Luke 24:13-35 Commentary

One of the things that makes this story so lovely is that it subtly reminds us that the circle of disciples is much larger than we make a point to remember when we’re reading the gospels. “Now on that same day two of them were going…” These two on the road are from “the eleven and all the rest” in verse 9, whom the women told about finding the empty tomb and receiving the message about Jesus’s resurrection. This reminder is in our story as well: the two travellers tell Jesus that “some women of our group astounded us…” as they relay the events of the previous three days.

Like any experience of loss and the waves of grief that ripple out from death, these (at least partially) anonymous disciples are part of a community that has been impacted. If the twelve and some of the women were Jesus’s “family,” then we might think of “the rest” that were close enough to care to stay together and nearby as the friends and colleagues who were as good as family. And yet, their grief may be minimized or not given the space it needs because of those at the point of impact. If you’re like me, you might have already forgotten by the time it was sermon study time for this week that they were even there to receive the women’s report just a couple of weeks ago (or in the biblical timeline, three days ago)! Grief has that ability to overwhelm us, even as bystanders and witnesses.

As these two disciples are out walking, Jesus shows up to help them process. We could read their conversation as a prayer—a lament and questioning Psalm in real time—even if they don’t realize who it is they are speaking to. Granted, I’m not sure I’d care to receive Jesus’s response as a gracious one: “Oh how foolish you are.” I’m perhaps a little more sensitive to that word than others are, so I prefer one of the other options in BDAG*: they are “unintelligent” about all of these things, and becoming intelligent about a topic is a lot more attainable than overcoming a habit of foolishness in my books.

On their part, this pair of disciples do not seem to be offended by Jesus calling them foolish, especially since Jesus helps them out by explaining all of the things that they could have come to understand. The journey has had impact, since as they arrive at where they plan to stop for the day, they invite Jesus to stay with them. Or maybe in a hospitality and shame culture, these two were just doing the right thing.

Jesus seems to have said a lot of things about himself without using “I” statements. For it is only in the breaking of bread that the two journeying really come to recognize him as their rabbi. At first, I was curious about what that might have sounded like—Jesus speaking of himself without any I statements—but then I remembered he sort of had a habit of that while he was alive, didn’t he? He often referred to himself as the “Son of Man” or more referred to his Father. Those “I” statements were far more rare, and even then, they were rarely directly about being God or the Messiah.

The journey of processing grief and their experiences that Jesus accompanies this pair of travellers on culminates in sharing a meal together. And we have to wonder, what else happened at that Passover meal a few nights ago? For as Jesus repeats the steps of taking bread, blessing it, and breaking it, he and his purposes are made known. What the twelve did not comprehend as they received the bread as his body and the cup as his blood, these two experience in the epiphany of Jesus Christ in their midst. Jesus may have immediately disappeared, but his presence truly is still with them. The pair describe it as though it had become fire-branded into their very hearts as God explained the Scriptures to them. Now, externally, their eyes were opened as they received the sacrament.

And like any good response to the Holy Spirit’s work in the reading of Scripture and receiving the sacraments, these Jesus followers knew that they had some things to do! They receive and then go: faith and deed. They return at once to the other disciples to share, just as the women have already done, that Jesus truly IS alive. May our own responses to receiving him through Word and Sacrament be as alive and honest, and may we remember that God is always there, accompanying us and enlightening us so that we may understand more fully God-with-us.

*BDAG is a Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament.

Textual Point

A brief survey of some of the scholarship reveals that we are not actually sure where Emmaus is located; most often, people point west. That would mean that it isn’t on the road back towards Galilee, which is where the disciples were meant to be headed in order to meet Jesus.

Illustration Idea

I recently saw an online story about an American tourist walking around in a park in London when he was stopped by what he believed to be a local. The local man stopped him to compliment him on his outfit. As they were chatting a bit, another woman came up and asked to have her photo taken with the local man, and a small crowd started to notice who was there. The tourist obliged with helping with the picture taking, and leaned over and asked the local man if he was “famous or something.” The local man, with a joking tone, said, “I’m a singer.” Well it turns out that it was Harry Styles. The tourist’s heart wasn’t burning inside of him, but there were signs along the way that he was talking to someone he probably could have recognized in another setting…