On the Road to Emmaus

Scripture

Luke 24:13-35

Commentary

The story of what occurs on the road to Emmaus is an interesting one and yet we do not have many details about it.

On the day of Jesus' resurrection, He appeared first to the women who had come to prepare His body.  They were told to tell His disciples to head to Galilee and that He would meet them there. 

Jesus meets two of His disciples walking to Emmaus.  These were not part of the Twelve but were still some of His followers and they were distraught about His death.  Jesus rebukes them for their lack of faith and understanding of the scriptures.  But instead of just rebuking them, He explained what the scriptures said had to take place.  While we don't know precisely what Jesus explained or how He explained it, it is likely that we have Jesus' explanations recorded in the form of the disciples' teachings about His death and resurrection.

While it appeared that Jesus would go on - perhaps continuing on to Galilee - the two men urge Jesus to stay with them for the night.  Aside from the general difficulty of traveling at night, it was also more dangerous with wild animals and thieves.  When Jesus breaks bread with them, they recognize Him and He disappeared.

The two men are so excited about not just seeing Jesus but also their newfound understanding of scripture that they immediately get up and return to Jerusalem.  There are two things to note about this.  First, they immediately turn around and walk seven miles back to where they came from even though it was becoming dark.  And second, despite the women telling the disciples to go to Galilee where Jesus would meet them, they are still in Jerusalem, confused about what was going on.