Luke 24:13-35 * April 10, 2005 * Easter 3 * Rev. Dr. Paul Lehninger

¹³ Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles 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 only a visitor to Jerusalem and do 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 morning ²³ 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 him they did not see.”

²⁵ He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! ²⁶ Did not the Christ 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 acted 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 it and 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 recognized by them when he broke the bread.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

As I read this account of Jesus walking along with Cleopas and another disciple on their way from Jerusalem to Emmaus on the evening of the first Easter, and then sitting down to eat with them, it struck me for the first time how some of the happiest, and most significant, experiences in my life involved walking, talking, and eating. When I was a college student I traversed the UW-Madison campus a number of times every day, and every now and then by pure coincidence I’d bump into Gordon Woolard or Marilyn Wigand or Ronnie Llewellyn, and as we walked together up Bascom Hill or along the lakeshore path to class or back to the dorms we’d have deeply meaningful, or wildly funny, or very personal soul-searching—soul searching was popular back in the early 70s—conversations. Or a bunch of us would more or less regularly, but haphazardly, show up at approximately the same time in the Kronshage dining hall, much the way there are tables of students who eat together regularly in the dining hall at Wisconsin Lutheran College, and have fascinating, goofy, and sometimes profoundly moving conversations, some of which I remember to this day.

Similarly, the Gospels and Acts present us with walking, talking, and eating motifs that are important in Jesus’ ministry and in the life of his disciples. One of these is the Gospel lesson for the third Sunday of Easter. Jesus apparently “bumps into” these two disciples, and engages them in what was probably the most important conversation of their lives. When they reach their destination, the meal he begins to share with them is literally an eye-opening experience, and opens not only their eyes, but their entire perspective on the ministry, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Let’s take a look at few of the aspects of this account.

Luke tells us that as they were walking along, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him. One of the commentaries on this verse says they were kept from recognizing him “by special divine intervention.” Well, that may be. But I don’t think it’s the only option we have here. Luke tells of these two disciples that they were two “of them.” Of whom? Of those to whom the women told of their experience of finding Jesus’ tomb empty and to whom they related the message of the angels that Christ had risen from the dead. So now they’re walking along the road talking about these things, and yet they still don’t understand them. Jesus’ fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies and the message they had heard him preach repeatedly during his ministry was blurry to their understanding, so of course Jesus was blurry to their eyes.

We might say, “What idiots they were,” or as Jesus said, How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! ²⁶ Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory? But only Jesus has a right to say that. What we need to do is ask ourselves if we also are slow of heart to believe, and to recognize Jesus. Jesus says in the parable of the sheep and the goats, “Whatever you have done to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you have done to me.” But when we gossip, we fail to realize that the false witness we bear is an insult to Jesus. We spend money on foolish—and sometimes hurtful—possessions and activities, and blame the poor and the homeless for not having a work ethic and pulling themselves up by their bootstraps, and fail to see Jesus suffering in them. We associate with people who are movers and shakers and slick and smooth and who can give us an advantage in life when “people who matter” find out we’re connected with them, but we ignore and insult the unloved, the unlovely, the strugglers, the oddballs, and it never crosses our minds that but turning our backs on these, the least of Jesus’ brothers and sisters, we’re turning our backs on the Lord himself.

Whatever the case, the Emmaus disciples didn’t recognize Jesus, and they needed to. So Jesus, rather than giving up on them and walking away, gives them a chance. He says, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?” So they tell him the story of Holy Week and Easter—but not the whole story. They leave out the meat, the most important part, the actual meaning and significance of the events. With all they had going for them, they just didn’t get it! So Jesus says to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. They were foolish, because they knew, probably backwards and forwards, what Moses and the prophets wrote about the promised Messiah, and they had heard Jesus’ own preaching regarding his fulfillment of their prophecies, but in spite of this, they still failed to see how the real Messiah fit their personal conception of the Messiah.

This is a significant question for us regularly to ask ourselves. How does the real Jesus revealed in Scripture fit my Jesus? For example, would your Jesus ever say, “How foolish you are,” or is he too nice to talk that way? Would your Jesus ask you to pay attention while he goes through a thorough study of Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah, or is he satisfied with a lowest-common-denominator simplistic, milk-versus-meat understanding of the gospel? Or is your Jesus a take-no-captives, impatient and disdainful “what a bunch of blockheads these guys are” Savior who wouldn’t take the time to carefully, painstakingly, even persistently help confused disciples to grow in their understanding of God’s plan of salvation? A lot of people talk about Jesus, but sadly, as was true of the false witnesses at Jesus’ trial, “their witness doesn’t agree.” So one of the most important questions we can ask is, “Jesus who?” And the answer to that question is precisely what Jesus gives to his two disciples on the road to Emmaus.

Notice that Jesus doesn’t say to them, “Hey, wake up you guys, it’s me!” He begins with Moses and all the prophets, because if they don’t recognize Jesus in the Scriptures, they won’t recognize him even if he’s standing right there in front of them. In Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the rich man says from hell, ‘Then I beg you, father [Abraham], send Lazarus to my father’s house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’ ‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ How true! Jesus had risen from the dead and was standing right in front of them, but because they still didn’t fully understand the Scriptures, they still didn’t recognize Jesus.

How do we know they were making any progress at all? When Jesus came into the place where they were staying, took bread, broke it, gave thanks, and began to give it to them, he then disappeared from their sight and they said, Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us? The opening of the Scriptures opened their own minds and hearts, and now they didn’t need Jesus’ visible presence any longer. He had accomplished his purpose with them since they now understood his gospel, and he accomplishes his purpose with us in the same way. In fact, as Jesus says to Thomas, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed—and that’s us!

But Jesus is rich in mercy, abundant in grace, lavish with his gifts and overflowing with his love for us. The disciples had sufficient, enough; but he gives them, and us, more. The Emmaus disciples told the others in Jerusalem what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread. Not only will Jesus be present among his disciples when his Word is proclaimed and read and discussed and sung and confessed among them, but also when they break the bread; the breaking of the bread is a term used in Scripture and first-century Christians for the sacrament of Holy Communion. Jesus has removed his visible presence, but added a presence that we can taste, touch, and see, because he is present among us under the forms of bread and wine. In his account, St. Luke in a wonderful way prepares us for the ongoing reality of the invisible Christ truly present at a meal with his disciples.

The walk, the talk, the meal. These are precious moments for Jesus’ first disciples, and for us, disciples of the risen and living Lord today. To him be all power and honor and glory and blessing now and forever. Amen.