The Road to Emmaus – Part 1 (Luke 24:13-27)

This lesson discuses the first half of the account of Jesus meeting two disciples on the road to Emmaus

Luke 24:13-27)

The Road to Emmaus

Luke 24:13-27

13 Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 And they talked together of all these things which had happened. 15 So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. 16 But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him.

17 And He said to them, "What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?"

18 Then the one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to Him, "Are You the only stranger in Jerusalem, and have You not known the things which happened there in these days?"

19 And He said to them, "What things?"

So they said to Him, "The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, 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 to be condemned to death, and crucified Him. 21 But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened. 22 Yes, and certain women of our company, who arrived at the tomb early, astonished us. 23 When they did not find His body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said He was alive. 24 And certain 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."

25 Then He said to them, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!  26 Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?"  27 And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.

For the sake of convenience, we will look at the incident on the road to Emmaus in two studies. There is much in this story and I do not want to rush through it. We will read the entire incident tonight but Lord willing only discuss verses 13-27. Then we will devote next Friday to the rest of the story.

The events narrated by Luke and mentioned in passing by Mark (Mark 16:12-13) took place on Sunday, the same day that the empty tomb was discovered. This is clear from Luke’s statement in verse 13, that the disciples were travelling “that same day.” Given that the two disciples had heard, or at least were aware of the reports of the women in their company regarding the empty tomb, it appears that they set out on their journey after the women had returned.

The two disciples are travelling to the village of Emmaus, located about seven miles outside of Jerusalem (we don’t know exactly which direction). We are not told the reason for their trip. Luke informs us that as they walked, they talked and reasoned among themselves about “all these things which had happened“. We are not privy to their discussion but based upon what Cleopas says in verses 19-24 I believe that their conversation was all about Jesus, His crucifixion, and the women’s report of the empty tomb.

As the disciples make their way along the road, a fellow traveler drew near to them and walked with them, listening to them speak. This traveler is none other than Jesus Himself, and even though these two men were among His disciples, which to me implies that they would have seen and heard Him often, they do not recognize Him. They do not know Him, Luke tells us, because their eyes were “held in check” or “restrained,” such that they were unable to recognize Him as Jesus.

This situation is analogous to Jesus’ appearance to Mary Magdalene (John 20:14-15) outside the empty tomb and to His appearance to the disciples (John 21:3-4) on the shore of the Sea of Tiberias. In both instances Mary and the disciples do not initially recognize Jesus, even though they were very familiar with Him. In all three cases, the people to whom Jesus appears know Him and ought to recognize Him. We are not told that Jesus is in disguise or that conditions made it hard to see clearly. For whatever reason, Jesus simply did not desire to be recognized initially, although in all three instances, He does eventually reveal Himself.

Jesus asks the two disciples what it is they are talking about that has made them so sad. One of the disciples, named Cleopas, which is a contraction of the Greek “kleopatros” meaning "of a renowned father," responds with surprise. Cleopas assumes that the traveler must have started out from Jerusalem also and is therefore astonished that he is seemingly unaware of the things which have transpired there in the past few days. Cleopas asks the traveler whether he is a stranger or sojourner in Jerusalem. This is the first of several I believe unwittingly ironical – in the sense of coincidental - turns of phrase in the disciples’ words to Jesus. There is more truth to this comment than Cleopas could hope to know. Jesus is indeed a sojourner from Jerusalem. In fact His kingdom is not of this earth (John 18:36) and He is only passing through for a few more days before He goes home to be with His Father.

Jesus plays along by asking “What things?” To which the two disciples respond with a summary of the matters that are burdening their hearts:

"The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, 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 to be condemned to death, and crucified Him. 21 But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened. 22 Yes, and certain women of our company, who arrived at the tomb early, astonished us. 23 When they did not find His body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said He was alive. 24 And certain 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."

From their words we can see that these disciples believed Jesus to be a “Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people.” Furthermore, they believed that it was the chief priests and rulers (another name for the Sanhedrin) who had delivered Jesus to be condemned to death and crucified, and from an earthly perspective that was exactly how the matter appeared. But in reality, from a spiritual perspective, it was not the chief priests and rulers who had delivered Jesus over to be killed. As Jesus told the Pharisees in John 10:17-18:

17 "Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again.  18 No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father."

It was His love for mankind and His understanding of the need to redeem the sins of the world, past, present, and future, that sent Jesus to the cross.

The disciples tell their companion that they were hoping that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah, who would redeem Israel from the domination of the Gentiles, and in particular the Romans. The Greek word translated “redeem” also has the very common meaning “to pay the ransom for.” Once again I believe that the disciples are unintentionally ironic. Redeeming Israel is exactly what Jesus Christ had just done. However, He had redeemed not just Israel but in fact all mankind; and not from the oppression of the Gentiles, but rather from the power of sin and death, paying the penalty that each person owed for their sins through His sinless life and death upon the cross.

The disciples go on to narrate the discovery and report of the empty tomb by certain women in their company. They state that angels had told the women that Jesus was alive and that certain of the disciples had verified that it was as the women had said, adding “but Him they did not see.” Ironically, it is the same for them; while they look directly at Him, they do not “see” Him for who He is.

At this point Jesus chides His two traveling companions: "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?" Jesus calls the two disciples “foolish,” where the Greek adjective also implies lacking understanding and wisdom, and “slow of heart,” where the Greek suggests a dullness of a mind incapable of perceiving and understanding divine things (Thayer's Greek Lexicon, PC Study Bible formatted Electronic Database. Copyright © 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)

The disciples lack wisdom and are slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken. The implication is that if they had possessed wisdom and had been quick to believe all that the prophets had written, then they would more likely have understood that Scripture had foretold that the Messiah would suffer the very things they had been discussing – being delivered [to the Gentiles], condemned to death, and crucified -  and enter into His glory. I read this last phrase “to enter into His glory” as referring to Jesus’ physical ascension into heaven, which at that point had yet to occur.

Jesus’ comment makes me reflect on my own frailties and failings – how often I am foolish and slow to believe the things I read in Scripture, with the result that I cannot recognize how the Lord is working all around me and in me, so that perhaps I am not “seeing” Jesus, even though He is standing right in front of me!

What is it after all that allows us to discern spiritual things? Is it how carefully we read? Is it the version of the Scriptures we choose? Is it the church we attend? Is it how much college education we have completed? Scripture tells us that it is none of these. Instead it is the presence and leading of the Holy Spirit which allows us to discern the things of God (1 Corinthians 2:11-15). If these two disciples on the road to Emmaus could not recognize their Lord and Master Jesus Christ when He stood in front of them, it was only because they were not filled and led by the Holy Spirit. This reminds me to be humble, thanking God that He has chosen to give me His Holy Spirit, praying that I would be mindful of that Spirit, and asking Him to give me even more of His Spirit. After all Luke 11:13 encourages us that “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”

We all, I believe, have our favorite passages of Scripture, passages that encourage us, remind us who our God is, how much He loves us, what He has already done for us, what He has promised to do for us, etc.. Such passages are important, they can be a source of strength and comfort and wisdom. But we must remember that such passages can only ever present a part of the picture of who God is. We must strive to believe not only our favorite passages, but rather all that the prophets have spoken. We need to consider, believe, and teach, to the best of our abilities, the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:20,27).

There is nothing new under the sun, Ecclesiastes tells us (Ecclesiastes 1:9). As it is for us today, so it was, I believe, for the people of Israel in Jesus’ day. They had those portions of Scripture that they believed and those which their hearts were slow to believe. The prophet Isaiah described both a triumphant Messiah, who would redeem Israel from the Gentiles, restore her to the splendor she possessed under King David, and reign over her as king, as well as a suffering Messiah, whose mission would be to bring justice to the earth and light to the Gentiles, who would suffer rejection, humiliation, opposition, and discouragement, but who would trust in God’s mighty power to vindicate His mission.

However, it was the triumphant Messiah for whom many of the people of Israel looked, and Cleopas and his fellow disciple were not exceptions. Look at what they say to Jesus in verse 21: “But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel.” They were slow to believe what Isaiah had said of the Suffering Servant of the Lord and slow to understand that that was who Jesus was.

Then, Luke continues, beginning with Moses (Genesis 3:15; 12:3; Numbers 21:9 [fulfilled in John 3:14]; Deuteronomy 18:15 [fulfilled in John 1:45]; John 5:46) and the Prophets (2 Samuel 7:12-16; Isaiah 7:14 [fulfilled in Matthew 1:23]; Isaiah 9:1 f [fulfilled in Matthew 4:15 f]; Isaiah 42:1 [fulfilled in Matthew 12:18 ff]; Isaiah 53:4 [fulfilled in Matthew 8:17; Luke 22:37]; Daniel 7:13 [fulfilled in Matthew 24:30]; Micah 5:2 [fulfilled in Matthew 2:6]; Zechariah 9:9 [fulfilled in Matthew 21:5]; Acts 13:27), Jesus unfolded the meaning of the numerous Old Testament passages that speak about Messiah to His companions as they walked. Jesus reveals to the two disciples how the Law and the Prophets speak not only about Messiah, but also about a Messiah who came first to suffer and then enter into His glory, about a Messiah who would not be recognized by His own people, who would be handed over by them to be condemned, then crucified, and finally who would be raised from the dead after three days. He gives them in essence the entire Gospel using the Old Testament only!

There is here, I believe, another important message for us as believers. I have met several believers who focus more of their time and attention on the New Testament. Some of this is understandable. Most of us read the good news first in one of the four Gospels; Calvary Chapel of Tucson often recommends that new believers start in the Gospel of John. The New Testament is where we find the words of Jesus, often in red letters, and the story of His first earthly ministry, His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension.

Last week we spoke at some length about the significance of the death of Jesus upon the cross, which was, without a doubt, a watershed event in the unfolding of the Gospel story. We have discussed how Jesus’ death upon the cross rent in half, from top to bottom, the curtain which in the Temple separated a holy God from a sinful man, and how the empty tomb and Jesus’ resurrection from the dead are the foundation for our hope of an eternity in the presence of our God.

However, as important as Jesus’ death and resurrection are, they should not, I believe, be seen as rendering the Old Testament as irrelevant or even less relevant for believers today. Indeed some people profess to find justification for such an idea in Scripture. For example, we read in the Book of Hebrews the following:

Hebrews 8:7-13

7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. 8 Because finding fault with them, He says: "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah —   9 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord.  10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.  11 None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.  12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more." (Jeremiah 33:31-34)

13 In that He says, "A new covenant," He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

The author of Hebrews begins this passage by telling us that if the first covenant between the Lord and the nation of Israel, which was described in detail in chapters 19-24 of Exodus and summarized in Deuteronomy 4:7-14, had been without fault, there would have been no need for a second covenant. And he ends it with this statement: “In that He says, "A new covenant," He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.” We might be tempted to conclude, “What more needs to be said? The Law is obsolete.” 

But if we read carefully we will see that the fault did not lie with the covenant itself, nor with the Mosaic Law, which was the covenant’s centerpiece, nor with God the Father, but instead lay with the nation of Israel. Israel did not continue in His covenant; the people of Israel were unable to do what the Lord required of them: namely, to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with their God (Micah 6:8).

Hebrews goes on to tell us how Jesus far exceeds those aspects of the Law of Moses which were a shadow of Him. Unlike the animal sacrifices which could only cover sin, Jesus was a perfect sacrifice, given once and for all. Unlike the high priests from the order of Aaron, Jesus is our better high priest, one who was without sin Himself, from the order of Melchezidek, never dying, and constantly interceding for us at the right hand of His Father. Furthermore Jesus has become our Sabbath rest, so that we no longer need to keep the Sabbath as prescribed in the Torah. It may seem that believers today are not under the Law of Moses in any way, shape, or form.

This is where I believe it is critical to seek out and to believe the whole counsel of God. Speaking to the crowds in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says

Matthew 5:17-20

17 "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.  18 For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.  19 Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.  20 For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Jesus tells us that He did not come to destroy the Law and the Prophets but rather to fulfill them. We often use the word “fulfill” with the sense of “to complete,” as in “I fulfilled the terms and obligations of my contract with the state.” In this case the contract which I have fulfilled would no longer be binding on me.

But is this the sense of fulfill that Jesus had in mind? I believe it is not. There is another common sense of “fulfill” - “To accomplish or carry into effect, as an intention, promise, or prophecy, a desire, prayer, or requirement, etc.” ((from Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, PC Study Bible formatted electronic database Copyright © 2011 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)) – which I suspect is a better way to understand what Jesus is saying. I believe that when Jesus says He has come to fulfill the Law and the Prophets He means that He has come to do the will of His Father perfectly with regard to righteousness. This may be why when John the Baptist did not wish to baptize Jesus, desiring to be baptized by Him instead, Jesus told him, "Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." (Matthew 3:15)

In the passage above from Matthew 5 notice that Jesus does not suggest that the Law is completed and no longer to be followed; rather, exactly the opposite seems to be true. He says that not one jot or tittle shall pass away from the Law until all is fulfilled or brought to fruition. And those who break the least of the commandments of the Law, and teach men to do likewise, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, while those who do and teach the least will be called great.

Through the blood of Jesus we have been given a new covenant with God. We have not been given Ten Commandments, or more than 600 laws, but rather two commandments that we are to obey:

"'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.'  38 This is the first and great commandment.  39 And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'  40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."

It is not our obedience to these two commandments that makes us righteous; rather, it is our righteousness that makes us want to be obedient to these commandments. No one, except for Jesus, could keep the Law perfectly. And it is precisely because Jesus kept the Law for us, so that our sins are forgiven and we appear to have the very righteousness of Christ, and because He gave us the Holy Spirit, that we now have both the desire and ability to keep these commandments at all.

The Apostle Paul writes these words to the Galatian believers about the purpose of the Law:

Galatians 3:21-25

21 Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. 22 But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 23 But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. 24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.

The Law is a tutor, literally a slave who watches over and teaches the children of his master. Paul tells us that the Law keeps us under guard, watches over us, until by faith we come to Jesus. The Law speaks to us of our sin (Romans 7:7-8) and helps prepare our hearts to accept a Savior. And I believe that the Law continues to do this very same work today, in the hearts of those whose spirit is being stirred up by the Holy Spirit to seek a Savior.

Although I believe, and thank God, that we are no longer under the dietary laws, that we no longer need to offer sacrifices to cover our sins, that we no longer have to observe the Sabbath rules and regulations, and that we no longer must celebrate the festivals and feasts prescribed in the Torah, I do not see the Old and New Testament as two distinct and wholly separate periods of history, that have little or nothing in common. Instead I see them more like two chapters of the same story, in which there are many elements in common. For me, the Scriptures as a whole are the unfolding of the Gospel through the revelation of Jesus Christ.

For this reason, I believe that it is just as important to read, meditate on, and pray the Law and the Prophets as it is the New Testament. There is but one God and He never changes. If we desire to learn more about Him, so that we can better be in relationship with Him, then I believe we need to read all of the words that He has given us. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 the Holy Spirit, speaking through the Apostle Paul, tells us that:

16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

He does not say only the New Testament, or only the words of Jesus are God-breathed. All Scripture is inspired by God. May we not be foolish and slow to believe all that the Holy Spirit has blessed us with!