Luke 24.13-27.
Jesus’s resurrection happened the day after
Emmaus is probably Emmaus Nicopolis. A number of Christians insist it can’t be, because Luke says Emmaus was 60 stadia from Jerusalem (i.e. 7 miles, 11km), and Emmaus Nicopolis is 161 stadia (15½ miles, 25km) away. Never mind Luke describes Emmaus as
Me, I think it’s far more likely some overzealous bible copyist incorrectly wrote
I mentioned Cleopas ’cause Luke identifies Cleopas as one of the students in this story.
So it’s kinda cool that Jesus’s uncle and cousin were both following him, and it makes sense that they’d be among the first people he appeared to. Let’s get to the first part of the story.
Luke 24.13-27 KWL - 13 Look, two of the students, on the same day,
- are going to a far-off village whose name is Emmaús,
- 60 stadia [7 miles, 11 km] from Jerusalem.
- 14 The students are talking with one another
- about all the things which just happened.
- 15 It happens, during their animated conversation,
- Jesus himself comes near, going with them.
- 16 The students’ eyesight isn’t strong;
- they don’t know it’s Jesus.
- 17 Jesus tells them, “What are these words
- you throw to one another as you’re walking?”
- The students stand still, gloomy-looking.
- 18 In reply, one of the students, named Cleopas,
- tells Jesus, “You alone visit Jerusalem,
- and don’t know what happens in it these days?”
- 19 Jesus tells them, “What happened?”
- The students tell him the events about Jesus the Nazarene.
- How he’s a man—a prophet—
- of mighty work and word before God and all the people.
- 20 How Jesus is betrayed to our head priests and rulers,
- is sentenced to death, and they crucify him.
- 21 “And we were expecting that he’s Israel’s coming redeemer…
- but regardless, it’s the third day after these things happened.
- 22 But certain women among us are confusing us:
- Going to the sepulcher in the morning
- 23 and not finding Jesus’s body,
- they come back speaking of seeing an angelic vision;
- they say he’s alive.
- 24 Some who are with us, go to the sepulcher,
- and find it’s just as the women say,
- but we don’t see him.”
- 25 Jesus tells them, “Oh, you dummies.
- Slow in your heart to trust all the prophets who speak.
- 26 Don’t these things have to be suffered by Messiah
- to enter into his glory?”
- 27 And beginning with Moses and all the prophets,
- Jesus expounds for them everything written about himself.
Arguing all the way home.
As Cleopas and Simon head home, they’re talking about what happened to Jesus in Jerusalem… and arguing about it. You might miss that fact, depending on your favorite bible translation:
Luke 24.13-27 NIV - 13 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
A He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”
Sounds kinda like they were having a quiet conversation, weren’t they? But no, it wasn’t that. Verse 15 says they happened
Jesus himself commented about the way they were talking to one another: “What are these words you throw to one another as you’re walking?”
It might be this over-familiarity which made Jesus comfortable with addressing them as
I’m kinda jumping ahead of things. Before Jesus spells this out for them, lookit what Cleopas and Simon thought they knew.
Luke 24.19-24 KWL - 19
B The students tell him the events about Jesus the Nazarene. - How he’s a man—a prophet—
- of mighty work and word before God and all the people.
- 20 How Jesus is betrayed to our head priests and rulers,
- is sentenced to death, and they crucify him.
- 21 “And we were expecting that he’s Israel’s coming redeemer…
- but regardless, it’s the third day after these things happened.
- 22 But certain women among us are confusing us:
- Going to the sepulcher in the morning
- 23 and not finding Jesus’s body,
- they come back speaking of seeing an angelic vision;
- they say he’s alive.
- 24 Some who are with us, go to the sepulcher,
- and find it’s just as the women say,
- but we don’t see him.”
Most translations put the whole passage in quotes, as if Cleopas and Simon say the whole thing; I only put ’em where they move away from the facts about Jesus, to the stuff they weren’t so sure about.
They did believe Jesus to be Messiah. They didn’t use the word “Messiah” themselves, but “Israel’s coming redeemer” is the same thing. Jesus had no trouble using the word in verse 26—he no longer had to
But then he got killed. Which they didn’t expect at all. Even though Jesus warned ’em it would happen!—but they were so hung up on how Pharisees spoke of Messiah, they simply couldn’t imagine him outside that Pharisee framework. We have the very same problem in Christianity nowadays: People who insist the End Times have to happen
So that’s the situation here: These guys figured Jesus is Messiah—which he is!—but thought he was a Pharisee-style Messiah, who’d never suffer like that dude in
Okay dummies, Jesus responded, let’s go back to Moses and the prophets. Hey, they had a five-hour walk; that’d be enough time to get them up to speed.
Not recognizing Jesus.
It’s a little hard for most of us to fathom how Jesus’s students and family members didn’t recognize him. There are a few factors which explain it though.
The most obvious is, if you were traveling back then, and the sun’s out and you don’t want sunburn, you’re gonna wear a veil. It wouldn’t necessarily cover your face, unless there’s a sandstorm—but it was spring, and there might’ve been sand whipping through the air, so that’s a possibility. A veil over your mouth would certainly muffle your voice a little.
There’s the fact if you’re absolutely certain someone’s dead—either because you’d personally seen his dead body, or even watched him die—it stands to reason you wouldn’t expect him to walk a dozen miles with you two days later.
There’s also this idea, which I got from Simon Amadeus Pillario’s
In any event, it didn’t sink in they were talking to Jesus till they had dinner with him.
