons who had come up to sojourn at Jerusalem during the period of the paschal feast, and expressed his surprise at his being there without having heard of the death of Jesus of Nazareth; he assumes that no other person could have been in Jerusalem at the time without hearing of it (Speakers Commentary).

Luk. 24:19. A prophet, etc.See a similar description in Act. 2:22.

Luk. 24:20. Our rulers.This shows that the speakers were Jews. Delivered him.I.e., to Pilate.

Luk. 24:21. We trusted.Rather, we hoped (R.V); a word of weakened trust, and shrinking from the avowal that they believed this (Alford). Is the third day.The expression in the original is peculiar, and might be translated, He is now in the third day, since, etc. The reference, of course, is to the prophecy about rising again on the third day.

Luk. 24:22. Yea, and certain women.R.V. moreover. The phrase used implies, Certainly, thus much has happened, that, etc. Made us astonished.R.V. amazed us.

Luk. 24:24. Certain of them, etc.This refers to the apostles; to the visit of Peter and John to the sepulchre, though St. Luke has in his narrative only mentioned Peter (Luk. 24:12).

Luk. 24:25. O fools.Rather, O foolish men (R.V.); the word means unintelligent. Defects both of understanding and of heart accounted for their unbelief.

Luk. 24:26. Ought not Christ?Rather, behoved it not the Christ? (R.V.). The sufferings were the appointed way by which Christ should enter into His glory (Alford).

Luk. 24:27. Beginning at.I.e., taking His arguments from. Taking up the words of one sacred writer after another, he deduced from them in turn certain great principles; basing what He taught upon their testimony. In all the scriptures.The general tenor of the Old-Testament Scriptures, types, Law, and prophecies, led up to Christ.

Luk. 24:28. Made as though, etc.There was no dissimulation, for He would have gone further, if they had not constrained Him to abide with them. His having joined them on the road was no pledge that He would remain an unlimited time in their society.

Luk. 24:29. Abide with us.I.e., in the same quarters with us. It is not implied that the home of either of the disciples was in Emmaus; indeed, from Christs assuming the position of master of the household, it would seem probable that the resting place was an inn. To tarry.Rather, to abide (R.V.); the same word as in the earlier part of the verse.

Luk. 24:30. Sat at meat.Rather, as in other places, reclined at meat. Took bread, etc.No reference to any sacramental rite. These disciples could not have been reminded by His action at the last supper, for neither of them was then present. But they may have witnessed similar actions at common meals with the disciples and at the miraculous feeding of the multitudes. Perhaps they recognised the prints of the nails in His hands.

Luk. 24:32. Did not our hearts? etc.Rather, Was not our heart burning within us (R.V.). Talked with us.Rather to us (R.V.).

Luk. 24:33. Rose up the same hour.They have now no fear of the night-journey from which they had so lately dissuaded their unknown companion (Bengel). Found the eleven.With the exception of Thomas, if this appearance of Jesus be the same as that recorded in Joh. 20:19.

Luk. 24:34. Appeared to Simon.I.e., to Simon Peter. No details are given of this appearance, but it is mentioned again in 1Co. 15:5. Probably at this interview between Jesus and Peter, the sin of his threefold denial was formally forgiven.

Luk. 24:35. In breaking of bread.Rather, in the breaking of bread (R.V.),

Luk. 24:36. Jesus Himself.Rather, He Himself (R.V.). Stood in the midst.A sudden appearance, corresponding to the disappearance in Luk. 24:31. St. John (Joh. 20:19) says that the doors were shut. Peace be unto you.The ordinary Jewish salutation, but having special significance in the mouth of our Lord. Cf. Joh. 14:27.

Luk. 24:37. Terrified.On account of His sudden appearance, and the likeness to one whom they knew to have been dead (Alford). A spirit.I.e., a ghost or spectre.

Luk. 24:38. Thoughts.Rather, reasonings (R.V.), or disputing.

Luk. 24:39. My hands, etc.Probably as evidence both of His corporeity and of His identity. The latter was proved by the marks of the nails. Sometimes those crucified had their feet tied to the cross: from this it is evident that the feet of Christ had been nailed to the cross. Handle me.St. John uses the same word in the same connection (1Jn. 1:1). Flesh and bones.From the omission of blood, some have argued that this was absent in His resurrection body, as being the seat of animal life. But this is doubtful.

Luk. 24:40. Some ancient authorities omit this verse; but it is, no doubt, genuine. It is not an interpolation from Joh. 20:27.

Luk. 24:41. Believed not for joy.A very natural touch. Any meat.Rather, anything to eat.

Luk. 24:42. Fish.Fish was brought in great quantities to Jerusalem at the principal festivals. Honeycomb.Curiously enough these words are omitted from the most important uncial MSS. They are, however, of great antiquity, and are found in nearly all the cursive MSS. and in some of the uncials. It is difficult to understand how they could have been inserted if they had not been genuine. This proof of the resurrection by eating with the disciples is referred to by St. Peter (Act. 10:41).

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Luk. 24:13-43

The Eyes of the Understanding Opened.Jesus appeared in the morning first of all to Mary of Magdala the second appearance was vouchsafed to Peter. Then, in the course of the day, He appeared to the two brethren who journeyed to Emmaus, and in the evening to the eleven apostlesor rather, to the ten. In the two last of these cases we notice a difference in the order of procedure followed by Jesus. In the one case He opened the eyes of the understanding first, and the eyes of the body second; in the other He reversed this order.

I. The eyes of the understanding opened.In thus varying the order of revelation Jesus was but adapting His procedure to the different circumstances of the persons with whom he had to deal. The two friends who journeyed to Emmaus did not notice any resemblance between the stranger who joined their company and their beloved Lord of whom they had been thinking and speaking. Their eyes were holden, that they should not know Him. The main cause of this, we believe, was sheer heaviness of heart. Sorrow made them unobserving. They were so engrossed with their own sad thoughts that they had no eyes for outward things. They did not take the trouble to look who it was that had come up with them; it would have made no difference though the stranger had been their own father. It is obvious how men in such a mood must be dealt with. They can get outward vision only by getting the inward eye first opened. The diseased mind must be healed, that they may be able to look at what is before them and see it as it is. On this principle Jesus proceeded with the two brethren. He accommodated Himself to their humour, and led them on from despair to hope; and then the outward senses recovered their perceptive power, and told who the stranger was. You have heard, He said in effect, a rumour that He who was crucified three days ago is risen. You regard this rumour as an incredible story. But why should you? You believe Jesus to be the Christ. If He was the Christ, His rising again was to be expected as much as the passion, for both alike are foretold in the Scriptures, which ye believe to be the Word of God. These thoughts having taken hold of their minds, the hearts of the two brethren began to burn with the kindling power of a new truth; the day-dawn of hope breaks on their spirit; they wake up as from an oppressive dream; they look outward, and, lo! the Man who has been discoursing to them is Jesus Himself.

II. The eyes of the body opened.With the ten the case was different. When Jesus appeared in the midst of them they were struck at once with the resemblance to their deceased Master. They had been listening to the story of Cleopas and his companion, and were in a more observing mood. But they would not believe that what they saw really was Jesus. They were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spiritthe ghost or spectre of the Crucified. The first thing to be done in this case, therefore, manifestly, was to allay the fear awakened, and to convince the terrified disciples that the Being who had suddenly appeared was no ghost, but a Man; the very Man He seemed to be, even Jesus Himself. Not till that has been done can any discourse be profitably held concerning the teaching of the Old Testament on the subject of Messiahs earthly history. To that task, accordingly, Jesus forthwith addressed Himself, and only when it was successfully accomplished did He proceed to expound the true Messianic theory. Something analogous to the difference in the experience of the two and of the ten disciples, in connection with belief in the resurrection, may be found in the ways by which different Christians now are brought to faith. The evidences of Christianity are divisible into two great categories, the external and the internal; the one drawn from outward historical facts, the other from the adaptation of the gospel to mans nature and needs. Both sorts of evidence are necessary to a perfect faith, just as both sorts of vision, the outward and the inward, were necessary to make the disciples thorough believers in the fact of the Resurrection. But some begin with the one, some with the other. Some are convinced first that the gospel story is true, and then, perhaps long after, waken up to a sense of the importance and preciousness of the things which it relates. Others, again, are, like Cleopas and his companion, so engrossed with their own thoughts as to be incapable of appreciating or seeing facts, requiring first to have the eyes of their understanding enlightened to see the beauty and the worthiness of the truth as it is in Jesus. They may at one time have had a kind of traditional faith in the facts as sufficiently well attested. But they have lost that faithit may be, not without regret. They are sceptics, and yet they are sad because they are so, and feel that it was better with them when, like others, they believed. Yet, though they attempt it, they cannot restore their faith by a study of mere external evidences. They read books dealing in such evidences, but they are not much impressed by them. Their eyes are holden, and they know not Christ coming to them in that outward way. But He reveals Himself to them in another manner. By hidden discourse with their spirits, He conveys into their minds a powerful sense of the moral grandeur of the Christian faith, making them feel that, true or not, it is at least worthy to be true. Then their hearts begin to burn; they hope that what is so beautiful may turn out to be all objectively true; the question of the external evidences assumes a new interest to their minds; they inquire, they read, they look, and, lo! they see Jesus revived, a true historical person for themrisen out of the grave of doubt to live for evermore the sun of their souls, more precious for the temporary loss coming

Apparelled in more precious habit,
More moving, more delicate, and full of life,
Into the eye and prospect of their soul

than ever He did before they doubted.Bruce.

SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Luk. 24:13-43

Luk. 24:13-32. The Unrecognised Presence: a Narrative with a Typical Value.

I. Christ draws near while they talk of holy things.

II. He draws them out by His inquiries.

III. He draws out the meaning of Scripture.

IV. He draws out their invitation.

V. Then He goes in to tarry.Sits at meat, He blesses and breaks and gives the bread.

VI. Two forms of revelation.

1. He makes their hearts burn.
2. He makes Himself known in breaking bread.

The Journey to Emmaus.

I. The way.

II. Christ with us by the way.

III. Christ opening the Scriptures to us by the way.

IV. Our hearts burning in us in the company of Jesus.

1. The kind.
2. The degree.
3. The effects of this emotion.Arnot.

The Journey to Emmaus.

I. Two sad travellers on the way to Emmaus.

1. The afternoon journey.
2. The sympathising Companion.
3. The willing Teacher.
4. The risen Lord.

II. Two glad travellers on the way to Jerusalem.

1. A rapid, eager, impatient return.
2. Glad and joyful hearts.
3. A journey to convey glad news to others.W. Taylor.

These Two Men Types of Disciples in Calamity.If these two men are types of disciples suddenly visited by calamity, the Saviours dealings with them are manifestations of His permanent method of comforting such as they.

I. He first brings them in a human way to open their hearts to Him. This is, however homely, really always the first step to comfort.
II. Then comes the light of His Divine instruction.
III. A still greater comfort was in store for themthe discovery of the Lord Himself.
IV. There are two lessons from this story:

1. One as to experience. The burning heart had been a token of His presence with them all the way. The real signs of the Divine life are within.
2. One as to service. After vision comes work. Worship is followed by service to their brethren. Christ in the heart, then the heart in Christs work.Macleod.

Luk. 24:13. That same day.They left the city, probably, between three and four oclock in the afternoon, as they arrived at Emmaus (six and a half miles) before sunset.

Luk. 24:14. They talked together.In the verse following they are spoken of as reasoning, so that we may conclude that they were not altogether of one mind on some of the questions that engaged their attention. As the one of them named Cleopas in the ensuing dialogue speaks in a tone of deep melancholy and despair, it is probable that his companion was inclined to a somewhat more hopeful view of matters.

Luk. 24:15. Jesus Himself drew near.A fulfilment of the promise, Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them (Mat. 18:20).

I. Jesus draws near when His friends speak of Him.

II. How much we miss when we meet if we fail to speak of Christ!
III. What a blessing every hour of conversation would be if we would only talk together of Christ and His kingdom!Miller.

Luk. 24:16. Their eyes were holden.When Jesus in temptation holds our eyes, so that the soul neither can nor may recognise, that is good, for soon will joy, light, and comfort, follow; but when the sinner holds his own eyes, and will not recognise Jesus, that is evil, for he incurs danger of eternal blindness and darkness.Starke.

Luk. 24:17. The Sadness of The Two Disciples

1. The sadness of bereavement.
2. Sadness caused by mental perplexity.
3. Sadness of a shattered career. In our modern world, too, nominal disciples are to be found vexed by almost the same kind of sadness. There is
(1) the sadness of mental perplexity;
(2) the sadness of conscience;
(3) that which arises from the want of an object in life. Christ draws near to them
(1) in His Church;
(2) in His Scriptures;
(3) in His sacraments.Liddon.

Sad.The sadness was an indication

(1) of unbelief, but also
(2) of love. They parted very reluctantly with their faith in Him for whose memory they cherished so strong an affection. The unbelief which is conjoined with sadness is likely to be transformed into faith, while that which is devoid of regret or sorrow is likely to undergo no change for the better.

Luk. 24:18. Hast not known.So absorbed are they in grief that they take for granted that every one else must be fully acquainted with the events that have occasioned it.

Luk. 24:19-24. Causes of The Disciples Despondency:

I. The memory of the holy and beneficent life of Jesus so sadly brought to an end by His ignominious death.

II. The defeat of the hopes of redemption through Him which they had cherished.

III. The perplexing nature of the reports which had reached their ears. All that they certainly knew being that the tomb was empty, but that no one had seen Christ.

Luk. 24:25-27.

I. Rebuke (Luk. 24:25).

II. Instruction (Luk. 24:26-27).

Luk. 24:25. O fools and slow of heart.Folly in the state of their minds; slowness in the state of their affections.

Luk. 24:26. And to enter into His glory.What had seemed to them incompatible with the glory of the Messiah was precisely the appointed way thereto. The Lord does not mean that He is already entered into His glory, but speaks as one who has come so near to His glory as that He sees already the suffering behind Him.Van Oosterzee.

The Need of a Suffering Saviour.

I. It was necessary that Christ should suffer, in order to His work of salvation.

II. In order to the exercise of sympathy with us.

III. To fit Him for His office of sovereignty.Ker.

Luk. 24:27. The things concerning Himself.Doubtless He began with the prot-evangelium (Gen. 3:15): the Seed of the woman who would inflict a deadly wound on the serpent, yet be Himself wounded. Then there were the types of the brazen serpent (Num. 21:9; Joh. 3:14), and the paschal lamb (Exo. 12:46; Joh. 19:36). Nor can we doubt that Isaiah 53 was the central prophecy which he expounded. Add to these the psalms of the Crucifixion (cf. Luk. 24:44), the 22nd (Mat. 27:46; Mar. 15:24) and the 40th (Heb. 10:5); then, further, Dan. 9:26, and the book of Jonah, and Zec. 12:10; Zec. 13:7.

Types of Christ.The likeness of the promised Mediator is conspicuous throughout the Sacred Volume; as in a picture, moving along the line of history in one or other of His destined officesthe dispenser of blessings, in Joseph; the inspired interpreter of truth, in Moses; the conqueror, in Joshua; the active preacher, in Samuel; the suffering combatant, in David; and, in Solomon, the triumphant and glorious king.Newman.

The Testimony of the Scriptures to Christ.In studying the Scriptures for Himself He had found Himself in them everywhere (Joh. 5:39-40). He had now only to let this light which filled His heart ray forth from Him.Godet.

Luk. 24:28. He made as though.The reasons for this were

(1) that this was in accordance with the assumed character of a stranger under which they had hitherto known Him, and
(2) that, having enlightened their minds, He would make trial of their affections.

Our blessed Saviour pretended that He would pass forth beyond Emmaus; but if He intended not to do it, yet He did no injury to the two disciples, for whose good it was that He intended to make this offer; and neither did He prevaricate the strictness of simplicity and sincerity, because they were persons with whom He had made no contracts, to whom He had passed no obligation, and in the nature of the thing it is proper and natural, by an offer, to give an occasion to another to do a good action, and, in case it succeeds not, then to do what we intended not; and so the offer was conditional (J. Taylor).

Luk. 24:29. They constrained Him.Consider on how many occasions besides the present it is intimated that constraint is necessary on the part of those who would secure the abiding presence of Christ. Pass not away, I pray Thee, from Thy servant, was the respectful language of the patriarch Abraham (Gen. 18:3); and, I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me, was the earnest exclamation of the patriarch Jacob (Gen. 32:26). Depart not hence, I pray Thee, until I come unto Thee, and bring forth my present, and set it before Thee, said Gideon to the angel (Jdg. 6:18). I pray Thee, let us detain Thee was the entreaty of Manoah and his wife (ibid. Luk. 13:15).Burgon.

Entertaining Strangers.They had not been forgetful to entertain strangers (Heb. 13:2), and they found a reward in being privileged to entertain the Son of God unawares.

Abide with us.

I. But for this request, Jesus would have passed on.He loves to be constrained.

II. We have so little of Christs fellowship, because we do not ask for it.If we wanted more we would get it.

III. If we were truly to desire Christ to abide with us always, He would never go away.Miller.

Our Need of Christ in Later Life.The words of the text may suggest to us our special need of the presence and the power of Christ in the different, and particularly in the later, periods of our life. We begin with

I. Our special need of Christ in the midday of life.When we have to say of ourselves that it is towards noon, or when it is the early afternoon with us; when we are in the midst of life, when the burden of its cares, and its anxieties, and its responsibilities, rests upon us; when we are feeling most of its strain and stress;then there are two peculiar perils besetting us.

1. That of over-confidence. We are tempted to speak thus to ourselves: I am through the heats and excitements of youth; I have met and mastered its temptations (to impurity, intemperance, irreverence, etc.); I may relax a little now, I may trust myself now, I may give the reins to inclination now; and then comes indulgence, which begins by being occasional and harmless, and may end by being habitual and harmful. Then comes declension, and, it may be, even downfall.

2. Absorption. The claims of the business, of the household, of friendship; invitations to various gratifications, each of which is innocent, but which, in their aggregate, are seriously taxing;these are so urgent and imperative, so present and powerful, that they absorb; they absorb time, strength, energy; so much so that too little is left for worship, for communion, for the direct service of Christ; and the soul is starved, Christian character is weakened; we are in serious peril of losing those things which we have wrought (2Jn. 1:8). There is, therefore, abundant need for us to make an earnest and continual appeal to our Divine Lord, to address Him thus: Abide with us, O Master, for it is noontide with us; uphold us by Thy power in the way of heavenly wisdom and holy service; so help us to abide with Thee that we shall never become lax and careless, but shall always watch unto prayer; so aid and influence us that we shall not let this world wind its silken cords around us, but that we shall always give the strength and wealth of our hearts and lives to Thee. Be Thou ever near us, to shelter and support us, or our spirits will be bent under the burden and scorched by the heat of the day.

II. Our special need of Christ in the late afternoon of life.There comes a time when our life has passed its meridian, and when the sun is sinking in the sky; it is late afternoon with us. Our powers are not what they were, physical or mental. We cannot walk or work as long, or so well, as we could; we cannot think as hard, or remember as easily, or sustain our attention, as long as we once could; we are falling behind those whom we were once beforeour sons and daughters can do many things better than we can. Peculiar perils belong to this hour of life.

1. That of pride or of vanity, of refusing to acknowledge to ourselves or to admit to others the waning of our power.

2. That of envy, a disposition to disparage the work of those who are younger and stronger than ourselves, to depreciate their work, or, at any rate, to withhold the admiration and delight which a more generous spirit would cherish in what they are and in what they do. Here is special need for looking up and praying, Lord, abide with us, for it is toward evening; we are not what we were, and we need Thy abounding grace that we may be true enough and humble enough to recognise that our days and powers are failingin order that we may be able to welcome those who are coming up, to honour and to love them, and to work heartily and happily with them, to say with joy, like Thy servant John, They must increase, but we must decrease (see Joh. 3:29-30).

III. Our special need of Christ in the late evening of life.The day is far spent. This is that

(1) we have been privileged to witness. We have known those who have gone through all the hours of the day, and have gone down into the night of death. Their health failed them; the infirmities of age overtook and imprisoned them; life lost its charm for them, its worth to them; their treasures were taken from them; nothing was left, of this worlds giving, in their hands: only the future beyond the grave remained to them. What they needed was a Divine Friend whose hand they could hold as they took their last steps on earth, and as they entered the silent land. Abide with us, they had reason to say, and (in some language did say) for the day is far spent; let us know and feel that Thou art near. And their Divine Lord did not fail them; He was with them at the end, and unto the end; and in their glorious Leaders presence they went down with tranquil, if not triumphant, spirit into the darkness of death, to awake in the bright and glad morning of immortality.

(2) The hour will comeand it will arrive sooner than we thinkwhen we also shall have occasion to say, the day is far spent; when we shall have had our earthly heritage, shall have played our part, shall have nothing more to look for as citizens of the present time. Well, indeed, will it be for us if then we have some resources of which time has no power to rob uswhich are imperishable and unfailing; well, indeed, if we can then look up confidently to a Divine Saviour, and say, Lord, abide with us, for the day is far spent; our friends have fallen from us, or gone beyond us; but be Thou ever with us, that we may have fellowship with Thee. Earth has no enjoyment for us; but speak Thou Thine own peace to our souls [Joh. 14:27]; we have no prospects this side the grave, but let us hear Thy voice, speaking of the many mansions in the Fathers house, and we shall be at rest. They constrained Him and He went in. Our Lord will need but slight constraining on our part. Let us only wisely accept Him in the earlier years, and be loyal to Him through all the periods of our life, and He will not withdraw Himself from us at the last; having loved His own, He will love them to the end; He will

Meet us in the valley

When heart and flesh shall fail,
And softly, safely, lead us on,
Until within the veil.

Clarkson.

The Evening Prayer of Christs Friends.Some of the feelings which must have been in the hearts of those who presented it.

I. Grateful interest in a spiritual benefactor.

II. A desire to have such conversation continued.

III. The presentiment of something more than they had yet seen or heard.

Circumstances in which this request may be offered by us:
I. It is suitable to the whole earthly life of every Christian.
II. It is suitable to those who are suffering under some special despondency of spirit.
III. It is suitable to those who are approaching the evening of life.Ker.

Luk. 24:30. Took bread, etc.The position of superiority which Jesus had assumed in the rebuke He had administered and in His exposition of the Scriptures, authorises Him to act as the head of the household. Though nominally a guest of the disciples, He becomes their host and they become His guests.

Luk. 24:31. Their eyes were opened. But before this the eyes of their understandings had been opened. Christ did not reveal Himself until He had effected the principal object of His appearing to them at all.

Vanished out of their sight.The expression is a peculiarly strong one, implying a sudden and supernatural disappearance. His body was now approaching its glorified condition, and obeyed more freely than before the will of His Spirit. Moreover, we must recollect that, properly speaking, Jesus was already no longer with them (Luk. 24:44), and that the marvel lay rather in His appearance than in His disappearance.Godet.

Luk. 24:32. The Emmaus Journey a Type of Christian Experience.

I. The pilgrimage of sadness.Darkness comes because of

(1) the trial of doubt and unbelief;
(2) the trial of solitude and bereavement;
(3) that of backsliding and repentance.

II. Light and gladness return when

(1) we seek this blessing in company;
(2) when we seek it through the Scriptures; and
(3) when we seek it at the Communion Table.Cairns.

The Emmaus Road.

I. This question suggests the difficulty which we commonly have in understanding the real importance of many incidents in our lives at the time of their occurrence.

II. Religious emotion is a precious gift of God.Only it should always be made to lead to something; it is a means, not an end.

III. The duty of making an active effort to understand truth as it is presented to us.Liddon.

Did not our hearts burn?The heart of the genuine believer, who has communion with Christ, burns with joy, with hope, with longing, and with love.

While He opened.It is a good sign for their inner growth that at this moment it is not the breaking of bread, but the opening of the Scriptures, which now stands before the eye of their memory.Van Oosterzee.

Burning Hearts.The cause and the effect of successful Christian work.

I. The causethe burning heart of the teacher.Spiritual intercourse with Jesus Himself will give it.

II. The resultthe burning heart of the taught.The fire will communicate itself to the hearts of those we teach.Stock.

Luk. 24:34. Appeared to Simon.

I. A proof of Christs love.

1. In the implied forgiveness of his heinous sin.
2. In appearing to him first of all the apostles.
3. In appearing to him without any witness.

II. A special boon to Peter in banishing his doubts and fears, and in absolving him from guilt.

III. Welcome news to the disciples of Emmaus.

1. It confirmed their faith.
2. It restored Peter to their fellowship.
3. It prepared them to expect fresh revelations of the Risen Lord.

Luk. 24:36. He Himself stood.With this word begins the evening appearance, which we unhesitatingly venture to name the crown of all Hisappearances on the Resurrection-day. Till now He has satisfied individual needs, but now He comes into the united circle, into the first Church of His own.Van Oosterzee.

The Salutation of the Resurrection.

I. Peace: the storm is over.

II. Peace: old associations are to be revived.

III. Peace: the prospect will never be darkened.

Luk. 24:37. Terrified.The evening hour, fear of the Jews, and anxieties concerning their own future, may well have tended to increase the feelings of surprise and alarm occasioned by the sudden appearance of Christ and the supernatural character of His entering into the room where they were.

Luk. 24:38. Arise in your hearts?How gentle is the rebuke! Jesus speaks of the thoughts or questionings arising, as it were, of themselves in the hearts of the apostles, as doubts and perplexities for which they were not fully responsible. The heart is not under our control; but out of a pure heart, which is strong in faith, no such perplexities and gainsaying thoughts can rise.

Luk. 24:39. Behold My hands, etc.

I. The identity of Him who appeared to them with Him whom they had known.

II. The reality of the appearance.

Handle Me and see.

1. An encouragement for the timid.
2. A direction for the perplexed.

I. Our Lords indulgent treatment of mistakes and imperfections in religious belief.

II. His sanction of the principle of inquiry into the foundations of our religious belief.

III. The direction which our Lord purposely gave to the thoughts of His perplexed disciples.Liddon.

Luk. 24:40. He shewed them His hands and His feet.Not merely as the signs of His crucifixion, for the identification of His body, did the Saviour show His wounds, but manifestly as signs of victory, proofs of His triumph over death. Moreover, thereforeand this is properly the deepest sense of His entering salutationas the signs of peace, the peace of the sacrificial death, of the completed atonement.Stier.

Luk. 24:41. Believed not for joy.It was doubtless belief that He had really risen that filled their hearts with joy; yet the excess of joy hindered their faith. It seemed too good news to be true.

As St. Luke had excused the sleeping of the apostles in Gethsemane, on the ground of their being overcome by sorrow, so here he attributes the difficulty they experience in believing to the excess of their joy (Godet).

Luk. 24:43. Did eat before them.Not because He had need of food for the body, but because they had need of faith for the soul.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Butlers Comments

SECTION 2

The Emmaus Conversation (Luk. 24:13-32)

13 That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. 16But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17 And he said to them, What is this conversation which you are holding with each other as you walk? And they stood still, looking sad. 18Then 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? 19And he said to them, What things? And they said to him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20and 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 this happened. 22Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning 23and did not find his body; and they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. 24Some 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. 25And he said to them, O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? 27And 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 appeared to be going further, 29but they constrained him, saying, Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent. So he went in to stay with them. 30When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them. 31And their eyes were opened and they recognized him; and he vanished out of their sight. 32They 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?

Luk. 24:13-24 Dark Despondency: Luke gives a very condensed account of the first day (Sunday) of the resurrection. He mentions the empty tomb, two appearances of Jesus, and then, omitting all the intervening thirty-nine days, describes the ascension (Luk. 24:44-53; Act. 1:6-11). But Lukes account is of great significance. He was a physician. All his scientific training would have prejudiced him against a bodily resurrection. The two appearances he records are uniquely suited to supply evidence to this physician (and any other scientist) of the reality of a phenomenon outside his human experience! Luke traced all things accurately. He has the facts. Here they are:

d. Sunday afternoon (that very day . . .) (Mar. 16:12; Luk. 24:13-35): Fourth appearance: Two disciples of Jesus had left Jerusalem and were headed for the little village of Emmaus. Emmaus may be derived from an Aramaic name meaning, bath or wells; it was about seven miles northwest of Jerusalem. One of the disciples was named Cleopas. Lightfoot believes Cleopas to be Alpheus, the father of the apostle James (cf. Mat. 10:3). It is not the same person as Clopas, the husband of Mary (Joh. 19:25), in Greek the two names are spelled differentlyKleopas and Klopa, respectively. Some think the other disciple might have been Luke, but that is highly improbable; other commentators think it may have been the wife of Cleopas. We do not know.

These two disciples were walking along the dusty road sermonizing to one another. Luke uses the Greek word homilein to describe their conversationit is the word from which we get the English, homiletics, or sermonizing. They were analyzing all the things that had happened in Jerusalem concerning Jesus the last few days. The Greek word suzetein is translated discussing in Luk. 24:15, and means debate, argue, reason, dispute. This was not a casual conversation! They were so engrossed in their discussion they did not even notice when Jesus joined them in their journey, nor did they notice who He was. There was nothing miraculous about their eyes being kept from recognizing Him. Jesus certainly had no purpose in keeping them from knowing who He wasin fact, His purpose was to get them to recognize Him. They were depressed. They had no more anticipation of a bodily resurrection than the apostles back in Jerusalem. Jesus asked about their discussion. The Greek literally reads, What are these words (logoi) which you are throwing back and forth (antiballete) toward one another? It was an animated conversation! They stopped and looked out of their eyes sadly (Gr. skuthropos)probably looking toward the ground. Perhaps without even looking up, Clepoas answered, Are you the only stranger (Gr. paroikeis, lit. one who dwells parallel to; or, alien) to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days? They thought it incredible that anyone, even an outsider or a visitor, should not have heard something of what had transpired recently. So they related to this fellow traveler all the information they had, adding their interpretation. Their information was:

a.

Jesus of Nazareth was a prophet; mighty in deed and word before God and all the people.

b.

The chief priests and rulers delivered Jesus up to death by crucifixion.

c.

Three days had gone by since that had taken place.

d.

Some women disciples of Jesus, gone to the tomb, found the body of Jesus gone, reported back that angels told them He was alive.

e.

Other disciples they knew personally had gone to the tomb and found it just as the women had saidempty.

f.

But no one had seen Jesus.

Lukes Greek is interesting as he reports their statement: But (Gr. de) we were hoping that He is the one going to redeem Israel. Yes, and (Gr. alla ge) besides all this, it is now the third day since this happened. Moreover (Gr. alla kai) some women amazed us. . . . These hesitating, vacillating words imply emotional confusion. We wanted to believe . . . but then He has been dead three days . . . but on the other hand we have this incredible story by the women. . . . They had seen His mighty deeds and heard Him prophesy; they knew what the Old Testament prophets had written about the Messiah; they had heard the accounts of the empty tomb and the angelic announcements; still they did not believe! One of the greatest proofs of the resurrection of Jesus is that none of His followers expected it to happen!

Luk. 24:25-32 Delirious Delight: Jesus rebuked them for their absence of understanding (Gr. anoetoi, without comprehension). He told them they were too hesitant (Gr. bradeis)they should believe the facts testified to by the women as the fulfillment of what their prophets predicted and not let their human rationalizations hinder them from faith. Jesus asked the rhetorical question, Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter into his glory? He expected them to answer, Yes! But they did not answer. So He began with Moses (the Pentateuch) and went through all the prophets, interpreting to them in all the scriptures (including the books of poetry too) the things concerning Himself. This would involve instruction in all the types and prophecies and symbols in the Old Testament which point directly or indirectly to the Messiahs redemptive suffering (Gr. pathein, pathos). The limitation of space does not permit us here to list all the types and symbolisms of the Messiahs suffering and glorification. We trust the following references to prophecies will suffice to explain Jesus exhortation:

Isa. 52:13 to Isa. 53:12

Dan. 9:24-27

Zec. 11:7-14

Zec. 12:10-14

Zec. 13:1-9

Psa. 16:1-11

Psa. 110:1-7

Psa. 22:1-31

2Sa. 7:12

Psa. 89:3-4

The tenth verse of Psa. 96:1-13, according to some ancient Christian scholars, has been corrupted. Jerome, Augustine, Tertullian and others make this charge. Justin Martyr, 100167 A.D., stated his belief that the Jews, out of hatred for Christ, tampered with the text because it prophesied the establishment of the Messiahs kingdom by means of His suffering and death upon the cross. Our modern versions read: Say unto the peoples: the Lord reigneth. In the version called Italica Antiqua, which was in use during the first centuries of the Church, and also in the Psalterio Romano, the verse is rendered: Say unto the peoples: the Lord reigneth from the tree or a ligno, as it is in the Latin. For the Psalmist to say that the Lord God Himselfthe Almightywas to establish His government in the hearts of men on the basis of a cursed cross was something so horrifying, so unthinkable and so repulsive to the human rationalizations of the Jews they simply refused to accept the idea. The cross of Christ became a stumbling block to the majority of them (cf. 1Co. 1:23).

Jesus did not merely recount all the Old Testament predictions of the Messiah, He interpreted (Gr. diermeneuen, the word from which we get hermeneutics) to them the things concerning Himself. What a lesson that must have been! Beginning with the seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15) He would proceed through the types and shadows of the Mosaic covenant, into the monarchy and Davids throne, and concluding with all the prophets, Still mastered by their despondency more than His teaching, they do not yet recognize Him. He has done nothing yet to give them evidence He is Jesus, risen bodily from the dead.

When they drew near to Emmaus Jesus gave some indication that He was going to travel on. Perhaps they were intrigued and deeply interested in what He was saying, perhaps they were simply exercising the importance placed on hospitality to strangers, so they constrained Him to stay with them. So He went in to abide (Gr. meinai) with them. When it came time for the evening meal, they all reclined (Gr. kataklithenai) on their couches about the table and Jesus took the bread and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them. Here, as a guest, Jesus takes the part of the host or the Master of the meal. The Greek phrase would read literally, And it was, in the reclining of Him with them, taking the loaf He blessed, and having broken He gave to them. This was just the way He had acted with them so many times before. As He broke the bread, they may have seen the nail prints in His hands; as He prayed, they may have recognized familiar phrases or urgency of voice. Whatever the evidence they now had, it was enough to make them recognize Him (Gr. epegnosan, fully perceive, discern, recognizefrom the Greek verb, to know). No sooner did they discover it was Jesus, risen bodily from the dead, eating supper with them, than He vanished out of their sight. The Greek phrase is, autos aphantos egeneto, He, non-visible, became. Barnes thinks there was nothing miraculous in this, but He simply withdrew from their presence while they were still stunned by the surprise. On the other hand, it is possible that it was a miraculous disappearance to give them evidence of His glorified state, All the disciples must understand that He is not risen bodily for the purpose of remaining on earth. He told Mary she must not hold onto Him as if to keep Him on earth (cf. our comments, Gospel of John, pg. 426, College Press). Later, He will appear suddenly to the apostles in the room where they had closed all the doors for fear of the Jews (cf. Mar. 16:13-14; Luk. 24:36-42; Joh. 20:19-20). In His glorified body He was able to appear and disappear, to materialize and dematerialize, to go through closed doors or wallsand why shouldnt He if He was earlier able to walk on water, read minds, predict the future, raise the dead, cast out demons and be transfigured to talk with Moses and Elijah!

Whatever happened, it so excited these two disciples, they exclaimed, Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures? The Greek word for burned is kaiomene and is often used metaphorically of spiritual light (cf. Luk. 12:35; Joh. 5:35). Jesus had turned on the light of truth about the Messiahs death and resurrection in their hearts that day. Their gloom was gone. They were no longer despondent and without hope. Now they were filled with faith and joy. They could not contain themselves.

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

Appleburys Comments

The Appearance on the Way to Emmaus
Scripture

Luk. 24:13-35 And behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was threescore furlongs from Jerusalem. 14 And they communed with each other of all these things which had happened. 15 And it came to pass, while they communed and questioned together, that Jesus himself drew near, and went with them. 16 But their eyes were holden that they should not know him. 17 And he said unto them, What communications are these that ye have one with another, as ye walk? And they stood still, looking sad. 18 And one of them, named Cleopas, answering said unto him, Dost thou alone sojourn in Jerusalem and not know the things which are come to pass there in these days? 19 And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, The things concerning Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people: 20 and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. 21 But we hoped that it was he who should redeem Israel, Yea and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things came to pass. 22 Moreover certain women of our company amazed us, having been early at the tomb; 23 and when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. 24 And certain of them that were with us went to the tomb, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not. 25 And he said unto them, O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Behooved it not the Christ to suffer these things, and to enter into his glory? 27 And beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself, 28 And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they were going: and he made as though he would go further. 29 And they constrained him, saying, Abide with us; for it is toward evening, and the day is now far spent. And he went in to abide with them. 30 And it came to pass, when he had sat down with them to meat, he took the bread and blessed; and breaking it he gave to them. 31 And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight. 32 And they said one to another, Was not our heart burning within us, while he spake to us in the way, while he opened to us the scriptures? 33 And they rose up that very hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, 34 saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. 35 And they rehearsed the things that happened in the way, and how he was known of them in the breaking of the bread.

Comments

a village named Emmaus.The village was in the vicinity of Jerusalem. It will be forever remembered because of what happened to two of Jesus disciples as they journeyed toward it on that resurrection day. As they talked about the death of Jesus and the report of the women that He was alive, Jesus drew near and went with them. They didnt recognize Him, for their eyes were holden that they should no know him. Were they blind to His presence because of their knowledge of His death? The Stranger wanted to know about the things they were talking about. The disciples, their grief showing on their faces, said, Are you the only one in Jerusalem who does not know what has come to pass in these days?

Then they told the story of Jesus the Nazarene who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people. They told about His crucifixion and said, We had hoped that He would be the one to redeem Israel. Everyone was longing for the restoration of Israel to a place of dignity among the nations of the world. They thought this Son of David would surely be the one to make their dream come true, but that hope died at the cross.

and besides all this.Three days had gone by since the death of the Prophet. The report was out that He had been seen alive. Was the light of hope beginning to show on the faces of these Emmaus disciples? They told the Stranger about those who had investigated and confirmed the report.

foolish men and slow of heart to believe.Jesus chided them for being slow to believe all that the prophets had spoken. He said it was necessary for Christ to suffer and enter into His glory. That was the message of the Scriptures, was it not? Then He explained all that was written in the Scriptures about Himself. What a privilege those disciples had to listen to that message! The book of Matthew covers this very same material showing how Jesus fulfilled the prophecies about Messiah.

abide with us.The disciples couldnt let the Stranger go on; they invited Him to stay with them for the night. As they sat at the table, the Stranger took bread and broke it and gave it to them. Their Guest did this; but they had seen Him do it before. Their eyes were opened and they knew that it was the Risen Lord. In that moment of recognition, He vanished from their sight.

was not our heart burning within us.The story of the Scriptures stirred their hearts as nothing else could have done. It is still the most thrilling story known to man. There are millions whose hearts would be thrilled today if only someone would tell them of the Savior who died and arose that they might have eternal life.

that very hour.The two had made the long walk from Jerusalem to Emmaus. The conviction that they had actually seen the Risen Lord banished all thought of being tired. They arose and hurried back to Jerusalem to share the good news with the eleven. There they discovered that the evidence of His resurrection was piling up, for the apostles said, The Lord is risen indeed and has appeared to Simon.

Luke does not record all the appearances of Jesus, Some of them recorded by others are: (1) The appearance to the eleven when Thomas was absent and again when he was with the group (Joh. 20:19-31; 1Co. 15:6). (2) The appearance at the sea of Tiberias (Joh. 21:1-23). (3) The appearance to the five hundred at one time (1Co. 15:6), (4) The appearance in the mountain in Galilee when Jesus gave the Great Commission (Mat. 28:16-20). (5) The appearance to James (1Co. 15:7).

Luke summarized all this evidence in his second letter to Theophilus in these words: to whom he also showed himself alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing unto them by the space of forty days, and speaking the things concerning the kingdom of God (Act. 1:3).

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(13) And, behold, two of them.The long and singularly interesting narrative that follows is peculiar to St. Luke, and must be looked upon as among the gleaning of the grapes, which rewarded his researches even after the full vintage had apparently been gathered in by others. The Emmaus in Galilee, about a mile from Tiberias, was famous for its medicinal warm springs (Jos. Ant. xviii. 2, 3; Wars, iv. 1, 3), and had the narrative referred to it, we might have supposed St. Luke to have visited it on that account. We have no record of any such springs in the Emmaus near Jerusalem, which is also named by Josephus (Wars, vii. 6, 6) as at a distance of sixty stadia, or furlongs, from Jerusalem. The name, however, was probably, as Josephus states (as above), significant, connected with the modern Arabic term, Hammm, or Hummum, for a bath, and indicating, therefore, like the Latin Aquae, or the French Aix, the presence of such springs, and if so, the same hypothesis may fit in here. In the case of the Emmaus (afterwards Nicopolis), in the plain of Philistia, there was a fountain mentioned by early writers as famous for its healing powers (Euseb. Chron. 41). We can hardly doubt, from the prominence given to the name of Cleopas, that he was St. Lukes informant. We are not told when the disciples started, but as it was towards evening when they reached Emmaus, it could not well have been before their noontide meal. The fulness with which the whole account is given may well lead us to think of it as taken down at the time from the lips of the narrator.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

150. JESUS APPEARS TO TWO DISCIPLES ON THEIR WAY TO EMMAUS, Luk 24:13-35 .

Mar 16:12-13.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

13. Two of them Two from them; that is from among the Christian body. One of them is named; but, says Bloomfield, “the evangelist, by omitting the other, has greatly exercised the commentators in guessing.” The best conclusion, as Stier thinks, is that of the German preacher: “Since the apostle has not named the other, let each of you put himself in his place.” You may learn much from such company. We make little doubt that Luke intends us to understand that the unnamed disciple was the evangelist himself. For, 1. His naming Cleopas shows a purpose to indicate that his not naming the other was not because he did not know his name. He could have named the other if some reason did not deter. 2. That reason probably was the same reason which deterred John from mentioning his own name modesty. Thus we bring John , Mark, (see note on Mar 14:51,) and Luke under the same analogy. All three beheld Jesus, and all three introduce their own persons without mentioning their own names. 3. Two evangelists were chosen eye-witnesses. (See note on Luke’s preface.) The other two were not official eye-witnesses and ministers of the word; but each once saw the Lord; Mark as Jesus was on his way to death, Luke as he was on his way from death. This is one of the thousand delicate and occult proprieties which the thorough student of the Bible finds. 4. Cleopas is apparently the elder and more positive Christian of the two. Luke was the subordinate, deeply interested in the scene, and perhaps but newly acquainted with its facts. This may have been his first full contact with Jesus and his history; and by this rencontre, and the marvellous discourse of Jesus, his heart may have been profoundly awakened to a burning interest in the whole of the Lord’s earthly life. Thus was he prepared for his work as an historian. 5. The details of the whole incident are those of deeply interested memory. There are throughout, all the delicate touches of one who narrates an old and touching reminiscence. 6. The only counter argument is drawn from the fact that Luke professes not to have been an eye-witness. Not quite so. Luke professes to have obtained his history from eye-witnesses; which fact he states in order to show the reliability of his history. But that can hardly be strained into a denial that he ever saw Jesus in a single instance. Though Jesus in his resurrection body may once have crossed his sight, it was none the less necessary for his work that he should strictly canvass the original eye-witnesses of the Lord’s earthly life, and none the less important to the confirmation of his work that he should declare the originality of his sources.

To a village called Emmaus See notes on parallel passage in Mark. It took Dr. Thomson three hours’ moderate riding over hill and vale to arrive at Jerusalem from the place he identifies as Emmaus.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘And behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was sixty furlongs (stades) from Jerusalem.’

The two disciples prominent in this story were returning home to the village of Emmaus. There is no certainty as to where Emmaus was, but we are told that it was sixty stades from Jerusalem. It must be recognised that sixty stades would be very much an approximation (thus signifying ‘more than fifty stades’) and much would depend for identification purposes on what part of Jerusalem it was measured from. A stade is about 192 metres or roughly two hundred and two yards, and thus about a furlong. This would make the village roughly six to seven miles from Jerusalem, which was quite a long trek which would take a few hours, although they would be used to walking such distances.

Emmaus means ‘spring (of water)’. But the spring might have disappeared long before. Names tend to live on. And besides all villages would need a water source. Identification is often made with El Qubeibeh, a village seven miles north west of Jerusalem at which a village of first century date has been discovered. It has no prominent spring, but its water source may have been enough to provide the name. However, we must recognise that Emmaus, being only a village, may have been totally wiped out by the Roman invasion, with all traces removed, depending on how large it was. Thus any identification must be tentative.

Like Mary and Martha these two presumably had little to do with the ministry in Galilee, but had probably responded to Jesus’ preaching in Jerusalem. And they would not know Him as well as Mary and Martha did, for as far as we know He had never visited their house before, although they had clearly at some time broken bread with Him, possibly at Mary and Martha’s home. Thus they did not on the whole know Him all that well. We must take this into account in considering why they failed to recognise Him.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Two Disciples Meet Jesus on the Road To Emmaus (24:13-34).

The women having been brought to believe, Jesus now brings two ‘unknown’ disciples to belief. It may be that by these means He was hoping to bring most of the Apostles to belief before He appeared to them physically, so that they would have the greater blessing (Joh 20:29), and would obey Him by going to meet Him in Galilee (Mar 16:7), without Him having to appear to them in Jerusalem. But if so the hopes to some extent failed to materialise. Or it may be that the aim was to establish the fact that both women and unknown disciples were important parts of the Kingly Rule of God, a reminder to His Apostles that they themselves must be servants and not masters to the flock.

Either way this appearance is of great importance, both as providing further witnesses to the resurrection, and because of the content of what Jesus said to the two.

Analysis.

a Behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was sixty furlongs from Jerusalem. And they spoke heart to heart with each other of all these things which had happened (Luk 24:13-14).

b And it came about that while they communed and questioned together, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them (Luk 24:15).

c But their eyes were held that they should not know Him. And He said to them, “What are these things that you are talking to each other about with one with another, as you walk?” And they stood still, looking sad (Luk 24:16-17).

d And one of them, named Cleopas, answering said to Him, “Do you alone stay for a time in Jerusalem and not know the things which are come about there in these days?” (Luk 24:18).

e ‘And He said to them, “What things?” And they said to Him, “The things concerning Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people” (Luk 24:19).

f “And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him up to be condemned to death, and crucified Him. But we hoped that it was he who would redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things came about” (Luk 24:20-21).

g “Moreover certain women of our company amazed us, having been early at the tomb, and when they did not find his body” (Luk 24:22-23 a).

h “They came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, who said that He was alive” (Luk 24:23 b).

g “And certain of those who were with us went to the tomb, and found it to be even as the women had said, but Him they saw not” (Luk 24:24).

f And He said to them, “O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Did it not behove the Christ (the Messiah) to suffer these things, and to enter into his glory?” (Luk 24:25-26)

e And beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself (Luk 24:27).

d And they drew near to the village, to which they were going, and He made as though He would go further, and they constrained him, saying, “Stay with us, for it is towards evening, and the day is now far spent.” And He went in to stay with them (Luk 24:28-29).

c And it came about that when He had sat down with them to a meal, He took the bread and blessed, and breaking it He gave to them, and their eyes were opened, and they knew Him, and He vanished from their sight (Luk 24:30-31).

b And they said one to another, “Was our heart not burning within us, while He spoke to us in the way, while He opened to us the Scriptures?” (Luk 24:32).

a And they rose up that very hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and those who were with them, saying, “The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon.” And they rehearsed the things that happened in the way, and how He was known of them in the breaking of the bread (Luk 24:33-34).

Note how in ‘a’ they were discussing together what had happened, and in the parallel they meet with the other disciples and discuss what has happened. In ‘b’ they walked with Jesus in the way, and in the parallel they spoke of how their hearts had burned within them while they walked with Jesus in the way. In ‘c’ their eyes were ‘held’ so that they did not know Him, and in the parallel their eyes are opened so that they did know Him. In ‘d’ Cleopas speaks of Jesus as staying in Jerusalem and being in ignorance, and in the parallel they invite Him to stay with them in ignorance of Who He is. In ‘e’ they speak of Jesus as a prophet mighty in word and deed, and in the parallel Jesus expounds to them from the prophets the things concerning Himself. In ‘f’ they describe how He had been put to death and how it had been their hope that He would redeem Israel, and in the parallel Jesus asks them whether in fact the prophets had not said that He would suffer, and then enter into His glory. In ‘g’ the women had been to the tomb, but had not found His body, and in the parallel others had been to the tomb, and they had not seen Him. And centrally in ‘h’ the angels had informed the women that Jesus was alive.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The Witness of His Resurrection on the Road to Emmaus ( Mar 16:12-13 ) Luk 24:13-35 gives us a lengthy eye-witness account of Jesus’ resurrection from two disciples who were walking on the road to Emmaus.

Luk 24:16 Comments – These two disciples in Luk 24:16 may have not recognized Jesus because He appeared to them in a different, glorified form (Mar 16:12). There were several occasions after Jesus’ resurrection when His disciples did not recognize Him. For example, when the disciples met Jesus on a mountain in Galilee, some of them did not believe it was Him (Mat 28:16-17). Mary did not recognize Jesus in the Garden (Joh 20:14). When Jesus stood in the midst of the disciples, some thought He was a spirit (Luk 24:37). By the shore of the Sea of Galilee His disciples did not recognize Him (Joh 21:4), and dared not ask Him who He was (Joh 21:12), which implies that His form was not the same.

Mar 16:12, “After that he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country.”

Mat 28:16-17, “Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted.”

Joh 20:14, “And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus.”

Luk 24:37, “But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.”

Joh 21:4, “But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore: but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus.”

Joh 21:12, ‘Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord.”

However, it is more likely that God simply hid certain knowledge from His disciples. There are other examples of God hiding knowledge from men. God hid the Shunammite’s request from Elisha (2Ki 4:27). We read of how king Nebuchadnezzar’s mind returned to him after God turned his mind into a beast of the field for seven years (Dan 4:34). Jesus said that God the Father had hidden the Gospel from the wise and prudent, and revealed them unto babes (Mat 11:25, Luk 10:21; Luk 19:42, Joh 12:40). The disciples did not understand Jesus’ graphic descriptions of His future Passion because “this saying was hid from them” (Luk 18:34). The two on the road to Emmaus did not recognize Jesus until “their eyes were opened” (Luk 24:16; Luk 24:31). Jesus then appeared to the Twelve and “opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures” (Luk 24:31; Luk 24:45).

Bill Wiese tells the story of how the Lord took him to hell and back so that he would tell others that hell is a real place. His journey began when he was dropped into a prison cell inhabited by two large demons. He says, “I did not know how I had arrived there. The fact that I knew God was kept from my mind. This was explained to me later by the Lord Himself. In retrospect, I know that there are several scriptures indicating that God does sometimes hide things from man’s mind.” [310] In other words, Jesus sent Bill Wiese to hell with the mind that he was a sinner who had never known the Lord as his Saviour. Jesus returned and took Wiese out of hell, at which time his mind and memory were restored.

[310] Bill Wiese, 23 Minutes in Hell (Lake Mary, Florida: Charis House, c2006), 9.

Dan 4:34, “And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation:”

Mat 11:25, “At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.”

Luk 10:21, “In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight.”

Luk 18:34, “And they understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken.”

Luk 19:42, “Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.”

Luk 24:16, “But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.”

Luk 24:31, “And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight.”

Luk 24:45, “Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,”

Joh 12:40, “He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.”

Luk 24:17  And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?

Luk 24:18  And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days?

Luk 24:18 Comments The identity of the companion of Cleophas on the road to Emmaus has always been a mystery. Perhaps it was his wife Mary (Joh 19:25).

Joh 19:25, “Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.”

Eusebius (A.D. 260 to 340) tells us in his Church History that Cleopas was a brother to Joseph, the father of Jesus. He also says that Symeon, the son of Cleopas, became the second bishop of Jerusalem after the martyrdom of James.

“After the martyrdom of James and the conquest of Jerusalem which immediately followed, it is said that those of the apostles and disciples of the Lord that were still living came together from all directions with those that were related to the Lord according to the flesh (for the majority of them also were still alive) to take counsel as to who was worthy to succeed James. They all with one consent pronounced Symeon, the son of Clopas, of whom the Gospel also makes mention; to be worthy of the episcopal throne of that parish. He was a cousin, as they say, of the Saviour. For Hegesippus records that Clopas was a brother of Joseph.” ( Ecclesiastical History 3.11.1-2)

Luk 24:19  And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people:

Luk 24:19 Comments The Gospel of Luke places emphasis upon the office and ministry of Jesus Christ as a Prophet. Jesus is referred to as a prophet five times in the Gospel of Luke (Luk 1:76; Luk 7:16; Luk 7:39; Luk 13:33; Luk 24:19). In contrast, Jesus is referred to a prophet by Matthew on two occasions (Mat 21:11; Mat 21:46), by John on two occasions (Joh 7:40; Joh 9:17), while Mark makes no such reference.

Luk 1:76, “And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways;”

Luk 7:16, “And there came a fear on all: and they glorified God, saying, That a great prophet is risen up among us; and, That God hath visited his people.”

Luk 7:39, “Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner.”

Luk 13:33, “Nevertheless I must walk to day, and to morrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.”

Luk 24:19, “And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people:”

Luk 24:21 Comments While the two on the road to Emmaus were discouraged, believing that their Redeemer had failed being crucified, Jesus had already been to the throne of God with His precious blood and obtained redemption for all of mankind.

Luk 24:25 Comments When Jesus met the two on the road to Emmaus, He found two people who were greatly discouraged. The heart of man cannot rise up in faith in the midst of discouragement. Thus, they were slow of heart to believe. In order to stir up their faith in God, Jesus begins to take them through the Old Testament prophecies concerning Him. This response teaches us that faith in God’s Word is more important than experiencing a miracle. Jesus did not work a miracle for these two as they travelled to Emmaus. Instead, He directed them to the Word of God. During times of discouragement, we should go to God’s Word to strengthen our faith in Him and bring us out of negative attitudes, because faith cannot operate in our lives in the midst of discouragement.

Luk 24:27 Comments Since the Gospel of Luke emphasizes the prophetic ministry, which prophecies offered testimonies of Jesus’ deity, Jesus explains in Luk 24:27 to the two disciples that all of the prophecies of Holy Scripture speak of Him. Jesus is spoken of in all three divisions of the Old Testament: in the Pentateuch of Moses, in the Writings, and prophetic books of the Hebrew Scriptures. The Jews call Joshua thru Esther the early prophets and Isaiah thru Malachi the latter prophets. So, David being a prophet who wrote much of the book of Psalms, it is easy to say that the prophets include all of the Old Testament books after the Pentateuch. Thus, Luk 24:27 says, “beginning at Moses and all the prophets.”

While the canon of the New Testament books was written under apostolic authority, the canon of the Old Testament Scriptures was written under the office of the prophets. When these prophets ceased to prophesy, the Old Testament canon was closed. This is confirmed by Josephus, who says, “It is true, our history hath been written since Artaxerxes very particularly, but hath not been esteemed of the like authority with the former by our forefathers, because there hath not been an exact succession of prophets since that time.” ( Against Apion 1.8) In addition, the opening verse of the book of Hebrews states that the Old Testament was delivered to us by His prophets, thus revealing the fact that the Old Testament prophets were the ones who kept the canon open. Thus, Luk 24:27 says, “beginning at Moses and all the prophets” as a way to reflect the roll of the prophet in delivering to us the Old Testament canon of books. Within the context of Luke’s Gospel, these prophets served as witnesses of the deity of Jesus Christ.

Billy Brim was teaching on the early childhood of Jesus Christ as a guest on the Kenneth Copeland Ministries television broadcast Believer’s Voice of Victory. [311] She said that a woman by the name of Clara Grace, who was a prophetess, received a vision from the Lord. In this vision, she saw the Lord Jesus Christ as a young man building his last piece of furniture before entering into the ministry. As He finished His work that day and turned to put up His tools, He looked at Clara Grace. She was then brought within Jesus Christ’s body and spirit and received insight into the eighteen silent years of Jesus’ life from the age of twelve until He was baptized by John in the river Jordan. In this vision, Jesus Christ told her that He never laid his head to rest without first meditating about who He was and what He was in God’s divine plan. Billye Brim refers to Deu 6:7 where it tells us to speak and meditate on God’s Word when we lay down and when we awake as an example of how Jesus did the same.

[311] Billye Brim, interviewed by Gloria Copeland, Believer’s Voice of Victory (Kenneth Copeland Ministries, Fort Worth, Texas), on Trinity Broadcasting Network (Santa Ana, California), television program, 22 May 2003.

Deu 6:7, “And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down , and when thou risest up.”

We find an additional testimony in Luk 24:27 of Jesus’ insight about God’s divine plan for Him within the Holy Scriptures. On the road to Emmaus Jesus expounded to two of His disciples all of the Scriptures concerning His personal spiritual journey. These must have been Scriptures that the heavenly Father revealed to Him by the Holy Spirit from His childhood up to Calvary.

Luk 24:31 “And their eyes were opened, and they knew him” – Comments It is only when we receive the bread that God gives to us will our eyes will be opened. This bread, or truths of God’s Word, may come directly from the Lord by a dream, vision, or work of the Holy Spirit. Or, this divine bread may be sent to us through God’s servants.

Note that when Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, their eyes were opened.

Luk 24:31 “and he vanished out of their sight” – Comments Why did Jesus Christ choose to vanish the moment they recognized Him as the resurrected Lord? He did reveal Himself to the Twelve and other disciples in order to testify of His resurrection and to commission them to divine service. Perhaps the answer for Jesus hiding himself from the two on the road to Emmaus lies in the previous verses that show the undisclosed Jesus turning the disciples’ attention towards the Holy Scriptures. In the Church age, the Word of God serves as our instruction under the inspiration and insight of the Holy Spirit that indwells every believer. Jesus must shift focus from Himself to the Word of God because they will now have to learn to live by God’s Word and without His earthly presence.

Luk 24:30-31 Comments The two people hosting Jesus in their home in Emmaus did not recognize Jesus until He took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them. This event must have brought them back to the miracle of Jesus feeding the five thousand, and then the four thousand, by breaking bread with them. No one could do this the way Jesus did it. Thus, they recognized Jesus.

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

The Emmaus Disciples.

The walk to Emmaus:

v. 13. And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs.

v. 14. And they talked together of all these things which had happened.

v. 15. And it came to pass that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus Himself drew near and went with them.

v. 16. But their eyes were holden that they should not know Him.

“Two of them,” not of the apostles, but of the larger body of the disciples. Most commentators agree in stating that Luke himself was one of the two men, and that he here tells his own experience in such graphic detail. Emmaus was a village lying to the northwest of Jerusalem, now generally identified with Kalonieh. sixty stadia from Jerusalem, each stadium being six hundred feet in length, and the total distance being between six and seven miles. The two men were conversing together on all the things which had taken place in Jerusalem in the last few days, on all the happenings that had transpired there. The discussion at times waxed lively, being carried on almost with some heat. It may be that one was skeptical about the reported resurrection, while the other was strongly inclined to believe. And while they were thus traveling along, all oblivious to their surroundings, a third wanderer joined them, Jesus Himself having chosen to walk with them. But their eyes were restrained, were held from recognizing their Master, in order that they might not know Him for the time being. Jesus had His own reasons for dealing with them thus; He wanted to give them a lesson in believing the Word. “And behold, with what great diligence He shows His interest in these two men of weak faith and does everything to help their weakness and to strengthen their faith! Since He sees and knows that they, in their affliction and grief, have gone away from the apostles and know neither what to think or what to hope for, He does not want to leave them in such doubt and disturbance, but comes to help them out and becomes their partner on the way; He even lets the other apostles sit all alone, although they also were in deep grief and weak enough in their faith.”

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Luk 24:13-15. And behold, two of them wenttoEmmaus, The same day on which our Lord arose, one of his disciples, named Cleopas or Alpheus, the husband of Mary, who was sister of our Lord’s mother, and who, in the history of his resurrection, is called Mary the mother of James, was travelling to Emmaus, a village about seven miles distant from Jerusalem, in company with another disciple whose name is not mentioned, and who, for that reason, is by some supposed to have been St. Luke himself; see on Luk 24:34. These two were in the utmost dejection on account of their Master’s death; insomuch that their grief appeared visible in their countenances, Luk 24:17. Moreover, as they went along, they talked of the things which sat heavier on their spirits: they argued the point together; for the word , Luk 24:15 rendered reasoned, signifies to discuss, examine, or inquire together; and it appears from the connection, that as they were discoursing on the sufferings, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the scope of their inquiry was, how to reconcile these events with what had been foretold concerning the Messiah; which by the message that the women had but just before brought from the angels, they were particularly called upon to remember. Comp. Luk 24:6-7 with ch. Luk 18:31-33. Accordingly, when Jesus inquired, Luk 24:17. What arguments are these that ye are debating one with another,for so it should more properly be rendered,this is the point which he took occasion to illustrate and explain, Luk 24:26-27 by shewing them that it was necessary, in accomplishment of what was foretold, that Christ should suffer these things, and so should enter into his glory; and with this view, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. Our Lord overtook these two disciples as he seemed to be coming himself from Jerusalem; which shews the propriety of Cleopas’s reply, Luk 24:18. Art thou a stranger, &c.? Probably the disciples had just left the city when Jesus came up with them; for on any other supposition, he could not probably have had time to deliver all the things which the evangelist tells us he spake to them. See Luk 24:27.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Luk 24:13-14 . The journey to Emmaus , peculiar to Luke. Mar 16:12 is a meagre intimation of the same history from another source.

.] were on the way.

] in general: of the followers of Jesus, , Euthymius Zigabenus. They did not belong to the twelve (see Luk 24:33 ); whether they were of the seventy (Jerome, Euthymius Zigabenus, and others) cannot be determined. In other respects they are perfectly unknown. Luke. Luk 24:18 , names only the one ( is the same as , distinct from the Hebrew name , Joh 19:25 , or Alphaeus ), and that, indeed, accidentally, because he introduces him actually speaking . In this way it is left in doubt whether he knew the name of the other or not (Ambrose calls him Ammaon ). From the fact of his not being named, there is neither to be concluded a greater (Borneniann) nor a less (Kuinoel) degree of knowledge regarding him; and who he may have been is not at all to be conjectured, although Nathanael (so Epiphanius), Bartholomew, Peter , or another Simon (Origen, Cyril), nay, in spite of Luk 1:2 , Luke himself (in Theophylact, so also Lange, I. p. 252), and even, conjecturally (Holtzmann), the younger James , as having made the journey with his father Alphaeus (but in 1Co 15:7 the Lord’s brother is meant) have been guessed.

] in Josephus, Bell . vii. 6. 6. , a village, also according to Josephus 60 stadia (7 geographical miles) in a north-western direction from Jerusalem not to be confounded, as has often been done since Eusebius and Jerome (Robinson, Pal . III. p. 281 f.), with the town of Emmaus, 1Ma 3:40 ; 1Ma 9:50 , in the plain of Judaea, which since the third century after Christ has been named Nicopolis, and is 176 stadia from Jerusalem. [272] See, in general, Ritter’s Palestine , XVI. pp. 512, 545; Arnold in Herzog’s Encykl . III. p. 778 f.; Thrupp in The Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology , 1860, p. 262 ff.; Zschokke, D. neutest. Emmaus , 1865, who, following tradition, is again in favour of the present village of Kubeibeh , and that on the ground of the more recent measurement of the distance from Jerusalem. Others: Culonieh; others: Kurjat et Enab .

Luk 24:14 . . ] and they , on their part, said, in view of the appearance of Jesus to them, Luk 24:15 f.

. ] Luk 24:1-12 . In their subsequent discourse with the unknown one at Luk 24:18 ff. they are more prolix. On = , comp. Xen. Anab . iv. 3. 2.

[272] Hence we find, in some MSS. (including ) and vss., the reading , which Tisch. synops. on insufficient evidence prefers [Tisch. 8 has returned to ]. Even Arnold expresses himself as not averse to identifying it with Nicopolis.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

B. Over the Despondency of Unbelief. Luk 24:13-45

1. The Appearing to the Disciples of Emmaus (Luk 24:13-35)

13And, behold, two of them went [were journeying] that same day to a village called14Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs [stadia]. And theytalked together of all these things which had happened. 15And it came to pass, that, while they communed [were conversing] together and reasoned [or, were discussing], Jesus himself drew near, and went [journeyed] with them. 16But their eyes were holdenthat they should not know him. 17And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have [are interchanging] one to [with] another, as ye walk, 18and6 are [why are ye] sad? And the [om., the] one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and [the only stranger in Jerusalem who] hast not known the things which are come to pass there inthese days? 19And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before Godand all the people: 20And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned 21to death, and have crucified him. But we [for our part7] trusted that it had been he which should [was to] have redeemed Israel: and beside all this [or, yet even8 22with all this9], to day is the third day since these things were done. Yea, and [But also, 10] certain women also of our company made us astonished, which wereearly at the sepulchre; 23And when they found not his body, they came, saying, thatthey had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive. 24And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the womenhad said: but him they saw not. 25Then he said unto them, O fools [ye without understanding, ], and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:26Ought not Christ to have suffered [Was it not needful that the Christ should suffer11these things, and [so] to [om., to] enter into his glory? 27And beginning at [from] Moses and [from] all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures thethings [written] concerning himself [him12]. 28And they drew nigh unto the village,whither they went: and he made as though he would have gone further. 29But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us; for it is toward evening, and the day [now13]is far spent. And he went in to tarry [stop] with them. 30And it came to pass, as he sat at meat [reclined at table] with them, he took [the] bread, and blessed it, andbrake, and gave to them. 31And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and hevanished out of their sight [ ]. 32And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn [Was not our heart burning] within us, while he talked withus by the way, and [om., and14] while he opened to us the Scriptures? 33And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together,and them that were with them, 34Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared toSimon. 35And they told what things were done [took place] in the way, and how he was known of [recognized by] them in [the] breaking of [the] bread.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Luk 24:13. Two of them.Not of the Eleven, from whom, Luk 24:33, they are definitely distinguished; nor even necessarily of the Seventy, who must not be conceived as a definitely established college; but of the wider circle of disciples who were now together at Jerusalem. Cleopas, Luk 24:18, accidentally named, because he appears speaking, is not the same with Clopas, Joh 19:25, butCleopatrus. In respect to the other, the conjectures are legion; some have understood Nathanael (Epiphanius), Simon (Origen), Luke (Theophyl. Lange), Peter, on the ground of Luk 24:34, and many others. The last conjecture rests upon a misunderstanding,the next to the last has something for it, on account of the fulness of detail and the visible predilection with which this whole occurrence is delineated by Luke. Perfect certainty herein is, however, impossible, and also unnecessary.

Emmaus.Mentioned also by Josephus, De Bell. Jud. vii. 6, 6. Comp. Luk 4:1; Luk 4:3. Not to be confounded with the city Emmaus, in the plain of Juda, which lay 176 stadia from Jerusalem, was called in the third century Nicopolis, and by a misunderstanding of some ancient expositors was taken for the birth-place of Cleopas. The fathers Eusebius and Jerome already confounded the last-named city with our place, whose situation has been long uncertain. It appears that we have to seek the here-mentioned Emmaus nowhere else than in the present Kulonieh, which lies two full leagues from Jerusalem. Comp. among others, Sepp, l. c. iii. p. 653; and Robinson, Bib. Res.Sixty stadia =1 German miles, 7 Italian miles, [=6 English miles]. It lay west from the capital, and the way, therefore, went past the graves of the Judges, by the old Mizpah, the dwelling place of Samuel, through a beautiful, charming district. But if it was ever manifest that nature alone cannot possibly satisfy the heart that has lost its Christ, it was on this day the case. Even into the sanctuary of creation do these wanderers take the recollection of the scenes of blood and murder, whose witnesses they had been in the last days. What they are conversing on together, we hear them themselves (Luk 24:18 seq.) make known more in detail. Apparently we may conceive that our Lord, in the form of a common traveller, came behind them and soon overtook them.

Luk 24:16. But their eyes.According to Mar 16:12, the Lord appeared to them , and this, too, would of itself have sufficiently explained why they did not know Him at once. In no other form did He stand so ineffaceably deep before their souls as precisely in the form of His Passion and death. They are, moreover, not thinking of His resurrection, and least of all of His being immediately near, and how could they in this quiet, vigorous, dignified traveller, be able to recognize the Crucified One, languid in death. It is, however, not to be doubted that, with this natural, a supernatural cause must have concurred, or rather that our Lord used this as a means to manifest Himself so to them that they should not at once recognize Him. The expression , points to a definite design of His love; He will remain yet some moments concealed before He at once makes their joy perfect. Comp. Luk 24:31. Had He wished at once to be recognized, He could at once have so revealed Himself that no doubt would have been possible.

Luk 24:17. And why are ye sad?If we expunge with Tischendorf, on the authority of D., Syr., Cant. (B., L. have variations), the words , we then get instead of a double only a simple question: What manner of discourses are they which ye, walking along mournfully, interchange with one another? At all events it appears clearly that He who interrupts their conversation wishes to induce them to grant Him a participation in their sadness. What He already knows He wishes to hear from their own mouth, and begins, therefore, with a question of the kind with which shortly before He had already introduced His revelation of Himself to Mary; while He then for a while is significantly silent, until Cleopas, sometimes speaking alone, sometimes relieved by his companion, has told everything which lies so heavily upon the heart of both. Without doubt, He not only became silently displeased at their unbelief, but also rejoiced over their love, although Cleopas, in the beginning of his reply, makes sufficiently manifest his dissatisfaction at being suddenly disturbed by a troublesome third party.

Luk 24:18. Art thou the only stranger in Jerusalem.He takes the questioner for a , not exactly on account of the somewhat peculiar dialect (De Wette), but because he in a settled inhabitant of the capital would not have been able at all to conceive such an ignorance, and perhaps, also, because this traveller now, like themselves, after the Passover lamb had been eaten, seemed to be about to leave the capital. That, moreover, as a rule, every stranger must also have heard what now fills the whole capital and their own hearts, that they suppose is anything but doubtful.

Luk 24:19. Concerning Jesus of Nazareth.Now the stream of their lamentations over their disappointed expectations breaks loose. From it appears that both spoke, without its being possible precisely to distinguish their words, as some (Paulus, Kuinoel,) have attempted to do. Their anguish of heart is especially remarkable, since it showed what the Lord was in their eyes and remained, even in the moment when they had seen their dearest hope vanish. The official name Christ, they do not now take upon their lips, but respecting the name Jesus of Nazareth, they presuppose that it is sufficiently familiar to every one, in and out of Jerusalem. That He, although He had been reckoned among the transgressors, was a prophet and extraordinary messenger of God, such as, with the exception of John, had not appeared in Israel for centuries before, this admitted of no doubt. As such He had attested Himself by word and deed, not only in the eyes of the people, but also before the face of God(), and even after His death, it is impossible for them to mention the name of this otherwise than with reverence and love. They are not afraid to declare that in respect to Him an irreconcilable difference of opinion exists between them and the chiefs of the people. While these latter had delivered Him over to the punishment of death, they on the other side hoped that it had been He that should have redeemed Israel (, in the Imperf.) Of what nature their hope and the redemption expected through Him was, they do not more particularly make known. But enough, whether their expectation had had a more political or more religious direction, the grave was the rock on which it had suffered shipwreck. Perhaps after a short pause they continue almost rather to think aloud than to instruct the stranger, to whom their discourse, supposing that He was entirely a stranger, must have been almost unintelligible: But it is true ( , although we had cherished such hope, even hitherto had not wholly given up hope) it is also, &c. This comes besides all this to make their feeling of disappointment yet greater. The first and second day, therefore, they had still had a weak hope, but now that also the third day is already half elapsed without the enigma having been solved, they do not venture longer to surrender themselves to this hope.

Luk 24:22. But also.Thus they begin in the same moment when they are complaining over lost hope yet still to speak of that which to-day had somewhat fanned up again the already almost extinguished spark, in order finally to end with the acknowledgment of utter uncertainty and discouragement. Some women of the company of the friends of the Nazarene ( ) had astounded them, (comp. Act 2:12), so that they had entirely lost possession of themselves, and no longer knew what they had to think about the whole matter. Early in the morning, they said, these had gone to the grave, and had in all haste come back with the account that they had seen an appearance of angels, which had said to them that He was alive. ( ., besides that they had not found there what they sought, they had, moreover, seen what they did not seek, and had heard what they could not believe.) It is worthy of note, how the Emmaus disciples in an artless manner confirm the narrative of the visit to the grave, and the experience of the Galilean women. At the same time it appears from the immediately following: , that according to Luke also, not Peter alone (Luk 24:12), went to the grave, but also others, so that by this plural the visit to the grave among others by John (Luk 20:2-10), is tacitly confirmed. According to Stier, we should not by even understand apostles at all, but members of the more extended circle of disciples, to which these two also belong, who on the other hand had also instituted the requisite investigation, so that on this day there had been thorough confusion and distraction. Possible undoubtedly. But, however this may be, this investigation had led to no happy result. It is true, they had found it, sc. , as the women had said, that is , and so far, they could make no objection to the credibility of their account. But further than this the deputed disciples had been as far from discovering anything about the angels as about the Lord, and if He had really risen, could it be then that no one had seen Him Himself?But Him they saw not.The last word is a sufficient excuse for their believing themselves obliged to bid farewell to all hope.

Luk 24:25. Then He said unto them.In the demeanor of the supposed stranger there must have been something that irresistibly impelled them to speak continually more confidentially to him, as he on his side suffered them without disturbance to pour out their hearts. Nothing would have been easier than just as with Mary, to turn their sorrow into joy by the utterance of a single word; but the Lord designs to bestow on them something higher than a transient, overwhelming impression. Now His turn came to speak, and when they think He will now begin deeply to commiserate them, He begins, on the other hand, in all severity to rebuke them. He assumes the tone of an experienced Rabbi, and gives them to understand that the cause of their whole inward suffering lies entirely within themselves. He calls them , unreceptive on the intellectual side, , , .. upon this last here the emphasis visibly falls. That they had believed something He does not dispute, but their faith had been one-sided, and had, therefore, been able to kindle no light in the dark night of their soul. Here also, want of understanding and sluggishness, discouragement of heart and will, stand simply alongside of one another, but so that we have to understand the second as the deepest ground of the first. It was so dark before their eyes for the reason that they had been so slow of heart to the belief of the whole truth. Not so much from the head to the heart, as rather from the heart to the head, does divine truth find its way, and no one can here understand what he has not inwardly felt and experienced.

Luk 24:26. Was it not needful?The Lord speaks of a necessity that was grounded in this truthnamely, that all these things had been foretold. That which had been a matter of offence to them had been for this very reason, according to a higher order of things, inevitable, and they could not possibly have been so driven hither and thither if they had given such heed as they ought to the prophetic annunciations respecting the suffering Messiah.And (thus) enter into His glory.What had seemed to them incompatible with the glory of the Messiah was precisely the appointed way thereto. The Lord does not mean that He is already entered into His glory (Kinkel, a. o.), but speaks as one who has now come so near to His glory as that He sees the suffering already behind Him. (Supply , Meyer); , designation of the glory as a heavenly state.

Luk 24:27. And beginning, .Emphatic indication of the consecutive character of His discourse, so that He began with Moses, and afterwards went on to all the prophets, in order to demonstrate to them therefrom what in these related to His person or His work. It is true, it is much to be wished that we knew what prophecies of Jesus death and glory are here meant, (De Wette), but when the critic continues: There are not many to be found which admit of application to this, then above all things the inquiry would be authorized, whether his Hermeneutics stand in full accord with those of the Lord Jesus, and if not, whether the former might not submit to a revision according to the principles of the latter. Whoever consults the manifold expressions of Jesus and the apostles in reference to the prophecies of the Messiah, needs not to grope around here in entire uncertainty, if only he does not forget that our Lord here probably directed the attention of His disciples less to isolated passages of Scripture than to the great whole of the Old Testament in its typical and symbolical character. Truly an hour spent in the school of this Master is better than a thousand elsewhere.

Luk 24:28. He made as though, in the New Testament (except in the clause Joh 8:6). On a dissimulation which would make a more or less set defence of our Lords sincerity requisite, we have here, of course, no right to think. He could not act otherwise if He would still retain the character hitherto assumed; He will not act otherwise, because He will not only enlighten their understanding, but also make trial of their heart; He would actually have gone farther had they not held Him back with all the might of love. Apparently He now shows Himself ready to say farewell to them with the usual formula of benediction, but already they feel themselves united to Him by such holy bonds that the thought of separation is entirely unendurable. Entreating with the utmost urgency, they invite Him in (, comp. Luk 14:23; Act 16:15), and point Him to the sun hurrying to its setting, in the living feeling that their spiritual light also will set if He should leave their company. They wish to remind Him that He cannot possibly continue His journey in the night (comp. Gen 19:2-3; Jdg 19:9), and desire that He should therefore turn in with them; since probably one of them possessed a dwelling at Emmaus, where a simple supper was awaiting them.

Luk 24:30. He took the bread.It will scarcely need any intimation that here it is only a common , not the Holy Communion that is spoken of, and still less a communio sub una specie, which Romish expositors undertake to prove, e.g., Sepp, iii. p. 656, with an appeal to this passage. On the other hand, we might find a proof here that the (Luk 24:35), in the New Testament, is not as a rule the same thing as the Lords Supper. The guest simply assumes, on the ground of a tacitly acknowledged superiority, the place of the father of the house, and utters the usual thanksgiving, to which, according to the Jewish rite, three who eat together are expressly obliged. See Berac. f. 45, 1. But whether He has anything peculiar in the manner of breaking the bread and uttering the blessing that reminds them of their association with the Master in earlier days, or whether they now discover in His opened hands the marks of the wounds, or whether He Himself refers them back to a word uttered before His death,enough: their eyes are now opened. , according to the antithesis with Luk 24:16, intimation of a sudden opening of their eyes, effected by the Lord Himself, and for which He has used as a means, Luk 24:35, the breaking of bread. In consequence of this they now recognize Him, who up to this moment had been wholly unknown, so that they are not only fully persuaded of the identity of this person with Jesus of Nazareth, but at the same time also inwardly know Him in His full dignity and greatness.And He vanished out of their sight, , ex ipsorum oculis evanuit.Not in and of itself, perhaps (see Meyer, ad loc.), but in connection with all that which we learn further respecting the bodily nature of the Risen Redeemer, the expression appears undoubtedly to give us to understand a sudden vanishing of the Lord, a becoming invisible in an extraordinary way, not , but (Beza), in which, of course, we need not exclude the thought that the Lord used therefor the confusion and joy of the first moment after the discovery. See below, in the Doctrinal and Ethical remarks.

Luk 24:32. Was not our heart burning within us, .Expression of extraordinary emotion of soul. Psa 39:3; Jer 20:9. If one could have asked the disciples of Emmaus whether they had meant an affectus gaudii, spei, desiderii or amoris, upon which the expositors dispute, they would have failed, perhaps, to give a satisfactory answer. Enoughthey will express an indefinable overpowering feeling on the way during the Lords instruction (loquebatur nobis, id plus est quam nobiscum, Bengel), and even by that ought to have recognized the Lord, so that to them it is now even incomprehensible that their eyes were not earlier opened. It is a good sign for their inner growth that at this moment it is not the breaking of bread, but the opening of the Scripture which now stands before the eye of their memory.

Luk 24:33. The same hour.The day has indeed yet further declined than in Luk 24:29, but if it were even already midnight, they must now hastily return to Jerusalem, in order to announce the joyful message. What the women do at the express command of the angel, and Magdalene, at the command of the Lord, this the two disciples carry out at the impulse of their heart. The meal, also, they leave apparently untouched (comp. Joh 4:31-34), and know no higher need than together to make the event known. As commonly, so here also the labor of love is rewarded with new blessings; since they come to give, they receive for their faith an unexpected and longed-for strengthening. Here we have indeed one of the few cases in which it might in good earnest have been questioned, whether it was more blessed to give or to receive.

The Eleven gathered together.As appears from Joh 20:19, with closed doors, which, however, were soon opened to the brethren who even as late as this, desired admission. Then are they for a greeting received with a jubilant choral: The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared unto Simon! One of the most glorious moments in the Easter history, an antiphony which God has made. Lange. They answer then, on their side, with the narrative of that which happened to them in the way (Luk 24:35), and how the Lord had been recognized by them in the (), not exactly at the breaking of bread (which would not suit so well to the miraculous representation, Luk 24:31). Thus do they spend an hour of blessed celebration, which, without their knowing it, becomes again the preparation for an evening appearance.

Luk 24:34. Hath appeared unto Simon.There is no ground for understanding this of a merely transient, momentary seeing, as Stier, ad loc. will have it. Without doubt we must here understand an appearance, which not less than that, e. g., bestowed on the women deserves this name. He was, therefore, the first of all the [male] disciples on whom the privilege was bestowed, according to Chrysostom: , , or . Unquestionably this appearance was that which had preceded that to the Emmaus disciples, after Peter had already heard the friendly (Mar 16:7). Chased hither and thither by fear and hope, he had probably wandered around the city in solitude. Perhaps he had just come back from the visit to the grave, which Luke has described, Luk 24:12, (Joh 20:2-10), and is asking himself whether, even if the Master is again in life, there is also hope that he shall see Him; when this supreme privilege becomes his portion. What there took place between him and the Master has remained a holy secret between both, which even his fellow-apostles have not sought to inquire into, but have rather respected. However, even by this, the later appearance by the sea of Tiberias and the reinstatement in his apostolic function did not become superfluous for Peter, and we must, therefore, so far regard the comfort and the refreshment which was given him in this hour as a preliminary, although already a rich and blessed one.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. The appearances of the Risen Lord were for His first disciples of altogether inestimable value. Their understanding was thereby healed, partly of doubt, partly of injurious prejudices; their heart was thereby comforted when it was burdened by sadness, the sense of guilt and anxiety for the future; their life was thereby sanctified to a life of spiritual communion with Him, of united love among themselves, of vigorous activity, and immovable hope. The period of forty days after the Resurrection of the Lord was at the same time the second period in the history of the training and developing of His apostles, one which was noticeably diverse from the first.

2. The appearances of the Risen One present on the one hand a remarkable coincidence, on the other hand a remarkable diversity. All agree in this, that they fall within the sphere of the senses, beginning or ending in a more or less mysterious manner, and for the purpose of showing that the Lord was really alive, and that He was for His friends ever the same as before His death. They may, therefore, all be named in the fullest sense of the word revelations of His glory, sometimes of His love, sometimes of His wisdom, then again of His knowledge and of His faithfulness; yet, at the same time, each appearance has something which characterizes it above others, even as the colors of the rainbow are different from one another and yet melt into one another. Before Magdalene the Risen One uses no food; she recognized Him at a single word. The instruction respecting the Scriptures which was bestowed upon the Emmaus disciples, Thomas does not also receive. His unbelief sprang from another source, and was revealed in another way than theirs. Only one appearance (Joh 21:1-14) is accompanied by a miracle. In the others the First Fruits from the dead stands Himself as the Miracle of miracles before us. At one time He instructs the erring ones before, at another time after, the hour of meeting again; here His appearance flashes by like a lightning stroke, there it is like the soft, lovely shining of the morning sun. Before Mary we see Him appear especially in His High-priestly, before the Emmaus disciples in His prophetic character, while He reveals Himself in the evening appearance as the King of the kingdom of God, who legitimates and despatches His ambassadors. The form also in which He comes to His disciples is different (Mar 16:12), even so the way in which He persuades them that He is alive. All are prepared for His appearance in different ways, but each one again finds in the meeting an individual necessity satisfied. With the Emmaus disciples He proceeds a way sixty stadia long. Past the women He slowly hovers as an appearance from the higher world. The appearance before Mary and the women bears on the side of the Lord the tenderest, that before the disciples, without and with Thomas, the most composed, that before James, before Peter, at the sea of Tiberias, the most mysterious; that on the mountain in Galilee, that before the five hundred brethren (1Co 15:6) the most sublime, that before the Emmaus disciples the most human, character. No wonder that John comprehends the appearances of the Lord under the general conception of His (Joh 20:30), and that the history of all these different revelations has been at every age considered as one of the mightiest supports of our faith in the historical reality of the Resurrection.

3. The appearance before the Emmaus disciples bears in the whole narrative an inner stamp of truth which can be better felt than described. It is unreasonable to wish to correct, word by word, the brief notice (Mar 16:12-13), by the detailed account of Luke; but this is evident enough, that both relate the same thing, and as respects the discrepancy between Luk 24:34, and Mar 16:13, one must be utterly out of his place in the psychological sphere if he could not see how in a circle like this in a few moments faith and unbelief might dispute the mastery with one another. If we assume either (Bengel) that they at the beginning (Luke) believed and afterwards (Mark) doubted, or the reverse (Calvin), there will in neither case be anything hard to understand in the representation that the Eleven and those with them at the beginning received the journeyers to Emmaus with believing joy, but yet so long as they had themselves not seen the Master, were agitated by so many difficulties and doubts that the Lord, in a certain sense, might reproach them with their , Mar 16:14. Whoever barely strains words, without trying the spirits, will never understand the deep harmonies of the Easter history. If we take pains to do the latter, we find in the fulness of detail with which Cleopas speaks of his hopes and fears, and the only half-intelligible mention of the third day, in the outspoken condemnation of their chief priests and leaders before an utter stranger, in the word about the burning heart, such a truth, freshness, and naturalness that we can scarcely refrain from writing the apostles words, 2Pe 1:16, upon this leaf of the Resurrection history also. The same may be said of the appearance to Peter; there is, alas, wanting to us a more particular account in reference to this entirely unique scene, worthy of the pencil of a Raphael, but some compensation for this lack is offered us by the recollection that the frugality of the Evangelists on this very point, the embellishment of which must have been for the inventor an irresistible temptation, affords a new proof for its faithfulness and credibility. The same inner character is displayed by every appearance in greater or less measure, if closely considered; and so far from the force of this proof admitting of weakening by the oft-repeated objection: Why did not the Lord show Himself to His enemies? (see as far back as Origen, Contra Celsum, ii. Luke 63, and elsewhere) this very thing is a new proof of His holiness, wisdom, and love. His holiness could not do otherwise than account those who had resisted the Light of the world, even to death, unworthy of this honor. His wisdom forbade Him by an outward appearance to constrain them to a faith which at best would have filled them with new earthly expectations, while He besides this foresaw plainly enough that no appearance before Caiaphas, before the chief priests, or before the leaders, would accomplish the desired purpose. Comp. Luk 16:31; Joh 12:10; Mat 28:11-15. Nay, His love reveals itself in this also, that He veils the full glory of the Resurrection from hostile eyes. That the Son of God had not been accepted in His servants form might yet be forgiven, but if He had been viewed in the glory of His new life, and even yet stubbornly rejected, this would have admitted no other retribution than an irrevocable judgment. Our Lord would thus, if He had appeared without success before His enemies, have made the preaching of the Gospel among them entirely impossible, for how could He have yet sent His ambassadors without prejudice to His dignity, with the hope of any fruit, to those who, after mature consideration, had again despised Him and thrust Him from them? Would not rather an appearance to them have been in direct conflict with the peculiar nature and the special purpose of His new life? Would the testimony of the Sanhedrim have really been then more likely to have been acceptable to any one than that of His disciples, whose persevering unbelief in the fact of His Resurrection was only overcome after much difficulty, and therefore, at all events, forbids us to consider them in this point as superstitious? If we take all this together, there is indeed not a single ground why in the Church of the Lord the jubilant tone of The Lord is risen indeed, should resound in the least more weakly than on the first Easter evening.

4. The appearance before the Emmaus disciples is one of the strongest proofs of the high value which the Lord places upon the prophetic Scriptures, and upon the predictions of His suffering and of His glory. Whoever denies either the existence or the importance of these Vaticinia, finds himself not only in decided conflict with the believing church of all centuries, but also with the Lord Himself.

5. The whole conversation of our Lord with these disciples has a strong symbolical character, which Christian Ascet and Homiletes have ever brought to light with visible predilection. (See below.)

6. When Jesus in temptation holds our eyes, so that the soul neither can nor may recognize, that is good, for soon will joy, light, and comfort follow; but when the sinner holds his own eyes, and will not recognize Jesus, that is evil, for he incurs danger of eternal blindness and darkness. (Starke.)

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Behold how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. Psa 133:1.The way from Jerusalem to Emmaus a devious way, whereupon the Great Shepherd of the sheep who is risen from the dead (Heb 13:20), seeks the wanderers.About what do disciples love best to speak when they are intimately together?The living Christ the Third in every Christian friendship.Jesus is already near to us, even when we believe Him yet distant.The invisible Witness of our hidden communings with our friends.Why are ye so sad? this is the question with which the Risen One, on the feast of His Resurrection, comes to all the weary and heavy-laden.The publicity of our Lords history a palpable proof of its truth.Our Lord demands the full confidence of His disciples, not for His sake, but for their sake.Jesus prophetic mission carried out by His words not less than by His deeds.The complaint of disappointed hope: 1. How sorrowful it sounds when the Lord abides in death; 2. how quickly it is silenced when it becomes plain that He is risen indeed.Love to the Lord stronger than shaken faith and frustrated hope.Him they saw not: 1. The deepest sorrow of the Easter morning; 2. the source of the highest Easter joy.How good it is, with our unbelieving difficulties and complaints not to go away from Jesus, but directly to Him.The rebukings of the risen Lord not less sweet than His most pleasant visitations.Want of understanding in the spiritual sphere born of sluggishness of heart.One-sidedness in faith.The Scripture cannot be broken, Joh 10:34.The connection between suffering and glory for Christ and the Christian: 1. Suffering prepares the way for glory; 2. suffering is transformed into glory; 3. suffering endured heightens the enjoyment and the worth of glory.Word and spirit: 1. One must already know the Scripture if the Lord is to explain it to us; 2. the Lord must explain it to us, if one is to understand the Scripture well.The heaviest trials of faith often immediately precede the most glorious visitation of grace.When only No appears, only Yea is meant. [Wenn lauter Nein erscheinet, ist lauter Ja gemeinet.]Woltersdorf:Abide with us, &c., admirable text for New Years Eve, at the last communion of the year, and when not? What this prayer: 1. Presupposes; 2. desires; 3. obtains.The prayer in the evening hours: 1. Of the day; 2. of the kingdom of God; 3. of life.The Lord allows Himself not to be called on in vain.Even yet must our eyes be open if we are to become rightly acquainted with the Prince of life.Even yet the Lord reveals Himself to His people in surprising, unmistakable manner, but even yet for only brief fleeting moments.How our Lord yet reveals Himself to His disciples in the breaking of bread (Communion at Easter). In this we may show how the risen Lord at the Communion: 1. Still seeks like disciples; 2. still satisfies like necessities; 3. still requires like dispositions; 4. still prepares a like surprise, as at and after His appearance to the disciples at Emmaus. The burning heart of the genuine disciple of the Lord.The communion of saints: 1. Most ardently sought; 2. blessedly enjoyed; 3. richly rewarded.The appearance to Peter: 1. A proof of the love of Jesus, a. Jesus appears to the fallen Peter, b. to Peter first, c. to Peter alone; 2. an inestimable benefit for Peter; it bestowed on him, a. light instead of darkness, b. grace instead of the feeling of guilt, c. hope instead of fear; 3. a welcome message of joy for the disciples of Emmaus; it served, a. to strengthen their faith, b. to determine the demeanor of all in reference to Peter, c. to prepare them for new revelations at hand; 4. a school for us, a. of faith, b. of love, c. of hope.Christ our life: 1. What life would be without Christ, Luk 24:13-24; Luke 2. what it may become through Christ, Luk 24:25-31; Luke 3. what it must be for Christ, Luk 24:32-35.The living Christ the best guide; come and see how He: 1. Kindly seeks out His own; 2. lovingly listens to them; 3. graciously instructs and rebukes them; 4. wisely proves them; 5. ineffably surprises and rejoices them.The manner in which our Lord reveals Himself to the disciples at Emmaus a prophecy of the surprise which He reserves in heaven for His people.The returning Emmaus disciples teach us: 1. To look back thankfully; 2. to look around lovingly; 3. to look upward and forward hopefully.

Starke:Nova Bibl. Tub.:When one speaks of Jesus and remembers His death, yea, His Resurrection, then does he live.Canstein:Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.In sadness and temptation Christ appears not to be present, but He is there, only we know Him not.With melancholy people we must always go to the bottom if we will heal and make them sound.Oh! that Christ among so many Christians were not a stranger! Joh 1:26.An intimate conversation of teachers and hearers remains not without blessing.If great people will not have evil said of them, neither must they do evil.Brentius:Faith and unbelief have, especially in the hour of temptation, a hard battle.The soul will have Jesus Himself.Comfort belongs not to the erring until they have come to thorough knowledge of their faults.Nova Bibl. Tub.:Nothing is harder than faith.The grounds of our faith are the prophetic Scriptures, 2Pe 1:19.Hedinger:The sun is bright, indeed, but not to a blind man.Christ is the best Expositor of the Holy Scriptures.Let the course of this life be burdensome as it will, we come yet at last to the goal.Langii Opera:O how rare are examples of those who receive a rebuke so that they for that love a teacher better.Prayer is a firm cord which holds the Almighty, who also is glad to be held.Opened eyes of the understanding distinguish spiritual men from natural.Where Jesus hides Himself, there it is time to rise and neither to hope for rest nor joy till we have found Him again.Even unbelievers may yet become believers,despise not that which is weak.Every Christian for whom God has done great things is bound to relate the same.Luther:Only see how God with special providence guides His people.

Heubner:Love to the Risen One is a true bond of friendship.Jesus is often not among us because we speak not of Him.Oft is God long hidden to us and His ways a riddle.Jesus knows very well what oppresses thee.Jesus wins from His disciples the confession of their faith.Who only lives in earthly hopes, cheats himself.The hearts of men hope where there is nothing at all to be hoped for, and despond where hope shows itself near by.The glory of the Risen One is the prize of His suffering.The saints are never more zealous, never keep faster hold of God, than when they fear to lose Him.Christ the best comfort in the evening of life, better than Cicero de Senectute.The more unbelief spreads itself abroad, the more should we pray that the Lord may abide with us.Every enjoyment is sanctified through Christ.At last there comes after trials and gloom the blessed hour of revelation.There comes a time when Jesus never vanishes again.Jesus words inflame the heart; the words of Christless men are cold and powerless.The journey of the disciples to Emmaus an image of our journey of life.The new life of the disciples of Jesus after His Resurrection as a presage of the future blessed life.The progress from weak to strong faith.

On the Pericope.Arndt:The twofold Easter celebration: 1. Of those whose eyes are holden; 2. of those whose eyes are opened.Rudelbach:The soul-winning art of Jesus.Chr. Palmer:By what do we know the nature of the living Saviour, although we do not see Him?Brastberger:The blessed condition of a soul that knows and believes: The Lord Jesus is risen indeed.Fresenius:True Christians as spiritual pilgrims who are sometimes weak, sometimes become strong.Ahlfeld:The pilgrims of Easter evening.Palmer:The leadings of Providence which the Risen Saviour causes His disciples to experience.Souchon:Jesus scares away sadness.Stier:When must and oughtest thou to believe that the Risen Saviour is peculiarly near to thee?Dr. W. Hoffmann (Luk 24:26):The Divine Must.Rieger:The Risen Saviour a companion in journeying who certainly is glad to company with us, and in what way He companies with us.Dietz:The gradual rising of the Easter light in the soul of man: 1. How mournful life is without Easter light; 2. What bars the way to our hearts against the Easter light; 3. how in the soul of man the Easter begins to dawn; 4. how the full Easter light rises in his soul.Bobe:The intercourse of the Risen One with the disciples of Emmaus as an intimation where we are to seek and find the Lord.Burk:The wished-for abiding of the Lord with His people.The holy employment of the living Jesus.Von Harless:The way to faith on the Risen One.Rautenberg:Easter in our way through the world; it here becomes Easter when the Risen One: 1. Shows Himself to us; 2. instructs us; 3. gives us strength to return home.Shall we also constrain the Risen One to abide with us?

Footnotes:

[6][Luk 24:17.Cod. Sin. has here a singular variation; instead of , it has . If this be genuine, it would depict the displeased silence in which the disciples stood for a moment on being interrupted, as they supposed, by an unsympathizing stranger, broken at last by the reply of Cleopas.C. C. S.]

[7][Luk 24:21.Expressed by the instead of the simple .C. C. S.]

[8][Luk 24:21.That is, as Bleek explains it, notwithstanding these hopes which His prophetic works and words justified, it is already the third day after His crucifixion.C. C. S.]

[9]Luk 24:21. after is with good reason received into the text by Lachmann and Tischendorf, [Meyer, Tregelles, Alford,] according to B., D., [Cod. Sin.,] L.

[10][Luk 24:22.The in Luk 24:21 and this in Luk 24:22 appear to indicate how the mind of the speaker was repelled from one conjecture to another, finding none tenableC. C. S.]

[11][Luk 24:26. .= . It was not the entering into His glory, but the suffering, about which they wanted persuading. Alford.C. C. S.]

[12][Luk 24:27., not .C. C. S.]

[13]Luk 24:29.. Reading of B., [Cod. Sin.,] L., Cursives, Vulgate, Coptic, Slavonic, &c. Bracketed by Lachmann. [Omitted by Tischendorf; accepted by Meyer, Tregelles, Alford.C. C. S.]

[14][Luk 24:32.The of the Recepta appears to have been interpolated to connect the clauses. B., D., [Cod. Sin.,] L., 33, Cant., Origen do not have it. See Lachmann, Tischendorf, [Meyer, Tregelles, Alford.]

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

“And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs. (14) And they talked together of all these things which had happened. (15) And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them. (16) But their eyes were holden that they should not know him. (17) And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad? (18) And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days? (19) And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people: (20) And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him. (21) But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, today is the third day since these things were done. (22) Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre; (23) And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive. (24) And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not. (25) Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: (26) Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? (27) And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. (28) And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and he made as though he would have gone further. (29) But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them. (30) And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. (31) And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight. (32) And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures? (33) And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, (34) Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. (35) And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread.”

The relation of this interview between Christ and the two disciples, is given in so beautiful and interesting a manner, that I have always thought it receives an injury, rather than good, from all attempts by comment. Indeed it needs no illustration, for it explains itself. The demand of Jesus, when he said, Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory? is a question which at once answers the demand; and doth in fact yet more strongly confirm the truth. I beg the Reader not to overlook in those words of our Lord, how blessedly he shews, what the Spirit of Christ, which was in the Prophets all along testified, on those two great branches of the Lord’s Person and Ministry, namely, Of the sufferings of Christ; and of the glory that should follow. 1Pe 1:11 . For these comprehended the whole. I have sometimes been led to wish, that this heart-warning discourse of Jesus, had been recorded. But I have as often found grace, to check the wish, as improper. Nay, I have learnt the blessedness intended from the Concealment. For it prompts the soul under divine teaching, to search after Christ, in all those Scriptures from whence the Lord preached, to those two disciples. We read, that the Lord began at Moses, and all the Prophets; and not confining himself to these, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures, the things concerning himself. Hence we are taught, as plain as words can make it, that the whole body of Scripture is concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. And shall not I look for the Lord Jesus in all? (I have said to myself, as often as I have thought upon this passage,) Is my Lord as one pearl of great price in this field of his divine word; and shall not I as a spiritual merchant-man seek diligently for him through all, till I find him? And am I not encouraged to hope, that as Jesus drew near to those disciples while in the way, and discoursing about their Lord; so will he draw near to me? And if Jesus made their hearts burn with holy fervor, will he not make mine? If Old Testament saints, and New Testament believers, were made partakers of such mercies then; why not the humble followers of Jesus now? Jer 20:9 ; Mal 3:16 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

13 And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs.

Ver. 13. About threescore furlongs ] About six miles.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

13 35. ] JESUS APPEARS TO TWO OF THE DISCIPLES AT EMMAUS. Peculiar to Luke: the incident (but from another source) is alluded to in the fragmentary addition to Mar 16 ( Luk 24:12 ).

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

13. ] , not of the Apostles the last-mentioned were , Luk 24:9 : see also Luk 24:22 , . One of them, Luk 24:18 , was called Kleopas (= , probably a different name from , Joh 19:25 ( ): see note on Mat 10:3 ). Who the other was, is idle to conjecture. Origen, in several places, calls him Simon; apparently from having read in Luk 24:34 , and referring . . to the present appearance. Epiphanius says it was Nathanael; Theophylact, Luke himself. This may shew what such reports are worth. Wieseler (Chron. vol. i. p. 431) believes the two to have been, James the son of Alphus or Clopas or Cleopas (but see above) journeying with his father , and the appearance on the road to Emmaus to be the same as , 1Co 15:7 . Our narrative seems to have been from the report of Cleopas.

] Joseph., B. J. vii. 6. 6, mentions this Emmaus as sixty stades from Jerusalem. There were two other places of the same name: (1) a town afterwards called Nicopolis, twenty-two Roman miles from Jerusalem, where Judas Maccabus defeated the Syrian general Gorgias: see 1Ma 3:40-57 . (2) Another Emmaus is mentioned Jos. B. J. iv. 1. 3, where he adds, , . This was the case also with the other places of the name. Our Emmaus is now called Cubeibi (?).

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Luk 24:13-35 . On the way to Emmaus : in Lk. only, and one of the most beautiful and felicitous narratives in his Gospel, taken, according to J. Weiss (in Meyer), from Feine’s precanonical Luke. Feine, after Holtzmann, remarks on the affinities in style and religious tone between it and Luk 1:2 .

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Luk 24:13 ff. , two of them . The reference ought naturally to be to the last-named subject, the Apostles (Luk 24:10 ); yet they were evidently not Apostles. Hence it is inferred that the reference is to in Luk 24:9 . Feine (also J. Weiss) thinks the story had been originally given in a different connection. : now generally identified with Kalonieh, the Emmaus of Josephus, B. J., vii. 6, 6, lying to the north-west of Jerusalem ( vide Schrer, Div. I., vol. ii., p. 253, note 138, and Furrer, Wanderungen , pp. 168 9).

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Luke

THE RISEN LORD’S SELF-REVELATION TO WAVERING DISCIPLES

Luk 24:13 – Luk 24:32 .

These two disciples had left their companions after Peter’s return from the sepulchre and before Mary Magdalene hurried in with her tidings that she had seen Jesus. Their coming away at such a crisis, like Thomas’s absence that day, shows that the scattering of the sheep was beginning to follow the smiting of the shepherd. The magnet withdrawn, the attracted particles fall apart. What arrested that process? Why did not the spokes fall asunder when the centre was removed? John’s disciples crumbled away after his death. When Theudas fell, all his followers ‘were dispersed’ and came to nought. The Church was knit more closely together after the death that, according to all analogy, should have scattered it. Only the fact of the Resurrection explains the anomaly. No reasonable men would have held together unless they had known that their Messianic hopes had not been buried in Christ’s grave. We see the beginnings of the Resurrection of these hopes in this sweet story.

I. We have first the two sad travellers and the third who joins them.

Probably the former had left the group of disciples on purpose to relieve the tension of anxiety and sorrow by walking, and to get a quiet time to bring their thoughts into some order. They were like men who had lived through an earthquake; they were stunned, and physical exertion, the morning quiet of the country, and the absence of other people, would help to calm their nerves, and enable them to realise their position. Their tone of mind will come out more distinctly presently. Here it is enough to note that the ‘things which had come to pass’ filled their minds and conversation. That being so, they were not left to grope in the dark. ‘Jesus Himself drew near, and went with them.’ Honest occupation of mind with the truth concerning Him, and a real desire to know it, are not left unhelped. We draw Him to our sides when we wish and try to grasp the real facts concerning Him, whether they coincide with our prepossessions or not.

It is profoundly interesting and instructive to note the characteristics of the favoured ones who first saw the risen Lord. They were Mary, whose heart was an altar of flaming and fragrant love; Peter, the penitent denier; and these two, absorbed in meditation on the facts of the death and burial. What attracts Jesus? Love, penitence, study of His truth. He comes to these with the appropriate gifts for them, as truly-yea, more closely-as of old. Perhaps the very doubting that troubled them brought Him to their help. He saw that they especially needed Him, for their faith was sorely wounded. Necessity is as potent a spell to bring Jesus as desert. He comes to reward fixed and fervent love, and He comes, too, to revive it when tremulous and cold.

‘Their eyes were holden,’ says Luke; and similarly ‘their eyes were opened’ Luk 24:31. He makes the reason for His not being recognised a subjective one, and his narrative affords no support to the theory of a change in our Lord’s resurrection body. How often does Jesus still come to us, and we discern Him not! Our paths would be less lonely, and our thoughts less sad, if we realised more fully and constantly our individual share in the promise,’ I am with you always.’

II. We have next the conversation Luk 24:17 – Luk 24:28.

The unknown new-comer strikes into the dialogue with a question which, on some lips, would have been intrusive curiosity, and would have provoked rude retorts. But there was something in His voice and manner which unlocked hearts. Does He not still come close to burdened souls, and with a smile of love on His face and a promise of help in His tones, ask us to tell Him all that is in our hearts? ‘Communications’ told to Him cease to sadden. Those that we cannot tell to Him we should not speak to ourselves.

Cleopas naively wonders that there should be found a single man in Jerusalem ignorant of the things which had come to pass. He forgot that the stranger might know these, and not know that they were talking about them. Like the rest of us, he fancied that what was great to him was as great to everybody. What could be the subject of their talk but the one theme? The stranger assumes ignorance, in order to win to a full outpouring. Jesus wishes us to put all fears and doubts and shattered hopes into plain words to Him. Speech to Christ cleanses our bosoms of much perilous stuff. Before He speaks in answer we are lightened.

Very true to nature is the eager answer of the two. The silence once broken, out flows a torrent of speech, in which love and grief, disciples’ pride in their Master, and shattered hopes, incredulous bewilderment and questioning wonder, are blended.

That long speech Luk 24:19 – Luk 24:24 gives a lively conception of the two disciples’ state of mind. Probably it fairly represented the thought of all. We note in it the limited conception of Jesus as but a prophet, the witness to His miracles and teaching the former being set first, as having more impressed their minds, the assertion of His universal appreciation by the ‘people,’ the charging of the guilt of Christ’s death on ‘our rulers,’ the sad contrast between the officials’ condemnation of Him and their own fond Messianic hopes, and the despairing acknowledgment that these were shattered.

The reference to ‘the third day’ seems to imply that the two had been discussing the meaning of our Lord’s frequent prophecy about it. The connection in which they introduce it looks as if they were beginning to understand the prophecy, and to cherish a germ of hope in His Resurrection, or, at all events, were tossed about with uncertainty as to whether they dared to cherish it. They are chary of allowing that the women’s story was true; naively they attach more importance to its confirmation by men. ‘But Him they saw not,’ and, so long as He did not appear, they could not believe even angels saying ‘that He was alive.’

The whole speech shows how complete was the collapse of the disciples’ Messianic hopes, how slowly their minds opened to admit the possibility of Resurrection, and how exacting they were in the matter of evidence for it, even to the point of hesitating to accept angelic announcements. Such a state of mind is not the soil in which hallucinations spring up. Nothing but the actual appearance of the risen Lord could have changed these sad, cautious unbelievers to lifelong confessors. What else could have set light to these rolling smoke-clouds of doubt, and made them flame heaven-high and world-wide?

‘The ingenuous disclosure of their bewilderment appealed to their Companion’s heart, as it ever does. Jesus is not repelled by doubts and perplexities, if they are freely spoken to Him. To put our confused thoughts into plain words tends to clear them, and to bring Him as our Teacher. His reproach has no anger in it, and inflicts no pain, but puts us on the right track for arriving at the truth. If these two had listened to the ‘prophets,’ they would have understood their Master, and known that a divine ‘must’ wrought itself out in His Death and Resurrection. How often, like them, do we torture ourselves with problems of belief and conduct of which the solution lies close beside us, if we would use it?

Jesus claimed ‘all the prophets’ as His witnesses. He teaches us to find the highest purpose of the Old Testament in its preparation for Himself, and to look for foreshadowings of His Death and Resurrection there. What gigantic delusion of self-importance that was, if it was not the self-attestation of the Incarnate Word, to whom all the written word pointed! He will still, to docile souls, be the Interpreter of Scripture. They who see Him in it all are nearer its true appreciation than those who see in the Old Testament everything but Him.

III. We have finally the disclosure and disappearance of the Lord.

The little group must have travelled slowly, with many a pause on the road, while Jesus opened the Scriptures; for they left the city in the morning, and evening was near before they had finished their ‘threescore furlongs’ between seven and eight miles. His presence makes the day’s march seem short.

‘He made as though He would have gone further,’ not therein assuming the appearance of a design which He did not really entertain, but beginning a movement which He would have carried out if the disciples’ urgency had not detained Him. Jesus forces His company on no man. He ‘would have gone further’ if they had not said ‘Abide with us.’ He will leave us if we do not keep Him. But He delights to be held by beseeching hands, and our wishes ‘constrain’ Him. Happy are they who, having felt the sweetness of walking with Him on the weary road, seek Him to bless their leisure and to add a more blissful depth of repose to their rest!

The humble table where Christ is invited to sit, becomes a sacred place of revelation. He hallows common life, and turns the meals over which He presides into holy things. His disciples’ tables should be such that they dare ask their Lord to sit at them. But how often He would be driven away by luxury, gross appetite, trivial or malicious talk! We shall all be the better for asking ourselves whether we should like to invite Jesus to our tables. He is there, spectator and judge, whether invited or not.

Where Jesus is welcomed as guest He becomes host. Perhaps something in gesture or tone, as He blessed and brake the bread, recalled the loved Master to the disciples’ minds, and, with a flash, the glad ‘It is He!’ illuminated their souls. That was enough. His bodily presence was no longer necessary when the conviction of His risen life was firmly fixed in them. Therefore He disappeared. The old unbroken companionship was not to be resumed. Occasional appearances, separated by intervals of absence, prepared the disciples gradually for doing without His visible presence.

If we are sure that He has risen and lives for ever, we have a better presence than that. He is gone from our sight that He may be seen by our faith. That ‘now we see Him not’ is advance on the position of His first disciples, not retrogression. Let us strive to possess the blessing of ‘those who have not seen, and yet have believed.’

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Luk 24:13-27

13And behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem. 14And they were talking with each other about all these things which had taken place. 15While they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself approached and began traveling with them. 16But their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him. 17And He said to them, “What are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you are walking?” And they stood still, looking sad. 18One of them, named Cleopas, answered and said to Him, “Are You the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days?” 19And He said to them, “What things?” And they said to Him, “The things about Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people, 20and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to the sentence of death, and crucified Him. 21But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened. 22But also some women among us amazed us. When they were at the tomb early in the morning, 23and did not find His body, they came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said that He was alive. 24Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just exactly as the women also had said; but Him they did not see.” 25And He said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! 26Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” 27Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.

Luk 24:13 “two of them” The Bible does not say exactly who these two were, but possibly it was Cleopas (cf. Luk 24:18) and his wife or two believers leaving the Passover feast.

“that very day” This must have been Resurrection Sunday (cf. Luk 24:22). This was the first work day after Passover and the day on which the first fruits of the barley harvest were offered at the Temple. Jesus was the first fruits from the dead (cf. 1Co 15:20; 1Co 15:23).

“Emmaus” The site is uncertain, but there are several possibilities.

1. About twenty miles west of Jerusalem on the Jaffa road. This is where Judas Maccabaeus attacked and burned the Seleucid General Gorgias’ camp in 166 B.C. (1Ma 3:40; 1Ma 3:57; 1Ma 4:1-15).

2. About seven miles northwest of Jerusalem where the Crusaders found an ancient Roman fort called “Castellum Emmaus.”

3. About four miles to the west of Jerusalem where the Roman Emperor Vespasian located 800 soldiers (Josephus, Wars 7.6.6).

4. About nine miles west of Jerusalem where a Crusader church was built over the ruins of a Roman fort.

(Information taken from The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, vol. 2, pp. 291-301).

“seven miles from Jerusalem” This is really 60 Roman stadia. The city must be close enough to Jerusalem for these two to walk to it and then return to Jerusalem in one day.

There is a Greek variant related to the distance:

1. “60 stadia” is found in P75, A, B, D, K2, L, W, 070 (UBS4 gives this a “B” rating, meaning “almost certain.”

2. “160 stadia” is found in , K*, 079, and some patristic writers

(cf. Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Anchor Bible, vol. 28a, p. 1561).

Luk 24:15 “Jesus” Luke uses the name “Jesus” several times without the article (cf. Luk 4:1; Luk 8:41; Luk 9:36; Luk 9:50; Luk 18:37; Luk 18:40; Luk 22:48; Luk 23:28). This, therefore, is not a grammatical way of highlighting Jesus’ first resurrection appearance.

Luk 24:16 “their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him” This is an imperfect passive indicative. The passive implies the activity of God (see note at Luk 24:31). Jesus’ physical appearance was altered to some extent. Several followers did not immediately recognize Him (cf. Joh 20:11; Mat 28:16-17; Joh 21:1-7).

1. Mary of Magdala, Joh 20:11

2. several apostles, Joh 21:1-7

3. 500 brothers, Mat 28:16-17

Luk 24:17 “looking sad” This could mean “stern,” “gloomy” (cf. Mat 6:16), or “dejected.” They could not believe that someone had not heard about the events of the last week in Jerusalem. It was the talk of the town (cf. Luk 24:18).

Luk 24:18 “visiting” During the three main annual feasts, Jerusalem swelled to three times its normal population due to pilgrims from the Diaspora. They thought Jesus was just another pilgrim.

Luk 24:19 “What things” Jesus, by asking them questions, was forcing them to articulate the events of the past few days and testify to Him (cf. Luk 24:19-24).

“Jesus the Nazarene” There are two spellings of the term:

1. Nazarnou, P75, , B, L, 070, 079, 0124, and some Old Latin and Vulgate versions.

2. Nazraiou, A, D, K, P, W, X, 063, and some old Latin, Coptic, and Armenian versions. This same form is in Luk 18:37.

The UBS4 gives #1 a “B” rating (almost certain). See Special Topic at Luk 4:34.

“a prophet mighty in deed and word” This was honorific (cf. Luk 7:16; Luk 7:39; Luk 9:8; Luk 9:19). Within Judaism for one to be inspired, as a writer of Scripture, one had to be a prophet. The term here refers not to a predictor, but a powerful forth-teller of YHWH’s message. However, this one was not just one prophet in a series. He was the prophet of Deu 18:15; Deu 18:18. They had not fully grasped the implications of the person and work of Christ.

“and all the people” This is a typical hyperbole (e.g., Luk 18:43). Eastern literature (and speech) is much more figurative and exaggerated. This is one reason westerners tend to misunderstand the NT.

Luk 24:20 “the chief priests and our rulers” This same phrase is in Luk 23:13. The Jewish leadership was responsible for Jesus’ death. The Sanhedrin did not have this power under Roman occupation (cf. Luk 9:22). They had to trump up a charge that the Romans would deem worthy of death! Also, they wanted Him crucified because of the rabbinical curse attached to crucifixion in Deu 21:23. This is the very charge made by Peter in his first sermon in Acts.

Luk 24:21 “were hoping” This is an imperfect active indicative, which implies they were no longer “hoping.”

“it was He who was going to redeem Israel” They still had a nationalistic, militaristic mindset (cf. Act 1:6-7). The Jews only expected one coming of the Messiah and that coming was to benefit and restore Israel to power and preeminence.

“redeem” This is a term from the slave market which meant “to buy back” (cf. Mar 10:45). See Special Topic at Luk 1:68.

“third day” The Jews had a tradition that the spirit stayed near the body for three days, but beyond this period no resuscitation was possible (cf. Joh 11:6; Joh 11:39).

Luk 24:24 “Some of those who were with us” From John’s Gospel we know this was John and Peter (cf. Joh 20:3-10 and possibly Peter only from Luk 24:12).

Luk 24:25 The early sermons in Acts often allude to the OT prophecies about the Messiah (Gen 3:15; Deu 18:15; 2 Samuel 7; Psalm 16:10,22,118; Isaiah 53). I think it was Jesus Himself who informed these two disciples, who relayed the information to the Apostles in the upper room (cf. Luk 24:27). This post-resurrection appearance becomes a crucial interpretive event for the early church (as does Luk 24:45). It is surprising that this encounter is unique to the Gospel of Luke.

“O foolish men and slow of heart” This is a rebuke of these disciples’ lack of OT knowledge. What would Jesus say to His church today about their level of Bible knowledge? Doubt, fear, and confusion are the practical result of willful Bible ignorance! We have not because we read not! See SPECIAL TOPIC: TERMS FOR FOOLISH PEOPLE at Luk 11:40.

Luk 24:26 “it was necessary for the Christ to suffer” Jesus had told His disciples this repeatedly (cf. Luk 9:22; Luk 17:25; Luk 24:26; Luk 24:46). This is what surprised the Jews (cf. 1Co 1:23), however, it had been predicted in the OT (cf. Gen 3:15; Psalms 22; Isaiah 53; Zec 10:12; Mat 16:2). First century Judaism did not emphasize these verses at all.

“and to enter into His glory” This pattern of suffering preceding glory becomes a principle of spiritual maturity (cf. Rom 8:17; Heb 5:8).

Luk 24:27 This verse and Luk 24:45 give us insight into the Kerygma of Acts. See Special Topic below.

SPECIAL TOPIC: THE KERYGMA OF THE EARLY CHURCH

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

of. Greek. ek. App-101. Not the same word as in verses: Luk 24:14, Luk 24:42.

them. Not apostles.

went = were going

that = in (Greek. en) that.

Emmaus. Now Khan el Khamaseh, eight miles south-west of Jerusalem (Conder), or Urtas, seven miles south (Finn).

furlongs. See App-51.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

13-35.] JESUS APPEARS TO TWO OF THE DISCIPLES AT EMMAUS. Peculiar to Luke:-the incident (but from another source) is alluded to in the fragmentary addition to Mark 16 (Luk 24:12).

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Luk 24:13-15. And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs. And they talked together of all these things which had happened. And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.

Where two talk of heavenly things they shall not be long without a third. Jesus loves holy company, and he will join himself to those who in their conversation join themselves to him.

Luk 24:16-17. But their eyes were holden that they should not know him. And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?

The first part of that question some professors might be ashamed to answer, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another as ye walk? It is not always that all Sunday talk is Sabbath talk not always that we converse as we should upon the things of God. We are, many of us, blameworthy here.

Luk 24:18-19. And one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days? And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and in word before God and all the people:

Just as a schoolmaster, though he knows more than the children, yet asks them questions to see what they know. So did the Saviour, What things?…. And they said to him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in word and deed. I ought to have said, in deed and word. You see my mistake. That is how we put it, word and deed, for our words go first, but, with Christ, the practical comes first, and then commences the doctrinal.

Luk 24:20-24. And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him. But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, today is the third day since these things were done. Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulcher; and when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive. And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulcher, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not.

They made out a very clear case against their own unbelief here. They had the evidence of the women, and they had the evidence of the men of their own company; the women, they knew were honest. About their own company they could have no doubt, but yet they did not draw the inference which was clear enough, namely, that Jesus had risen, and that what he said he was he had proved himself to be.

Luk 24:25-26. Then he said unto them. O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?

Is not this just what he said he would do?

Luk 24:27-28. And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and he made as though he would have gone further.

Never had they had a shorter walk in their lives; his holy talk had made the journey seem as nothing, and sorry they were to see the village, and especially when they found, that their companion had an idea of going further.

Luk 24:29. But they constrained him saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them.

O wise disciple, when thou hast thy Master to hold him. I held him, says the spouse; I held him, and I would not let him go. So may it be with us.

Luk 24:30-31. And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight.

Sometimes when you do not remember a friend who has greatly changed, or from whom you have been long apart, some old familiar sign will bring it all back as with a rush of memory; you know him at once. Now if this were an ordinary meal, as perhaps it was, Jesus was so in the habit of giving thanks that they knew him by that. I wish we knew every Christian by the same sign. Or if this were, indeed, a celebration of his own sacred festival, then again they knew, for is not this the sign between Christ and his people, and is not this table the place where Jesus meets his beloved? And their eyes were opened, and they knew him. But they knew him to see him no more that night.

Luk 24:32-35. And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures? And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, Saying, the Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread.

Did they go to their beds? The day was far spent; late traveling was dangerous in Israel. Ah! dangerous or not, they are so overwhelmed with joy that they must go and communicate what they had seen.

Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible

Luk 24:13-35

2. THE WALK TO EMMAUS

Luk 24:13-35

13 And behold, two of them were going-Mark (Mar 16:12-13) records a very brief account of these two disciples and their walk; the other writers do not mention this event. It seems that Jesus had made five appearances on the day of his resurrection. These appearances were (1) to Mary Magdalene (John and Mark); (2) to other women (Matthew); (3) to the two going to Emmaus; (4) to Simon Peter (Luk 24:24); (5) to ten apostles and others. Emmaus was a village “threescore furlongs from Jerusalem,” or about seven miles from Jerusalem. There have been many suppositions as to which of the two disciples are mentioned here it has been supposed that these two were on the way to Galilee. The evidence seems to be clear that these two were not of the apostles, for it is said that these two disciples “returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together.” (Verse 33.) Judas had committed suicide, hence the “eleven.” This was the same day, the first day of the week, or Sunday, that Jesus arose from the dead. Emmaus is not located;its site is unknown.

14 And they communed with each other-One of these two disciples is named Cleopas. (Verse 18.) Some have supposed the other one to have been Luke, but there is no evidence of this. They were discussing the strange incident that had taken place that day. They “communed” or talked together in an animated conversation; one suggested one fact and another suggested another; they compared their views and conjectures as to the meaning of all that had taken place that day.

15, 16 And it came to pass, while they communed-While they walked along they argued the question of the resurrection of Jesus; they could not account for the facts of the empty tomb, and they did not as yet understand the predictions that Jesus had made about his resurrection. It was such a new and astounding thing that they were confused about it. While they were thus discussing the matter. “Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.” They did not know Jesus; he had joined the two as they journeyed along, but they had not recognized him. Mary Magdalene did not recognize him, neither did the disciples on the Sea of Galilee at first. The reason the two disciples here did not recognize him was partly because he appeared in another form from that which they were accustomed to. (Mar 16:12.) Another reason they did not recognize Jesus was that “their eyes were holden that they should not know him.”

17 And he said unto them, What communications-As yet they did not know that they were in company with the risen Lord; he asked them, by way of getting into the conversation, “What communications are these that ye have one with another, as ye walk?” Literally, the word here for “communications” means “to exchange with” or “throw back and forth to each other,” as one may throw back and forth like a ball, from one to another; it was a game of words; his question seemed to astound them, for he betrayed, they thought, ignorance of the great events that had just transpired. So they stopped suddenly in the road and looked with sadness upon him for being so ignorant of the events that had just transpired. They looked sad. Their melancholy looks and argumentative discussion were what one coming up might naturally notice first. Jesus knew what was taking place, but he asked the question to get them interested in what he was going to say to them.

18 And one of them, named Cleopas,-This is not the same name as “Cleophas,” in the Greek, Clopas. (Joh 19:25.) The question is one of surprise that even a foreigner could lodge in Jerusalem and not know what things had taken place; it does not mean, “Have you just come to Jerusalem,” or “Art thou only a lodger,” but is more explicit-“Dost thou alone sojourn,” and knowest not these things? That is, are you the only one who sojourns as a stranger in Jerusalem and who does not know the great events that have so recently occurred?

19, 20 And he said unto them, What things?-Jesus at once puts the main question as to facts, not as a confession of ignorance, nor as a necessary implication that he did not know, but to induce the heavy heart to express its grief. The question was designed to evoke more specific statement of the events referred to, and Jesus neither admits that he is a stranger in Jerusalem nor denies any knowledge of the events which had taken place. They at once replied that they were discussing the “things concerning Jesus the Nazarene.” “Nazarene” here simply means that Jesus was from the city of Nazareth; this is where Joseph and Mary made their home, and where Jesus grew up. (Luk 1:26; Luk 2:39; Luk 18:37.) These two disciples think that they are informing Jesus of the prophet who was “mighty in deed and word before God and all the people.” It should be noted that Jesus was “mighty” in the eyes of these two disciples, both in “deed” or miracles and “word” or teaching. He had the power of God in his deeds and in his words. (Joh 12:17.) He performed powerful miracles and delivered powerful discourses. (Act 2:22; Act 7:22.) Jesus was “mighty” not only “before God,” but before “all the people.”

21 But we hoped that it was he-These disciples still thought of Jesus as a temporal deliverer; they had the right idea about Jesus as a deliverer, but they made the wrong application of it. Jesus was the deliverer of Israel from their sins, but was not the deliverer of them from the Roman government. They speak this in despair. They added that “it is now the third day since these things came to pass.” They speak as if something remarkable had been predicted, but had not been understood; it looked to them that if Jesus was to be raised from the dead, he should be doing something toward the establishment of his kingdom, for it was now “the third day” since he had been crucified. They were not expecting his resurrection on that day, but that so long a time had passed without any relief to their anxieties.

22, 23 Moreover certain women of our company-These two disciples now reported to the risen Lord just what they had heard through “certain women,” who had visited the empty tomb and had seen that it was empty and that they had “seen a vision of angels,” who reported that Jesus was alive. These two disciples reported some of the minor points of the testimony of the women, but did not report to him the main point of the testimony of the women-namely, that Jesus had been raised from the dead.

24 And certain of them that were with us-Luke had already recorded (verse 12) that Peter had gone to the tomb, but here he records that “certain of them” had also gone to the tomb and found that the report of the women was true, but “him they saw not.” They did not see Jesus as others had reported seeing him. This explains why they were so confused; it seemed to them that their hopes were to be blasted, for he is dead. However, they had rumors that the body had disappeared; this they believed to be true; but what should they believe? Some said that Jesus was alive; others that the tomb was empty, but they had not seen him; so these two disciples did not know what to believe.

25 And he said unto them, O foolish men,-Jesus calls these two disciples “foolish men”; he did not call them “fools” in the sense that we speak of people as being fools; the original means “dull of perception.” They had read what the prophets had spoken, but had failed to make the application to Jesus; he further represented them as “slow of heart” in believing all that the prophets had said concerning the Messiah. They did not see that the sufferings of Jesus, his crucifixion, and his resurrection all were predicted by the prophets. Here the risen Lord declares that the Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah of prophecy; he linked the two together.

26 Behooved it not the Christ-So far they had utterly failed to understand the prophets or what Jesus had predicted of himself; are not these the “things” which by the necessity of the case Christ must suffer, and then enter into his glory? In view of what the prophets had foretold, the Messiah should suffer all the things which Jesus of Nazareth had suffered.

27 And beginning from Moses-Jesus presented a comprehensive view of all the Messianic prophecies from the first of the series of predictions in the writings of Moses down through the prophets to the time of his appearance; then the fulfillment of these predictions in himself; Jesus thus declared that he was the heart of the Old Testament scriptures. In accepting the scriptures with the prophets, they should have understood that Jesus was their long-looked-for Messiah.

28 And they drew nigh unto the village,-The risen Lord suddenly appeared on the scene in company with two disciples to Emmaus; he joined in the conversation which was about himself; the two disciples did not recognize him even after he had rebuked them for their slowness to believe what the prophets had taught of the Messiah. When they came to the village of Emmaus, Jesus made as though he would not stop, but would go on.

29 And they constrained him, saying, Abide with us;-Jesus had not said that he would go on, but was simply passing on, as any traveler would do; yet he was willing to abide with them, if they invited him. Jesus never forces himself upon anyone; people must desire him and invite him. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” (Rev 3:20.) They “constrained” or compelled with courteous words, him to sojourn with them. By their gentle pressure of hospitality, they urged him to abide there, giving the reason that the day was far spent and that evening was very near. They were grateful to him for teaching them of the Messiah, and had learned from a stranger, as they thought, much about the prophets; they were ready to show hospitality to him as a token of their gratitude toward him.

30, 31 And it came to pass, when he had sat down-They had taken a long walk together when the simple meal was prepared, Jesus was invited to eat with them. We are not told whether they asked him to “give thanks,” but when he “took the bread” and “blessed” or gave thanks for it, he gave to them to eat. They reclined on couches and did not sit at the table as is our custom. While he was in the act of distributing to them, in an instant, their eyes “were opened” and they immediately recognized their Lord. “Their eyes were opened” is put in contrast with “their eyes were holden that they should not know him.” (Verse 16.) If their eyes were “holden” through some miraculous power, “their eyes were opened” by the same power; whatever had kept them from recognizing him all along had now been removed and they “knew him.” It seems that so soon as they recognized him “he vanished out of their sight.”

32 And they said one to another,-Jesus had not simply suddenly departed from them, but he had passed away from them invisibly; so after his disappearance they recalled that their hearts burned within them while he was talking to them; this strange experience could not be explained or accounted for at the time; there was a strangeness to them that they did not know its cause, but now they knew the cause of the strange feeling that they experienced in the presence of the risen Lord. They recognize now that “he opened” to them “the scriptures.” They saw the deeper and true spiritual meaning of the scriptures;they had read the words of the prophets, but had not understood the meaning and application. (See 2Co 3:14-18.) Some have thought that Jesus had spent three or four hours with them on the journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus; however, we do not know just where on the way he joined them, and hence cannot estimate the time that he was with them.

33, 34 And they rose up that very hour,-These two disciples had left Jerusalem, about seven and a half miles or “threescore furlongs” (verse 13) from Emmaus, and had walked leisurely along conversing together about the strange things that had recently occurred in Jerusalem; the risen Lord had joined them without their recognizing him, and he had expounded to them the prophecies concerning the Messiah; their eyes had been opened and they now recognized their Lord. He had suddenly vanished from their presence and sight; they lost no time in returning to Jerusalem, the scene of the strange incidents which had so stirred them. These disciples were now full of amazement and joy; “they rose up that very hour, and returned to Jerusalem”; they had intended lodging in Emmaus, but they now returned to Jerusalem with haste. It must have been nine o’clock that evening with they arrived in Jerusalem, for they did not get to Emmaus until the day was far spent. We are not told how they got through the gates at this late hour into the city, but the gates were not closed until late during the week of the Passover. They “found the eleven gathered together” and others who were with “the eleven.” They at once reported: “The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon.” John records that “the doors were shut” for fear of the Jews. (Joh 20:19.) Paul mentions his appearance to Simon. (1Co 15:5.) His appearance now seems to have more deeply impressed the eleven than the other appearances on the morning of that day, as these two disciples added their testimony of the other evidences that had been manifested.

35 And they rehearsed the things that happened in the way, -These two disciples add their enthusiastic testimony to the resurrection; they related how he had appeared to them and had revealed himself. The evidence of these two disciples was confirmatory, not revolutionary the testimony of the women was true and should be believed after all; they did not recognize Jesus in his exegesis, but they did in his “breaking of the bread.” Some have applied this “breaking of the bread” to the Lord’s Supper; however, there is no justification for this application. The light gradually dawned on the disciples and they finally believed in the risen Lord. The minds of “the eleven” and other disciples were now ready to receive fuller light and more abundant truth-the Christ had been raised from the dead.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

Walking with the Risen Lord

Luk 24:13-27

This exquisite idyll of the Resurrection is too lifelike and natural to have been invented. The sorrowful walk; the reasonings; the wonder that anyone could have been for ever so short a time in Jerusalem without knowing of the events that filled their souls; the lingering hope; the despair that the third day was waning and He had not come; the clue of the morning announcement which had not been followed up; the burning heart-all these touches are full of natural pathos.

How swiftly the seven and a half miles must have sped in such company; and what new light illumined the pages of the Old Testament! All the Bible is full of Him, but we need to be shown its meaning. It is only through suffering that we shall come to the glory. But why should not life be one sweet walk of fellowship with One whom we cannot see, but whose presence fills our hearts with burning love, until suddenly the veil shall part in twain! See 1Pe 1:8.

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

The Mysterious Stranger — Luk 24:13-35

And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs. And they talked together of all these things which had happened. And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus Himself drew near, and went with them. But their eyes were holden that they should not know Him. And He said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad? And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto Him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days? And He said unto them, What things? And they said unto Him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people: and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and have crucified Him. But we trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, today is the third day since these things were done. Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre; and when they found not His body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that He was alive. And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but Him they saw not. Then He said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and He made as though He would have gone further. But they constrained Him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And He went in to tarry with them. And it came to pass, as He sat at meat with them, He took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew Him; and He vanished out of their sight. And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us the Scriptures? And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. And they told what things were done in the way, and how He was known of them in breaking of bread- Luk 24:13-35.

We turn now to Lukes account of the appearance of Christ following- the resurrection. There is a delightful simplicity and straightforwardness about the various narratives of these great events as given in the four Gospels, which forbids all thought of untruthfulness or of an insane obsession. The writers knew whereof they spoke. They were assured, beyond any doubt, that Jesus, who had died on a malefactors cross and whose body lay entombed for three days, had risen in triumph and appeared to so many different witnesses that they could not question the reality of His resurrection. Luke evidently was not one of those who saw the Lord after He rose from the dead, but he was a scientific man, a physician of inquiring mind, who did not rest satisfied until he had examined all the evidence with meticulous care, as a result of which he was convinced of the truthfulness of the testimony given by those who declared they had seen and talked with the risen Saviour (Luk 1:1-3).

Among the many manifestations of our Lord to His disciples during the forty days between the resurrection and ascension is this incident, which I have always considered to be one of the most tender and interesting of all His appearances. It concerns two disciples, Cleopas and another. I believe this other was his wife. We do not know much about Cleopas; some think he is the same as Cleophas (Joh 19:25). Cleopas is a Hebrew name, however, and the other is Aramaic; but whether the two are identical we do not know. At any rate, these two disciples had loved Jesus; they believed He was the Messiah; and perhaps they were in that throng that watched Him die. Now, in deep perplexity, they were wondering whether their hope was in vain, and whether He was deceived or a deceiver in presenting Himself as the Messiah of Israel, which they had believed He was. They were walking along the way from Jerusalem to Emmaus. It is not a long distance. I have ridden over the road myself, and as I did so I thought of these two as they sauntered along the way speaking of those things which had happened so recently, and I felt as I know they must have felt when that blessed, wondrous Stranger drew near and interrupted their conversation in such a sweet way. And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus Himself drew near, and went with them. There is something very comforting about that: Jesus was there! But they did not know it; they did not realize it, and I think oftentimes the same is true with us. Sometimes we are going through trials, bewilderments, sorrow, disappointments, and we feel so utterly alone, we feel as though no one cares, but if our eyes could only be opened-like the eyes of that servant of Elisha in Dothan, so long ago, when he saw the angels of the Lord encamped around them to protect them from their enemies-we might have a similar experience. The eyes of these two disciples were holden so that they did not know who the Stranger was. They were not expecting Him, and did not recognize Him. That He was marvelously changed there can be no doubt. He was no longer the Man of Sorrows, but the triumphant Christ, every trace of care and grief having vanished from His face. They thought, perhaps, He was a visitor, a mysterious Stranger, walking close to them. Drawing nearer He put the question to them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another? He knew well, but He would draw them out, have them express themselves in order that He might open to them the truth of the Word of God in regard to the great matters of His death and resurrection. They had overlooked in the Bible the very things they were wondering about. The prophets had testified beforehand of the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow His resurrection. Our Lord would have us bring to Him our griefs and our burdens; He delights to have us come to Him and tell Him everything that is on our hearts, and He is ever ready to comfort, lead, instruct, and help. Cleopas, who took the lead, inquired, Art Thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days? As this was the season of the Passover and there were many visitors in Jerusalem, they supposed this Stranger might be one of them, and had not heard of what had taken place. It might be that He was not in that throng who gazed upon the three hanging on those crosses at Calvary; perhaps He had never heard of this Jesus, the supposed Messiah, who had performed such wondrous works, and so had never learned of His marvelous deeds and teaching. They supposed Jesus to be just a stranger, and indeed He was a Stranger in this world; yet He was the Central Figure in all that had happened in these days. He again put a question to them, What things? They answered, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people: and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and have crucified Him. But we trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, today is the third day since these things were done. Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre; and when they found not His body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that He was alive. This news had spread among all who loved the name of Jesus; but they were not sure that what the women said was true. Perhaps they were misled; perhaps some optical illusion had dazzled their eyes, or perhaps they were excited and had been deceived into thinking that they had actually seen Him. And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but Him they saw not. Certain of them refers to Peter and John. They found the tomb empty, the linen clothes lying as they had been wrapped around the body, but they did not see Jesus; and they were not yet clear as to just what had taken place. Jesus undertook to answer them. O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. The word rendered fools is not an opprobrious term. It means simple ones. They were like children who failed to understand, and so did not believe the prophetic declarations concerning Christ. In other words, there was nothing in all that they had related which was contrary to what was taught in the Word of God; there was nothing opposed to what was written by the prophets. If these two disciples had weighed carefully everything, and had studied the prophecies that speak of the Redeemer of Israel and of His glorious coming kingdom, they ought to have seen how definitely the Scriptures predicted the rejection of the Saviour, His crucifixion, His death and burial; yes, and His resurrection, for it is written in Isa 53:10, When Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days.

Ought not Christ to have suffered these things? and to enter into His glory? The cross must come before the crown. There was no other way by which the divine plan of redemption for the individual soul and for the world at large could be carried out. The Lord proceeded to give them a running exposition of practically the whole Old Testament. How one would have delighted to have been in their company that day and heard the blessed Christ of God unfold the Scriptures, referring to His whole life, His rejection, His death on the cross, and resurrection, and even His ascension to Gods right hand, for in Psa 110:1 we read, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool. He went through the prophecies of the whole Old Testament, beginning with Moses. Our Lord never cast any doubt on the authorship of the first five books of the Bible. Unbelieving critics today may question it. They go so far as to deny that M,oses wrote those books, but our Lord had no such doubt. He said, Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me: for he wrote of Me (Joh 5:46). He knew that Moses was the writer of the early books. And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. What a Bible-reading that was! Their hearts were thrilled as the Lord Jesus showed how He was the theme of all phophecy, and so He gave them the key that opens up the Scriptures as nothing else can. Who has ever been able to expound the Word of God and give such a wondrous unfolding of divine truth as our Lord gave that day! If only we had a record of it, how it would enrich our lives; but He chose that we should not have such a record, in order that we might be stirred up to study the Word for ourselves, and search it daily in dependence upon the Holy Spirit. We are to begin with Moses and go on through all the prophets, and with the light that the New Testament throws on these books, we can see the things which they have to teach us concerning Him, for Christ Himself is the theme of the entire Old Testament as truly as the New.

As our Lord walked on with these two, they drew nigh unto the village whither they went. They dwelt at Emmaus, and as they turned to go into their home He made as though He would have gone further. The Lord Jesus never presses Himself upon anybody; He always waits for an invitation. He will pass on if we allow Him to do so. If He is not invited to come in we will be left without the spiritual help that we might have experienced. They constrained Him, saying, Abide with us. So interested were they in what this heavenly Stranger had unfolded that they urged Him to become their Guest for the night. Thus pressed, He went in to tarry with them. Oh, how He appreciated their invitation! He loves to be welcomed; He never turns away when He is invited. He went in to tarry with them. They soon prepared the evening meal, and this wondrous Stranger was asked to recline at the table with them. It might have been a very simple meal; there might not have been very much variety, but they were prepared to share what they had with Him. He took His place at the table, but not simply as a guest; He took the place of the Host. Instead of waiting for Cleopas or the other disciples to ask the blessing, He took one of the wafers of bread and looked up to heaven and gave thanks. They thought they were inviting Him as their Guest, but they found that they were His guests, and He was the Host. Suddenly, as they looked upon His hands when He was about to break the bread, a revelation came to them. We read, And their eyes were opened, and they knew Him; and He vanished out of their sight. How did they know Him? They told the disciples afterward in Jerusalem, He was known of us in breaking of bread. These two were not at the Lords Supper. At that time there were the eleven, the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ. These two were but disciples who, otherwise, were unknown. So they did not recognize Him because of something they had seen Him do in the Upper Room. But as they gazed upon those hands, no doubt they saw the print of the nails, as Thomas was shortly afterward to see; and they said, Oh, this is He! Look at those hands! This is the One who was nailed to that cross. They recognized Him and they knew Him now to be the Christ, the Redeemer of Israel. But when they looked again, He was gone; He had vanished out of sight. His resurrection body was no longer subject to earthly order. A little later we find Him entering a room with the doors shut. He could manifest Himself and vanish from them at any time. And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us the Scriptures? They had never heard Scripture unfolded like that. Now as they looked back they felt they might have known who He was who had revealed the truth in such a heart-warming manner. And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them. They knew just where to find the eleven. As these two disciples came to the door they heard someone say, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. Simon! the one who had denied Him, taken an oath that he did not even know Jesus; yet somewhere on that resurrection day the Lord had sought him out, and He had revealed Himself to him; and Simon knew that he was forgiven. Peter must have felt, of all the apostles, the most forlorn and wretched, as he recalled in bitterness of spirit his sad failure to stand the test in the hour of trial. What a relief to his heart when Jesus appeared to him alone, to restore his soul and console his spirit! It is but one sample of the grace He ever manifests toward His erring followers. A little later we find the Lord giving Peter the commission, Feed My lambs feed My sheep.

And they told what things were done in the way, and how He was known of them in breaking of bread. And so the two disciples added their testimony. What an experience they had and what joy must have been theirs as they knew for certain that He who had died was alive again. And, thank God, He lives to die no more!

At the risk of some repetition let me emphasize the truth that apart from the physical resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Church of God has no foundation upon which to rest, and there would be no basis for the gospel message. Therefore God has emphasized this great truth in a very remarkable way. In the Old Testament it was plainly predicted that the Saviour was to die for our sins and that He would rise from the dead and take His seat on the right hand of God in Heaven. For Him the path of life lay through the regions of death, but His soul was not to be left in Sheol, the unseen world, nor His body see corruption (Psa 16:9-11). After His soul was made an offering for sin, He was to see His seed, and prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord should prosper in His hand (Isa 53:10.) In the prophets we have prediction; in the Gospels, fulfilment. Christ is risen. He has become the firstfruits of them that slept (1Co 15:20). Through His name, the name of the One who was dead and is alive again (Rev 1:18), mighty signs and wonders have been wrought during all the centuries since He vanquished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel (2Ti 1:10).

Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets

Chapter 58

He Opened To Us The Scriptures

That which is here revealed is so precious, so sweet, so heavenly that it hardly needs explanation. Indeed, it cannot be explained to any who have not experienced it for themselves. As they walked together, our Lord Jesus opened the scriptures to these two disciples. Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. Robert Hawker, commenting on those words, wrote, Hence we are taught, as plain as words can make it, that the whole body of scripture is concerning the Lord Jesus Christ.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Pearl of Great Price in this field of his Divine Revelation. As he drew near these two disciples in the way, may he draw near to us every time we open the Book of God. As he opened to them the scriptures, may he open the scriptures to us by his Spirit. As his presence and his doctrine caused their hearts to burn within them, O may he cause our hearts to burn within us when we read and study the Sacred Volume.

The fact is, we have read the Bible with no profit to our souls and no understanding of its message, until we realize that the message of holy scripture is the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. The purpose of the Bible is the revelation of Christ.

I fully agree with Martin Luther, who wrote, There is not a word in the Bible which can be understood without reference to the cross As we go to the cradle only in order to find the baby, so we go to the scriptures only to find Christ.

Robert Murray MCheyne, who lived long before anyone dreamed of electric lights, said to his congregation at Christs Church in Dundee, Scotland, When you are reading a book in a dark room, and find it difficult, you take it to a window to get more light. So take your Bible to Christ.

Christ is the scope of scripture, the sum and substance of divine Revelation. Take Christ out of this Book and all that is left is processed wood, with gilded edges, wrapped in leather covers.

One Message

The one thing I want you to see in this study is this fact. The Bible is a Book about the Lord Jesus Christ. How I wish I could get every man who claims to be a preacher to see this! With regard to the Book of God, Christ is the key of knowledge. Without the key, men can never unlock the Chest and discover its riches. They just fumble. The Bible is not a book about science, but the Book about Christ. This is not a book about morality, but the Book about Christ. This is not a book about history, politics, philosophy, or law. It is not even a book about prophecy, church dogma, or theology. This is a HIM-BOOK. It is all about HIM, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not enough just to preach the Book, we are sent of God to preach the message of the Book, and the message of this Book is Jesus Christ and him crucified. There is not a page in this Book that does not speak of Christ, not a page!

The Son of God tells us plainly that he is the message and theme of holy scripture, that he is the living Word of whom the written Word speaks. He said, Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me (Joh 5:39). And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem (Luk 24:27; Luk 24:44-47).

The Apostle Paul shows us that the preaching of Christ is synonymous with preaching all the counsel of God, for Christ is all the counsel of God. In Act 20:26-27 he said, to the Ephesian elders, Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. In 1Co 2:2 he wrote, to the Church at Corinth, For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. In both places, he is telling us the same thing. Christ and him crucified, is all the counsel of God, for all that God Almighty has purposed, decreed, revealed and given to the sons of Adam is in Jesus Christ and him crucified. The Bible, the Word of God is a Book with one message, and that one message is redemption, righteousness, and eternal life in Christ.

The Old Testament Prophecies

The Old Testament scriptures speak of Christ, point us to Christ, and call us to faith in Christ. All the law, the prophets, and the psalms speak of our Redeemer. All the Old Testament declares, The Redeemer is coming.

From the moment that God announced in the Garden of Eden that the Seed of the woman would crush the serpents head (Gen 3:15), Christ was the central fact and figure of Old Testament prophecy. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Solomon, and all the prophets spoke of him. Here are a few of the many prophetic statements that pointed directly to the coming of Christ, his glorious Person, and his redemptive work: Gen 22:13-14; Gen 49:10; Deu 18:15-18; Psa 2:7-8; Psa 45:6-7; Psa 110:3; Pro 8:22-23; Son 1:2-4; Isa 53:8-11; Mic 5:2; Zec 12:10; Mal 3:1. Job spoke of Christ as his Redeemer, whom he expected to see in his flesh in resurrection glory. Enoch prophesied of Christs glorious second advent, of his coming to the earth in the last day with ten thousands of his saints.

The Old Testament Types

In addition to the direct prophecies about the coming of Christ, God gave numerous types and pictures to foreshadow his coming. The types of Christ and his redemptive works are so numerous that I cannot begin to name them But let me mention just a few. They may be divided into three different categories.

Typical People

Adam (Rom 5:14), Noah (Heb 11:7), Melchisedec (Heb 7:1-3), Moses (Deu 18:15-18), Aaron (Heb 5:1-5), Joshua (Heb 4:1-9), Boaz (Rth 2:1; Rth 3:18), David (Act 2:25-36), Solomon (1Ki 10:1-24).

Typical Things

Noahs Ark (Genesis 6), The Ram Caught in a Thicket (Gen 22:8-13), Jacobs Ladder (Joh 1:51), The Brazen Serpent (Joh 3:14-16), The Paschal Lamb (1Co 5:7), The Scapegoat (Lev 16:21), The Manna (Joh 6:32-33), The Smitten Rock (1Co 10:4), The Altar of Sacrifice (Heb 13:10), The Mercy-seat (1Jn 2:1-2).

Typical Places

The Tabernacle (Joh 1:14), The Temple (Joh 2:18-20), The Cities of Refuge (Heb 6:18).

The lists could be greatly expanded.[12] I have not even mentioned all the instituted, ceremonial types, the sabbath days, and the many other instituted types of the Old Testament, all of which pointed to the Person and work of Christ as our Mediator. Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ (Col 2:16-17).

[12] Peter in Acts 2, Stephen in Acts 7, and Paul in Acts 13 delivered sermons that summarized the entire history of the Old Testament. And the subject of each of their sermons was the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ and him crucified is the theme of holy scripture! To him give all the prophets witness! And to him give all the apostles witness. Every book of the Bible speaks of Christ. Let me show you just one thing revealed about Christ in each of the 66 books of holy scripture. Christ is the theme of every text, the subject of every page, and the message of every subject set forth in holy scripture. But space will permit me to show you just one thing revealing Christ in every book of the Bible.

In Genesis he is the Seed of the Woman. In Exodus he is the Paschal Lamb.

In Leviticus he is the Atonement for Sin. In Numbers he is the Brazen Serpent.

In Deuteronomy he is the City of Refuge. In Joshua he is Rahabs Scarlet Cord.

In Judges he is the Angel of the Lord. In Ruth he is our Kinsman Redeemer.

In 1 Samuel he is the Slayer of our Enemies. In 2 Samuel he is the Gracious King.

In 1 Kings he is the Builder of his Temple. In 2 Kings he is the Great Prophet.

In 1 Chronicles he is the Ark of Blessing. In 2 Chronicles he is the Defender Of his People.

In Ezra he is the Restorer of his People. In Nehemiah he is the Rememberer of his People.

In Esther he is the Preserver of his People. In Job he is the Daysman.

In Psalms he is the Good Shepherd. In Proverbs he is the Wisdom of God.

In Ecclesiastes he is the Teacher of Wisdom. In Solomons Song he is the Beloved of his Church.

In Isaiah he is the Substitute for Sinners. In Jeremiah he is the Lord our Righteousness.

In Lamentations he is the Lord our Portion. In Ezekiel he is the Glory of the Lord.

In Daniel he is the Messiah the Prince. In Hosea he is God my Husband.

In Joel he is the Hope of his People. In Amos he is the Sifter of his People.

In Obadiah he is the Searcher of Hearts. In Jonah he is the Sovereign Deliverer.

In Micah he is Bethlehems Infant. In Nahum he is the Great One.

In Habakkuk he is the Faithful One. In Zephaniah he is the Mighty One.

In Haggai he is the Desire of All Nations. In Zechariah he is the Fountain Opened for Sinners.

In Malachi he is the Sun of Righteousness. In Matthew he is the Son of David.

In Mark he is the Son of man. In Luke he is the Son of God.

In John he is the Lamb of God. In Acts he is the Ascended Lord.

In Romans he is the Just God our Saviour. In 1 Corinthians he is the Power of God.

In 2 Corinthians he is the Reconciler. In Galatians he is the End of the Law.

In Ephesians he is the Effectual Saviour. In Philippians he is the Joy of Saints.

In Colossians he is the Pre-eminent One. In 1 Thessalonians he is the Hope of Salvation.

In 2 Thessalonians he is the Coming Lord. In 1 Timothy he is the Preachers Doctrine.

In 2 Timothy he is the Eternal Surety. In Titus he is the Grace of God.

In Philemon he is the Intercessor. In Hebrews he is the Fulfillment of the Law.

In James he is the Giver of Grace. In 1 Peter he is the Effectual Redeemer.

In 2 Peter he is the Longsuffering Lord. In 1 John he is the Propitiation for Our Sins.

In 2 John he is the Doctrine of God. In 3 John he is the Truth of God.

In Jude he is Our Security. In Revelation he is the Fulness of God

If we would understand, profit from and rightly use the Word of God, we must understand everything written in the Sacred Volume as it relates to the glorious Person and saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Never be satisfied with your understanding of any text in the Book of God until in it you have found him of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God. The Book of God is a Book about him!

The New Testament

The doctrine and message of the entire New Testament is the Lord Jesus Christ. We do not have two Bibles, the Old and the New. We have one Bible. Gods Word is one, with two distinct parts, the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament is the New Testament concealed. The New Testament is the Old Testament revealed. But the message in both the Old and the New is the same. The message is Christ.

The four gospels give us four views of Christ. Matthew presents him as the promised King. Mark presents him as the Servant of God. Luke presents him as the Son of man. John presents him as the Son of God. The four gospels tell us that the Redeemer has come.

The Book of Acts tells us that the Redeemer is enthroned. The Book of Acts demonstrates that our Lord Jesus Christ was the singular subject of preaching in the earliest days of Christianity. The words preach, preached, and preaching are used thirty-seven times in the Book of Acts. It is not insignificant that every time they are used the subject preached was Jesus Christ and the resurrection! If the Book of Acts is to be taken for our standard, it must be concluded that unless Christ has been preached no preaching has been done. That man who pretends to be a preacher but does not preach Christ and him crucified mocks the people who hear him, and rather than serving their souls he destroys them.

The Epistles reveal and explain the mysteries of Christ and his gospel, proclaiming the Redeemers doctrine: ruin by the Fall, redemption by the blood, and regeneration by the Holy Spirit, showing us the universality of Gods mercy, love, and grace in Christ for chosen sinners out of every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. The Book of Revelation is a declaration of the sure triumph of Christ and his church by the gospel. The Book of Revelation tells us that the Redeemer is coming again. Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him (Rev 1:7).

And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever (Rev 5:9-14).

Behold the glories of the Lamb

Amidst his Fathers throne.

Prepare new honours for his Name,

And songs before unknown.

Let elders worship at his feet,

The church adore around,

With vials full of odours sweet,

And harps of sweeter sound.

Those are the prayers of the saints,

And these the hymns they raise;

Jesus is kind to our complaints,

He loves to hear our praise.

Eternal Father, who shall look

Into Thy secret will?

Who but the Son should take the Book

And open every seal?

He shall fulfil Thy great decrees,

The Son deserves it well;

Lo, in his hand the sovereign keys

Of heaven, and death, and hell!

Now to the Lamb that once was slain

Be endless blessings paid;

Salvation, glory, joy remain

Forever on Thy head.

Thou hast redeemed our souls with blood,

Hast set the prisoner free;

Hast made us kings and priests to God,

And we shall reign with Thee.

The worlds of nature and of grace

Are put beneath Thy power;

Then shorten these delaying days,

And bring the promised hour.

Isaac Watts

And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth (Rev 19:6).

The whole message of the Bible is Jesus Christ and him crucified. Christ is the living Word of whom the written Word speaks. If we could squeeze the whole Volume of Inspiration down to its very essence and substance, we would find Christ, only Christ, and nothing but Christ. Our Lord said, concerning the whole Volume of the holy scriptures, They testify of me (Joh 5:39). The purpose of the Holy Spirit in moving men to write the scriptures was to reveal Christ. That is the only purpose for which the Inspired Volume was given (Joh 16:14). To use the scriptures for any other purpose is to misuse and abuse them.

The Ordinances Of The Gospel

The only two ordinances of worship prescribed in the New Testament are designed to focus our hearts upon Christ. Baptism is a symbolic burial and resurrection with him (Rom 6:3-6). The Lords Supper is a symbolic remembrance of Christ and his great work of redemption as our Substitute (1Co 11:24-26).

Christ is the message of the Book of God, in the Old Testament prophecies, in the Old Testament types, in the New Testament, and in the ordinances of divine worship. In the Book of God we read about Christ. In believers baptism we confess Christ. In the Lords Supper we remember Christ.

And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name (Joh 20:30-31).

I cannot find better words to express what I so earnestly want you to see than these, which were spoken by C. H. Spurgeon to his congregation in London many years ago

Brethren, we should always read scripture in this light; we should consider the Word of God to be as a mirror into which Christ looks down from heaven; and, then, we looking into it see his face reflected as in a glass darkly, it is true, but still in such a way as to be a blessed preparation for seeing him as we shall see him face to face. This Volume contains Jesus Christs letters to us, perfumed by love. These pages are the garments of our King and they all smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia. Scripture is the golden chariot in which Jesus rides, and it is paved with love for the daughters of Jerusalem. The scriptures are the swaddling bands of the holy child, Jesus; unroll them, and you find your Saviour.

When you read the Word of God, look for Christ. When you study the Word of God, study Christ. When you talk about the Word of God, talk of Christ. When you live by the Word of God, live Christ. And when you preach the Word of God, preach Christ.

Preach Christ

The American Puritan, Cotton Mather, instructed his students with these wise and needful words of counsel Among all the subjects with which you feed the people of God, I beseech you, let not the true Bread of Life be forgotten; but exhibit as much as you can of the glorious Christ unto them; yea, let the motto upon your whole ministry be, Christ is all!

What a blessing it would be if every man who claims to speak for God, who claims to be a gospel preacher, would heed those words! How blessed the church of God would be if those who fill her pulpits were determined to preach and teach nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified!

That was Pauls determination (1Co 2:2). It ought to be every preachers determination. Any man who is sent of God to preach is sent of God to preach Christ crucified, always, in all places, in all his fulness (1Co 1:17-24). Christ crucified is all the counsel of God (Act 20:27).

He is the singular subject of holy scripture. He is the sum and essence of all true doctrine. He is the life of all gospel ordinances. He is the secret ingredient of all true worship. He is the Mercy-seat in whom God meets with men. He is the motive of all godliness, obedience, service, and devotion. He is the reward of heavenly glory. Jesus Christ is our God. Jesus Christ is our Saviour. And Jesus Christ is salvation. He is the Way to heaven; and he is Heaven. He is the Revealer of truth, and he is Truth. He is the Giver of Life; and he is Life. Christ is all!

When we talk about divine sovereignty, we are declaring that Jesus Christ is Lord. When we proclaim Gods glorious work of predestination, we are showing how that sinners have been predestinated to be conformed to the image of Christ. Gods election is his choice of some to everlasting salvation in Christ and for Christs sake. Total depravity, a thoroughly biblical doctrine, is Gods revelation of our need of Christ. Limited atonement is the biblical assurance of effectual redemption and grace by Christ, the declaration that all for whom Christ died shall be saved. Irresistible grace, or effectual calling, is the almighty, irresistible revelation of Christ in the soul by the Holy Spirit, which causes the chosen to come to him. Regeneration is the implanting of Christ in us. Justification is the imputation of Christs righteousness to all his redeemed. Faith is trusting Christ. Sanctification is Christ being formed in us, begun in regeneration and consummated in glorification. Perseverance is Christ holding our hearts by grace and keeping us in life and faith. Baptism is the believers public confession of faith in Christ. Being symbolically buried in the watery grave and raised with him, we confess our faith in his finished work of redemption as our Substitute. The Lords Supper is our blessed remembrance of Christ. Eternal life is knowing Christ. Heaven is being with Christ and like Christ perfectly and forever. Preaching is telling people about Christ. Anything else is not preaching. Call it what you may; but it is not preaching!

Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?

Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible

And, behold

For order of our Lord’s appearances after His resurrection, (See Scofield “Mat 28:9”)

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

two: Luk 24:18, Mar 16:12, Mar 16:13

Emmaus: Emmaus was situated, according to the testimony both of Luke and Josephus, sixty furlongs from Jerusalem, that is, about seven miles and a half. It has generally been confounded with Emmaus, a city of Judah, afterwards called Nicopolis; but Reland has satisfactorily shown that they were distinct places; the latter, according to the old Itinerary of Palestine, being situated 10 miles from Lydda, and 22 miles from Jerusalem. D’Arvieux states, that going from Jerusalem to Rama, he took the right from the high road to Rama, at some little distance from Jerusalem, and “travelled a good league over rocks and flint stones, to the end of the valley of terebinthine trees,” until he reached Emmaus; which “seems, by the ruins which surround it, to have been formerly larger that it was in our Saviour’s time. The Christians, while masters of the Holy Land, re-established it a little, and built several churches. Emmaus was not worth the trouble of having come out of the way to see it.

Reciprocal: Mat 9:15 – when Joh 6:19 – furlongs Joh 11:18 – fifteen furlongs

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

3

The most important item in this verse is the words that same day. Verse 1 shows it was the first day of the week, the day of the resurrection of Christ

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs.

[And behold two of them were going, etc.] one of these was Cleopas, Luk 24:18, whom we have elsewhere shewn to be the very same with Alpheus, both from the agreement of the name, and also by comparing Joh 19:25; with Mar 15:47; and Mat 27:56. That Peter was the other, I do not at all question, grounding my confidence upon verse 34 of this chapter Luk 24:34; and 1Co 15:5. This Cleopas or Alpheus, we see, is the speaker here, and not Peter, being older than Peter, as being the father of four of the apostles.

Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels

THE history contained in these verses is not found in any other Gospel but that of Luke. Of all the eleven appearances of Christ after His resurrection, none perhaps is so interesting as the one described in this passage.

Let us mark, in these verses, what encouragement there is to believers to speak to one another about Christ. We are told of two disciples walking together to Emmaus, and talking of their Master’s crucifixion. And then come the remarkable words, “While they communed together and reasoned, Jesus Himself drew near, and went with them.”

Conference on spiritual subjects is a most important means of grace. As iron sharpeneth iron, so does exchange of thoughts with brethren sharpen a believer’s soul. It brings down a special blessing on all who make a practice of it. The striking words of Malachi were meant for the Church in every age;-“Then they that feared the LORD spoke often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon His name. And they shall be mine saith the LORD, in that day when I make up my jewels.” (Mal 3:16-17.)

What do we know ourselves of spiritual conversation with other Christians? Perhaps we read our Bibles, and pray in private, and use public means of grace. It is all well, very well. But if we stop short here we neglect a great privilege and have yet much to learn. We ought to “consider one another to provoke to love and good works.” We ought to “exhort” and “edify one another.” (Heb 10:24; 1Th 5:11.) Have we no time for spiritual conversation? Let us think again. The quantity of time wasted on frivolous, trifling, and unprofitable talk, is fearfully great.-Do we find nothing to say on spiritual subjects? Do we feel tongue-tied and dumb on the things of Christ? Surely if this is the case, there must be something wrong within. A heart right in the sight of God will generally find words. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” (Mat 12:34.)

Let us learn a lesson from the two travelers to Emmaus. Let us speak of Jesus, when we are sitting in our houses and when we are walking by the way, whenever we can find a disciple to speak to. (Deu 6:7.) If we believe we are journeying to a heaven where Christ will be the central object of every mind, let us begin to learn the manners of heaven, while we are yet upon earth. So doing we shall often have One with us whom our eyes will not see, but One who will make our hearts “burn within us” by blessing the conversation.

Let us mark, secondly, in these verses, how weak and imperfect was the knowledge of some of our Lord’s disciples. We are told that the two disciples confessed frankly that their expectations had been disappointed by the crucifixion of Christ. “We trusted,” said they, “that it had been He who should have redeemed Israel.” A temporal redemption of the Jews by a conqueror appears to have been the redemption which they looked for. A spiritual redemption by a sacrificial death was an idea which their minds could not thoroughly take in.

Ignorance like this, at first sight, is truly astounding. We cannot be surprised at the sharp rebuke which fell from our Lord’s lips, “O fools, and slow of heart to believe.” Yet ignorance like this is deeply instructive. It shows us how little cause we have to wonder at the spiritual darkness which obscures the minds of careless Christians. Myriads around us are just as ignorant of the meaning of Christ’s sufferings as these travelers to Emmaus. As long as the world stands the cross will seem foolishness to natural man.

Let us bless God that there may be true grace hidden under much intellectual ignorance. Clear and accurate knowledge is a most useful thing, but it is not absolutely needful to salvation, and may even be possessed without grace. A deep sense of sin, a humble willingness to be saved in God’s way, a teachable readiness to give up our own prejudices when a more excellent way is shown, these are the principal things. These things the two disciples possessed, and therefore our Lord “went with them” and guided them into all truth.

Let us mark, thirdly, in these verses, how full the Old Testament is of Christ. We are told that our Lord began “at Moses and all the prophets, and expounded in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”

How shall we explain these words? In what way did our Lord show “things concerning himself,” in every part of the Old Testament field? The answer to these questions is short and simple. Christ was the substance of every Old Testament sacrifice, ordained in the law of Moses. Christ was the true Deliverer and King, of whom all the judges and deliverers in Jewish history were types. Christ was the coming Prophet greater than Moses, whose glorious advent filled the pages of prophets. Christ was the true seed of the woman who was to bruise the serpent’s head,-the true seed in whom all nations were to be blessed,-the true Shiloh to whom the people were to be gathered,-the true scape-goat,-the true brazen serpent,-the true Lamb to which every daily offering pointed,-the true High Priest of whom every descendant of Aaron was a figure. These things, or something like them, we need not doubt, were some of the things which our Lord expounded in the way to Emmaus.

Let it be a settled principle in our minds, in reading the Bible, that Christ is the central sun of the whole book. So long as we keep Him in view, we shall never greatly err in our search for spiritual knowledge. Once losing sight of Christ, we shall find the whole Bible dark and full of difficulty. The key of Bible knowledge is Jesus Christ.

Let us mark, finally, in these verses, how much Christ loves to be entreated by His people. We are told, that when the disciples drew nigh to Emmaus, our Lord “made as though he would have gone further.” He desired to see if they were weary of His conversation. But it was not so. “They constrained Him, saying, abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And He went in to tarry with them.”

Cases like this are not uncommon in Scripture. Our Lord sees it good for us to prove our love, by withholding mercies till we ask for them. He does not always force His gifts upon us, unsought and unsolicited. He loves to draw out our desires, and to compel us to exercise our spiritual affections, by waiting for our prayers. He dealt so with Jacob at Peniel. “Let me go,” He said, “for the day breaketh.” And then came the noble declaration from Jacob’s lips, “I will not let thee go except thou bless me.” (Gen 32:26.) The story of the Canaanitish mother, the story of the healing of two blind men at Jericho, the story of the nobleman at Capernaum, the parables of the unjust judge and friend at midnight, are all meant to teach the same lesson. All show that our Lord loves to be entreated, and likes importunity.

Let us act on this principle in all our prayers, if we know anything of praying. Let us ask much, and ask often, and lose nothing for want of asking. Let us not be like the Jewish king who smote three times on the ground, and then stayed his hand. (2Ki 13:18.) Let us rather remember the words of David’s Psalm, “Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it.” (Psa 81:10.) It is the man who puts a holy constraint on Christ in prayer, who enjoys much of Christ’s manifested presence.

==================

Notes-

v13.-[Two of them.] We are not told who these two disciples were, except that one of them was named Cleopas. Several conjectures have been made about the other one. Epiphanius supposes he was Nathanal. Origen calls him Simeon. Ambrose calls him Amaon. Theophylact suggests that it was Luke himself. All this is guesswork. We know nothing certain about it, excepting this, that it could not have been one of the apostles. We are distinctly told that when these two disciples returned to Jerusalem, “they found the eleven gathered together.”-This point ought to be carefully noticed.

Lightfoot says, “It seems to me beyond question, that one of the disciples going to Emmaus was Peter, who hearing from the women that the Lord had risen, and sent him a message, and spoken of going to Galilee, took Cleopas and made off towards Galilee.”-This opinion seems very improbable.

[Went that same day.] Henry says on this expression, “I suspect that they were going homeward to Galilee, with an intention not to inquire more about this Jesus; that they were meditating a retreat, and went away from their company without asking or taking leave.”-This is, no doubt, an ingenious conjecture. But I see nothing to warrant it.

v16.-[Should not know him.] Let it be noted here, that Mark mentions that He “appeared in another form.” (Mar 16:12.) This circumstance would account for their not recognizing Him. At the same time it is clear that in some miraculous way the eyes of the disciples were holden or restrained from seeing aright. (See 2Ki 6:17-20.)

v17.-[He said.] Bengel remarks here, that “it is the part of wisdom to pass with ease into profitable conversation.”

[What manner…communications…ye have.] The literal rendering of the Greek words here would be, “What sayings or words are these which ye cast against one another, or bandy about?”

The parallel between Joseph and our Lord Jesus Christ ought to be noticed at this part of our Lord’s history. The conduct of Joseph in not discovering himself to his brethren, and in trying them by delay, was a type of our Lord’s dealings with His two disciples before manifesting Himself to them. The whole history of Joseph is probably much more typical than we suppose.

v18.-[Art thou only a stranger, &c.] The Greek words so rendered are somewhat peculiar. Alford translates them, “Dost thou lodge alone at Jerusalem?”-Major renders them, “Art thou that one individual who sojournest at Jerusalem, and hast not known,” &c.,-meaning, “There surely cannot be another, whether stranger or resident, who has not heard of these events.”

The whole verse is an important evidence of the publicity and notoriety of our Lord Jesus Christ’s crucifixion.

v19.-[What things?] Our Lord, both here and at a latter part of His history draws out from the disciples their opinions, feelings, and wishes. By asking a question He elicits a declaration of the exact state of their minds about Himself.

[A prophet, &c.] The exceeding dimness of the disciples’ apprehension of our Lord’s divinity and atonement, is strikingly brought out in this description.

[Before God and the people.] This must mean “By the testimony both of God and the Jewish nation.”-We read elsewhere that “God bare him witness by signs and wonders.” (Act 2:22.) The people also “bare record.” (Joh 12:17.)

v21.-[He which should have redeemed Israel.] The exact kind of redemption expected by the disciples we are left to conjecture. But it is clear that like most Jews, they looked much more for a temporal Redeemer than a spiritual one. They looked for a redemption like that of their forefathers out of Egypt. Hence their excessive perplexity and amazement, when he who they thought would prove the Redeemer was crucified.

[To-day is the third day.] There certainly seems a reference in the mind of Cleopas to something which was to happen on the “third day,” according to promise. He speaks like one who had an indistinct recollection of our Lord’s sayings about rising again, upon the third day, but had never understood their meaning.

Lightfoot remarks on this verse, what notice the Rabbins take of the third day, and conjectures that the Jewish idea about the third day may be traced in the saying of Cleopas, as well as a reference to our Lord’s predictions. He points out the frequency with which the third day is referred to in the Old Testament. (Gen 22:4; Hos 6:2; Gen 42:18; Jos 2:16; Exo 19:16; Jon 1:17; Ezr 8:15; Est 5:1.)

v24.-[Certain of them, &c.] Luke has only told us of Peter having gone to the grave. From John we learn that John accompanied him.

v25.-[Fools.] The Greek word so rendered is not the same word which is so translated in the sermon on the mount. (Mat 5:22.) Here it only means “wanting in thought, understanding, and consideration,” and does not imply any contempt.

[Slow of heart to believe all…prophets…spoken.] This expression should be carefully noted. The disciples believed many things which the prophets had spoken. But they did not believe all. They believed the predictions of Messiah’s glory, but not of Messiah’s sufferings. Christians in modern times too often err in like manner, though in a totally different direction. They believe all that the prophets say about Christ’s sufferings, but not all that they say about Christ coming the second time in glory.

v26.-[Ought not.] This means, “was it not fitting, meet, and needful;”-“did it not behove,” in order to the fulfilment of prophecies and types, that Christ should suffer? It is the same Greek word translated “behoved,” at Luk 24:46.

[Suffered…enter…glory.] Here our Lord briefly states the whole truth concerning the expected Messiah. He was one who was to suffer first and afterwards to reign,-to be cut off first and afterwards have a kingdom,-to be led as a lamb to the slaughter first, and afterwards to divide the spoil as a conqueror.

v27.-[Beginning at Moses, &c.] Many a commentator has remarked on this verse, that it would have been a blessing to the Church if it had possessed the exposition which our Lord here gave. For wise reasons it has been withheld from us. Several have attempted to supply conjecturally the general substance of this exposition, and specially Gerhard, Bullinger, and Stella. But it is probable that we have, at best, very inadequate ideas of the fullness of our Lord’s exposition. Judging from the use He made of Scripture during His ministry, He saw probably many “things concerning Himself” which modern commentators utterly fail to discover.

Alford remarks, “Observe the testimony which this verse gives to the divine authority, and Christian interpretation of the Old Testament Scriptures. The denial of reference to Christ’s death and glory in the Old Testament, is a denial of Christ’s own teaching.”

v28.-[He made as though…gone further.] Many very unprofitable remarks have been made on this expression. Some have gone so far as to assert that it justifies dissimulation and a certain degree of untruthfulness on some occasions. Such assertions are too monstrous and absurd to deserve serious refutation.

Alford remarks, “It is not implied that our Lord said anything to indicate that He would go further, but simply that He was pass ing on.” He quotes also a passage from Jeremy Taylor’s Sermon on Christian Simplicity, explanatory of this expression.-“Our blessed Saviour pretended that He would pass forth from Emmaus; but if He intended not to do it, He did no injury to the two disciples, for whose good He intended to make this offer. Neither did He prevaricate the strictness of simplicity and sincerity, because they were persons with whom He had made no contracts, to whom He had passed no obligations. In the nature of the thing it is proper and natural by an offer to give an occasion to another to do good actions; and in case it succeeds not then to do what was intended not. And so the offer was conditional.”

I have quoted this passage from a desire to meet the possible objections of scrupulous consciences. To my own mind it seems surprising that any one can stumble at the expression before us, or can find ground for supposing that our Lord meant to deceive. Our Lord used the readiest and most natural means to draw out the feelings of His disciples, by walking on as if He intended to go further. But it seems to me as unreasonable to see in this an intention to deceive, as it would be to see dishonesty in His first question, “What manner of communications are these that ye have?” He knew all things, and had no real occasion to ask. But He asked in order to draw out the minds of His disciples.

v29.-[They constrained him.] Let it be noted that we have several instances of expressions like this in Scripture used upon similar occasions. Abraham said, “Pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant.” (Gen 18:3.) Gideon said, “Depart not hence, I pray thee, until I come unto thee.” (Jdg 6:18.) Manoah and his wife said, “I pray thee, let us detain thee.” (Jdg 13:15.) All show that God loves to be entreated of His people, and that those who would have much must ask much, and even use a holy violence.

v30.-[He took bread…blessed…brake…gave, &c.] The action mentioned here has occasioned much difference of opinion.

1. Some think that no particular sense is to be attached to the expression, and that it means that Jesus was recognized at the time when He brake bread.

2. Some think that there was something peculiar in our Lord’s manner and demeanor at breaking of bread, which was well known to the disciples. Lyranus and Stella even go so far as to say that He broke bread in a miraculous manner, like one cutting with a knife. According to Schottgen, Jewish teachers used to be known and recognized by their disciples by their peculiar gestures.

3. Some think that the whole passage refers to the Lord’s Supper. This opinion is stoutly defended by Maldonatus and Cornelius Lapide, the Romish commentators, and maintained even by Wordsworth among modern English Protestants.-The two Romish writers go so far as to maintain that the passage shows the propriety of the bread only and not the cup being given to the laity in the Lord’s Supper. It is only fair to say that not all Romish writers maintain this opinion respecting the Lord’s Supper being meant. Jansenius and Stella deny it entirely. Barradius and Bellarmine allow that it is just as probable that the Lord’s Supper is not meant, as that it is meant.

I have little doubt that the expression refers to some wellknown and peculiar gesture of our Lord in the act of breaking bread, with which all His disciples were familiar. I think it even possible that there is a reference to our Lord’s demeanor at the miracle of feeding the multitude with a few loaves and fishes.

Alford suggests that the marks of the nails in our Lord’s hands may have been first noticed as He was breaking bread.

That it could not be the Lord’s Supper appears clear to my own mind for the following reasons.-Firstly, it was impossible that the two disciples could recognize anything in our Lord’s manner of breaking the bread to remind them of the Lord’s Supper, because they were not present at the institution of it. None but the apostles were present at the institution, and the two disciples were evidently not apostles.-Secondly, it is mere gratuitous assumption to say that the Lord’s Supper is meant, when we find no words of consecration used, and no mention of wine. Even the Roman Catholics must allow that without consecration and the presence of wine, there is no sacrament. They will hardly dare to say that the two disciples at Emmaus were laymen.-Thirdly, the words of our Lord at the time of the first institution of the Lord’s Supper, that He would no more “drink the fruit of the vine” with His disciples, make it highly improbable that the sacrament can be here referred to.

The quotations of the Fathers given by the Romish writers in defence of this opinion about the Lord’s Supper are most meager and unsatisfactory. At best they only prove, as Jansenius remarks, that some of the Fathers thought the transaction at Emmaus figurative of the Lord’s Supper.

The plain truth is, that both here and elsewhere the carnal mind of man catches at the least pretext for making everything in religion material and sensual, and strains every possible expression into a material sense. All texts about eating, and drinking, and a cup, and bread, must needs signify the Lord’s Supper! All texts about washing, and water, and purifying, and the like, must needs mean baptism! Against such interpretations of Scripture we must always be on our guard.

Lightfoot remarks, “It is strange that any should interpret this breaking of bread of the holy eucharist, when Christ Himself had determined to disappear in the very distribution of the bread, and so interrupt the supper. And where indeed doth it appear that any of them tasted a bit? The supper was ended before it began.”-“The Rabbins say, if three eat together, they are bound to say grace.”

v31.-[Their eyes…opened…knew Him.] The manner of this sudden revelation of Christ we cannot explain. The whole transaction is so miraculous that we can only take the words as we find them, and must not waste time in attempting to define what is beyond our comprehension.

[Vanished out of their sight.] This and other expressions concerning our Lord’s risen body, show plainly that it was a body in some wonderful way different from the common body of man. It was a real material body, and true flesh and blood. But it was a body capable of moving, appearing, and disappearing after a manner that we cannot explain. We may fairly suppose that it was a pattern of what our own bodies will be after they are raised again. They will be true bodies, material and real, but bodies endued with capacities of which now we know nothing.

v32.-[Did not our heart burn.] These words would be more literally rendered, “was not our heart burning within us.” It is a strong expression to indicate the warmth and delight of their feelings while they listened to our Lord’s exposition of Scripture. See Psa 39:3; Jer 20:9.

v33.-[Found the eleven gathered together.] This expression deserves notice. Was Thomas with them or not? If he was, he must have gone out immediately after the two disciples came in. Otherwise it would be difficult to reconcile the verses which immediately follow, describing our Lord’s appearing, with the account given in John, of Christ’s appearing when Thomas was not present.-If Thomas was not present on this occasion, how can we explain Luke, speaking of “the eleven”? Doddridge must supply the answer;-“As Paul calls the company of apostles the twelve, (1Co 15:5,) though Judas the twelfth person was dead; so Luke here calls them the eleven, though Thomas the eleventh person was absent, as appears from Joh 20:24.”

Let us add to this, that Mark distintly tells us also, that the Lord “appeared to the eleven, as they sat at meat.” (Mar 16:14.)

v34.-[Saying, the Lord is risen indeed.] Major remarks here, “These words which Luke attributes to the eleven apostles are not altogether consistent with what we read in Mark, (Mar 16:12,) that when the two disciples returning acquainted the rest, “they did not believe them.”-Campbell thus solves the difficulty: “This does not imply that none of them believed, but that several, perhaps the greater part, did not believe. When Luke tells us that they said ‘the Lord is risen indeed,’ we are not to conclude that every one said this, or even believed it, but only that some believed, and that one of them expressly affirmed it. Such latitude in using pronouns is common in every language. So, according to Matthew and Mark, both malefactors reproached Jesus on the cross. But from Luke we learn that it was only one of them who acted thus.”

[Appeared to Simon.] This appearance to Simon Peter alone is only mentioned in this place, and in the Epistle to the Corinthians. (1Co 15:5.) The circumstances of the appearance we do not know.

It may be well to mention here the eleven distinct appearances of our Lord after His resurrection. He appeared,

1. To Mary Magdalene alone. Mar 16:9; Joh 20:14.

2. To the women returning from the sepulchre. Mat 28:9-10.

3. To Simon Peter alone. Luk 24:34.

4. To the two disciples going to Emmaus. Luk 24:13-15, &c.

5. To the apostles at Jerusalem, excepting Thomas who was absent. Joh 20:19, Joh 20:24.

6. To the apostles at Jerusalem, a second time, when Thomas was present. Joh 20:26, Joh 20:29.

7. At the sea of Tiberias, when seven disciples were fishing. Joh 21:1.

8. To the eleven disciples, on a mountain in Galilee. Mat 28:16.

9. To above five hundred brethren at once. 1Co 15:6.

10. To James only. 1Co 15:7.

11. To all the apostles on mount Olivet at His ascension. Luk 24:51.

Three times we are told that His disciples touched Him after He rose. Mat 28:9; Luk 24:39; Joh 20:27. Twice we are told that He ate with them. Luk 24:42; Joh 21:12-13.

v35.-[Things…done in the way.] This must necessarily mean the wonderful exposition of Scripture which had made their “hearts burn.”

[Known of them in breaking of bread.] It is only necessary to remark here that to apply this expression to the Lord’s Supper is mere accommodation of Scripture words, and not justified by the context.

Fuente: Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels

Luk 24:13. Two of them, i.e., of those spoken of at the close of Luk 24:9. It is unlikely that they were Apostles (comp. Luk 24:33). One was named Cleopas (Luk 24:18), but we know nothing further. The name seems to be == Cleopatrus (as Antipas == Antipatros), and a different one from Clopas (or Cleophas in the E. V.) mentioned in Joh 19:25. We reject the view that this was Alphaeus (Clopas), and his companion, James the son of Alphaeus. This theory would identify this appearance with that spoken of in 1Co 15:7. Conjecture has been busy in naming the companion of Cleopas: Luke himself; Nathanael; others, supposing that Luk 24:34 is the language of these two disciples, have thought that it was Simon Zelotes, or Simon Peter. This is least likely of all.

Emmaus. The site of this village has been much discussed. The name itself means warm water, and a number of places were thus called, in each case doubtless because of a warm spring in the neighborhood (comp. the French Aix, attached to several watering places). There was a town of this name about one hundred and seventy-six stadia from Jerusalem, in the plain of Judea (see 1Ma 3:40), called Nicopolis in the third century. This was early confounded with the place here spoken of, and a few manuscripts, among them the oldest (Sinaitic), insert one hundred before sixty. Still, as Josephus (7, 6, 6) speaks of another Emmaus as sixty stadia from Jerusalem, we should look for it at that distance, especially as Nicopolis was too far away to permit of a return to Jerusalem the same day. If we place the return later, we introduce a difficulty in regard to the appearance of the Lord, narrated in Luk 24:36, etc. Opinion is divided between two places, now called respectively Kubeibeh and Kulonich, both west of Jerusalem (the latter more to the north).

Sixty furlongs (stadia) = about eight English miles. They therefore probably left Jerusalem early in the afternoon, thus reaching Emmaus about sundown (see on Luk 24:29).

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Here we have observable, 1. The journey which two of the disciples took to Emmaus, a village not far from Jerusalem. The occasion of their journey is not told us, but the scripture acquaints us with their discourse in their journey, and as they were walking by the way. It was holy and useful, pious and profitable discourse, that they entertained one another with as they walked; they discoursed of Christ’s death and resurrection; a good pattern for our imitation, when providentially cast into such company as will bear it: That our lips drop as the honeycomb, and our tongue be as choice silver.

Observe, 2. How our holy Lord presently made one in the company; when they were discoursing seriously about the matters of religion, he overtook them and joined himself to them. The way to have Christ’s presence and company with us is to be discoursing of Christ and the things of Christ.

Observe, 3. Though Christ came to them, it was incognito; he was not known to them, for their eyes were holden by the power of God; their sight was restrained, that they could not discern who he was, but took him for another person, though his body had the same dimensions that he had before.

Whence we learn, the influence which God has upon all our powers and faculties, upon all our members and senses, and how much we depend upon God for the use and exercise of our faculties and members: Their eyes were holden that they could not know him.

Observe, 4. That the notion of the Messiah being a temporal Saviour, was so deeply rooted in the minds of the disciples, that it remained here with them, even after he was risen from the dead. They here own and acknowledge him to be a prophet mighty in deed and in word, but they question whether he were the Messiah, the redeemer of Israel. They could not reconcile the ignominy of his death with the grandeur of his office; nor conceive how the infamy of a cross was consistent with the glory of a king: We trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel. As if they had said, “We were full of hopes, that this had been the Messiah so long expected by us; but, this being the third day since he died, we fear we shall find ourselves mistaken.”

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Luk 24:13-24. Behold, two of them Not of the apostles, for those two, returning, told what had passed between Christ and them to the eleven apostles, (Luk 24:33; Luk 24:35,) but two of the other disciples that were with them; went that same day On which Jesus arose; to a village called Emmaus Not that Emmaus near Tiberias, so called from the hot baths there, for that was in Galilee, but a village in the tribe of Judah; about threescore furlongs That is, near eight miles from Jerusalem. Some MSS. say it was one hundred and sixty furlongs distant from Jerusalem, which is evidently a mistake, Josephus confirming the declaration of Luke, Bell., Luk 7:27. And they talked together of all these things As they walked along they discoursed together of all these wonderful and important things which had lately happened, and which could not but lie with great weight on their minds. And while they communed together About the sufferings and death of their beloved Lord, and the report which had been spread that morning of his resurrection; and reasoned Concerning these things, namely, whether it was probable that he actually was risen, and therefore, notwithstanding he had suffered death, was the Messiah. The word , here rendered reasoned, properly signifies, as Mr. West observes, to discuss, examine, or, inquire together; and it appears from the connection, that as they were discoursing on the sufferings, and death, and resurrection of Jesus, the scope of their inquiry was, how to reconcile these events with what had been foretold concerning the Messiah, which, by the message that the women had but just before brought from the angels, they were particularly called to remember. Accordingly, when Jesus had inquired, (Luk 24:17,) What manner of communications, &c.? or, as Mr. West would render it, What arguments are these that ye are debating one with another? this is the point he took occasion to illustrate and explain, (Luk 24:26-27,) by showing them it was necessary, in accomplishment of what was foretold, that the Messiah should suffer these things, and so enter into his glory. Jesus himself drew near, &c. As one come from Jerusalem, and who was travelling the same way. But their eyes were holden Their sight was supernaturally influenced; that they should not know him Probably, also, one reason why they did not know him, was that, as Mark says, (Mar 16:12,) he appeared, , in another form, or habit, namely, different from that which he formerly had when he conversed with them. And he said, What manner of communications are these that ye have, and are sad? Jesus spake thus to them in the character of a stranger, making free, as travellers might do one with another, to ask what the subject of their conversation was, and why they looked so sad? And one of them One of the two; whose name was Cleopas The same with Alpheus, the father of James the Less and Judas, who were two of the apostles, see on Luk 6:15-16; answering said, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem? Cleopas was surprised that any one who had come from Jerusalem should have been ignorant of the extraordinary things which had lately happened there. There are two ways, says Dr. Campbell, wherein the words of Cleopas may be understood by the reader: one is, as a method of accounting for the apparent ignorance of this traveller; the other, as an expression of surprise, that any one who had been at Jerusalem at that time, though a stranger, should not know what had made so much noise among all ranks, and had so much occupied, for some days, all the leading men in the nation, the chief priests, the scribes, the rulers, and the whole sanhedrim, as well as the Roman procurator, and the soldiery. The common version favours the first interpretation; I prefer the second, in concurrence, as I imagine, with the majority of interpreters, ancient and modern. I cannot discover, with Beza, any thing in it remote from common speech. On the contrary, I think it, in such a case as the present, so natural an expression of surprise, that examples remarkably similar may be produced from most languages. And he said, What things What are those matters to which you refer? And they said, Concerning Jesus, a prophet mighty in deed and in word Who wrought the most astonishing miracles, and taught the most instructive and excellent doctrine; before God Who evidently bore testimony to him; and all the people Among whom he appeared publicly for some years. And the chief priests, &c. Delivered him to the Roman governor; to be condemned Prevailing on him, by their importunity, to pass sentence of death upon him. But we trusted, &c. Having thus given an account of Christs character, miracles, and sufferings, Cleopas was so ingenuous as to acknowledge, that they once believed him to be the deliverer of Israel, and in that faith had become his disciples. But that they now began to think themselves mistaken, because he had been dead three days. He added, that some women of their acquaintance, who had been that morning at the sepulchre, had astonished them with the news of his resurrection, affirming, that they had seen a vision of angels, which told them that he was alive. It seems his companion and he had left the city before any of the women came with the news of Christs personal appearance. And certain of them who were with us Meaning, probably, Peter and John, as is related, Joh 20:2, &c.; went, &c., and found it as the women had said That is, that the body was gone, and that the funeral linen was laid in order there; but him they saw not They had not the satisfaction of seeing Jesus.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

3. The Appearance on the way to Emmaus: Luk 24:13-32.

Vers. 13-32. Here is one of the most admirable pieces in Luke’s Gospel. As John alone has preserved to us the account of the appearance to Mary Magdalene, so Luke alone has transmitted to us that of the appearance granted to the two disciples of Emmaus. The summary of this event in Mark (Mar 16:12-13) is evidently nothing more than an extract from Luke.

Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)

CXXXVII.

THIRD AND FOURTH APPEARANCES OF JESUS.

(Sunday afternoon.)

bMARK XVI. 12, 13; cLUKE XXIV. 13-35; eI. COR. XV. 5.

b12 And after these things he was manifested in another form [i. e., another manner] unto two of them, as they walked, on their way into the country. c13 And behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus [Several sites have been suggested, but the village of Emmaus has not yet been identified beyond dispute. Its location is probably marked by the ruins called el Kubeibeh, which lies northwest of Jerusalem], which was threescore furlongs from Jerusalem. [el Kubeibeh is distant seven and thirteen-sixteenths of a mile, or sixty-two and one-half furlongs, from Jerusalem.] 14 And they communed with each other of all these things which had happened. 15 And it came to pass, while they communed and questioned together, that Jesus himself drew near, and went with them. 16 But their eyes were holden that they should not know him. [Jesus himself designedly restrained their vision, that, unlike John ( Joh 20:8, Joh 20:9), that might see the resurrection of Jesus in the Scriptures before they saw it in reality.] 17 And he said unto them, What communications are these that ye have one with another, as ye walk? And they stood still, looking sad. [Our Lord’s abrupt question brought them to a standstill. We may well imagine that they considered his interruption very unwelcome. But his kindly mien won their confidence and they tell him all.] 18 And one of them, named Cleopas, answering said unto him, Dost thou alone sojourn in Jerusalem and not know the things which are come to pass there in these days? [Of Cleopas nothing further is known. It has been suggested that the other disciple was Luke himself. [748] This is possible, for the other Evangelists mention themselves thus impersonally. The preface to Luke’s Gospel in no way forbids us to think that he had a personal knowledge of parts of Christ’s ministry. Cleopas marveled that there could be a single man in Jerusalem who had not heard concerning the crucifixion, etc.] 19 And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, The things concerning Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people: 20 and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. 21 But we hoped that it was he who should redeem Israel. [To Cleopas, redeeming Israel meant freeing the nation from the Roman yoke.] Yea and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things came to pass. 22 Moreover certain women of our company amazed us, having been early at the tomb; 23 and when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. [Rationalists might see their own reflection in these two disciples, who suppressed the statement of the women that they had seen the Lord as too idle to be repeated, and told the least marvelous part of their story–that about the angels–as too visionary to be credited. Thus the renowned Renan held that the resurrection was a story or fabrication which grew out of the hallucination of Mary Magdalene. But these two men on the way to Emmaus had less use for feminine hallucinations than even M. Renan. But in the end they believed in the resurrection because they themselves had substantial evidence of it.] 24 And certain of them that were with us [Peter and John] went to the tomb, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not. [The last clause unconsciously suggests the omitted fact that the women had professed to see Christ.] 25 And he said unto them, O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Behooved it not the Christ to suffer these things, [749] and to enter into his glory? 27 And beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. [The counsel of the Father revealed in the Scriptures shows that Jesus should enter into his glory through suffering. The books of Moses foretell Christ largely in types, such, as the passover, the rock in the wilderness, Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac, the day of atonement, etc., but the prophets show him forth in clear-cut predictions and descriptions. Jesus evidently applied both these divisions of Scripture to himself, making it plain to these two who were both thoughtless in mind and slow in heart. Those lacking in a knowledge of the Christology of the Old Testament are slow to believe in it. Those who know that Christology, and yet doubt the Old Testament, do so because they lack faith in the Christ therein portrayed.] 28 And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they were going: and he made as though he would go further. 29 And they constrained him, saying, Abide with us; for it is toward evening, and the day is now far spent. [They were loth to part with this delightful stranger who by his wonderful use of the Scriptures revived their failing faith and hope in Jesus.] And he went in to abide with them. 30 And it came to pass, when he had sat down with them to meat, he took the bread and blessed; and breaking it he gave to them. 31 And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight. [While he was breaking the bread to supply their bodies he opened their eyes and revealed to them that it was he also who had just been feeding their hungry hearts with the truth and consolation of the divine word.] 32 And they said one to another, Was not our heart burning within us, while he spake to us in the way, while he opened to us the scriptures? [Thus they admit to each other that the joy of beholding the risen Lord was but the consummation of a joy already begun through a right understanding of the truth contained in Scripture. The sight of the Lord was sweeter because it was preceded by faith that he ought [750] thus to rise.] 33 And they rose up that very hour, b13 And they went away cand returned to Jerusalem [their news was too precious to keep. They could not sit still till the disciples in Jerusalem knew it], and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them [the women and some of the one hundred and twenty– Act 1:15], 34 saying, The Lord is risen indeed [his resurrection is not an hallucination of the women], and hath fappeared to Cephas; {cSimon.} [Paul and Luke both mention this appearance, but we have none of the details of it.] 35 And they rehearsed the things that happened in the way, and how he was known of them in the breaking of the bread. [This does not mean that they knew Jesus because of any peculiar way in which he broke the bread; it means that he was revealed at the time when he broke it.] bneither believed they them. [They now believed that Jesus had risen, but they did not believe that these two had walked and talked with him without recognizing him. *]

* NOTE.–Here again we dissent. So general a statement of unbelief would not be used when there was a mere doubt as to some of the narrated details. We prefer in our original comment to this substitution, and it was this: Mark shows us that little dependence can be placed upon the apparently strong admission which Luke records. Unable to contradict the testimony of Peter, they said, “The Lord is risen indeed;” but their hearts were, nevertheless, full of doubt. Luke himself shows this in the next section, for these professedly believing apostles took Jesus for a spirit when they saw him.

[FFG 748-751]

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

CHAPTER 30

HE WAS SEEN BY PETER

1Co 15:5. As He appeared to the women on their first visit to the sepulcher before it was clear light; also to Mary Magdalene (and doubtless other women, as it is hardly probable she was alone), on the second visit to the sepulcher, which occurred very early in the morning, for the women hastened back immediately after delivering the glorious tidings to the apostles, there is at least a probability that they arrived the second time at the sepulcher before the first arrival of Peter and John. Then, sometime in the morning, He evidently appeared to Peter, as we see here, indefinitely revealed by Paul.

THE WALK TO EMMAUS

Luk 24:13-35. Behold, two of them on the same day were going to a village, sixty furlongs from Jerusalem, to which was the name Emmaus, and they were conversing with one another concerning all those things which had taken place. And it came to pass, while they are talking and surmising, Jesus also drawing nigh, fell in company with them; and their eyes were held so as not to recognize Him. And He said to them, What are these words which you are interchanging to one another while walking along? And they stood sad. And one, to whom was the name Cleopas, responding, said to Him, Art Thou only a sojourner at Jerusalem, and dost not know the things which have taken place in it in these days? And He said to them, What? And they said to Him, Those things concerning Jesus, the Nazarene, who was a prophet, mighty in deed and word before and all the people, and how our high priests and rulers delivered Him to the condemnation of death, and crucified Him. But we were hoping that He is the One who is going to redeem Israel. You see that these disciples are still solid in their conviction that the Christ, when He comes, will redeem Israel and abide forever (Dan 9:7-14), which is true when He comes the second time. They never succeeded in dividing the prophecies descriptive of His two advents respectively, but applied them all simultaneously.

Cleopas was the brother of the Apostle James the Less, and some believe his traveling companion to have been the Writer of this Gospel. That is at least very uncertain, as we never hear of Luke till about eight years subsequently, when he becomes the traveling companion and amanuensis of Paul in his second evangelistic tour, starting out from Antioch, the metropolis of Syria, and doubtless the nativity, and at least the residence, of Luke, who, in all probability, was a practicing physician in that city till converted by the preaching of Paul and Barnabas.

And in addition to all these things, it is even now the third day since they took place. But certain women from us astonished us, being early at the sepulcher, and not finding His body, came, saying that they have seen a vision of angels, who say that He is alive. And certain ones of those along with us departed to the sepulcher, and found it even as the women said; but they saw Him not. You see clearly that these disciples had not yet received light on His resurrection, but were still clinging pertinaciously to the idea that when Christ comes He will redeem Israel and reign forever, which is true of the second, but not of His first advent, in which He came to suffer and to die.

And He said to them, O ye foolish, and slow in heart to believe in all those things which the prophets spoke. Foolish here is anoetos, meaning spiritual blindness, and not moros, natural imbecility, which He condemns in His Sermon on the Mount, pronouncing a woe on the man who says to his brother, Thou fool. You see here that the heart, and not the intellect, is the faculty of faith. Since the Holy Spirit alone can quicken and enlighten the heart, it is in vain to appeal to the intellect. With the heart, man believeth unto righteousness. (Rom 10:10.) The trouble with infidels and skeptics is not intellectual, but spiritual.

Did it not behoove Christ to suffer these things, and to enter into His glory? Beginning from Moses and all the prophecies, He interpreted unto them, in all the Scriptures, the things concerning Himself. And they were drawing nigh to the village, whither they were journeying; and He made as if He were going farther. This statement is not at all vulnerable to criticism. When they stopped, He walked directly on, and in all probability would have continued, or have manifested Himself to them on the spot, if they had not constrained Him to come in and abide with them.

And they constrained Him, saying, Abide with us; because it is evening, and the day has already declined. He came in to abide with them. And it came to pass, while He was sitting at the table, He took bread, and blessed it, and breaking it, gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him; and He vanished away from them. And they said to one another, Was not our heart burning within us, while He spoke to us on the way, as He opened unto us the Scriptures? Rising up that hour, they returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven assembled, and those along with them, and saying that the Lord truly is risen, and appeared unto Simon . And they were expounding those things on the road, and how He was made known to them in the breaking of bread. You see here that Emmaus is seven and a half miles from Jerusalem, through that rugged, mountainous country, as the metropolis is situated on the high summit of Mount Zion, Moriah, Akra, Bezetha, and Calvary being, respectively, prominences of that great mountain, the culmination of the great interior mountain ranges, rising from the plain of the Mediterranean on the west and the Jordan and the Dead Sea on the east. Though the moon, which was full on the preceding Friday and now, two hours after sunset, is not yet risen, dropping their edibles, they run back with all expedition over the rugged rocks, arriving at Jerusalem in good time for the night meeting, whose thrilling and absorbing theme is the wonderful reports of the sisters and Peter, who assure them that they actually saw Him that morning. No wonder their hearts did burn along the way as Jesus walked with them, opening the Scriptures. O that He may ever walk with you and me, filling and thrilling us with the blessed Word, revealed to our hearts by His heavenly presence!

HE APPEARS TO THE TWELVE

1Co 15:5. How could that be when Judas was gone? You know Matthias, an old disciple, took the place of fallen Judas. Though he had not been elected at this date for you must remember we are still expounding the events of that wonderful Sabbath, forever immortalized and sanctified by the resurrection of our Lord yet he had been in his place and on duty long before the Pauline writing to the Corinthians, A. D. 57; i. e., twenty- four years subsequently to this date.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

Luk 24:13-35. The Appearance on the Way to Emmaus.This exquisite story is told by Lk. only. The village is perhaps the Ammaus of Josephus, the modern Kolonije, five miles W. from Jerusalem. Luk 24:19 f. describes Jesus as a prophet who His friends hoped (till the hope was shattered by His death) might prove to be the Messiah. They are shown that Scripture foretold Messiahs death; it was necessary to His glory. That glory was apparently attained in the moment of the death (cf. Luk 23:42 f.). On arriving at Emmaus, Jesus, invited to be a guest, becomes the host, and then mysteriously disappears.The reading of Codex Bez in Luk 24:34, where the construction of the Gr. is awkward, makes the two disciples the speakers, and suggests that the unnamed one was Peter. It is remarkable that an appearance to Peter comes first in Pauls list in 1Co 15:5 ff. The story thus becomes Lk.s equivalent for John 21, other parts of which he has used in Luke 5. But if this line of argument is sound, we should have expected hath appeared to us two in Luk 24:34. Loisy thinks the story reflects the early connexion between the resurrection faith and the Eucharistic breaking of bread.

Luk 24:18. Art thou a lone stranger in Jerusalem not to know? etc. (Moffatt); Art thou the only pilgrim in Jerusalem who does not know? etc. (Montefiore).

Luk 24:27. Moses and the prophets: a summary phrase (fuller in Luk 24:44) for OT.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

24:13 {4} And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem [about] threescore furlongs.

(4) The resurrection is proved by two other witnesses who saw it, and all the circumstances surrounding it declare that it was no forged event thought up on purpose in their own minds.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

I. The post-resurrection appearances of Jesus 24:13-49

Luke included two of Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances in his Gospel, the first one to two disciples and the second to many of the disciples. In both cases the key to their enlightenment was the Hebrew Scriptures.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

1. The appearance to the disciples walking to Emmaus 24:13-35

This is another of Luke’s exquisite and unique stories. Various students of it have noted its similarity to the stories of the feeding of the 5,000 (Luk 9:10-17), the appearance in Jerusalem (Luk 24:36-49), and the Ethiopian eunuch (Act 8:26-40). Luke’s purpose in recording the incident seems to have been to demonstrate the reality of the Resurrection and the identity of the risen Christ. It also unites many of Luke’s major themes.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Luke described the two men as "two of them." The antecedent seems to be the apostles (Luk 24:10). Luke used this word in its broad meaning rather than as a synonym for the Eleven (cf. Luk 24:33; Act 14:4; Act 14:14; et al.). These apostles were going somewhere, but they had no good news. The day in view was Sunday, the day of the Resurrection, the "Easter event."

Luke presented Jesus as heading to Jerusalem and the Cross through his Gospel. Now he told of two disciples heading away from Jerusalem and the Cross. He probably intended his readers to see these people as representative disciples going out from Jerusalem to witness for Jesus (cf. Act 1:8). Shortly after Luke recorded that Jesus set out resolutely for Jerusalem (Luk 9:51) he wrote that a man approached Him about discipleship. Now we see Jesus approaching two disheartened disciples as they began to leave Jerusalem. They needed more training before they could represent Him effectively. Emmaus (lit. warm springs) was about seven miles west of Jerusalem, toward the Mediterranean Sea. [Note: See the Wycliffe Bible Encyclopedia, s.v. "Emmaus," 1:525-26, for discussion of possible sites.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)