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On the Road to Emmaus
13 Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles[a] from Jerusalem. 14 They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 15 As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them;16 but they were kept from recognizing him.
17 He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”
They stood still, their faces downcast. 18 One of them, named Cleopas,asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”
19 “What things?” he asked.
“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. 20 The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him;21 but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. 22 In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning23 but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. 24 Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.”
25 He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets,he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
28 As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. 29 But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.
30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke itand began to give it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. 32 They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
33 They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together 34 and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” 35 Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognised by them when he broke the bread. – Luke 24:13-25 (NIV)
When I was preparing the Online Children’s Video ‘Sunday’s Cool’ for Easter I was struck by how excited the people in the story were about Jesus rising from the dead.
While we enjoy Easter and have a bit of a gentle celebration of Jesus’s resurrection, we perhaps don’t get as enthusiastic as we could. I have been mulling over why I may struggle to get hold of the idea of the resurrection. One reason may be to do with the resurrection accounts themselves.
Take the account of the Emmaus Road in the reading from Luke. It takes ages for Jesus to be recognised by the two men only for Him to then disappear into thin air! Why didn’t Jesus just say to the two men “Hi! It’s Jesus. Expect you’re surprised to see me! I’ve risen from the dead!” Or why go to the Emmaus Road at all – why didn’t he just go straight round to where the disciples were staying and stay with them, then everyone would know where he was and could drop in? What was this strange sort of body that Jesus had – one that could eat and drink but could also annoyingly just disappear?
While pondering this I came up with a few thoughts which I’ll share in case they are helpful….
The first thing which had not really struck me before was that Jesus’s body was a ‘spiritual body’[i] . It had some features of a physical body in that he could eat and drink, and it could be touched and hugged. But if Jesus had risen with a purely physical body He would have had to die an earthly death again. This was a body that would be equally good for visiting his earthly friends and for being with your Heavenly Father[ii]. A spiritual body, recognisable with wounds, but without some of our physical limitations.
I have often wondered why did Jesus just not stand in the middle of Jerusalem so everyone could see Him, and he could announce that He was alive. I think it is because there was no point in everyone seeing Him. The Romans and religious leaders would have been spreading propaganda saying He was fake news, or they would have been trying to kill him again. Also a distant view is not usually enough to persuade people –it is a personal encounter that counts. And that was what Jesus was doing – spending enough time with his disciples and followers so that they were convinced He was alive. Some only needed to see him or hear his voice to believe, but most needed to spend time with Him talking or eating. Others still like Thomas [iii] were sceptical – Thomas needed to feel Jesus’ wounds to be convinced.
In aiming to answer some of my own puzzles about the resurrection I came across an internet site aiming to disprove it. I was not convinced. The best the writer could come up with was saying that people seeing Jesus after he had died was nothing unusual, after all bereaved people often see someone they love. I agree that this can happen; when I worked as a GP some of my patients occasionally thought they felt their loved one’s presence and a few thought they had heard a word spoken or had seen them fleetingly. But none of them booked into an inn with them and shared a meal, or had breakfast cooked for them by the deceased or were able to have long conversations, or were able feel their wounds.
We don’t know how many people saw Jesus after his resurrection. There were at least 16[iv] specific individuals mentioned in the gospels. Paul, writing later[v], talks about an occasion when Jesus appears to a crowd of people, many of whom were still alive and could talk about their experiences. While we don’t know their exact number we know that those who saw Jesus alive were convinced by the experience, and many of them were willing to be put to death for this conviction.
When I was mulling over my thoughts about the resurrection the weekend before Sanctuary I had an unusual experience. We were walking through the countryside and I was saying in my head to God ‘what is it that You want me to say about the resurrection. At that moment I looked to the left and saw this bridge!
I was gobsmacked so I asked John to take a picture as I assumed that it was significant! I guess that the message is that while there is plenty of evidence for the resurrection in the end you have to choose to believe, you have to have faith.
Listen
[i] Spiritual body 1 Corinthians 15v 44
[ii] Luke 24 v 51, Acts 1 v 11
[iii] John 20 v 26-28
[iv] 11 disciples, Cleopas and other follower on Emmaus Road, Mary Magdalene, 2+ unnamed women. In 1 Corinthians 15 v 7 Paul also mentions Jesus being seen by another James (not disciple James? Jesus’s half brother James).
[v] 1 Corinthians 15 v 6
