Now that very day two of them were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus, 14 and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred. 15 And it happened that while they were conversing and debating, Jesus himself drew near and walked with them, 16 but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him. 17 He asked them, “What are you discussing as you walk along?” They stopped, looking downcast. 18 One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days?” 19 And he replied to them, “What sort of things?” They said to him, “The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over to a sentence of death and crucified him. 21 But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel; and besides all this, it is now the third day since this took place. 22 Some women from our group, however, have astounded us: they were at the tomb early in the morning 23 and did not find his body; they came back and reported that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who announced that he was alive. 24 Then some of those with us went to the tomb and found things just as the women had described, but him they did not see.
This story, found only in the Gospel of Luke, has three key themes: a journey, sight by faith, and hospitality. We are on a journey of faith through which our spiritual eyes are opened, and we are totally dependent on God’s hospitality which in turn we are to provide others.
The Galilean women who had witnessed Jesus’ ministry from the beginning went to the tomb filled with faith and expectation. They came back and reported to the disciples what they had been told by angels; that Jesus had been raised from the dead (they remembered what Jesus told them), but the disciples did not believe them (Lk. 24:11). The women remembered and believed but the disciples did not.
The two disciples going to Emmaus were profoundly sad that Jesus had been crucified (v. 20) and they had lost hope (v. 21). There was no longer any point in following the way of Jesus because they saw where it led. They did not understand God’s plan and could not recognize Jesus as he walked with them because they had lost faith. One of them ironically asked Jesus, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days (v. 18)?”
The disciples narrated what was an early Christian creed (vs 19-20) and they told the story of what happened to Jesus, the prophet, mighty in deed and word before God and all the people who would redeem Israel (Acts 2:22-24). The two disciples did not remember that Jesus had told them what would happen to him (vv. 20-21; Lk. 9:22; 18:31-33). They did not understand when he told them, and still did not understand (Lk. 18:34). The two disciples even told Jesus that the women had been told by two angels in a vision that he was alive, but they did not believe them. Like Thomas, they had not seen and touched Jesus (Jn. 20:25). They were still not seeing with the eyes of faith.
Almighty God, grant us the gift of faith that we may walk by faith and not by sight. Constantly increase our faith that we may see the way of salvation and strengthen our hearts that we may be constant on the path to life. This we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen.
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References
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.
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