LUKE 24:13-49
13 Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14 and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15 While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, 16 but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17 And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad.18 Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?” 19 He asked them, “What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. 21 But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. 22 Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, 23 and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. 24 Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him.” 25 Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! 26 Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” 27 Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.
28 As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. 29 But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them. 30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. 32 They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” 33 That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together.34 They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” 35 Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
36 While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 37 They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. 38 He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39 Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” 40 And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. 41 While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and he took it and ate in their presence.
44 Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, 46 and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
“On that same day …” Which day was it again? As Luke sets his story, it is the day of resurrection. Or more accurately, it’s later in the day, on the early morning of which a few women reported an encounter with angels who told them that Jesus, whose body they had come to embalm, was not dead but alive. Up to this point, according to Luke, no one has seen the risen Jesus.
It is interesting to consider Luke’s story in the historical and evolutionary sequence of New Testament Gospels. The most authentic version of Mark, written earliest, leaves the reader at an empty tomb, with the disciples of Jesus bewildered and afraid. Matthew, coming next in the sequence, gives us an earthquake and a descending angel who rolls the stone away from Jesus’ grave. In their hurry to give report to the other disciples, the women encounter Jesus himself. Then we have Luke, likely composed shortly after Matthew. Following this, the Gospel of John will feature the personal meeting of the risen Jesus and Mary Magdalene, right there as she weeps near the garden tomb.
Luke’s story, in other words, stands between Matthew’s dramatic special effects and John’s intimate encounter with Mary, who by this time has taken on significance as the very embodiment of human liberation by the power of Jesus and his gospel. (According to reports, Jesus had thrown no fewer than seven demons out of Mary, which must mean at the very least that prior to knowing Jesus her life had not been her own. Jesus, as it were, gave Mary back to herself.)
Even if the writer of John was unfamiliar with Luke’s account (which seems to have been the case), the progression across the sequence of Gospels is suggestive of an evolving realization through the ensuing decades following Jesus’ death. From an empty tomb (Mark) to the very moment of resurrection (Matthew), and from there to a walking conversation leading to a dawning awareness as the “stranger” breaks bread (Luke), and finally to a deeply personal encounter between a disciple who had been set free by the love and truth of Jesus (John).
If you put these different frames side-by-side and then play the video, you have a progression from shock to insight, from something that seems to have happened to Jesus, to The Something that was grasped as having happened through him for our sake.
This gradual (as Luke sees it) or sudden (according to John) in-breaking realization, that neither death nor the fear of death, neither orthodoxy nor empire, can hold back the revolutionary power of love, is the real meaning of Easter.
Bible Tracts 