Luke 24:13-35 (King James Version)
Note: To celebrate the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible, I read the scriptures from that version in worship. Following is the KJV of the scripture.
13And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs.
14And they talked together of all these things which had happened.
15And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.
16But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.
17And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?
18And 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?
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 God and all the people:
20And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him.
21But 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.
22Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre;
23And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they 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 women had said: but him they saw not.
25Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:
26Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?
27And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
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 is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them.
30And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them.
31And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight.
32And 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?
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 to Simon.
35And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread.
The road to Emmaus. This well-known story of a post-resurrection appearance of Christ is a favorite of mine. It’s like we’re behind the scenes and know what’s going on when the actors don’t; we know it’s Jesus the two disciples are talking to and they are blissfully unaware.
As we learned from the King James Version of the Bible today, Emmaus sits about threescore furlongs away from Jerusalem. Actually it’s about 60 stadia. That helps, right? Well, for those of us who aren’t up on our furlongs or stadia, it turns out that it is about seven miles from Jerusalem to Emmaus. On a map, Emmaus doesn’t look that far, but 7 miles is not particularly a distance that most of us would be walking these days. I figure that it’s about as far as it is from here to John and Grace’s home in San Mateo. Jesus had a lot of time on that road to explain the scripture that led up to his death and resurrection, which is exactly what he did.
So we have these two disciples, one of them named Cleopas and the other unnamed. Just as a side note, maybe the unnamed person was one of Jesus’ disciples who was a woman, do you suppose? Since Luke bothered to name the one disciple but not the other, perhaps there was a reason. Women could not testify in court during this period of history since their testimony was considered invalid and not to be trusted. So it might be natural for Luke to just leave off the name of the second disciple if she were a woman so the reader of the period wouldn’t discount the testimony of the disciple. So it’s conceivable that the second disciple in this story was a woman though it would be impossible to prove it one way or the other. But since I’d be willing to wager that most of us pictured two male disciples in the story this morning, I thought it would be good to expand that vision a little bit.
So our two disciples are leaving Jerusalem. In the past few days, they watched their teacher being crucified, a humiliating and excruciating death. Then there were the astounding reports that he wasn’t dead but had resurrected and been seen by some of the women and other disciples. It was confusing at best; a real roller-coaster ride, though they didn’t have roller-coasters back then to my knowledge, so they would have had to come up with another metaphor. But they had gone through the depths of despair followed by inconceivable glimmers of hope and joy. Surely those two disciples’ minds were on these things as they met the Christ on the road.
We have no idea why they are going to Emmaus. Perhaps it was to get away from this place of despair and sorrow, of unbelievable stories and wild speculation. Perhaps they fled in fear for their own lives, apprehensive lest the authorities would come after them, this crucified one’s disciples, too. Whatever the reason, they were on the road, they were fleeing and seeking a place perhaps of refuge, perhaps a place of calm, perhaps a place of familiarity.
We all have had times when we’ve sought out our own Emmauses; places to go when life is too chaotic or jumbled or unfriendly. Our Emmauses may not be physical places, they likely, in fact, are not places we can find on a map. More than likely our Emmauses reside within us and we travel the well-trod road to them inside ourselves.
Emmaus, though, is always a journey away; being there is important, but in some ways getting there is even more so. The journey is more important than the destination. And it’s the companions we journey with who are important. Our fellow journeyers may be those we know well, or they may be someone we think we don’t know but who brings a wealth of information and teaching with them. We don’t have to journey to Emmaus alone; we can go with others.
Where is your Emmaus? How do you get there? Where do you go when the despair and the hopelessness seem overwhelming and all there are are strange glimmers of stories of hope. Who accompanies you as you flee that place of anguish and questions? It may be different people for different occasions and the route that takes you there may be well-traveled or it may seem unfamiliar. It doesn’t matter, because you know as you journey one thing: that you need to reach Emmaus.
You need to reach Emmaus because the place you’re in is too confusing or difficult or frightening or filled with desperation. You’re fleeing because you are scared or baffled or just plain worn down. The journey ahead is long but you have companions along the way. You aren’t alone as you head for your own Emmaus.
When you reach there is when things become really interesting though. There you’ll encounter Christ or God and you’ll recognize that the Divine had been with you all along and you may not have even known it. And the other interesting thing is that, just like the two disciples in our story this morning, your encounter with the Holy ends almost as soon as you recognize it is happening. And at that moment you need to return to where you came from. Because you have news to spread; good news. News that you have encountered the Holy One and broken bread together.
It’s amazing; your eyes will be opened and you will find in that instant that you have to return to the place you just fled from. Yes, to the place of chaos and despair and fear. Because others are there still, not having made the journey to Emmaus and they need to hear about the good news that you have just experienced.
We each have our own Emmaus; a place where we go to get away from whatever we need to flee. But Emmaus is not a place for us to stay. We are to take our experiences on the road with our traveling companions and then recognize the Divine as we stop to nourish our weary souls and then journey back to where we came from.
Go to Emmaus as you need to but remember to come back.
13And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs.
14And they talked together of all these things which had happened.
15And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.
16But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.
17And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?
18And 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?
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 God and all the people:
20And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him.
21But 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.
22Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre;
23And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they 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 women had said: but him they saw not.
25Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:
26Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?
27And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
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 is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them.
30And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them.
31And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight.
32And 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?
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 to Simon.
35And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread.
The road to Emmaus. This well-known story of a post-resurrection appearance of Christ is a favorite of mine. It’s like we’re behind the scenes and know what’s going on when the actors don’t; we know it’s Jesus the two disciples are talking to and they are blissfully unaware.
As we learned from the King James Version of the Bible today, Emmaus sits about threescore furlongs away from Jerusalem. Actually it’s about 60 stadia. That helps, right? Well, for those of us who aren’t up on our furlongs or stadia, it turns out that it is about seven miles from Jerusalem to Emmaus. On a map, Emmaus doesn’t look that far, but 7 miles is not particularly a distance that most of us would be walking these days. I figure that it’s about as far as it is from here to John and Grace’s home in San Mateo. Jesus had a lot of time on that road to explain the scripture that led up to his death and resurrection, which is exactly what he did.
So we have these two disciples, one of them named Cleopas and the other unnamed. Just as a side note, maybe the unnamed person was one of Jesus’ disciples who was a woman, do you suppose? Since Luke bothered to name the one disciple but not the other, perhaps there was a reason. Women could not testify in court during this period of history since their testimony was considered invalid and not to be trusted. So it might be natural for Luke to just leave off the name of the second disciple if she were a woman so the reader of the period wouldn’t discount the testimony of the disciple. So it’s conceivable that the second disciple in this story was a woman though it would be impossible to prove it one way or the other. But since I’d be willing to wager that most of us pictured two male disciples in the story this morning, I thought it would be good to expand that vision a little bit.
So our two disciples are leaving Jerusalem. In the past few days, they watched their teacher being crucified, a humiliating and excruciating death. Then there were the astounding reports that he wasn’t dead but had resurrected and been seen by some of the women and other disciples. It was confusing at best; a real roller-coaster ride, though they didn’t have roller-coasters back then to my knowledge, so they would have had to come up with another metaphor. But they had gone through the depths of despair followed by inconceivable glimmers of hope and joy. Surely those two disciples’ minds were on these things as they met the Christ on the road.
We have no idea why they are going to Emmaus. Perhaps it was to get away from this place of despair and sorrow, of unbelievable stories and wild speculation. Perhaps they fled in fear for their own lives, apprehensive lest the authorities would come after them, this crucified one’s disciples, too. Whatever the reason, they were on the road, they were fleeing and seeking a place perhaps of refuge, perhaps a place of calm, perhaps a place of familiarity.
We all have had times when we’ve sought out our own Emmauses; places to go when life is too chaotic or jumbled or unfriendly. Our Emmauses may not be physical places, they likely, in fact, are not places we can find on a map. More than likely our Emmauses reside within us and we travel the well-trod road to them inside ourselves.
Emmaus, though, is always a journey away; being there is important, but in some ways getting there is even more so. The journey is more important than the destination. And it’s the companions we journey with who are important. Our fellow journeyers may be those we know well, or they may be someone we think we don’t know but who brings a wealth of information and teaching with them. We don’t have to journey to Emmaus alone; we can go with others.
Where is your Emmaus? How do you get there? Where do you go when the despair and the hopelessness seem overwhelming and all there are are strange glimmers of stories of hope. Who accompanies you as you flee that place of anguish and questions? It may be different people for different occasions and the route that takes you there may be well-traveled or it may seem unfamiliar. It doesn’t matter, because you know as you journey one thing: that you need to reach Emmaus.
You need to reach Emmaus because the place you’re in is too confusing or difficult or frightening or filled with desperation. You’re fleeing because you are scared or baffled or just plain worn down. The journey ahead is long but you have companions along the way. You aren’t alone as you head for your own Emmaus.
When you reach there is when things become really interesting though. There you’ll encounter Christ or God and you’ll recognize that the Divine had been with you all along and you may not have even known it. And the other interesting thing is that, just like the two disciples in our story this morning, your encounter with the Holy ends almost as soon as you recognize it is happening. And at that moment you need to return to where you came from. Because you have news to spread; good news. News that you have encountered the Holy One and broken bread together.
It’s amazing; your eyes will be opened and you will find in that instant that you have to return to the place you just fled from. Yes, to the place of chaos and despair and fear. Because others are there still, not having made the journey to Emmaus and they need to hear about the good news that you have just experienced.
We each have our own Emmaus; a place where we go to get away from whatever we need to flee. But Emmaus is not a place for us to stay. We are to take our experiences on the road with our traveling companions and then recognize the Divine as we stop to nourish our weary souls and then journey back to where we came from.
Go to Emmaus as you need to but remember to come back.
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