Behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was sixty stadia from Jerusalem.
Parallel Translations
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Behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was sixty stadia from Jerusalem.
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And beholde two of them went that same daye to a toune which was from Ierusalem about thre scoore for longes called Emaus:
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And beholde, two of them went that same day to a towne which was from Hierusalem about threescore furlongs, called Emmaus.
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Cross-references (2)
Passages linked to Luke 24:13 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Mark 16:12-13 After these things he was revealed in another form to two of them, as they walked, on their way into the country. They went away and told it to the rest. They didn’t believe them, either.
- Luke 24:18 One of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who doesn’t know the things which have happened there in these days?”
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain The resurrection is proved by two other witnesses, which…
The resurrection is proved by two other witnesses, which saw it, and that it was no forged thing framed of purpose in their own brains, all the circumstances do declare.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 13 And, behold, two of them went that same…
13 And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs.
Ver. 13. About threescore furlongs] About six miles.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Who those two were is variously guessed; that the…
Who those two were is variously guessed; that the name of the one was Cleopas, appeareth from Luk 24:18. Some will have the other to have been Luke, but he in the beginning of his Gospel distinguishes himself from eyewitnesses, Luk 1:2. Some will have it to have been Nathanael; others will have it to have been Simon, from Luk 24:34, and 1Co 15:5. But these things are so uncertain, that all the instruction we can learn from them is the vanity and uncertainty of traditions. This Emmaus was from Jerusalem about sixty furlongs, which make seven miles and a half, according to our computation.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain Here we have observable, 1. The journey which two…
Here we have observable, 1. The journey which two of the disciples took to Emmaus, a village not far from Jerusalem. The occasion of their journey is not told us, but the scripture acquaints us with their discourse in their journey, and as they were walking by the way. It was holy and useful, pious and profitable discourse, that they entertained one another with as they walked; they discoursed of Christ’s death and resurrection; a good pattern for our imitation, when providentially cast into such company as will bear it: That our lips drop as the honeycomb, and our tongue be as choice silver.
Observe, 2. How our holy Lord presently made one in the company; when they were discoursing seriously about the matters of religion, he overtook them and joined himself to them. The way to have Christ’s presence and company with us is to be discoursing of Christ and the things of Christ.
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Observe, 3. Though Christ came to them, it was incognito; he was not known to them, for their eyes were holden by the power of God; their sight was restrained, that they could not discern who he was, but took him for another person, though his body had the same dimensions that he had before.
Whence we learn, the influence which God has upon all our powers and faculties, upon all our members and senses, and how much we depend upon God for the use and exercise of our faculties and members: Their eyes were holden that they could not know him.
Observe, 4. That the notion of the Messiah being a temporal Saviour, was so deeply rooted in the minds of the disciples, that it remained here with them, even after he was risen from the dead. They here own and acknowledge him to be a prophet mighty in deed and in word, but they question whether he were the Messiah, the redeemer of Israel. They could not reconcile the ignominy of his death with the grandeur of his office; nor conceive how the infamy of a cross was consistent with the glory of a king: We trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel. As if they had said, "We were full of hopes, that this had been the Messiah so long expected by us; but, this being the third day since he died, we fear we shall find ourselves mistaken."
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain This appearance of Christ to the two disciples going…
This appearance of Christ to the two disciples going to Emmaus was mentioned, and but just mentioned, before (Mar 16:12); here it is largely related. It happened the same day that Christ rose, the first day of the new world that rose with him. One of these two disciples was Cleopas or Alpheus, said by the ancients to be the brother of Joseph, Christ's supposed father; who the other was is not certain. Some think it was Peter; it should seem indeed that Christ did appear particularly to Peter that day, which the eleven spoke of among themselves (Luk 24:34), and Paul mentions, Co1 15:5. But it could not be Peter that was one of the two, for he was one of the eleven to whom the two returned; and, besides, we know Peter so well as to think that if he had been one of the two he would have been the chief speaker, and not Cleopas. It was one of those that were associated with the eleven, mentioned Luk 24:9. Now in this passage of story we may observe,
I. The walk and talk of these two disciples: They went to a village called Emmaus, which is reckoned to be about two hours' walk from Jerusalem; it is here said to be about sixty furlongs, seven measured miles, Luk 24:13. Whether they went thither upon business, or to see some friend, does not appear. I suspect that they were going homewards to Galilee, with an intention not to enquire more after this Jesus; that they were meditating a retreat, and stole away from their company without asking leave or taking leave; for the accounts brought them that morning of their Master's resurrection seemed to them as idle tales; and, if so, no wonder that they began to think of making the best of their way home. But as they travelled they talked together of all those things which had happened, Luk 24:14. They had not courage to confer of these things, and consult what was to be done in the present juncture at Jerusalem, for fear of the Jews; but, when they were got out of the hearing of the Jews, they could talk it over with more freedom. They talked over these things, reasoning with themselves concerning the probabilities of Christ's resurrection; for, according as these appeared, they would either go forward or return back to Jerusalem. Note, It well becomes the disciples of Christ, when they are together, to talk of his death and resurrection; thus they may improve one another's knowledge, refresh one another's memory, and stir up one another's devout affections.
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II. The good company they met with upon the road, when Jesus himself came, and joined himself to them (Luk 24:15): They communed together, and reasoned, and perhaps were warm at the argument, one hoping that their Master was risen, and would set up his kingdom, the other despairing. Jesus himself drew near, as a stranger who, seeing them travel the same way that he went, told them that he should be glad of their company. We may observe it, for our encouragement to keep up Christian conference and edifying discourse among us, that where but two together are well employed in work of that kind Christ will come to them, and make a third. When they that fear the Lord speak one to another the Lord hearkens and hears, and is with them of a truth; so that two thus twisted in faith and love become a threefold cord, not easily broken, Ecc 4:12. They in their communings and reasonings together were searching for Christ, comparing notes concerning him, that they might come to more knowledge of him; and now Christ comes to them. Note, They who seek Christ shall find him: he will manifest himself to those that enquire after him, and give knowledge to those who use the helps for knowledge which they have. When the spouse enquired of the watchman concerning her beloved, it was but a little that she passed from them, but she found him. Sol 3:4. But, though they had Christ with them, they were not at first aware of it (Luk 24:16): Their eyes were held, that they should not know him. It should seem, there were both an alteration of the object (for it is said in Mark that now he appeared in another form) and a restraint upon the organ (for here it is said that their eyes were held by a divine power); or, as some think, there was a confusion in the medium; the air was so disposed that they could not discern who it was. No matter how it was, but so it was they did not know him, Christ so ordering it that they might the more freely discourse with him and he with them, and that it might appear that his word, and the influence of it, did not depend upon his bodily presence, which the disciples had too much doted upon, and must be weaned from; but he could teach them, and warm their hearts, by others, who should have his spiritual presence with them, and should have his grace going along with them unseen.
III. The conference that was between Christ and them, when he knew them, and they knew not him. Now Christ and his disciples, as is usual when friends meet incognito, or in a disguise, are here crossing questions.
1. Christ's first question to them is concerning their present sadness, which plainly appeared in their countenances: What manner of communications are those that you have one with another as you walk, and are sad? Luk 24:17. It is a very kind and friendly enquiry. Observe,
(1.) They were sad; it appeared to a stranger that they were so. [1.] They had lost their dear Master, and were, in their own apprehensions, quite disappointed in their expectations from him. They had given up the cause, and knew not what course to take to retrieve it. Note, Christ's disciples have reason to be sad when he withdraws from them, to fast when the Bridegroom is taken from them. [2.] Though he was risen from the dead, yet either they did not know it or did not believe it, and so they were still in sorrow. Note, Christ's disciples are often sad and sorrowful even when they have reason to rejoice, but through the weakness of their faith they cannot take the comfort that is offered to them. [3.] Being sad, they had communications one with another concerning Christ. Note, First, It becomes Christians to talk of Christ. Were our hearts as full of him, and of what he has done and suffered for us, as they should be, out of the abundance of the heart the mouth would speak, not only of God and his providence, but of Christ and his grace and love. Secondly, Good company and good converse are an excellent antidote against prevailing melancholy. When Christ's disciples were sad they did not each one get by himself, but continued as he sent them out, two and two, for two are better than one, especially in times of sorrow. Giving vent to the grief may perhaps give ease to the grieved; and by talking it over we may talk ourselves or our friends may talk us into a better frame. Joint mourners should be mutual comforters; comforts sometimes come best from such.
(2.) Christ came up to them, and enquired into the matter of their talk, and the cause of their grief: What manner of communications are these? Though Christ had now entered into his state of exaltation, yet he continued tender of his disciples, and concerned for their comfort. He speaks as one troubled to see their melancholy: Wherefore look ye so sadly today? Gen 40:7. Note, Our Lord Jesus takes notice of the sorrow and sadness of his disciples, and is afflicted in their afflictions. Christ has hereby taught us, [1.] To be conversable. Christ here fell into discourse with two grave serious persons, though he was a stranger to them and they knew him not, and they readily embraced him. It does not become Christians to be morose and shy, but to take pleasure in good society. [2.] We are hereby taught to be compassionate. When we see our friends in sorrow and sadness, we should, like Christ here, take cognizance of their grief, and give them the best counsel and comfort we can: Weep with them that weep.
2. In answer to this, they put a question to him concerning his strangeness. Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things that are come to pass there in these days? Observe, (1.) Cleopas gave him a civil answer. He does not rudely ask him. "As for what we are talking of, what is that to you?" and bid him go about his business. Note, We ought to be civil to those who are civil to us, and to conduct ourselves obligingly to all, both in word and deed. It was a dangerous time now with Christ's disciples; yet he was not jealous of this stranger, that he had any design upon them, to inform against them, or bring them into trouble. Charity is not forward to think evil, no, not of strangers. (2.) He is full of Christ himself and of his death and sufferings, and wonders that every body else is not so too: "What! art thou such a stranger in Jerusalem as not to know what has been done to our Master there?" Note, Those are strangers indeed in Jerusalem that know not of the death and sufferings of Christ. What! are they daughters of Jerusalem, and yet so little acquainted with Christ as to ask, What is thy beloved more than another beloved? (3.) He is very willing to inform this stranger concerning Christ, and to draw on further discourse with him upon this subject. He would not have any one that had the face of a man to be ignorant of Christ. Note, Those who have themselves the knowledge of Christ crucified should do what they can to spread that knowledge, and lead others into an acquaintance with him. And it is observable that these disciples, who were so forward to instruct the stranger, were instructed by him; for to him that has, and uses what he has, shall be given. (4.) It appears, by what Cleopas says, that the death of Christ made a great noise in Jerusalem, so that it could not be imagined that any man should be such a stranger in the city as not to know of it; it was all the talk of the town, and discoursed of in all companies. Thus the matter of fact came to be universally known, which, after the pouring out of the Spirit, was to be explained.
3. Christ, by way of reply, asked concerning their knowledge (Luk 24:19): He said unto them, What things? thus making himself yet more a stranger. Observe, (1.) Jesus Christ made light of his own sufferings, in comparison with the joy set before him, which was the recompence of it. Now that he was entering upon his glory, see with what unconcernedness he looks back upon his sufferings: What things? He had reason to know what things; for to him they were bitter things, and heavy things, and yet he asks, What things? The sorrow was forgotten, for joy that the man-child of our salvation was born. He took pleasure in infirmities for our sakes, to teach us to do so for his sake. (2.) Those whom Christ will teach he will first examine how far they have learned; they must tell him what things they know, and then he will tell them what was the meaning of these things. and lead them into the mystery of them.
4. They, hereupon, gave him a particular account concerning Christ, and the present posture of his affairs. Observe the story they tell, Luk 24:19, etc.
(1.) Here is a summary of Christ's life and character. The things they are full of are concerning Jesus of Nazareth (so he was commonly called), who was a prophet, a teacher come from God. He preached a true and excellent doctrine, which had manifestly its rise from heaven, and its tendency towards heaven. He confirmed it by many glorious miracles, miracles of mercy, so that he was mighty in deed and word before God and all the people; that is, he was both a great favourite of heaven and a great blessing to this earth. He was, and appeared to be, greatly beloved of God, and much the darling of his people. He had great acceptance with God, and a great reputation in the country. Many are great before all the people, and are caressed by them, who are not so before God, as the scribes and Pharisees; but Christ was mighty both in his doctrine and in his doings, before God and all the people. Those were strangers in Jerusalem that did not know this.
(2.) Here is a modest narrative of his sufferings and death, Luk 24:20. "Though he was so dear both to God and man, yet the chief priests and our rulers, in contempt of both, delivered him to the Roman power, to be condemned to death, and they have crucified him." It is strange that they did not aggravate the matter more, and lay a greater load upon those that had been guilty of crucifying Christ; but perhaps because they spoke to one that was a stranger they thought it prudent to avoid all reflections upon the chief priests and their rulers, how just soever.
(3.) Here is an intimation of their disappointment in him, as the reason of their sadness: "We trusted that it had been he who should have redeemed Israel, Luk 24:21. We are of those who not only looked upon him to be a prophet, like Moses, but, like him, a redeemer too." He was depended upon, and great things expected from him, by them that looked for redemption, and in it for the consolation of Israel. Now, if hope deferred makes the heart sick, hope disappointed, especially such a hope, kills the heart. But see how they made that the ground of their despair which if they had understood it aright was the surest ground of their hope, and that was the dying of the Lord Jesus: We trusted (say they) that it had been he that should have redeemed Israel. And is it not he that doth redeem Israel? Nay, is he not by his death paying the price of their redemption? Was it not necessary, in order to his saving Israel from their sins, that he should suffer? Sop that now, since that most difficult part of his undertaking was got over, they had more reason than ever to trust that this was he that should deliver Israel; yet now they are ready to give up the cause.
(4.) Here is an account of their present amazement with reference to his resurrection. [1.] "This is the third day since he was crucified and died, and that was the day when it was expected, if ever, that he should rise again, and rise in glory and outward pomp, and show himself as publicly in honour as he had been shown three days before in disgrace; but we see no sign of it; nothing appears, as we expected, to the conviction and confusion of his prosecutors, and the consolation of his disciples, but all is silent." [2.] They own that there was a report among them that he was risen, but they seem to speak of it very slightly, and as what they gave no credit at all to (Luk 24:22, Luk 24:23): "Certain women also of our company made us astonished (and that was all), who were early at the sepulchre, and found the body gone, and they said that they had seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive; but we are ready to think it was only their fancy, and no real thing, for angels would have been sent to the apostles, not to the women, and women are easily imposed upon." [3.] They acknowledge that some of the apostles had visited the sepulchre, and found it empty, Luk 24:24. "But him they saw not, and therefore we have reason to fear that he is not risen, for, if he be, surely he would have shown himself to them; so that, upon the whole matter, we have no great reason to think that he is risen, and therefore have no expectations from him now; our hopes were all nailed to his cross, and buried in his grave."
(5.) Our Lord Jesus, though not known by face to them, makes himself known to them by his word.
[1.] He reproves them for their incogitancy, and the weakness of their faith in the scriptures of the Old Testament: O fools, and slow of heart to believe, Luk 24:25. When Christ forbade us to say to our brother, Thou fool, it was intended to restrain us from giving unreasonable reproaches, not from giving just reproofs. Christ called them fools, not as it signifies wicked men, in which sense he forbade it to us, but as it signifies weak men. He might call them fools, for he knows our foolishness, the foolishness that is bound in our hearts. Those are fools that act against their own interest; so they did who would not admit the evidence given them that their Master was risen, but put away the comfort of it. That which is condemned in them as their foolishness is, First, Their slowness to believe. Believers are branded as fools by atheists, and infidels, and free-thinkers, and their most holy faith is censured as a fond credulity; but Christ tells us that those are fools who are slow of heart to believe, and are kept from it by prejudices never impartially examined. Secondly, Their slowness to believe the writings of the prophets. He does not so much blame them for their slowness to believe the testimony of the women and of the angels, but for that which was the cause thereof, their slowness to believe the prophets; for, if they had given the prophets of the Old Testament their due weight and consideration, they would have been as sure of Christ's rising from the dead that morning (being the third day after his death) as they were of the rising of the sun; for the series and succession of events as settled by prophecy are no less certain and inviolable than as settled by providence. Were we but more conversant with the scripture, and the divine counsels as far as they are made known in the scripture, we should not be subject to such perplexities as we often entangle ourselves in.
[2.] He shows them that the sufferings of Christ, which were such a stumbling-block to them, and made them unapt to believe his glory, were really the appointed way to his glory, and he could not go to it any other way (Luk 24:26): "Ought not the Christ (the Messiah) to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? Was it not decreed, and was not that decree declared, that the promised Messiah must first suffer and then reign, that he must go by his cross to his crown?" Had they never read the fifty-third of Isaiah and the ninth of Daniel, where the prophets speak so very plainly of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow? Pe1 1:11. The cross of Christ was that to which they could not reconcile themselves; now here he shows them two things which take off the offence of the cross: - First, That the Messiah ought to suffer these things; and therefore his sufferings were not only no objection against his being the Messiah, but really a proof of it, as the afflictions of the saints are an evidence of their sonship; and they were so far from ruining their expectations that really they were the foundation of their hopes. He could not have been a Saviour, if he had not been a sufferer. Christ's undertaking our salvation was voluntary; but, having undertaken it, it was necessary that he should suffer and die. Secondly, That, when he had suffered these things, he should enter into his glory, which he did at his resurrection; that was his first step upward. Observe, It is called his glory, because he was duly entitled to it, and it was the glory he had before the world was; he ought to enter into it, for in that, as well as in his sufferings, the scripture must be fulfilled. He ought to suffer first, and then to enter into his glory; and thus the reproach of the cross is for ever rolled away, and we are directed to expect the crown of thorns and then that of glory.
[3.] He expounded to them the scriptures of the Old Testament, which spoke of the Messiah, and showed them how they were fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth, and now can tell them more concerning him than they could before tell him (Luk 24:27): Beginning at Moses, the first inspired writer of the Old Testament, he went in order through all the prophets, and expounded to them the things concerning himself, showing that the sufferings he had now gone through were so far from defeating the prophecies of the scripture concerning him that they were the accomplishment of them. He began at Moses, who recorded the first promise, in which it was plainly foretold that the Messiah should have his heel bruised, but that by it the serpent's head should be incurably broken. Note, First, There are things dispersed throughout all the scriptures concerning Christ, which it is of great advantage to have collected and put together. You cannot go far in any part of scripture but you meet with something that has reference to Christ, some prophecy, some promise, some prayer, some type or other; for he is the true treasure his in the field of the Old Testament. A golden thread of gospel grace runs through the whole web of the Old Testament. There is an eye of that white to be discerned in every place. Secondly, The things concerning Christ need to be expounded. The eunuch, though a scholar, would not pretend to understand them, except some man should guide him (Act 8:31); for they were delivered darkly, according to that dispensation: but now that the veil is taken away the New Testament expounds the Old. Thirdly, Jesus Christ is himself the best expositor of scripture, particularly the scriptures concerning himself; and even after his resurrection it was in this way that he led people into the knowledge of the mystery concerning himself; not by advancing new notions independent upon the scripture, but by showing how the scripture was fulfilled, and turning them over to the study of it. Even the Apocalypse itself is but a second part of the Old Testament prophecies, and has continually an eye to them. If men believe not Moses and the prophets, they are incurable. Fourthly, In studying the scriptures, it is good to be methodical, and to take them in order; for the Old Testament light shone gradually to the perfect day, and it is good to observe how at sundry times, and in divers manners (subsequent predictions improving and giving light to the preceding ones), God spoke to the fathers concerning his Son, by whom he has now spoken to us. Some begin their bible at the wrong end, who study the Revelation first; but Christ has here taught us to begin at Moses. Thus far the conference between them.
IV. Here is the discovery which Christ at length made of himself to them. One would have given a great deal for a copy of the sermon Christ preached to them by the way, of that exposition of the bible which he gave them; but it is not thought fit that we should have it, we have the substance of it in other scriptures. The disciples are so charmed with it, that they think they are come too soon to their journey's end; but so it is: They drew nigh to the village whither they went (Luk 24:28), where, it should seem, they determined to take up for that night. And now,
1. They courted his stay with them: He made as though he would have gone further; he did not say that he would, but he seemed to them to be going further, and did not readily turn into their friend's house, which it would not be decent for a stranger to do unless he were invited. He would have gone further if they had not courted his stay; so that here was nothing like dissimulation in the case. If a stranger be shy, every one knows the meaning of it; he will not thrust himself rudely upon your house or company; but, if you make it appear that you are freely desirous of him for your guest or companion, he knows not but he may accept your invitation, and this was all that Christ did when he made as though he would have gone further. Note, Those that would have Christ dwell with them must invite him, and be importunate with him; though he is often found of those that seek him not, yet those only that seek can be sure to find; and, if he seem to draw off from us, it is but to draw out our importunity; as here, they constrained him; both of them laid hold on him, with a kind and friendly violence, saying, Abide with us. Note, Those that have experienced the pleasure and profit of communion with Christ cannot but covet more of his company, and beg of him, not only to walk with them all day, but to abide with them at night. When the day is far spent, and it is towards evening, we begin to think of retiring for our repose, and then it is proper to have our eye to Christ, and to beg of him to abide with us, to manifest himself to us and to fill our minds with good thoughts of him and good affections to him. Christ yielded to their importunity: He went in, to tarry with them. Thus ready is Christ to give further instructions and comforts to those who improve what they have received. He has promised that if any man open the door, to bid him welcome, he will come in to him, Rev 3:20.
2. He manifested himself to them, Luk 24:30, Luk 24:31. We may suppose that he continued his discourse with them, which he began upon the road; for thou must talk of the things of God when thou sittest in the house as well as when thou walkest by the way. While supper was getting ready (which perhaps was soon done, the provision was so small and mean), it is probable that he entertained them with such communications as were good and to the use of edifying; and so likewise as they sat at meat his lips fed them. But still they little thought that it was Jesus himself that was all this while talking with them, till at length he was pleased to throw off his disguise, and then to withdraw. (1.) They began to suspect it was he, when, as they sat down to meat, he undertook the office of the Master of the feast, which he performed so like himself, and like what he used to do among his disciples, that by it they discerned him: He took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. This he did with his usual air both of authority and affection, with the same gestures and mien, with the same expressions perhaps in craving a blessing and in giving the bread to them. This was not a miraculous meal like that of the five loaves, nor a sacramental meal like that of the eucharist, but a common meal; yet Christ here did the same as he did in those, to teach us to keep up our communion with God through Christ in common providences as well as in special ordinances, and to crave a blessing and give thanks at every meal, and to see our daily bread provided for us and broken to us by the hand of Jesus Christ, the Master, not only of the great family, but of all our families. Wherever we sit down to eat, let us set Christ at the upper end of the table, take our meat as blessed to us by him, and eat and drink to his glory, and receive contentedly and thankfully what he is pleased to carve out to us, be the fare ever so coarse and mean. We may well receive it cheerfully, if we can by faith see it coming to us from Christ's hand, and with his blessing. (2.) Presently their eyes were opened, and then they saw who it was, and knew him well enough. Whatever it was which had hitherto concealed him from them, it was now taken out of the way; the mists were scattered, the veil was taken off, and then they made no question but it was their Master. He might, for wise and holy ends, put on the shape of another, but no other could put on his; and therefore it must be he. See how Christ by his Spirit and grace makes himself known to the souls of his people. [1.] He opens the scriptures to them, for they are they which testify of him to those who search them, and search for him in them. [2.] He meets them at his table, in the ordinance of the Lord's supper, and commonly there makes further discoveries of himself to them, is known to them in the breaking of bread. But, [3.] The work is completed by the opening of the eyes of their mind, and causing the scales to fall off from them, as from Paul's in his conversion. If he that gives the revelation do not give the understanding, we are in the dark still.
3. He immediately disappeared: He vanished out of their sight. Aphantos egeneto - He withdrew himself from them, slipped away of a sudden, and went out of sight. Or, he became not visible by them, was made inconspicuous by them. It should seem that though Christ's body, after his resurrection, was the very same body in which he suffered and died, as appeared by the marks in it, yet it was so far changed as to become either visible or not visible as he thought fit to make it, which was a step towards its being made a glorious body. As soon as he had given his disciples one glimpse of him he was gone presently. Such short and transient views have we of Christ in this world; we see him, but in a little while lose the sight of him again. When we come to heaven the vision of him will have no interruptions.
V. Here is the reflection which these disciples made upon this conference, and the report which they made of it to their brethren at Jerusalem.
1. The reflection they each of them made upon the influence which Christ's discourse had upon them (Luk 24:32): They said one to another, Did not our hearts burn within us? "I am sure mine did," saith one; "And so did mine," saith the other, "I never was so affected with any discourse in all my life." Thus do they not so much compare notes as compare hearts, in the review of the sermon Christ had preached to them. They found the preaching powerful, even when they knew not the preacher. It made things very plain and clear to them; and, which was more, brought a divine heat with a divine light into their souls, such as put their hearts into a glow, and kindled a holy fire of pious and devout affections in them. Now this they take notice of, for the confirming of their belief, that it was indeed, as at last they saw, Jesus himself that had been talking with them all along. "What fools were we, that we were not sooner aware who it was! For none but he, no word but his, could make our hearts burn within us as they did; it must be he that has the key of the heart; it could be no other." See here, (1.) What preaching is likely to do good - such as Christ's was, plain preaching, and that which is familiar and level to our capacity - he talked with us by the way; and scriptural preaching - he opened to us the scriptures, the scriptures relating to himself. Ministers should show people their religion in their bibles, and that they preach no other doctrine to them than what is there; they must show that they make that the fountain of their knowledge and the foundation of their faith. Note, The expounding of those scriptures which speak of Christ has a direct tendency to warm the hearts of his disciples, both to quicken and to comfort them. (2.) What hearing is likely to do good - that which makes the heart burn; when we are much affected with the things of God, especially with the love of Christ in dying for us, and have our hearts thereby drawn out in love to him, and drawn up in holy desires and devotions, then our hearts burn within us; when our hearts are raised and elevated, and are as the sparks which fly upwards towards God, and when they are kindled and carried out with a holy zeal and indignation against sin, both in others and in ourselves, and we are in some measure refined and purified from it by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning, then we may say, "Through grace our hearts are thus inflamed."
2. The report they brought of this to their brethren at Jerusalem (Luk 24:33): They rose up the same hour, so transported with joy at the discovery Christ had made of himself to them that they could not stay to make an end of their supper, but returned with all speed to Jerusalem, though it was towards evening. If they had had any thoughts of quitting their relation to Christ, this soon banished all such thoughts out of their mind, and there needed no more to send them back to his flock. It should seem that they intended at least to take up their quarters tonight at Emmaus; but now that they had seen Christ they could not rest till they had brought the good news to the disciples, both for the confirmation of their trembling faith and for the comfort of their sorrowful spirits, with the same comforts wherewith they were comforted of God. Note, It is the duty of those to whom Christ has manifested himself to let others know what he has done for their souls. When thou art converted, instructed, comforted, strengthen thy brethren. These disciples were full of this matter themselves, and must go to their brethren, to give vent to their joys, as well as to give them satisfaction that their Master was risen. Observe, (1.) How they found them, just when they came in among them, discoursing on the same subject, and relating another proof of the resurrection of Christ. They found the eleven, and those that were their usual companions, gathered together late in the night, to pray together, it may be, and to consider what was to be done in this juncture; and they found them saying among themselves (legontas it is the saying of the eleven, not of the two, as is plain by the original), and when these two came in, they repeated to them with joy and triumph, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon, Luk 24:34. That Peter h
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And it came to pass, that while they communed…
And it came to pass, that while they communed together,.... About the above said things:
and reasoned; with one another; about the truth and credibility of the late report:
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Jesus himself drew near: the Persic version adds, "suddenly"; he came up at once to them, as if he had been a traveller on the road, and overtook them:
and went with them; joined himself in company to them, and travelled with them.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Mark xvi, 12.
Mark xvi, 12.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 13. Behold, two of them] This long and…
Verse 13. Behold, two of them] This long and interesting account is not mentioned by Matthew nor John, and is only glanced at by Mark, Mr 16:12-13. One of these disciples was Cleopas, Lu 24:18, and the other is supposed by many learned men, both ancient and modern, to have been Luke himself. See the sketch of his life prefixed to these notes. Some of the ancient versions have called the other disciple Ammaus and Ammaon, reading the verse thus: Behold two of them, Ammaus and Cleopas, were going in that very day to a village about sixty furlongs distant from Jerusalem. But the Persian says positively that it was Luke who accompanied Cleopas. See the inscription to section 140 of this Gospel in the Polyglott. Dr. Lightfoot thinks it was Peter, and proves that Cleopas and Alpheus were one and the same person.
Threescore furlongs.] Some MSS. say 160 furlongs, but this is a mistake; for Josephus assigns the same distance to this village from Jerusalem as the evangelist does. War, b. vii. c. 6. s. 6. Αμμαους απεχει των Ἱεροσολυμων σταδιους ἑξηκοντα, Ammaus is sixty stadia distant from Jerusalem, about seven English miles and three-quarters. A stadium was about 243 yards, according to Arbuthnot.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Luk 24:13-24. Behold, two of them — Not of…
Luk 24:13-24. Behold, two of them — Not of the apostles, for those two, returning, told what had passed between Christ and them to the eleven apostles, (Luk 24:33; Luk 24:35,) but two of the other disciples that were with them; went that same day — On which Jesus arose; to a village called Emmaus — Not that Emmaus near Tiberias, so called from the hot baths there, for that was in Galilee, but a village in the tribe of Judah; about threescore furlongs — That is, near eight miles from Jerusalem. Some MSS. say it was one hundred and sixty furlongs distant from Jerusalem, which is evidently a mistake, Josephus confirming the declaration of Luke, Bell., Luk 7:27. And they talked together of all these things — As they walked along they discoursed together of all these wonderful and important things which had lately happened, and which could not but lie with great weight on their minds. And while they communed together — About the sufferings and death of their beloved Lord, and the report which had been spread that morning of his resurrection; and reasoned — Concerning these things, namely, whether it was probable that he actually was risen, and therefore, notwithstanding he had suffered death, was the Messiah. The word συζητειν, here rendered reasoned, properly signifies, as Mr. West observes, to discuss, examine, or, inquire together; and it appears from the connection, that as they were discoursing on the sufferings, and death, and resurrection of Jesus, the scope of their inquiry was, how to reconcile these events with what had been foretold concerning the Messiah, which, by the message that the women had but just before brought from the angels, they were particularly called to remember. Accordingly, when Jesus had inquired, (Luk 24:17,) What manner of communications, &c.? or, as Mr. West would render it, What arguments are these that ye are debating one with another? this is the point he took occasion to illustrate and explain, (Luk 24:26-27,) by showing them it was necessary, in accomplishment of what was foretold, that the Messiah should suffer these things, and so enter into his glory. Jesus himself drew near, &c. — As one come from Jerusalem, and who was travelling the same way. But their eyes were holden — Their sight was supernaturally influenced; that they should not know him — Probably, also, one reason why they did not know him, was that, as Mark says, (Mar 16:12,) he appeared, εν ετερα μορφη, in another form, or habit, namely, different from that which he formerly had when he conversed with them. And he said, What manner of communications are these that ye have, and are sad? — Jesus spake thus to them in the character of a stranger, making free, as travellers might do one with another, to ask what the subject of their conversation was, and why they looked so sad? And one of them — One of the two; whose name was Cleopas — The same with Alpheus, the father of James the Less and Judas, who were two of the apostles, see on Luk 6:15-16; answering said, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem? — Cleopas was surprised that any one who had come from Jerusalem should have been ignorant of the extraordinary things which had lately happened there. “There are two ways,” says Dr. Campbell, “wherein the words of Cleopas may be understood by the reader: one is, as a method of accounting for the apparent ignorance of this traveller; the other, as an expression of surprise, that any one who had been at Jerusalem at that time, though a stranger, should not know what had made so much noise among all ranks, and had so much occupied, for some days, all the leading men in the nation, the chief priests, the scribes, the rulers, and the whole sanhedrim, as well as the Roman procurator, and the soldiery. The common version favours the first interpretation; I prefer the second, in concurrence, as I imagine, with the majority of interpreters, ancient and modern. I cannot discover, with Beza, any thing in it remote from common speech. On the contrary, I think it, in such a case as the present, so natural an expression of surprise, that examples remarkably similar may be produced from most languages.” And he said, What things — What are those matters to which you refer? And they said, Concerning Jesus, a prophet mighty in deed and in word — Who wrought the most astonishing miracles, and taught the most instructive and excellent doctrine; before God — Who evidently bore testimony to him; and all the people — Among whom he appeared publicly for some years. And the chief priests, &c. — Delivered him to the Roman governor; to be condemned — Prevailing on him, by their importunity, to pass sentence of death upon him. But we trusted, &c. — Having thus given an account of Christ’s character, miracles, and sufferings, Cleopas was so ingenuous as to acknowledge, that they once believed him to be the deliverer of Israel, and in that faith had become his disciples. But that they now began to think themselves mistaken, because he had been dead three days. He added, that some women of their acquaintance, who had been that morning at the sepulchre, had astonished them with the news of his resurrection, affirming, that they had seen a vision of angels, which told them that he was alive. It seems his companion and he had left the city before any of the women came with the news of Christ’s personal appearance. And certain of them who were with us — Meaning, probably, Peter and John, as is related, Joh 20:2, &c.; went, &c., and found it as the women had said — That is, that the body was gone, and that the funeral linen was laid in order there; but him they saw not — They had not the satisfaction of seeing Jesus.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain “Two of them.” Two of the disciples. The name…
“Two of them.” Two of the disciples. The name of one of them was “Cleopas,” Luk 24:18. Many have supposed that the other was Luke, and that he omitted his own name from modesty. Others have supposed that it was Peter. See Luk 24:34; 1Co 15:5. There is no evidence to guide us here. Dr. Lightfoot has shown that “Cleopas” is the same name as “Alpheus,” who was the father of the apostle James, Mat 10:3.
Emmaus - In regard to the locality of Emmaus, it seems quite probable that it is the same village which is referred to by Josephus (“Jewish Wars,” vii. 6, Section 6), who states that, after the destruction of Jerusalem, Titus gave “Emmaus,” distant from Jerusalem threescore furlongs, to 800 of his troops, whom he had dismissed from his army, for their habitation. Dr. Thomson (“The Land and the Book,” vol. ii. p. 307, 540) regards it as the present Kuriet el ‘Aineb, which Dr. Robinson identifies with Kirjath-jearim. Of this place he says: “Kuriet el ‘Aineb itself would be the proper distance from Jerusalem, and being on the road to Jaffa, and on the dividing ridge between the plain and the mountains, the Roman emperor might have deemed it an advantageous post for a colony made up of his disbanded soldiers, who could keep in check the surrounding country. Certain it is that in these later ages the occupants of this place have controlled the whole adjacent region, and for many a generation exercised their lawless tyranny upon helpless pilgrims.
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“It took just three hours’ moderate riding from Kuriet el ‘Aineb to Jerusalem: first, a long descent into Wady Hanina, which passes between it and Soba; then a similar ascent, succeeded by a very steep pass, and a very slippery path down to Kulonia. At this place are some heavy foundations of church, convent, or castle by the road-side, which may be of almost any age, and also gardens of fruit-trees, irrigated by a fountain of excellent water. Kulonia is on a hill north of the road, and appears in a fair way to become a ruin itself before long. The path then winds up a valley, and stretches over a dreary waste of bare rocks until within a mile of the city, when the view opens upon its naked ramparts and the mysterious regions toward the Dead Sea.”
Threescore furlongs - Sixty furlongs, or about seven or eight miles. It is not certain that these were apostles, but the contrary seems to be implied in Luk 24:33. See the notes at that verse. If they were not, it is probable that they were intimate disciples, who may have been much with the Saviour during the latter part of his ministry and the closing scenes of his life. But it is wholly unknown why they were going to Emmaus. It may have been that this was their native place, or that they had friends in the vicinity. They seem to have given up all for lost, and to have come to the conclusion that Jesus was not the Messiah, though they naturally conversed about it, and there were many things which they could not explain. Their Master had been crucified contrary to their expectation, their hopes dashed, their anticipation disappointed, and they were now returning in sadness, and very naturally conversed, in the way, of the things which had happened in Jerusalem.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain St. Jerome thinks the Cleophas, one of the two…
St. Jerome thinks the Cleophas, one of the two disciples, was a citizen of Emmaus, and that he invited Jesus to take meat in his house. His house was afterwards changed into a church, which the same Father says existed in his time. Some think Cleophas was brother to St. Joseph; others, that he was husband of Mary, sister of the blessed Virgin Mary, and father of St. James the less. Both the Latins and Greeks keep the feast of St. Cleophas, and give him the name of an apostle. Usuard says he was martyred by the Jews. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain B. Over the Despondency of Unbelief. Luk_24:13-45
B. Over the Despondency of Unbelief. Luk_24:13-45
1. The Appearing to the Disciples of Emmaus (Luk_24:13-35)
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13And, behold, two of them went [were journeying] that same day to a village called14Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs [stadia]. And theytalked together of all these things which had happened. 15And it came to pass, that, while they communed [were conversing] together and reasoned [or, were discussing], Jesus himself drew near, and went [journeyed] with them. 16But their eyes were holdenthat they should not know him. 17And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have [are interchanging] one to [with] another, as ye walk, 18and6 are [why are ye] sad? And the [om., the] one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and [the only stranger in Jerusalem who] hast not known the things which are come to pass there inthese days? 19And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before Godand all the people: 20And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned 21to death, and have crucified him. But we [for our part7] trusted that it had been he which should [was to] have redeemed Israel: and beside all this [or, yet even8 22with all this9], to day is the third day since these things were done. Yea, and [But also, ἀλλὰ καί10] certain women also of our company made us astonished, which wereearly at the sepulchre; 23And when they found not his body, they came, saying, thatthey had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive. 24And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the womenhad said: but him they saw not. 25Then he said unto them, O fools [ye without understanding, ἀνόητοι], and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:26Ought not Christ to have suffered [Was it not needful that the Christ should suffer11these things, and [so] to [om., to] enter into his glory? 27And beginning at [from] Moses and [from] all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures thethings [written] concerning himself [him12]. 28And they drew nigh unto the village,whither they went: and he made as though he would have gone further. 29But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us; for it is toward evening, and the day [now13]is far spent. And he went in to tarry [stop] with them. 30And it came to pass, as he sat at meat [reclined at table] with them, he took [the] bread, and blessed it, andbrake, and gave to them. 31And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and hevanished out of their sight [ἄφαντος ἐγένετο ἀπ̓ αὐτῶν]. 32And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn [Was not our heart burning] within us, while he talked withus by the way, and [om., and14] while he opened to us the Scriptures? 33And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together,and them that were with them, 34Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared toSimon. 35And they told what things were done [took place] in the way, and how he was known of [recognized by] them in [the] breaking of [the] bread.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Luk_24:13. Two of them.—Not of the Eleven, from whom, Luk_24:33, they are definitely distinguished; nor even necessarily of the Seventy, who must not be conceived as a definitely established college; but of the wider circle of disciples who were now together at Jerusalem. Cleopas, Luk_24:18, accidentally named, because he appears speaking, is not the same with Clopas, Joh_19:25, but—Cleopatrus. In respect to the other, the conjectures are legion; some have understood Nathanael (Epiphanius), Simon (Origen), Luke (Theophyl. Lange), Peter, on the ground of Luk_24:34, and many others. The last conjecture rests upon a misunderstanding,—the next to the last has something for it, on account of the fulness of detail and the visible predilection with which this whole occurrence is delineated by Luke. Perfect certainty herein is, however, impossible, and also unnecessary.
Emmaus.—Mentioned also by Josephus, De Bell. Jud. vii. 6, 6. Comp. Luk_4:1; Luk_4:3. Not to be confounded with the city Emmaus, in the plain of Judæa, which lay 176 stadia from Jerusalem, was called in the third century Nicopolis, and by a misunderstanding of some ancient expositors was taken for the birth-place of Cleopas. The fathers Eusebius and Jerome already confounded the last-named city with our place, whose situation has been long uncertain. It appears that we have to seek the here-mentioned Emmaus nowhere else than in the present Kulonieh, which lies two full leagues from Jerusalem. Comp. among others, Sepp, l. c. iii. p. 653; and Robinson, Bib. Res.—Sixty stadia =1½ German miles, 7½ Italian miles, [=6¾ English miles]. It lay west from the capital, and the way, therefore, went past the graves of the Judges, by the old Mizpah, the dwelling place of Samuel, through a beautiful, charming district. But if it was ever manifest that nature alone cannot possibly satisfy the heart that has lost its Christ, it was on this day the case. Even into the sanctuary of creation do these wanderers take the recollection of the scenes of blood and murder, whose witnesses they had been in the last days. What they are conversing on together, we hear them themselves (Luk_24:18 seq.) make known more in detail. Apparently we may conceive that our Lord, in the form of a common traveller, came behind them and soon overtook them.
Luk_24:16. But their eyes.—According to Mar_16:12, the Lord appeared to them ἐν ἑτέρᾳ μορφῆ, and this, too, would of itself have sufficiently explained why they did not know Him at once. In no other form did He stand so ineffaceably deep before their souls as precisely in the form of His Passion and death. They are, moreover, not thinking of His resurrection, and least of all of His being immediately near, and how could they in this quiet, vigorous, dignified traveller, be able to recognize the Crucified One, languid in death. It is, however, not to be doubted that, with this natural, a supernatural cause must have concurred, or rather that our Lord used this ἑτέρα μορφή as a means to manifest Himself so to them that they should not at once recognize Him. The expression ἐκρατοῦντο τοῦ, points to a definite design of His love; He will remain yet some moments concealed before He at once makes their joy perfect. Comp. Luk_24:31. Had He wished at once to be recognized, He could at once have so revealed Himself that no doubt would have been possible.
Luk_24:17. And why are ye sad?—If we expunge with Tischendorf, on the authority of D., Syr., Cant. (B., L. have variations), the words καί ἐστε, we then get instead of a double only a simple question: What manner of discourses are they which ye, walking along mournfully, interchange with one another? At all events it appears clearly that He who interrupts their conversation wishes to induce them to grant Him a participation in their sadness. What He already knows He wishes to hear from their own mouth, and begins, therefore, with a question of the kind with which shortly before He had already introduced His revelation of Himself to Mary; while He then for a while is significantly silent, until Cleopas, sometimes speaking alone, sometimes relieved by his companion, has told everything which lies so heavily upon the heart of both. Without doubt, He not only became silently displeased at their unbelief, but also rejoiced over their love, although Cleopas, in the beginning of his reply, makes sufficiently manifest his dissatisfaction at being suddenly disturbed by a troublesome third party.
Luk_24:18. Art thou the only stranger in Jerusalem.—He takes the questioner for a παροικῶν, not exactly on account of the somewhat peculiar dialect (De Wette), but because he in a settled inhabitant of the capital would not have been able at all to conceive such an ignorance, and perhaps, also, because this traveller now, like themselves, after the Passover lamb had been eaten, seemed to be about to leave the capital. That, moreover, as a rule, every stranger must also have heard what now fills the whole capital and their own hearts, that they suppose is anything but doubtful.
Luk_24:19. Concerning Jesus of Nazareth.—Now the stream of their lamentations over their disappointed expectations breaks loose. From οἱ δὲεἶ πον it appears that both spoke, without its being possible precisely to distinguish their words, as some (Paulus, Kuinoel,) have attempted to do. Their anguish of heart is especially remarkable, since it showed what the Lord was in their eyes and remained, even in the moment when they had seen their dearest hope vanish. The official name Christ, they do not now take upon their lips, but respecting the name Jesus of Nazareth, they presuppose that it is sufficiently familiar to every one, in and out of Jerusalem. That He, although He had been reckoned among the transgressors, was a prophet and extraordinary messenger of God, such as, with the exception of John, had not appeared in Israel for centuries before, this admitted of no doubt. As such He had attested Himself by word and deed, not only in the eyes of the people, but also before the face of God—(ἐναντίον), and even after His death, it is impossible for them to mention the name of this ἀνήο otherwise than with reverence and love. They are not afraid to declare that in respect to Him an irreconcilable difference of opinion exists between them and the chiefs of the people. While these latter had delivered Him over to the punishment of death, they on the other side hoped that it had been He that should have redeemed Israel (ἠλπιζομεν, in the Imperf.) Of what nature their hope and the redemption expected through Him was, they do not more particularly make known. But enough, whether their expectation had had a more political or more religious direction, the grave was the rock on which it had suffered shipwreck. Perhaps after a short pause they continue almost rather to think aloud than to instruct the stranger, to whom their discourse, supposing that He was entirely a stranger, must have been almost unintelligible: “But it is true (ἀλλά γε, although we had cherished such hope, even hitherto had not wholly given up hope) it is also,” &c. This comes besides all this to make their feeling of disappointment yet greater. The first and second day, therefore, they had still had a weak hope, but now that also the third day is already half elapsed without the enigma having been solved, they do not venture longer to surrender themselves to this hope.
Luk_24:22. But also.—Thus they begin in the same moment when they are complaining over lost hope yet still to speak of that which to-day had somewhat fanned up again the already almost extinguished spark, in order finally to end with the acknowledgment of utter uncertainty and discouragement. Some women of the company of the friends of the Nazarene (ἐξ ἡμῶν) had astounded them, ἐξέστησαν (comp. Act_2:12), so that they had entirely lost possession of themselves, and no longer knew what they had to think about the whole matter. Early in the morning, they said, these had gone to the grave, and had in all haste come back with the account that they had seen an appearance of angels, which had said to them that He was alive. (Καὶ ὅπτ., besides that they had not found there what they sought, they had, moreover, seen what they did not seek, and had heard what they could not believe.) It is worthy of note, how the Emmaus disciples in an artless manner confirm the narrative of the visit to the grave, and the experience of the Galilean women. At the same time it appears from the immediately following: καὶἀπῆλθόν τινες τῶν σὺν ἡμῖν, that according to Luke also, not Peter alone (Luk_24:12), went to the grave, but also others, so that by this plural the visit to the grave among others by John (Luk_20:2-10), is tacitly confirmed. According to Stier, we should not by τινὲς ἐξ ἡμῶν even understand apostles at all, but members of the more extended circle of disciples, to which these two also belong, who on the other hand had also instituted the requisite investigation, so that on this day there had been thorough confusion and distraction. Possible undoubtedly. But, however this may be, this investigation had led to no happy result. It is true, they had found it, sc. τὸ μνημεῖον, as the women had said, that is κενόν, and so far, they could make no objection to the credibility of their account. But further than this the deputed disciples had been as far from discovering anything about the angels as about the Lord, and if He had really risen, could it be then that no one had seen Him Himself?—But Him they saw not.—The last word is a sufficient excuse for their believing themselves obliged to bid farewell to all hope.
Luk_24:25. Then He said unto them.—In the demeanor of the supposed stranger there must have been something that irresistibly impelled them to speak continually more confidentially to him, as he on his side suffered them without disturbance to pour out their hearts. Nothing would have been easier than just as with Mary, to turn their sorrow into joy by the utterance of a single word; but the Lord designs to bestow on them something higher than a transient, overwhelming impression. Now His turn came to speak, and when they think He will now begin deeply to commiserate them, He begins, on the other hand, in all severity to rebuke them. He assumes the tone of an experienced Rabbi, and gives them to understand that the cause of their whole inward suffering lies entirely within themselves. He calls them ἀνόητοι, unreceptive on the intellectual side, καὶ βραδεῖς τῇ καρδία, τοῦ πιστεύειν ἐπὶ πᾶσιν, κ.τ.λ upon this last here the emphasis visibly falls. That they had believed something He does not dispute, but their faith had been one-sided, and had, therefore, been able to kindle no light in the dark night of their soul. Here also, want of understanding and sluggishness, discouragement of heart and will, stand simply alongside of one another, but so that we have to understand the second as the deepest ground of the first. It was so dark before their eyes for the reason that they had been so slow of heart to the belief of the whole truth. Not so much from the head to the heart, as rather from the heart to the head, does divine truth find its way, and no one can here understand what he has not inwardly felt and experienced.
Luk_24:26. Was it not needful?—The Lord speaks of a necessity that was grounded in this truth—namely, that all these things had been foretold. That which had been a matter of offence to them had been for this very reason, according to a higher order of things, inevitable, and they could not possibly have been so driven hither and thither if they had given such heed as they ought to the prophetic annunciations respecting the suffering Messiah.—And (thus) enter into His glory.—What had seemed to them incompatible with the glory of the Messiah was precisely the appointed way thereto. The Lord does not mean that He is already entered into His glory (Kinkel, a. o.), but speaks as one who has now come so near to His glory as that He sees the suffering already behind Him. (Supply δεῖ, Meyer); εἰσελθεῖν, designation of the glory as a heavenly state.
Luk_24:27. And beginning, ἀρξάμενος.—Emphatic indication of the consecutive character of His discourse, so that He began with Moses, and afterwards went on to all the prophets, in order to demonstrate to them therefrom what in these related to His person or His work. It is true, “it is much to be wished that we knew what prophecies of Jesus’ death and glory are here meant,” (De Wette), but when the critic continues: “There are not many to be found which admit of application to this,” then above all things the inquiry would be authorized, whether his Hermeneutics stand in full accord with those of the Lord Jesus, and if not, whether the former might not submit to a revision according to the principles of the latter. Whoever consults the manifold expressions of Jesus and the apostles in reference to the prophecies of the Messiah, needs not to grope around here in entire uncertainty, if only he does not forget that our Lord here probably directed the attention of His disciples less to isolated passages of Scripture than to the great whole of the Old Testament in its typical and symbolical character. Truly an hour spent in the school of this Master is better than a thousand elsewhere.
Luk_24:28. He made as though, προσεποιεῖτο—ἅπαξ λέγομενον in the New Testament (except in the clause Joh_8:6). On a dissimulation which would make a more or less set defence of our Lord’s sincerity requisite, we have here, of course, no right to think. He could not act otherwise if He would still retain the character hitherto assumed; He will not act otherwise, because He will not only enlighten their understanding, but also make trial of their heart; He would actually have gone farther had they not held Him back with all the might of love. Apparently He now shows Himself ready to say farewell to them with the usual formula of benediction, but already they feel themselves united to Him by such holy bonds that the thought of separation is entirely unendurable. Entreating with the utmost urgency, they invite Him in (παρεβιάσαντο, comp. Luk_14:23; Act_16:15), and point Him to the sun hurrying to its setting, in the living feeling that their spiritual light also will set if He should leave their company. They wish to remind Him that He cannot possibly continue His journey in the night (comp. Gen_19:2-3; Jdg_19:9), and desire that He should therefore turn in with them; since probably one of them possessed a dwelling at Emmaus, where a simple supper was awaiting them.
Luk_24:30. He took the bread.—It will scarcely need any intimation that here it is only a common δεῖπνον, not the Holy Communion that is spoken of, and still less a communio sub una specie, which Romish expositors undertake to prove, e.g., Sepp, iii. p. 656, with an appeal to this passage. On the other hand, we might find a proof here that the κλάσιςτοῦ ἅρτου (Luk_24:35), in the New Testament, is not as a rule the same thing as the Lord’s Supper. The guest simply assumes, on the ground of a tacitly acknowledged superiority, the place of the father of the house, and utters the usual thanksgiving, to which, according to the Jewish rite, three who eat together are expressly obliged. See Berac. f. 45, 1. But whether He has anything peculiar in the manner of breaking the bread and uttering the blessing that reminds them of their association with the Master in earlier days, or whether they now discover in His opened hands the marks of the wounds, or whether He Himself refers them back to a word uttered before His death,—enough: their eyes are now opened. Διηνοίχθησαν, according to the antithesis with Luk_24:16, intimation of a sudden opening of their eyes, effected by the Lord Himself, and for which He has used as a means, Luk_24:35, the breaking of bread. In consequence of this they now recognize Him, who up to this moment had been wholly unknown, so that they are not only fully persuaded of the identity of this person with Jesus of Nazareth, but at the same time also inwardly know Him in His full dignity and greatness.—And He vanished out of their sight, ἄφαντος ἐγένετο, ex ipsorum oculis evanuit.—Not in and of itself, perhaps (see Meyer, ad loc.), but in connection with all that which we learn further respecting the bodily nature of the Risen Redeemer, the expression appears undoubtedly to give us to understand a sudden vanishing of the Lord, a becoming invisible in an extraordinary way, not αὐτοῖς, but ἀπ̓ αὐτῶν (Beza), in which, of course, we need not exclude the thought that the Lord used therefor the confusion and joy of the first moment after the discovery. See below, in the Doctrinal and Ethical remarks.
Luk_24:32. Was not our heart burning within us, καιομένη.—Expression of extraordinary emotion of soul. Psa_39:3; Jer_20:9. If one could have asked the disciples of Emmaus whether they had meant an affectus gaudii, spei, desiderii or amoris, upon which the expositors dispute, they would have failed, perhaps, to give a satisfactory answer. Enough—they will express an indefinable overpowering feeling on the way during the Lord’s instruction (loquebatur nobis, id plus est quam nobiscum, Bengel), and even by that ought to have recognized the Lord, so that to them it is now even incomprehensible that their eyes were not earlier opened. It is a good sign for their inner growth that at this moment it is not the breaking of bread, but the opening of the Scripture which now stands before the eye of their memory.
Luk_24:33. The same hour.—The day has indeed yet further declined than in Luk_24:29, but if it were even already midnight, they must now hastily return to Jerusalem, in order to announce the joyful message. What the women do at the express command of the angel, and Magdalene, at the command of the Lord, this the two disciples carry out at the impulse of their heart. The meal, also, they leave apparently untouched (comp. Joh_4:31-34), and know no higher need than together to make the event known. As commonly, so here also the labor of love is rewarded with new blessings; since they come to give, they receive for their faith an unexpected and longed-for strengthening. Here we have indeed one of the few cases in which it might in good earnest have been questioned, whether it was more blessed to give or to receive.
The Eleven gathered together.—As appears from Joh_20:19, with closed doors, which, however, were soon opened to the brethren who even as late as this, desired admission. Then are they for a greeting received with a jubilant choral: “The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared unto Simon!” “One of the most glorious moments in the Easter history, an antiphony which God has made.” Lange. They answer then, on their side, with the narrative of that which happened to them in the way (Luk_24:35), and how the Lord had been recognized by them in the (ἐν), not exactly at the breaking of bread (which would not suit so well to the miraculous representation, Luk_24:31). Thus do they spend an hour of blessed celebration, which, without their knowing it, becomes again the preparation for an evening appearance.
Luk_24:34. Hath appeared unto Simon.—There is no ground for understanding this ὥφθη of a merely transient, momentary seeing, as Stier, ad loc. will have it. Without doubt we must here understand an appearance, which not less than that, e. g., bestowed on the women deserves this name. He was, therefore, the first of all the [male] disciples on whom the privilege was bestowed, according to Chrysostom: ἐν ἀνδράσι τούτῳ πρῴτῳ, τῷ μάλιστα αὐτὸν ποθοῦντι ἰδεῖν, or μἀλιστα χρήζοντι. Unquestionably this appearance was that which had preceded that to the Emmaus disciples, after Peter had already heard the friendly καὶ τῷ ΙΙέτρῳ (Mar_16:7). Chased hither and thither by fear and hope, he had probably wandered around the city in solitude. Perhaps he had just come back from the visit to the grave, which Luke has described, Luk_24:12, (Joh_20:2-10), and is asking himself whether, even if the Master is again in life, there is also hope that he shall see Him; when this supreme privilege becomes his portion. What there took place between him and the Master has remained a holy secret between both, which even his fellow-apostles have not sought to inquire into, but have rather respected. However, even by this, the later appearance by the sea of Tiberias and the reinstatement in his apostolic function did not become superfluous for Peter, and we must, therefore, so far regard the comfort and the refreshment which was given him in this hour as a preliminary, although already a rich and blessed one.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The appearances of the Risen Lord were for His first disciples of altogether inestimable value. Their understanding was thereby healed, partly of doubt, partly of injurious prejudices; their heart was thereby comforted when it was burdened by sadness, the sense of guilt and anxiety for the future; their life was thereby sanctified to a life of spiritual communion with Him, of united love among themselves, of vigorous activity, and immovable hope. The period of forty days after the Resurrection of the Lord was at the same time the second period in the history of the training and developing of His apostles, one which was noticeably diverse from the first.
2. The appearances of the Risen One present on the one hand a remarkable coincidence, on the other hand a remarkable diversity. All agree in this, that they fall within the sphere of the senses, beginning or ending in a more or less mysterious manner, and for the purpose of showing that the Lord was really alive, and that He was for His friends ever the same as before His death. They may, therefore, all be named in the fullest sense of the word revelations of His glory, sometimes of His love, sometimes of His wisdom, then again of His knowledge and of His faithfulness; yet, at the same time, each appearance has something which characterizes it above others, even as the colors of the rainbow are different from one another and yet melt into one another. Before Magdalene the Risen One uses no food; she recognized Him at a single word. The instruction respecting the Scriptures which was bestowed upon the Emmaus disciples, Thomas does not also receive. His unbelief sprang from another source, and was revealed in another way than theirs. Only one appearance (Joh_21:1-14) is accompanied by a miracle. In the others the First Fruits from the dead stands Himself as the Miracle of miracles before us. At one time He instructs the erring ones before, at another time after, the hour of meeting again; here His appearance flashes by like a lightning stroke, there it is like the soft, lovely shining of the morning sun. Before Mary we see Him appear especially in His High-priestly, before the Emmaus disciples in His prophetic character, while He reveals Himself in the evening appearance as the King of the kingdom of God, who legitimates and despatches His ambassadors. The form also in which He comes to His disciples is different (Mar_16:12), even so the way in which He persuades them that He is alive. All are prepared for His appearance in different ways, but each one again finds in the meeting an individual necessity satisfied. With the Emmaus disciples He proceeds a way sixty stadia long. Past the women He slowly hovers as an appearance from the higher world. The appearance before Mary and the women bears on the side of the Lord the tenderest, that before the disciples, without and with Thomas, the most composed, that before James, before Peter, at the sea of Tiberias, the most mysterious; that on the mountain in Galilee, that before the five hundred brethren (1Co_15:6) the most sublime, that before the Emmaus disciples the most human, character. No wonder that John comprehends the appearances of the Lord under the general conception of His σημεῖα (Joh_20:30), and that the history of all these different revelations has been at every age considered as one of the mightiest supports of our faith in the historical reality of the Resurrection.
3. The appearance before the Emmaus disciples bears in the whole narrative an inner stamp of truth which can be better felt than described. It is unreasonable to wish to correct, word by word, the brief notice (Mar_16:12-13), by the detailed account of Luke; but this is evident enough, that both relate the same thing, and as respects the discrepancy between Luk_24:34, and Mar_16:13, one must be utterly out of his place in the psychological sphere if he could not see how in a circle like this in a few moments faith and unbelief might dispute the mastery with one another. If we assume either (Bengel) that they at the beginning (Luke) believed and afterwards (Mark) doubted, or the reverse (Calvin), there will in neither case be anything hard to understand in the representation that the Eleven and those with them at the beginning received the journeyers to Emmaus with believing joy, but yet so long as they had themselves not seen the Master, were agitated by so many difficulties and doubts that the Lord, in a certain sense, might reproach them with their ἀπιστία, Mar_16:14. Whoever barely strains words, without trying the spirits, will never understand the deep harmonies of the Easter history. If we take pains to do the latter, we find in the fulness of detail with which Cleopas speaks of his hopes and fears, and the only half-intelligible mention of the third day, in the outspoken condemnation of their chief priests and leaders before an utter stranger, in the word about the burning heart, such a truth, freshness, and naturalness that we can scarcely refrain from writing the apostle’s words, 2Pe_1:16, upon this leaf of the Resurrection history also. The same may be said of the appearance to Peter; there is, alas, wanting to us a more particular account in reference to this entirely unique scene, worthy of the pencil of a Raphael, but some compensation for this lack is offered us by the recollection that the frugality of the Evangelists on this very point, the embellishment of which must have been for the inventor an irresistible temptation, affords a new proof for its faithfulness and credibility. The same inner character is displayed by every appearance in greater or less measure, if closely considered; and so far from the force of this proof admitting of weakening by the oft-repeated objection: Why did not the Lord show Himself to His enemies? (see as far back as Origen, Contra Celsum, ii. Luke 63, and elsewhere) this very thing is a new proof of His holiness, wisdom, and love. His holiness could not do otherwise than account those who had resisted the Light of the world, even to death, unworthy of this honor. His wisdom forbade Him by an outward appearance to constrain them to a faith which at best would have filled them with new earthly expectations, while He besides this foresaw plainly enough that no appearance before Caiaphas, before the chief priests, or before the leaders, would accomplish the desired purpose. Comp. Luk_16:31; Joh_12:10; Mat_28:11-15. Nay, His love reveals itself in this also, that He veils the full glory of the Resurrection from hostile eyes. That the Son of God had not been accepted in His servant’s form might yet be forgiven, but if He had been viewed in the glory of His new life, and even yet stubbornly rejected, this would have admitted no other retribution than an irrevocable judgment. Our Lord would thus, if He had appeared without success before His enemies, have made the preaching of the Gospel among them entirely impossible, for how could He have yet sent His ambassadors without prejudice to His dignity, with the hope of any fruit, to those who, after mature consideration, had again despised Him and thrust Him from them? Would not rather an appearance to them have been in direct conflict with the peculiar nature and the special purpose of His new life? Would the testimony of the Sanhedrim have really been then more likely to have been acceptable to any one than that of His disciples, whose persevering unbelief in the fact of His Resurrection was only overcome after much difficulty, and therefore, at all events, forbids us to consider them in this point as superstitious? If we take all this together, there is indeed not a single ground why in the Church of the Lord the jubilant tone of “The Lord is risen indeed,” should resound in the least more weakly than on the first Easter evening.
4. The appearance before the Emmaus disciples is one of the strongest proofs of the high value which the Lord places upon the prophetic Scriptures, and upon the predictions of His suffering and of His glory. Whoever denies either the existence or the importance of these Vaticinia, finds himself not only in decided conflict with the believing church of all centuries, but also with the Lord Himself.
5. The whole conversation of our Lord with these disciples has a strong symbolical character, which Christian Ascetæ and Homiletes have ever brought to light with visible predilection. (See below.)
6. “When Jesus in temptation holds our eyes, so that the soul neither can nor may recognize, that is good, for soon will joy, light, and comfort follow; but when the sinner holds his own eyes, and will not recognize Jesus, that is evil, for he incurs danger of eternal blindness and darkness.” (Starke.)
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Behold how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. Psa_133:1.—The way from Jerusalem to Emmaus a devious way, whereupon the Great Shepherd of the sheep who is risen from the dead (Heb_13:20), seeks the wanderers.—About what do disciples love best to speak when they are intimately together?—The living Christ the Third in every Christian friendship.—Jesus is already near to us, even when we believe Him yet distant.—The invisible Witness of our hidden communings with our friends.—“Why are ye so sad?” this is the question with which the Risen One, on the feast of His Resurrection, comes to all the weary and heavy-laden.—The publicity of our Lord’s history a palpable proof of its truth.—Our Lord demands the full confidence of His disciples, not for His sake, but for their sake.—Jesus’ prophetic mission carried out by His words not less than by His deeds.—The complaint of disappointed hope: 1. How sorrowful it sounds when the Lord abides in death; 2. how quickly it is silenced when it becomes plain that He is risen indeed.—Love to the Lord stronger than shaken faith and frustrated hope.—Him they saw not: 1. The deepest sorrow of the Easter morning; 2. the source of the highest Easter joy.—How good it is, with our unbelieving difficulties and complaints not to go away from Jesus, but directly to Him.—The rebukings of the risen Lord not less sweet than His most pleasant visitations.—Want of understanding in the spiritual sphere born of sluggishness of heart.—One-sidedness in faith.—The Scripture cannot be broken, Joh_10:34.—The connection between suffering and glory for Christ and the Christian: 1. Suffering prepares the way for glory; 2. suffering is transformed into glory; 3. suffering endured heightens the enjoyment and the worth of glory.—Word and spirit: 1. One must already know the Scripture if the Lord is to explain it to us; 2. the Lord must explain it to us, if one is to understand the Scripture well.—The heaviest trials of faith often immediately precede the most glorious visitation of grace.—“When only No appears, only Yea is meant.” [Wenn lauter Nein erscheinet, ist lauter Ja gemeinet.]—Woltersdorf:—“Abide with us,” &c., admirable text for New Year’s Eve, at the last communion of the year, and when not? What this prayer: 1. Presupposes; 2. desires; 3. obtains.—The prayer in the evening hours: 1. Of the day; 2. of the kingdom of God; 3. of life.—The Lord allows Himself not to be called on in vain.—Even yet must our eyes be open if we are to become rightly acquainted with the Prince of life.—Even yet the Lord reveals Himself to His people in surprising, unmistakable manner, but even yet for only brief fleeting moments.—How our Lord yet reveals Himself to His disciples in the breaking of bread (Communion at Easter). In this we may show how the risen Lord at the Communion: 1. Still seeks like disciples; 2. still satisfies like necessities; 3. still requires like dispositions; 4. still prepares a like surprise, as at and after His appearance to the disciples at Emmaus. The burning heart of the genuine disciple of the Lord.—The communion of saints: 1. Most ardently sought; 2. blessedly enjoyed; 3. richly rewarded.—The appearance to Peter: 1. A proof of the love of Jesus, a. Jesus appears to the fallen Peter, b. to Peter first, c. to Peter alone; 2. an inestimable benefit for Peter; it bestowed on him, a. light instead of darkness, b. grace instead of the feeling of guilt, c. hope instead of fear; 3. a welcome message of joy for the disciples of Emmaus; it served, a. to strengthen their faith, b. to determine the demeanor of all in reference to Peter, c. to prepare them for new revelations at hand; 4. a school for us, a. of faith, b. of love, c. of hope.—Christ our life: 1. What life would be without Christ, Luk_24:13-24; Luke 2. what it may become through Christ, Luk_24:25-31; Luke 3. what it must be for Christ, Luk_24:32-35.—The living Christ the best guide; come and see how He: 1. Kindly seeks out His own; 2. lovingly listens to them; 3. graciously instructs and rebukes them; 4. wisely proves them; 5. ineffably surprises and rejoices them.—The manner in which our Lord reveals Himself to the disciples at Emmaus a prophecy of the surprise which He reserves in heaven for His people.—The returning Emmaus disciples teach us: 1. To look back thankfully; 2. to look around lovingly; 3. to look upward and forward hopefully.
Starke:—Nova Bibl. Tub.:—When one speaks of Jesus and remembers His death, yea, His Resurrection, then does he live.—Canstein:—Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.—In sadness and temptation Christ appears not to be present, but He is there, only we know Him not.—With melancholy people we must always go to the bottom if we will heal and make them sound.—Oh! that Christ among so many Christians were not a stranger! Joh_1:26.—An intimate conversation of teachers and hearers remains not without blessing.—If great people will not have evil said of them, neither must they do evil.—Brentius:—Faith and unbelief have, especially in the hour of temptation, a hard battle.—The soul will have Jesus Himself.—Comfort belongs not to the erring until they have come to thorough knowledge of their faults.—Nova Bibl. Tub.:—Nothing is harder than faith.—The grounds of our faith are the prophetic Scriptures, 2Pe_1:19.—Hedinger:—The sun is bright, indeed, but not to a blind man.—Christ is the best Expositor of the Holy Scriptures.—Let the course of this life be burdensome as it will, we come yet at last to the goal.—Langii Opera:—O how rare are examples of those who receive a rebuke so that they for that love a teacher better.—Prayer is a firm cord which holds the Almighty, who also is glad to be held.—Opened eyes of the understanding distinguish spiritual men from natural.—Where Jesus hides Himself, there it is time to rise and neither to hope for rest nor joy till we have found Him again.—Even unbelievers may yet become believers,—despise not that which is weak.—Every Christian for whom God has done great things is bound to relate the same.—Luther:—Only see how God with special providence guides His people.
Heubner:—Love to the Risen One is a true bond of friendship.—Jesus is often not among us because we speak not of Him.—Oft is God long hidden to us and His ways a riddle.—Jesus knows very well what oppresses thee.—Jesus wins from His disciples the confession of their faith.—Who only lives in earthly hopes, cheats himself.—The hearts of men hope where there is nothing at all to be hoped for, and despond where hope shows itself near by.—The glory of the Risen One is the prize of His suffering.—The saints are never more zealous, never keep faster hold of God, than when they fear to lose Him.—Christ the best comfort in the evening of life, better than Cicero de Senectute.—The more unbelief spreads itself abroad, the more should we pray that the Lord may abide with us.—Every enjoyment is sanctified through Christ.—At last there comes after trials and gloom the blessed hour of revelation.—There comes a time when Jesus never vanishes again.—Jesus’ words inflame the heart; the words of Christless men are cold and powerless.—The journey of the disciples to Emmaus an image of our journey of life.—The new life of the disciples of Jesus after His Resurrection as a presage of the future blessed life.—The progress from weak to strong faith.
On the Pericope.—Arndt:—The twofold Easter celebration: 1. Of those whose eyes are holden; 2. of those whose eyes are opened.—Rudelbach:—The soul-winning art of Jesus.—Chr. Palmer:—By what do we know the nature of the living Saviour, although we do not see Him?—Brastberger:—The blessed condition of a soul that knows and believes: The Lord Jesus is risen indeed.—Fresenius:—True Christians as spiritual pilgrims who are sometimes weak, sometimes become strong.—Ahlfeld:—The pilgrims of Easter evening.—Palmer:—The leadings of Providence which the Risen Saviour causes His disciples to experience.—Souchon:—Jesus scares away sadness.—Stier:—When must and oughtest thou to believe that the Risen Saviour is peculiarly near to thee?—Dr. W. Hoffmann (Luk_24:26):—The Divine Must.—Rieger:—The Risen Saviour a companion in journeying who certainly is glad to company with us, and in what way He companies with us.—Dietz:—The gradual rising of the Easter light in the soul of man: 1. How mournful life is without Easter light; 2. What bars the way to our hearts against the Easter light; 3. how in the soul of man the Easter begins to dawn; 4. how the full Easter light rises in his soul.—Bobe:—The intercourse of the Risen One with the disciples of Emmaus as an intimation where we are to seek and find the Lord.—Burk:—The wished-for abiding of the Lord with His people.—The holy employment of the living Jesus.—Von Harless:—The way to faith on the Risen One.—Rautenberg:—Easter in our way through the world; it here becomes Easter when the Risen One: 1. Shows Himself to us; 2. instructs us; 3. gives us strength to return home.—Shall we also constrain the Risen One to abide with us?
Footnotes:
[6][Luk_24:17.—Cod. Sin. has here a singular variation; instead of ἐστε σκυθρωποί, it has εσταθησαν σκυθρωποι. If this be genuine, it would depict the displeased silence in which the disciples stood for a moment on being interrupted, as they supposed, by an unsympathizing stranger, broken at last by the reply of Cleopas.—C. C. S.]
[7][Luk_24:21.—Expressed by the ἡμεις ἠλπίςομεν instead of the simple ἠλπίζομεν.—C. C. S.]
[8][Luk_24:21.—That is, as Bleek explains it, “notwithstanding these hopes which His prophetic works and words justified, it is already the third day after His crucifixion.”—C. C. S.]
[9]Luk_24:21.—Καί after ἀλλά γε is with good reason received into the text by Lachmann and Tischendorf, [Meyer, Tregelles, Alford,] according to B., D., [Cod. Sin.,] L.
[10][Luk_24:22.—The ἀλλά in Luk_24:21 and this in Luk_24:22 appear to indicate how the mind of the speaker was repelled from one conjecture to another, finding none tenable—C. C. S.]
[11][Luk_24:26.—“Παθεῖν καὶ εἰςελ.=παθόντα εἰσελ. It was not the entering into His glory, but the suffering, about which they wanted persuading.” Alford.—C. C. S.]
[12][Luk_24:27.—Αὐτοῦ, not αὑτοῦ.—C. C. S.]
[13]Luk_24:29.—́́Ηδη. Reading of B., [Cod. Sin.,] L., Cursives, Vulgate, Coptic, Slavonic, &c. Bracketed by Lachmann. [Omitted by Tischendorf; accepted by Meyer, Tregelles, Alford.—C. C. S.]
[14][Luk_24:32.—The και of the Recepta appears to have been interpolated to connect the clauses. B., D., [Cod. Sin.,] L., 33, Cant., Origen do not have it. See Lachmann, Tischendorf, [Meyer, Tregelles, Alford.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain CHRIST APPEARS TO THE TWO GOING TO EMMAUS. (Luke…
CHRIST APPEARS TO THE TWO GOING TO EMMAUS. (Luke 24:13-35)
two of them--One was Cleopas (Luk 24:18); who the other was is mere conjecture.
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Emmaus--about seven and a half miles from Jerusalem. They probably lived there and were going home after the Passover.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain § 150. JESUS APPEARS TO TWO DISCIPLES ON THEIR…
§ 150. JESUS APPEARS TO TWO DISCIPLES ON THEIR WAY TO EMMAUS, Luk_24:13-35.
Mar_16:12-13.
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13. Two of them—Two from them; that is from among the Christian body. One of them is named; but, says Bloomfield, “the evangelist, by omitting the other, has greatly exercised the commentators in guessing.” The best conclusion, as Stier thinks, is that of the German preacher: “Since the apostle has not named the other, let each of you put himself in his place.” You may learn much from such company. We make little doubt that Luke intends us to understand that the unnamed disciple was the evangelist himself. For, 1. His naming Cleopas shows a purpose to indicate that his not naming the other was not because he did not know his name. He could have named the other if some reason did not deter. 2. That reason probably was the same reason which deterred John from mentioning his own name—modesty. Thus we bring John, Mark, (see note on Mar_14:51,) and Luke under the same analogy. All three beheld Jesus, and all three introduce their own persons without mentioning their own names. 3. Two evangelists were chosen eye-witnesses. (See note on Luke’s preface.) The other two were not official eye-witnesses and ministers of the word; but each once saw the Lord; Mark as Jesus was on his way to death, Luke as he was on his way from death. This is one of the thousand delicate and occult proprieties which the thorough student of the Bible finds. 4. Cleopas is apparently the elder and more positive Christian of the two. Luke was the subordinate, deeply interested in the scene, and perhaps but newly acquainted with its facts. This may have been his first full contact with Jesus and his history; and by this rencontre, and the marvellous discourse of Jesus, his heart may have been profoundly awakened to a burning interest in the whole of the Lord’s earthly life. Thus was he prepared for his work as an historian. 5. The details of the whole incident are those of deeply interested memory. There are throughout, all the delicate touches of one who narrates an old and touching reminiscence. 6. The only counter argument is drawn from the fact that Luke professes not to have been an eye-witness. Not quite so. Luke professes to have obtained his history from eye-witnesses; which fact he states in order to show the reliability of his history. But that can hardly be strained into a denial that he ever saw Jesus in a single instance. Though Jesus in his resurrection body may once have crossed his sight, it was none the less necessary for his work that he should strictly canvass the original eye-witnesses of the Lord’s earthly life, and none the less important to the confirmation of his work that he should declare the originality of his sources.
To a village called Emmaus—See notes on parallel passage in Mark. It took Dr. Thomson three hours’ moderate riding over hill and vale to arrive at Jerusalem from the place he identifies as Emmaus.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 13-35. The Disciples at Emmaus.
13-35. The Disciples at Emmaus.
13. two of them] It is expressly implied in Luk_24:33 that they were not Apostles. One was Cleopas (an abbreviation of Cleopatros), of whom we know nothing, for the name is not the same as Clopas (=Alphaeus or Chalpai, Joh_19:25), though they may have been the same person (see on Luk_6:15). The other is unknown, and unconjecturable. There is no shadow of probability that it was St Luke himself (Theophylact). This exquisite narrative is given by St Luke alone, though mentioned in Mar_16:12-13.
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went] Rather, were going.
a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs] Omit “about,” which has nothing to sanction it in the text. The distance (6 1/2 miles) shews that Emmaus could not have been the Emmaus of 1Ma_3:40; 1Ma_9:50, &c. (Amwas or Nicopolis), which is 176 furlongs (22 miles) from Jerusalem, Jos. B. J. ii. 20, § 4, or the Galilaean Emmaus or “Hot Springs” (Jos. B. J. iv. 1, § 3, vii. 6, § 6). It may be the Emmaus of Jos. B. J. vii. 6, § 6 (Kulonieh Succah, iv. 5), which according to one reading was 60 furlongs from Jerusalem. Had the Emmaus been 160 furlongs distant (as in the reading of א, I, K, N, &c.) they could not have returned the same evening to Jerusalem.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (13) And, behold, two of them.—The long and singularly…
(13) And, behold, two of them.—The long and singularly interesting narrative that follows is peculiar to St. Luke, and must be looked upon as among the “gleaning of the grapes,” which rewarded his researches even after the full vintage had apparently been gathered in by others. The Emmaus in Galilee, about a mile from Tiberias, was famous for its medicinal warm springs (Jos. Ant. xviii. 2, § 3; Wars, iv. 1, § 3), and had the narrative referred to it, we might have supposed St. Luke to have visited it on that account. We have no record of any such springs in the Emmaus near Jerusalem, which is also named by Josephus (Wars, vii. 6, § 6) as at a distance of sixty stadia, or furlongs, from Jerusalem. The name, however, was probably, as Josephus states (as above), significant, connected with the modern Arabic term, Hammâm, or Hummum, for a “bath,” and indicating, therefore, like the Latin “Aquae,” or the French “Aix,” the presence of such springs, and if so, the same hypothesis may fit in here. In the case of the Emmaus (afterwards Nicopolis), in the plain of Philistia, there was a fountain mentioned by early writers as famous for its healing powers (Euseb. Chron. 41). We can hardly doubt, from the prominence given to the name of Cleopas, that he was St. Luke’s informant. We are not told when the disciples started, but as it was “towards evening” when they reached Emmaus, it could not well have been before their noontide meal. The fulness with which the whole account is given may well lead us to think of it as taken down at the time from the lips of the narrator.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 13-35. The meeting with the risen Jesus on…
Vers. 13-35. The meeting with the risen Jesus on the way to Emmaus.
And, behold, two of them. This long piece, which relates in a singularly vivid and picturesque manner one of the earliest appearances of the Risen, is peculiar to St. Luke. St. Mark (Mar_16:12, 13) mentions it, but as it were only in passing. This Gospel, written probably after the Gospels of SS. Matthew and Mark, holds a middle place between the earliest apostolic memoirs represented by the first two Gospels and the last memoir, that of St. John, which was probably put out in its present form by the apostle "whom Jesus loved" some time in the last fifteen years of the first century. Writers of varied schools unite in expressions of admiration for this singularly beautiful "memory of the Lord." Godet styles it one of the most admirable pieces in St. Luke"s Gospel. Renan, belonging to another, perhaps the most cheerless of all schools of religious thought, writes thus: Lepisode des disciples d"Emmaus est un des recits les plus fins, les plus nuances qu"il y ait duns aucune langue" ("Les Evangiles," p. 282). Dean Plumptre speaks of "the long and singularly interesting narrative peculiar to St. Luke." He says, "It must be looked upon as among the " gleaning of the grapes," which rewarded his researches even after the full vintage had apparently been gathered in by others" (i.e. St. Matthew and Mark). The "two of them," although doubtless well known in the apostolic age, seem to have held no distinguished place in early Christian history (see note on ver. 18, where Cleopas is mentioned). That same day. The first day of the week the first Easter Day. The events of the early morning of the Resurrection have been already commented upon. To a village called Emmaus. This Emmaus, the narrative tells us, was about sixty furlongs some six miles and a half from the holy city. It was situated east-south-east from Jerusalem. The name is connected with the modern Arabic term Hammam (a bath), and indicates probably, like the Latin Aquae, or the French Aix, and the English "Bath," or "Wells," the presence of medicinal springs; and this may possibly account for St. Luke the physician"s attention having in the first instance been drawn to the spot. This Emmaus is now called Kulonieh. A curious Talmudical reference, quoted by Godet, belongs to this place Emmaus, now Kulonieh: "At Mattza they go to gather the green boughs for the Feast of Tabernacles" (Talmud, "Succa," 4:5). Elsewhere it is said that "Maflza is Kulonieh.
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Vers. 13-35. Emmaus.
(For a beautiful paraphrase of this Scripture, see the passage in Cowper"s poem "Conversation," beginning, "It happened on a solemn eventide." The incident is presented by him as an illustration of converse "such as it behoves man to maintain, and such as God approves." And it is impossible to resist the appropriateness of the lesson which is enforced.) The time of the memorable appearance is the afternoon, probably between four and six; and its prominent persons are two disciples, not apostles, whom it is impossible to identify. The one is called Klopas or Cleophas, supposed by many to be Alphaeus, the brother of Joseph of Nazareth, and father of James; but the name being a contraction of Cleopatrus, the supposition is scarcely admissible. The other is not mentioned by name, and many conjectures concerning him have been framed. A worthy German pastor once said, "The learned cannot come to any agreement who the other was, and I will give you this good counsel let each of you take his place." Look at these two men as they journey. "The sun of the Resurrection was enveloped in thick clouds of despondency and sorrow, scarcely penetrated by a ray of light." It would seem that they had left the gathering of disciples before Mary had brought her tale. What they dwell on is, "True, the body was not in the tomb; but then he was not seen;" and one risen from the dead was a thought which they could scarcely credit. They are not sure even that the women really saw angels; it was, perhaps, only a vision of angels, and, having the notions of their time as to ghosts and apparitions, they incline to the belief that there was no reality in the presence of whom the Maries and Salome and others had spoken. No; he is dead, and the third day has come and gone, and he has not been seen. Let this state of mind be noted. There was no predisposition in Christ"s followers to accept the Resurrection. Far from this, the evidence made way against doubtings, against scepticisms, we might say, of the most obstinate nature. These foolish and slow-hearted men were almost the last people likely to credit the tale. How was it that this temperament, incredulous, despondent, so quickly gave way to one full of worship and great joy? How was it that such men gave up all, travelled hither and thither with the one message ever on their lips, many of them suffering death because they would maintain that the Christ who was crucified did rise, had been seen by them, and is alive for evermore? I can find only one answer to the question They witnessed to truth. "The Lord is risen indeed." But regard the incident in the light of the thought that the forty days in which Christ showed himself alive after his Passion were intended as a time of preparation for that new form of his presence which began when the day of Pentecost was fully come. Studying the forty-days" period, we can find many hints and suggestions as to the manner of Christ"s intercourse with us, of his coming to us in the Comforter whom he promised until the end of the age. The special teaching of this journey to Emmaus, and all that befell the two, may be gathered under three points:
(1) Christ with us, but unrevealed;
(2) Christ teaching, but personally unrecognized;
(3) Christ revealed and recognized.
I CHRIST WITH US, BUT UNREVEALED. A Stranger asks the cause of the dejection of the two travellers, and, by his sympathy and courtesy, draws out their confidence. Two reasons for not discerning him are given. The one is, (Mar_16:12) that "he appeared in another form" than that with which they were familiar. Not the form of the Shepherd going before them, but that of the Companion in walking and working clothes travelling by their side. But there is the other reason (ver. 16) eyes were holden that they should not know him." They were not at that time in spiritual light; their vision was narrowed by their great sorrow. Are not these still the reasons why so often we do not see the Christ who is with us as we travel along the thoroughfares of life? He is not in the form in which we expect him. Sometimes he hides himself, that he may get the more fully into our hearts. He is with us, wanting the halo, wanting all that would at once declare him, that he may be more intimately our Friend, "familiar, patient, condescending, free." And we miss or mistake him, because we cannot see beneath the form, because our minds are self-occupied, or, when intent on higher things, are wanting in the elevation, in the pure sweet light, of the spiritual mind. Only when the spiritual eyes are opened do we know who has been and is with us. But he is with us as we toil on our toilsome way, bearing the heat and burden of the afternoon. It is he who is touching the springs or" our thought and action. It is he who is speaking to us. Fear not, thou weary and heart-sore disciple; when thy comforts seem to be gone, he, the Comforter, is close to thee. Thy tears are falling; he is nigh with his "Why weepest thou?" Thou art seeking thy God, but thy soul is unresting, because it cannot find the Rock; he is nigh with his "Whom seekest thou?" Thou hast left the city"s din behind thee, and art alone with thyself; he is nigh, assuring thee that the fairest vineyards are those which are received from the valley of troubling. Thou art in communion with some kindred spirit, exchanging the fears and joys of the mind that turns to heaven; he is nigh, rejoicing to add himself to the two or three. The story of Emmaus is indeed a figure of the life-pilgrimage. Bear from it the pledge that whosoever is true to the light, is, though halting and uncertain may be his steps, the neighbour to Jesus Christ Jesus himself near and in fellowship with all communing and reasoning.
II And how? TEACHING, ALTHOUGH PERSONALLY UNRECOGNIZED. What Christ was in his dealing with the two, he has been in his dealing with his Church. During the past centuries he has been "teaching and expounding the things concerning himself." Did he not promise that the Holy Ghost would be the Guide into all truth, through the glorifying of him, the receiving of his and showing it to his own? What is the witness for the fulfilment of this office? It is the history of the past eighteen centuries. The text from which the Holy Ghost has been preaching is that which Jesus sounded (ver. 26); and the way of the sermon is the very way of Christ (ver. 27). Moses and the prophets, apprehended in New Testament light, have, for these centuries, been read, opened up, as the treasury of the things of Christ. Thought and culture, devotion and obedience, stand to-day where they stood yesterday before the mighty "Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?" Is there not progressiveness in the teaching of the Holy Ghost? There is development in Christianity. It has its permanent, but it has its progressive, element also. It is only by little and little that the higher truth of the kingdom enters the hearts of men. Precept must be on precept, line on line, until the dispensation of the opening, when the Church, gathered fully into the house of the Lord, will receive from-the pierced hand the bread of the eternal life. So in personal history and experience. There is One teaching us, even when we do not recognize who he is. Life is the school in which the Holy Ghost is the Instructor. Christ and Christ"s love, and the meaning of our existence as interpreted in Christ"s cross, is the lesson in which we are taught. We pass from standard up to standard, the book which regulates all the teaching being the Scriptures. Many are the forms which the Holy Ghost, the Teacher, assumes; many are the agencies through which he draws near. But if, with receptive minds, we are yielded to him, he is taking us step by step along the path of the manifold education meant for the disciple of Jesus; expounding as we are able to bear, stooping to our immaturities and weaknesses; a presence in us rather than external to us, stimulating thought and desire, enkindling into fuller flame the smoking flax; so that by-and-by we are able to say, "Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures?" (ver. 32).
III Behold CHRIST REVEALED AND RECOGNIZED. The village is reached. Must the delightful companionship end? Courteously saluting them, the Stranger apparently is going on. Nay, the sun is about to set; they entreat him not to leave them (ver. 29). He would have gone on if there had been no prayer. The personal desire is essential to the tarrying. But that desire never pleads in vain. How many never plead for the tarrying indeed, do not want it! For the drawing near and journeying with us, no desire from us is needed. Christ does that of his own will. But the tarrying is another matter. He cannot force an entrance; he will be forced. "They constrained him." He receives sinners for salvation; their reception of him is salvation. (Rev_3:20) At meat with them he is revealed. What it was that disclosed him we cannot exactly say. The whole manner is solemn and striking. At once he takes the head of the table. The Master"s place is conceded to him. And that always prepares for revelation. When the heart is truly yielded to Christ, the moment of the showing of himself is near. He takes the bread; he blesses; he breaks, and gives it to the two. And their eyes are opened, and they know him. There is the voice, the blessing, and I think, the sight of the pierced hands the sight that I expect to have in glory. The meal may not have been a full sacrament. But Christ"s presence and blessing made, the meal sacramental; for that presence and that blessing elevate whatever is ordinary. And the action before us is a consecration of ordinance as well as Word as the means of revelation. The Word prepares for the ordinance; in the ordinance Christ is revealed. Is not this a forecast of the future? Is it not Christ"s will to make himself known to those who sit at meat with him they having first constrained him and being thus spiritually susceptible in the breaking of bread? Observe the signs of the revelation. A new sight (ver. 31); a new energy (ver. 33); a new sympathy (vers. 33, 34); a new eloquence (ver. 35). Joy, joy to the disciples who have seen the Lord. But he has vanished out of their sight. He must not hinder, by his bodily presence, the lifting of the consciousness into the region of the spiritual presence. That on which afterwards they dwell is, not the glimpse they have had of face and hand, but the power of his Spirit, the life-giving force of his Word (ver. 32). The clouds were dispelled by the rising of the Day-star in the heart. That is the sign of Christ with us here. By that we know that it is he who has been talking with us. One day, but not in this present time, we shall see him as he is; he will bless and break and give to us himself, the Bread of life. And then he will not vanish out of our sight. "Oh, then shall the veil be removed, And round me thy brightness be poured; I shall meet him whom absent I loved, I shall see whom unseen I adored.
Vers. 13-32. Privilege; unconscious companionship; incredulity.
In this most interesting narrative, beside a very pleasing and attractive picture, we have a variety of lessons. We may gather instruction respecting
I OUR LORD"S ELECTIVE LOVE. It was a very great favour he granted to these two men. Why, we ask, was it rendered to them? Of one we do not even know his name, and of the other nothing but his name. Why was so rare and high a privilege accorded to these obscure disciples, and not rather to those more prominent and active? In truth, we find ourselves quite unable to decide who are the fittest to receive special favours from the hand of God, or on what grounds he wills to manifest his presence and his power. His selections, we are sure, cannot be arbitrary or irrational. God must have not only a reason, but the best reason, for everything he does. But into the reasons for his choice we often may not enter; they lie beyond our reach. It is not to the acknowledged leaders of the Church that God often chooses to manifest especial privilege, but to those who are simple, unexpectant, unknown. He grants illuminations of his Spirit, peculiar joy and gladness of heart in him, remarkable success in the utterance of his truth, anticipatory glimpses of heavenly glory, to whom he will. And these are quite likely to be found amongst the humbler members of his Church. If there is any law which will guide our judgment it is this that it is to the "pure in heart," to those who have most perfectly conquered the fleshly passions and are most freed from worldly ambitions and anxieties, who have the simplest and purest hope in him and desire toward him, that he vouchsafes his presence and grants the teaching and inspiration of his Spirit. But Christ"s elective love is fully as much of a fact as it is of a doctrine.
II UNCONSCIOUS COMPANIONSHIP WITH CHRIST. These two men were walking and talking with Christ, receiving his truth and responding to his appeal, their hearts "burning within them" as they held sweet and sacred intercourse with him; yet they did not recognize him; they had no idea that they were having fellowship with the Lord. There is much unconscious companionship with Jesus Christ now. Men are led into belief of the truth, are impressed with the sovereign claims of God upon their service, and of Jesus Christ upon their love; they ask, they inquire, they come to the feet of Christ to learn of him; they come to the cross of Christ to trust in him; they shun what they believe to be offensive, and pursue what they think is right and pleasing in his sight; and yet they are not at rest. They think they may be in a good way or in a fair way to find life; but they do not realize that they are in the right way. The fact is ofttimes that they are walking in the path of life with Christ, but "their eyes are holden that they do not know him." A Divine One has joined himself to them, as familiarly and unpretendingly as to these two disciples, ingratiating himself into their favour, wooing and winning their trust and their love; but because there has been no period of welt-recognized revolution, no sudden remarkable convulsion, they have failed to perceive that the work wrought within them has been that of his own kind and holy hand. Such souls need to learn that oftenest it is not in the wind, or in the earthquake, or in the fire, but in the still small voice of familiar truth and gracious influence, that Christ comes to the soul in renewing power. If it is in Christ we are trusting, if it is in his service we are most willing to live, if it is his will we are most concerned to do, then it is he himself by whose side we are walking day by day.
III THE STRANGE INCREDULITY OF CHRISTIAN DISCIPLESHIP. Our Master, who was so gentle and so considerate, here employs a very strong expression (ver. 25). This is the language of serious reproach; it is a weighty rebuke. The disciples of Christ ought to have read their Scriptures better, and they ought to have heeded the reiterated warning and promise he had himself given them of his death and his rising again. But while we wonder at what seems to us their slowness to learn and to believe, are we not as obtuse and as incredulous as they were? Do we not fail to grasp the promises of God as they are written in his Word, as they were spoken by his Son our Saviour? When those things happen which we should expect to happen in connection with the teaching of Divine truth; when the Spirit of God works mightily and mercifully in the souls of men; when hard hearts are broken and stubborn wills are subdued to the obedience of Christ; when wrong and shameful lives are changed into pure and holy ones; when the kingdom of God comes amongst us; are we not surprised, incredulous? Are we not tempted to ascribe these issues to other than heavenly sources? And yet ought not this very result to happen? Is it not precisely what we should have been looking for, and wondering that it did not occur? We shall probably find abundant illustrations of Christian incredulity to match anything of which we read in our New Testament. "Slow of heart" are we to believe all that the Master has said of the presence and the power and the promises of God. C.
Vers. 13-32. Further lessons by the way.
Other lessons beside those already gleaned (see preceding homily) await our hand in this instructive story.
I THE THREAD OF TRIAL WHICH RUNS THROUGH THE FABRIC OF OUR LIFE. On one occasion our Lord asked a question of one of his disciples, and of that question it is said, "This he said to prove him". (Joh_6:6) There were other occasions, e.g. that of the blind beggars by the wayside, and that of the Syro-phoenician woman, when Jesus said things to prove or to try those who came to him. We have the same thing here. He drew near to these two disciples in the guise of a stranger; he chose to remain unknown to them; he drew them out as if he were one unacquainted with the events which were filling their minds and hearts; he induced them to discover themselves freely and fully both to his own eyes and to theirs; moreover, he was in the act of passing on, and would have gone beyond Emmaus if they had not availed themselves of the opportunity of persuading him to remain. And thus he tried them. The "trial of our faith," and of our love and loyalty, forms a great part of our Master"s dealing with ourselves. It explains many otherwise inexplicable things in our life. God appears to us other than the kind, gracious, pitiful, considerate Father that he is. Christ seems to be other than the present, strong, faith-rewarding Master that he is. Why does God let such things happen to us? Why does not Christ bring to pass that for which we labour and pray so earnestly? It may be that, in these cases, he is trying us; proving the sincerity and deepening the roots of our faith and love and zeal. We shall be the stronger, and our lives will be the more fruitful, for his action or his lingering, a little further on.
II THE TRUE WAY TO MAKE THE SABBATH A DELIGHT. It was fitting that on the first sabbath of the Christian era there should be recorded an instance in which the day was spent as Christ would have it be. What a pleasant picture this of communion with Christ, of searching the Scriptures, of sitting down at the same table with him! We have here:
1. Communion with our Lord. About one-fourth of the whole day these favoured men were conversing with Christ, opening their minds and outpouring their hearts to him, telling him their hopes and their fears, and receiving kind and illuminating responses from his lips. So should our "fellowship be with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ," on the "day of the Lord." And as we may be sure that the way to Emmaus was marvellously shortened that afternoon, and the village houses showed themselves long before they were looked for, so will earnest and loving communion with our living Lord, so will our walking with Christ, make the hours go swiftly by on the wings of holy and elevated joy, and we shall "call the sabbath a delight.
2. Sacred study. (Vers. 27, 32) How wonderful these Scriptures which contain the record of Divine revelation! So short as to be capable of being committed to the memory, and yet so full as to contain all that is needful for our enlightenment and enrichment, for guidance to God and heaven; so dull to the unquickened conscience, and so delightful to the awakened and renewed; holding mysteries insoluble to human learning, and yet intelligible and instructive from Genesis to Revelation to the earnest inquirer after truth and life; valueless in the market, and yet precious beyond all price to all who want to know how to live and how to die. As Christ and the two learners walked and talked, new light shone on the old passages, and the way was too short and the time too soon gone for their interest and their eagerness to be expended.
3. Meeting the living Lord at his table. (Ver. 30) This was not, strictly speaking, a "sacramental" meal to which they sat down. It was not the "Lord"s Supper" of which they partook. But there was about it so much of reverence, of religious earnestness, of holy communion, of sacred joy, that it may well suggest to us that most excellent way of spending some part of "the Lord"s day.
III THE WORTH OF ALL TRUE CHRISTIAN LABOUR. Possibly those who teach may sometimes ask themselves whether it is worth their while to conduct so small a class, to preach to so poor a congregation. Here is the answer to that questioning. If the risen Lord of glory thought it worth his while to walk seven miles and spend two hours in enlightening the minds and comforting the hearts of two humble and obscure disciples; if he was content to spend a good part of his first sabbath in taking a class of two, and pouring from the rich treasury of his truth into their minds, we may not think it unworthy of us to spend time in enlightening or comforting one human heart that craves the succour it is in our power to give. The disciple is not above his Master.
IV THE SECRET OF SPIRITUAL INTEREST, Do we devoutly wish that we knew more of that sacred gladness of which these disciples were so happily conscious as he "talked with them by the way, and opened to them the Scriptures" (ver. 32)? Then:
1. Let us see that we are, as they were, earnestly desirous of knowing more of Jesus Christ. Let us go to our Bible and go up to the house of the Lord with that end distinctly and prominently in view.
2. Let us seek and gain the same Divine illumination. It is still to be had, though that voice is not now heard in our ear. The "Spirit of truth" is with us still, waiting to illumine and to enlarge our hearts; if we seek his aid and open our minds to his entrance, he will "guide us into all the truth". C. (Joh_16:13)
Vers. 13-35. The risen Christ the best Escort on the pilgrim, age of life.
We left Peter in perplexity, but he and John must have returned to the rest of the disciples, and reported the emptiness of the sepulchre, but that they had not seen the Risen One (ver. 24). John does not seem to have communicated his own convictions unto the others. Most likely he is turning.the matter over in his mind, as contemplative and deep-thinking men will do before giving a public pronouncement. Meanwhile there is a dispersion of some of the disciples that very afternoon. Thomas seems to have gone away, and to have remained away that night. And two of them proceed seven or eight miles into the country to Emmaus, where their home seems to have been. It is these two pilgrims that we are now to follow. They leave the city, and their conversation is sad. They are discussing the bright hopes which have been so lately quenched by the crucifixion of their Lord. It is while so sad that Jesus joins them; for he who had been the "Man of sorrows" and "acquainted with grief" is ever breaking in upon men"s troubles to relieve them. His treatment of these "unwilling sceptics," as they have been lately called, is most instructive.He probes their sorrow, gets an insight into its cause, gets them to state their hopes, their disappointments, and the rumours they had heard of his resurrection. On this basis, although apparently an unknown Stranger, he proceeds to show them their error and slowness in not believing all that the prophets have spoken about Messiah. Beginning, therefore, at Moses, he expounds to them from all the prophets that Messiah must first suffer, and then enter into his glory. The exposition was so brilliant and interesting, that they felt their hearts burning within them during the process. Then, under compulsion, he enters their lodging at Emmaus, sits down as Guest, then proceeds as Host to distribute the food as at the sacramental meal. Not till then did they recognize their risen Lord in the devout Being who graced their board. Once recognized, and thus dispelling all their doubt, he vanishes into the invisible. Such experience could not be quietly kept at Emmaus. They resolve to return that very night to Jerusalem, to report their interview, and how blessed an Escort Jesus had been in their pilgrimage. They are in time for the manifestation of the Risen One to the assembled disciples. We may learn from the narrative such lessons as these.
I JESUS MAKES HIS ADVENT TO US WHEN OUR SOULS ARE SAD. This is the very spirit of the dispensation. Thus he cried, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest". (Mat_11:28) And as the risen Saviour he prefers, we may well believe, the house of mourning to the house of mirth. Not only so, but when souls are in sad perplexity, when they are "unwilling sceptics" it is his delight to come and be their Escort along life"s way, and lead them out of gloom and difficulty into real peace and joy. Now, when we know how accessible he is through prayer, we should never undertake any pilgrimage without securing the companionship of Jesus.
II WE LEARN THAT JESUS IS OFTEN WITH US WHILE WE KNOW IT NOT. Here was he with these two pilgrims, taking step by step with them to Emmaus, and yet their eyes were so holden that they did not know him. He was near them, but they did not know him. Is not this the case with all of us? He is at our side, he takes every step with us, but we are so blinded with care and preoccupation that we fail to see him or enjoy his society as we should. The omnipresence of Jesus should be the believer"s constant consolation.
III JESUS IS HIMSELF AT ONCE THE GREAT SUBJECT AND THE GREAT EXPOSITOR OF SCRIPTURE. Here we find him, after listening so sympathetically to all the difficulties of the disciples, proceeding to expound to them, "in all the Scriptures, the things concerning himself." "The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." And here it is well to notice what is the substance of the whole revelation. It is put in these words of the risen Saviour, "Ought not Messiah to have suffered these things, and to have entered (eiselyein) into his glory?" The Authorized and Revised Versions have alike failed to give the proper rendering here. Our Lord declares that he has entered already into his glory, just as he has already passed through his sufferings. We believe it can be made out from this and other passages that our Lord ascended of course invisibly without disciples as spectators, to heaven, and reported himself on high immediately after telling Mary, "I ascend not "will ascend unto my Father and your Father, to my God and your God" (Joh_20:17; cf. also Bush on " The Resurrection. This supposition of an ascension on the very day of the Resurrection enables us to understand his movements during the rest of the day, and his bestowal of the Spirit, which was conditioned on his glorification, in the evening. (Joh_20:22; cf. Joh_7:39) It also enables us to regard heaven as his head-quarters during the forty days before his visible ascension from Olivet. Upon this interesting subject we cannot now dwell, however; but we content ourselves by pointing it out, and emphasizing the fact of Jesus as the suffering and glorified Messiah being the Hero, the Substance, and the great Expositor of revelation. It is when we look for him in the Word that it becomes luminous and delightful.
IV THE ENTERTAINMENT OF JESUS IS SURE TO LEAD TO SPECIAL BLESSING. These two men insisted on Jesus sojourning with them, because it was towards evening and the day was far spent. And as he sojourned, he was transmuted from Guest to Host, and gave them a sacramental instead of common feast. It is when devoutly asking a blessing on the bread that he is recognized, only, however, to vanish like a vision from their sight. Now we may pass through an analogous experience. Is not this what is meant by the Master when he says, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me"? (Rev_3:20) If we are open-hearted, and welcome Jesus, he will enter our hearts and sup with us, taking whatever we have to give him, and delighting in it, and enable us to sup with him. He will change into a Host from being our Guest. It was thus he acted at the marriage of Cana; it was thus he acted at Emmaus; it was thus he acted on the Shore of the Galilaean lake. He may be Guest, but he will soon show himself to be our Host, and give us a feast of fat things.
V LIFE IS LARGELY A LIVING UPON HAPPY MEMORIES. AS soon as the Risen One had vanished, they began to compare notes about the burning heart, and all the happy memories of their journey from Jerusalem. And as they plodded in that night through the dark to report their great discovery, they lived upon the happy memory. But, had they only known it, the risen Jesus was in some way making that return journey to Jerusalem too, making for the same upper room, to reveal himself to the disciples, and their fellowship with him might have been repeated. At all events, we need not live on happy memories, but may enjoy Christ"s spiritual presence and his escort all through the pilgrimage of life. It is this which will make the present life a heaven, not by anticipation merely, but in actual enjoyment; for fellowship with Christ, even though he be unseen, is the chief element of heaven. May we have the great Escort with us all the way! R.M.E.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Two of them went that same day to a…
Luk_24:13-35
Two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus
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The journey to Emmaus
I.
WE SEE IN THIS APPEARANCE, AS IN THE OTHERS, SOMETHING VERY CHARACTERISTIC OF OUR LORDS HABITS AND WAYS DURING HIS LIFETIME, His disciples and followers were always craving for publicity and display. He was always retiring from too much of that, carrying on His work as quietly as possible. And so here. Jesus rises alone--at the break of day. No mortal sees Him put on immortality. Bright angels stand as sentinels while He arrays Himself. It is enough that His disciples see the empty tomb, the grave-clothes, and the place where the Lord lay.
II. WE MAY SEE HOW EASILY STILL, IN THAT RISEN LIFE, HE ENTERS INTO COMMUNICATION WITH MEN; HOW LITTLE DIFFICULTY HE HAS IN JOINING ANY COMPANY, OR ANY TWO OR THREE WITH WHOM HE WISHES TO BE!
III. THIS APPEARANCE OF CHRIST IS LIKE A MESSAGE OF FRATERNITY AND DIVINE REGARD, ESPECIALLY TO PLAIN, SIMPLE, ORDINARY MEN--to what we may call common men, who wear no distinction and possess no advantage whatever over their fellows. For who were these two men? No one knows anything about them. In all probability there was not much to know, except that they were disciples, that they loved Him.
IV. WE HAVE AN INSTANCE HERE OF THE ATTRACTIVE POWER OF SORROW TO HIM. They walked, and talked, and were sad. And then He drew near and went With them.
V. THIS, HOWEVER, WE MUST OBSERVE, THAT IT IS NOT TO EVERY KIND OF TROUBLE AND SADNESS THAT HE GRANTS IMMEDIATE ASSUAGEMENT. Here you see He draws near at once to two sad men. But what are they saying? They are talking of Him Why are they sorrowing? They are sorrowing about Him. So our sorrow, if it is to be sanctified and turned into joy, must have Christ in it.
VI. THERE IS A SORROW AND A DARKNESS EXPRESSLY SENT BY CHRIST, OR, AT ANY RATE, HELD BY HIM AROUND HIS PEOPLE. A sorrow kept, as it were, beyond the time when it might naturally be ended, kept for the accomplishment of some purposes of grace which could not be so well attained, perhaps not attained at all, if the darkness were melted away. To take the language of the passage, Our eyes are holden that we should not know Him, even when He is with us. So, oftentimes, our eyes are holden that we should not know Him. Strange things happen to us, and we think not that His hand is upon them all. All the instruction we get in the darkness is from Him; but we do not know that it is from Him directly, and immediately, until the darkness is over.
VII. IT IS A BLESSED MOMENT IN LIFE WHEN WE KNOW HIM, COME WHEN, AND HOW, AND WHERE IT MAY--WHEN WE ARE SURE THAT HE IS NEAR! In those moments we are glad of the present, and we look to the future without a fear.
VIII. THEY ARE BRIEF, THEY ARE TRANSIENT AS THE GLOW OF THE MORNING--NOT SETTLED AS THE RADIANCE OF THE DAY. They knew Him and--what next? A long happy conversation, until the evening wore into the night, and the stars came out on high? A journey into Jerusalem again the next morning, with still more delightful discourse, to meet His surprised and rejoicing disciples there? Not so. And their eyes were opened, and they knew Him, and He vanished out of their sight! Such is the end of all high communion times, of all vision-hours in this life. They are but brief. They can but be brief; there is more work to do, and more sorrow to drink, and more time to travel through; and Jesus in His glory retires, that these things may be done, and that He may come again when need shall be! He comes down to lift us up, to intensify our longings for heaven, to entice us home. And of course He does not stay. He is always coming, and always vanishing out of our sight, that we may the more long for and labour after the place, the glory, the life in which He would have us for ever be. (A. Raleigh, D. D.)
The walk to Emmaus
I. THE WAY.
1. To these two disciples that was the way of sadness and gloom.
2. The sadness of those two disciples sprang from doubt or unbelief.
3. Though that was the way of sadness and doubt to those two disciples, yet they communed and reasoned together on the best themes.
II. THE METHOD OF CHRISTS COMMUNICATIONS BY THE WAY. He talked with us, and opened to us the Scriptures. The manner was simple, clear, and cogent. Two or three things about Christs method of communing with these disciples are worth a little attention.
1. It was sympathetic. He strikes a chord in their troubled hearts that vibrates at the touch of His matchless sympathy.
2. It was instructive. Seek instruction rather than rapture.
3. This talk by the way was animating. Not only did it relieve their gloom and sadness, it cheered, revived, and filled them with ardent icy, for they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us by the way?
III. THE REST AND THE REVELATION WHICH AWAITED THE DISCIPLES AT THE END OF THE WAY.
1. A triumphant joy.
2. An intelligent faith in Him as the Redeemer of Israel.
3. The disclosure of Christ to those two disciples filled their hearts with confident hope. (J. T. Higgins.)
The disclosure at Emmaus
I. We note, in the beginning, THE NATURALNESS OF A POSTURE OF MIND AKIN TO DOUBT AND CONFUSION. Heavy providences bear us down under them. Sudden, almost inexplicable, depressions settle upon our souls. The devil watches always for these opportunities, and plies us with adroit attack.
II. Next, we see here THE POSITIVE VALUE OF FRATERNAL CONFERENCE AND EXCHANGE OF VIEWS. The larger part of our seasons of hypochondria are to be dispersed by a frank conversation with sympathetic friends in relation to the matters of supreme interest to us both.
III. THE ACTUAL NEARNESS OF CHRIST ALWAYS, TO THOSE WHO NEED HIM. Would it alarm us, if we suddenly discovered we had been talking with Him in person, instead of some boon companion we had met in our freedom?
IV. Then we have a fine lesson concerning THE DIVINE REMEDY FOR ALL DOUBTS AS TO OUR SAVIOUR AND OUR SALVATION. These bewildered disciples are led directly to the Divine Word (see Luk_24:25-27).
V. In the next place, we may note here THE PERSONAL INTEREST JESUS HAS IN EVERY TRUE BELIEVER WHO IS IN NEED OF HIS HELP. A whole afternoon did our Lord give of those forty days He had left to these disciples who were not known enough even to be described. Lot in life has nothing to do with the estimate which the Saviour forms of His followers. He came with those modest brethren to their destination.
VI. We have now a lesson from the story which might give a help to any Christian at the communion table; THE REAL JOY IN EVERY SPIRITUAL FEAST IS TO HAVE THE LORD JESUS CHRIST DISCLOSED TO US. Jesus has kept coming again ever since He went away.
VII. A single lesson more remains: we see THAT THE FIRST DELIGHTED IMPULSE OF A SOUL, REJOICING AT HAVING FOUND JESUS, IS TO GO AND TELL OTHERS OF HIS PRESENCE AT THE FEAST (see Luk_24:32-35). These happy disciples could not wait even till morning. The Lord had vanished, but His argument remained; while they were musing the fire burned. Now they began to remember peculiar experiences along the way. Oftentimes a new disclosure of Christs presence turns the believer back upon hours in which he now sees the Holy Spirit was dealing with him; why did he not recognize it sooner? Memories of communions are always precious, if the joy has remained. Life gathers a fresh impulse from the disclosure. We are sure that walk out to Emmaus with Jesus in companionship was wonderfully sweet; but the walk in back again over the same path was not without comfort. Every stone and bush would make them think of Him. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.)
Easter Monday
I. NOTICE THE CHARACTERS BROUGHT TO VIEW. Two men. Devout Jews. Disciples of Jesus. They were in great perplexity and trouble of heart. Their faith had received a blow under which it greatly staggered. They reasoned the case with each other; but reason was too weak an instrument to give them relief. Mere earthly reason, when it comes to matters of faith and salvation, can do very little for us. They were moving through one of the most interesting and beautiful districts. Their way from Jerusalem to Emmaus lay by the tombs of the ancient Judges, by the old dwelling-place of Samuel, and through mountainous scenery as attractive as any in the Holy Land. But no charms of nature, however intermingled with sacred story, could soothe the trouble that was upon their souls. Those scenes of blood and murder which had been enacted at Jerusalem, and the sore disappointment which those scenes had entailed upon their most precious hopes, followed them, and clung to them, in spite of all the pleasant things around them. Nature, in all its loveliness, cannot supply the place of Christ, or give comfort to the soul that has lost Him. Yet the Saviour was with them, all unknown to themselves. In the form of a common traveller, journeying the same way, and after the same manner with themselves, He overtook them, and made one in their little company. There are many ways in which He comes to His people. He comes to them sometimes in the form of a plain gardener, or a servant. He comes sometimes in the form of a fellow-traveller. He comes sometimes in the form of a poor beggar. But, in some shape or other, He is never far from those who are in spiritual earnest, and devoutly struggling for the light. In our earthly way of looking at things, we do not always recognize the presence of our Saviour, and our eyes are holden that we do not know Him. It is the fault of our feeble faith, that we only think of Christ as far away--as hidden in the grave--or in some remote world to which the grave is the mysterious doorway. Hence so much of our trouble and doubtfulness. But it is an erroneous way of thinking of Him. He is not in the grave. He is not far off in some realm which separates Him for ever from all connection with this present world. He is risen. He is not far from every one of us. Wherever two or three are gathered together in His name, there He is. He is in the city, and He is in the country. He is in the garden among the flowers, and He is in the dusty highway. He is in our assemblies for devotion, and He journeys with us in our travels. He is with us, and speaking to us, even when we do not at all suspect that it is He.
II. NOTICE HOW THE RISEN JESUS DEALS WITH THESE PERPLEXED AND SORROWING ONES.
1. He drew near, and went with them. It is the will of our gracious Saviour to be near us, and to have us near Him. We have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities Heb_4:15). When grief and trouble are upon His disciples, He takes it to heart, and is drawn towards them in loving sympathy. But, in addition to their mental troubles, these pilgrims were earnestly engaged with each other, trying to solve and master them. Earnestness of spirit is never unnoticed in heaven.
2. He questioned them as to their troubles and sadness. He said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another as ye walk? and why are ye sad? It was a call to review the character of their trouble, as the basis for the formation of a better judgment. They had not looked at matters rightly. They had not gone deep enough into the facts for the proper conclusions. The cure for their disturbance was in the very things that disturbed them, if they would only learn to see them in their true aspects and relations. Did Christian people but view their anxieties aright, they would find in them cause for joy rather than discomfiture. Desponding soul, Jesus asks thee, Why art thou sad? Canst thou give Him a reason for thy disheartenment at what has happened? Review thy ground, and come to a better mind.
3. Having drawn out their story, He directed them to the Bible. After all, there is nothing that can so settle, satisfy, and comfort our troubled hearts and anxious doubts, as the records of the holy prophets. There the portrait of the Christ is fully drawn, and all that concerneth Him is amply disclosed. From them these disciples might have fortified themselves against all such sorrowful perplexities over their Masters death. The very first promise that was made of Him, told of a suffering as well as a triumphing Saviour. He was to be bruised, as well as to bruise. All the appointments of the law pointed to death and bloodshedding as the only possible way of remission of sins or recovery from condemnation. Precious indeed are these blessed Scriptures. Herein is light which giveth understanding to the simple, and which maketh wise unto salvation. Herein is balm for the troubled heart more than Gilead can furnish. Are we shaken in faith, and disturbed in our hopes? Jesus directs us to the Bible.
4. And having set them right in their reading of the Scriptures, the Saviour yielded to their entreaties, entered with them into their home, and made Himself known to them in the breaking of bread. Those who love the truth will be kindly disposed toward those who teach it; and those who admit Christ into their hearts will be anxious also to have Him abide in their homes. And those who in grateful consideration of His kindness receive Him into their houses, though they should not yet know with whom they are dealing, will soon have Him disclosed to them in all the certainties of an unmistakable faith. (J. A. Seiss, D. D.)
The walk to Emmaus
I. THE SORROWS AND DOUBTS OF THE TWO DISCIPLES.
II. THE SORROWS AND DOUBTS OF THE DISCIPLES ARE MET BY A DIVINE EXPLANATION.
1. He first rebukes their spiritual ignorance and unwillingness to believe.
2. They were, without being aware of it, mourning over the very things which formed Christs peculiar glory and their own redemption.
3. To show this, He began at Moses, and explained in regular succession what the prophets had foretold concerning Himself.
III. THE SORROWS AND DOUBTS OF THE DISCIPLES WERE LOST IN THE SUPREME JOY OF THE RISEN JESUS FULLY REVEALED. Lessons:
1. This narrative is an irrefragable proof of the reality of our Lords resurrection. He was not an apparition nor a subjective vision.
2. God is ever near us, if we only had the spiritual vision to discern His presence.
3. To talk of Jesus and the things of the kingdom, is wise. At such seasons He draws near, and by His Spirit communes with us until our hearts burn with new hopes, and our eyes are filled with a revelation of His presence.
4. The Old Testament prophecies, inclusive of everything relating to Christs Church, are, according to His own showing, an integral part of the Scriptures.
5. Failure to believe the Scriptures was the cause of the disciples blindness and sorrows.
6. How precious is a Christians company. (T. S. Doolittle, D. D.)
The walk to Emmaus
I. TWO REPRESENTATIVE DISCIPLES.
1. They were on a journey. So are we all.
2. They were in earnest conversation.
(1) To converse is natural.
(2) Our conversation should be wise, spiritual, helpful.
3. They were full of sadness.
(1) Their sadness was natural.
(a) Bright hopes were blasted.
(b) ,an awful tragedy had been enacted.
(2) But their sadness was sinful.
(a) Because it arose from their unbelief in the testimony of the prophets.
(b) Because it arose from their unbelief in the testimony of Christ Himself.
(c) Yet how common is such unbelief among Christians?
II. CHRIST IN HIS REPRESENTATIVE CHARACTER.
1. As ever near His sorrowing disciples.
2. As ever entering into their experience.
3. As rebuking their unbelief.
4. As the opener up of the Scriptures.
(1) Christ ever honours the Scriptures.
(2) Christ ever testifies to the genuineness and inspiration of the Scriptures.
(3) Christ ever teaches that tie Himself is the central subject of the Scriptures.
5. As unexpectedly revealing Himself,
(1) While their hearts were full of doubts, their eyes were holden that they should not know Him.
(2) The expounding of the Scripture restored them to a believing condition.
(3) Their quickened faith resulted in hearts that burned.
(4) Hearts that burn alone can see Jesus to know Him. (D. C. Hughes, M. A.)
The walk to Emmaus
I. THIS WALK TO EMMAUS SUGGESTS THE STRANGE MINGLING OF UNBELIEF AND FAITH IN THE SAME BREAST.
1. The fact of their unbelief.
2. The unreasonableness of their unbelief.
3. The reality of their faith.
II. THIS WALK TO EMMAUS SUGGESTS THE LORDS INTEREST IN HIS PERPLEXED BUT INQUIRING DISCIPLES.
III. THIS WALK TO EMMAUS SUGGESTS THE CHARACTER OF THE TRUE INQUIRER, THOUGH PERPLEXED.
1. He is ever interested in those who unfold the Scriptures.
2. He is ever open to conviction.
3. His heart is ever stirred by the truth.
4. When he learns the truth, he is ever anxious to proclaim it to others.
Lessons:
1. We learn that unbelief arises from the heart, and is an evidence of unwisdom.
2. That unbelief not only brings trouble to the heart, but blindness to the mind.
3. That perplexities are not solved by reasoning, but by the study of Gods Word.
4. If our Lord and His apostles found in Moses and the prophets evidences of His Messiahship, why may not we? (D. C. Hughes, M. A.)
The journey to Emmaus
After He has comforted the weeping, disconsolate Magdalene, and graciously restored the fallen Peter, He hastens to lay hold of those sad wanderers who have ignorantly turned away from where they might have found light and consolation. The first word He addressed to them, after He had drawn out their thoughts and feelings by two questions which He needed not to ask, but which it was well they should answer, was a word of rebuke--O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Thus do chiding and reproof oftentimes precede the most gracious manifestations. Our faults must be corrected before any real and lasting comfort can be administered. To remove all discomfort and distress, without touching the evil state of mind from which they spring, would be like relieving the patients pain at the expense of aggravating his disease; it would be to countenance and encourage us in the wrong thoughts and feelings which it behoves us to abandon. Not thus does the Great Physician deal with the souls whom He loves. Injudicious earthly teachers may try to minister relief to distempered minds, by simply soothing their sorrows without correcting their faults, making them believe that all their troubles spring from something without themselves which will shortly be put right, instead of leading them to look within that they may correct what is wrong there; pleasing them with flattery when they should first pain them by rebuke; and thus, for the sake of yielding them a little momentary pleasure, inflicting on them a permanent injury. Not so the Saviour. How prone we are all to close our eyes to the things which we dislike--to believe only in those we like! The disciples were ready enough to listen to what seemed to justify their hopes of a coming kingdom: when He spoke of His sufferings they were equally ready to say, Be it far from Thee, Lord. Whatever we may think of the manner in which the Old Testament writers were inspired--a question on which bold theorising is but a bold mistake, the conduct of our Lord on this occasion places the fact of their inspiration beyond all dispute among those who recognize His authority. Abide with us, they said, for it is towards evening, and the day is far spent. The reason of this request was the fascination of His speech--the effect it had produced on them in dispelling their doubts, reviving their drooping hopes, and quickening their languid affections. Such is the invariable consequence of converse with the Saviour. Such experience naturally awakens the desire that the fellowship may be prolonged. From souls who thus earnestly seek Him the Saviour will not withhold His gracious presence. He went in to tarry with these disciples, and sat at meat with them; thus condescending not only to become their guest, but to place Himself so much on an equality with them, as to sit at the same table and partake of the same meal. Be this as it may, this portion of the narrative is beautifully representative of what often takes place in the experience of believers. Where the Saviours presence is earnestly desired and prayed for, He not only grants the request, but enters into more intimate fellowship with the longing soul. But delightful as fellowship with Christ is to the truly Christian soul, the passage may very well remind us that there is something for us to do besides gratifying our desire, even for the highest spiritual enjoyment. Peter, on the Mount of Transfiguration, though he said, It is good for us to be here, was not permitted to build tabernacles as he desired, because at the foot of the mountain there were distresses to be relieved. The two disciples, though they would fain prolong their interview with the Lord, must, just when their gratification is at the highest, be deprived of His presence, and return to Jerusalem to share their joy with others. And so we, sometimes, when we might greatly prefer quiet meditation and devotion to active service, must nevertheless, because the world needs our ministrations, go forth from communion with our Master to do the Masters work. I cannot conclude without calling attention to that which appears so conspicuously throughout the whole of the narrative--the marvellous condescension of our Lord. These are but weak disciples when He finds them--foolish, slow of heart to understand the Scriptures--their faith much clouded, though it does not relinquish its hold of Him. And how He condescends to their weakness, suits His instruction to their case, gradually leads them to a full preception of the truth and apprehension of Himself. Tenderly He deals with them, not breaking the bruised reed, nor quenching the smoking flax; but gathering the lambs in His arms, and carrying them in His bosom. (W. Landels.)
Communion with Christ
I. THIS CONVERSATION SHOWS WHAT LIFE WOULD BE WITHOUT CHRIST.
1. When we fail to discern the presence of Christ our hearts are overwhelmed with grief.
2. When we fail to discern the presence of Christ our minds are clouded with doubt.
II. THIS CONVERSATION SHOWS WHAT LIFE MAY BE WITH CHRIST.
1. We should never forget that Christ is near to His disciples in all their sorrow.
2. We should never forget that Christ instructs His disciples in all their sorrows.
III. THIS CONVERSATION SHOWS WHAT LIFE SHOULD BE FOR CHRIST.
1. What did these men do? They rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem. It was night, and the distance considerable, but they went immediately to proclaim the Saviours resurrection. If we have any word to speak, or any work to do for Christ, let us do it at once; for time is short, and life is uncertain.
2. What did these men find? And found the eleven gathered together. Men are drawn together by common sympathies and common beliefs. Why were they together? For counsel and prayer. Why together at midnight? For secrecy and security. Seasons of personal danger should be seasons of united communion with God.
3. What did these men hear? The Lord hath risen indeed. What joyful tidings these must have been! They not only heard of Christs resurrection from others, but they had seen Him themselves. This is loves reward. The givers were receivers. Thus experience answers experience in the Divine life.
4. What did these men say? Told what things were done in the way, etc. Personal testimony to the fact of Christs resurrection. If Christ has appeared to you, rise up at once, and acknowledge Him before His people. It will cheer them, and confirm you. (J. T. Woodhouse.)
The absent Lord appears
I. THOUGH JESUS BE ABSENT, HIS DISCIPLES MAKE HIM THEIR THEME.
II. THE ABSENT JESUS COMES NEAR WHILE HIS DISCIPLES TALE OF HIM. Blessed sequel to their saintly converse. And so it is to-day. Where two or three, etc. It was a tender superstition which our fathers held--that to speak much of the absent or the dead brings them near. And the beautiful fiction becomes blessed fact, when we refer it to Jesus. He is the true Mentor whom Homer ignorantly celebrated. We have but to think of Jesus, talk of Jesus, wish for Jesus--and He is by our side. (A. A. Ramsey.)
Jesus near, but unrecognized
I. We shall note, first, REASONS WHY, IN THE VERY PRESENCE OF THEIR MASTER, SAINTS MAY NOT KNOW THAT HE IS NEAR. The first reason, then, why these good men did not perceive the presence of their Master was that their eyes were holden. There was a blinding cause in them. What was it?
1. By some mysterious operation, their eyes, which were able to see other things, were not able to detect the presence of their Master, but they thought Him to be some common traveller. Still we are permitted to say that in their case, and in the case of a great many disciples, eyes have been holden through sorrow.
2. Again, in their case, in addition to the mysterious operation which held their eyes, which we do not attempt to account for, we have no doubt their eyes were holden with unbelief. Had they been expecting to see Jesus, methinks they would have recognized Him.
3. Whatever may have been mysterious about the holding of the disciples eyes, they were also somewhat holden by ignorance. They had failed to see what is plain enough in Scripture, that the Messiah must suffer, bleed, and die. At other times they may not see Him, because of something in the Master. Mark, as I have told you, says He appeared unto them in another form. I suppose he means in a form in which they had not seen Him before. Perhaps you have only seen Jesus as your joy and consolation; under that aspect may you always see Him, but, remember, He shall sit as a refiner; He shall purify the sons of Levi. When you are in the furnace, suffering affliction and trial and depression of spirit, the refiner is Christ, the same loving Christ in a new character. Hitherto you have seen Christ as breaking the bread of life to you, and giving you to drink of the water of life, but you must yet learn that His fan is in His hand, and He will throughly purge the floor of your heart. He is not another Christ, but He puts on another aspect, and exercises another office.
II. Secondly, let us speak of THE MANNERS OF THE SAINTS WHEN THEY ARE IN SUCH A CASE. When their Master is with them and they do not know Him, how do they conduct themselves? First, they are sad; because the presence of Christ, if Christ be unknown, is not comfortable, though it may be edifying. It may be for rebuke, as it was to them; but it certainly is not for consolation. For joy we must have a known Christ. Next, these disciples, though they did not know that their Master was there, conversed together--a good example for all Christians. Whether you are in the full joy of your faith or not, speak often one to another. He who is strong will help the weak brother; if two walk together, if one shall trip perhaps the other will not, and so he will have a hand to spare to support his friend. Even if both saints are unhappy, yet some good result will come from mutual sympathy. Note, again, that though they did not know their Master was there, yet they avowed their hopes concerning Him. I cannot commend all that they said, there was not much faith in it, but they did confess that they were followers of Jesus of Nazareth. We trusted that it had been He which should deliver Israel. And, besides all this, to-day is the third day. And they went on to let out the secret that they belonged to His disciples. Certain women of our company made us astonished. They were under a cloud and sad, but they were not so cowardly as to disown their connection with the Crucified. They still avowed their hope. And oh, beloved, when your comforts are at the lowest ebb, still cling to your Master. But, passing on--these poor people, though very sad, and without their Master as they thought, were very willing to bear rebukes. Although the word used by our Lord should not be rendered fools, yet it sounds somewhat bard even to call them inconsiderate and thoughtless: but we do not discover any resentment on their part because they were so severely chided. Souls that really love Jesus do not grow angry when faithfully rebuked. And then, they were willing to learn. Never better pupils, never a better Teacher, never a better school book, never a better explanation. Again, notice that while the two were willing to learn, they also wished to retain the Teacher and His instruction, and to treat Him kindly too. They said, Abide with us; the day is far spent. They had been benefited by Him, and therefore they wished to show their gratitude to Him. Have you learned so much that you are willing to learn more? And, once more, though they did not know that their Master was with them, they were well prepared to join in worship. Some have thought that the breaking of bread that night was only Christs ordinary way of offering a blessing before meat; it does not seem so to me, because they had already eaten and were in the middle of the meal when He took the bread and blessed it.
III. Lastly, let us try to set forth THE ACTIONS OF BELIEVERS WHEN THEY DISCOVER THEIR LORD. Their eyes were opened, and they knew Him. What then? Well, first, they discovered that there had been all along in their hearts evidences of His presence. Did not our hearts burn within us while He spake with us by the way? This heavenly heartburn never comes to any but through the presence of the Lord Jesus. The next thing they did was to compare notes. The one said to the other, Did not our hearts burn within us? It is always a good thing for believers to communicate their returning enjoyment. Somehow we are rather chary as to speaking of our joys. Ought we to be so? Once again. These disciples, when they saw the Master, hastened to tell others about it. I notice that while they told of their Lords appearing, they made mention of the ordinance which had been blest to them, for they especially said that He had been known to them in the breaking of bread. I like to see them mention that, for, though ordinances are nothing in themselves, and are not to be depended upon, they are blest to us. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Present, but unknown
I. THE TIME WHEN THE WALK OCCURRED.
1. On the first of the forty days between resurrection and ascension.
2. Probably the longest period of intercourse with disciples between resurrection and ascension.
II. THE NEW METHODS ADOPTED BY OUR LORD TO OPERATE ON THE MINDS ON THESE TWO MEN. He makes them first define their grief, and then state their belief. Here are two of the most instructive lessons in the Scriptures of the human soul as well as the Holy Scriptures. The first lesson is: measure your sorrow, see its nature and extent, and know exactly its bearings on your happiness. The second is: if you are in doubt and apprehensions, if you are tempted to distrust God and Christ, if scepticism or the worst horror of infidelity threaten your heart, go back to what you do assuredly believe. Find honest footing for yourselves. Rest on the great fundamentals that lie imbedded in the instincts, the granite substratum of nature and the basis of all real characters. Let us learn from the walk toward Emmaus what Christ expects of us in hours of darkness and dismay, and then we may hope that, when we get to Emmaus, He will reveal His glory. (A. A. Lipscomb, LL. D.)
Jesus drawing near
He drew very near, solemnly uttered a youthful believer within a few hours of death. Who drew near? anxiously inquired a friend who was present, fearful to hear her pronounce the word death. Jesus, she replied, with an unutterable earnestness of expression. I felt just now as if He stood close beside me. Soon after she was asked by her sister if she would like her to pray with her. She gladly assented. But while she prayed the countenance of the dying one changed, the expression of supplication was succeeded by one of adoring contemplation--it would have been rapture but for its perfect calm. A kind of glow suffused her features, then faded gradually away, and before that prayer was ended she was gone. Her amen, to it was her first hallelujah in heaven. Jesus had come again and received her unto Himself. (Clerical Library.)
Emmaus
I. CHRIST HIMSELF THE THEME OF HIS DISCIPLES CONVERSATION.
II. CHRIST HIMSELF THE EXPOSITOR OF HIS OWN SUFFERINGS.
III. CHRIST HIMSELF THE GUEST OF HIS OWN DISCIPLES.
IV. CHRIST HIMSELF THE OCCASION OF HIS OWN RECOGNITION. Practical lessons:
1. There is no teacher like Christ.
2. There is no friend like Christ. (J. R. Thomson.)
The walk to Emmaus
It may be asked, Why should not our Lord have declared Himself at once to these burdened friends? Why not with one word have assured them, as He did faithful Mary in the garden? The answer is suggestive. In them the stupendous miracle of the resurrection was to be established, not by one appearance, but by many; not by evidence of one kind, but of all kinds. Each fresh proof of the fact was to be a separate link in a chain of proofs, on which ages to come might hang their faith. The particular link to be wrought and welded on the road to Emmaus was the complete identity of the slain Jesus of Nazareth with the Messiah of Moses and Daniel, of David, Isaiah, and Malachi. Had He too soon revealed His personality to these oppressed disciples, they would have been unfitted, by their great joy, to receive this lesson and to witness its truth.
But now they take it in eagerly. Their ears thirst for knowledge. Such was the sacred drama of the Emmaus road, and from the whole story we may instruct and comfort ourselves in several ways:
1. It is good for disciples to be together. Every appearance of the Lord immediately after His resurrection, save one, was made to disciples in groups.
2. The Lord may be much nearer to doubting disciples than they dream.
3. The source of much modern doubt about Christ is ignorance of the Scriptures as a whole. The real cure of doubt, therefore, lies in a more comprehensive study of the Word of God, and the only study that can be a perfect cure is that which shall begin with Moses, and end with the Apocalypse. (J. B. Clark.)
The hidden Christ
No more picturesque and beautiful scene is depicted in the life of Christ, than this walk, after His resurrection, out to Emmaus. The innocent unconsciousness of the disciples pleases us like a scene in a drama. That trait, too, in the Lord, which led Him to keep in disguise, is peculiarly interesting. It interprets much of the Divine nature. One would have looked, according to the ordinary ideas of the Divine mind, and of its methods, for an open and prompt disclosure of Himself. But no. It was pleasant to Him, for some reason, to be with His disciples, to love them, to perceive their embarrassments, to instruct them, without letting them know that He was there. It was not deception. It was only a permitting them to have their own notions of Him undisturbed, while He exercised the full mission of love. This cannot be an unintended disclosure of the Divine nature. I will not call it mystic; and still less will I call it secretive; but there is a love of non-disclosure of personality during the operation of merciful grace, which has illustration in various other parts of the Gospel. One cannot but see that the Lord carried Himself to them just as in nature Divine providence is always carrying itself. Mercies move with wide-spread benefaction; set without interpreting themselves. Nature is blessing without saying, I bless. Messages are coming through the air, and through Divine providence, from God; and yet, they do not say God. God is present in a silent way always. A certain hidden element, or hiding element, there is in the Divine mind, Gods blessings steal into life noiselessly. They are neither self-proclaiming, nor even self-announcing.
I. THE LORDS PRESENCE IN UNPERCEIVED WAYS IN THE DAILY WANTS OF HIS PEOPLE. He is to be found wherever the soul is ready to receive Him.
In some tender moment, amidst cares and toils and sorrows, often there starts up the thought of the Divine presence with such majesty and beauty as a thousand sabbaths could not shadow forth in the ordinary experience of Christians. Though they did not see the Saviour, yet they saw His messengers--His blessed angels. Travellers over wide spaces that are unpopulous, hide their food in what are called caches, that, returning, they may have it at fit and appropriate points for their necessities. God fills the world with these spots of hidden food; and we meet Him and His mercies not alone in appointed places, in houses of entertainment, but in the wilderness--everywhere. Christ may be found at the well, if you come there to draw. Christ may be found at the receipt of custom, where Matthew found Him. Christ may be found behind the bier, where the widow found Him. Christ may be found on the sea, where the disciples found Him when they were fishing. He is moving with world-filling presence everywhere. But notably we may mention that Hod comes to His people in an undisclosed and unrecognized form in the hours of their despondency, as in the text. Or, to put it in other words, that which seems to us to be a cloud and darkness, is, after all, but the garment in the midst of which Christ is walking. All right occupations likewise, all duties, all daily fidelities, bring along with them a Divine presence. We are never alone. We are never doing things that are merely secular, if we know how to make them Divine. The most menial callings, routine occupations, things not agreeable in themselves, but necessary, and things of duty, all of them have or may have with them a Christ.
II. THE FULL PRIVILEGE OF THE SOUL IN GODS PRESENCE AND PROVIDENCE DISCERNED WHEN THE GIFT IS VANISHING AWAY. Man never is, but always to be blessed, has become a motto. Our joys are seldom with us. They are either remembered or they are anticipated. When we come where they are, how few of us there are that are soundly happy; how few there are that are full of joy and know it. How few there are that have a power in them of blessing, in any hour or in any day, or, still less, series of days! How few there are that can pluck from fortune, or from providence, or from Divine grace itself, fruits that shall be sweet to the taste while they are walking along the road of life! It is trite, that, Men do not know how to value health till they lose it. It is the same with wealth. It is so of youth and age. For we take our measures as little children take snowflakes to examine them, and they are gone. They dissolve in the looking at them. Especially is this true of moral things--of moral treasures. Hours of religious peace, hours of spiritual delight, never seem so precious to us, hours of religious duty are never so dear to us, while we have them; and they are as it were, in their ministration, as when they are gone. In our religious life we are finding fault with our fare. In like manner is it in respect to our privileges in being workers together with God. While we have the privileges, how little we esteem them! and how much, often, we reluctate and begrudge both time and strength! Now it is an exceeding privilege for any one to be a worker together with Christ in the work of the Lord in this world. And so is it with the sanctuary. So is it with the blessings of the soul itself. Our inward thoughts, our inward strifes and resolutions, our very tears, our prayers, all that sacred history of the soul that is inherited upon earth, but is more heroic and more wonderful than the history of the battle-field or the history of empires--that lore unexpressed, that literature of eternity, the souls inward life--at the time how little is there to us in it! how little of Christ! Ah! what a pity, my Christian brethren, it is that Christ should vanish out of sight just at the moment when He discloses Himself! What a pity it is that just as our mercies are going beyond our reach, they should for the first time seem to be mercies! In view of these simple remarks, may you not derive a motive for the better use of the present in all the relations of your life than you have been accustomed to? And ought we not, bearing this in mind, to make more of one another; more of our children; more of our parents; more of our brothers and sisters; more of our neighbours; more of the Church; more of the Bible-class; more of the Sabbath-school; more of all works by which we cleanse the morals of men, and raise up the ignorant, and prosper those that are unfortunate? May not life be filled fuller of blessings, if only we know how to redeem the time, and appreciate the opportunity to perceive the God that is near us? (H. W. Beecher.)
The walk to Emmaus
I. And, first--the first truth taught us by narrative--see here the importance of searching and understanding the Scriptures, and how a neglected or perverted Bible will bring sin and sorrow into the soul.
II. As these two disciples pursue their melancholy journey--the deepening shadows of evening a feeble type of the gloom gathering on their souls--we have seen a third join them. LET US NOW TURN OUR ATTENTION TO THIS STRANGER. His fellow-travellers knew Him not, but we know Him. I have said that we know not the name of one of these disciples. But the name of this wayfaring man we know. He is The Wonderful. Wonderful was He in the glory which He had with the Father before the world was. Wonderful was He in His deep humiliation. But He is, above all, wonderful now, as He stands upon the earth, a mighty conqueror returned from His expedition into the territories of the King of Terrors--having by death destroyed death, and become the resurrection and the life. He might have entered the city in regal pomp and equipage, with a retinue of angelic legions; but He prefers to enter these desolate hearts, and to awaken festive joy and triumphal acclamations there. What I desire to mark in the conduct of the Redeemer is the manner in which He makes himself known to these two disciples. For observe, my brethren, in the first place, that He does not at once reveal Himself to them; and why not? For reasons most obvious. They had, as yet, no idea of the atonement. When He foretold His crucifixion, declaring that it was necessary, Peter was indignant, and said, Be it far from Thee, Lord, this shall not be unto Thee. Had He not instructed them before showing Himself, they would have been wholly unprepared rightly to welcome Him; they would, perhaps, like the apostles, have been terrified and affrighted, supposing they had seen a spirit. It is certain they could not have been filled with the intelligent joy which sprang up in their souls when He was made known to them. In the next place, see how He prepares them for the manifestation He is about to make. It is by opening the Scriptures to them. He will not let their faith rest on the testimony of men or of angels. Convincing as was the vision on Mount Tabor, Peter, who was there and beheld the glorified Jesus, says, We have a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed. And it is to this sure word that Jesus turns the minds of these disciples. He magnifies His word above all His name. He teaches them that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.
III. WHAT IS THE EFFECT OF THIS INTERVIEW UPON THESE TWO DISCIPLES? Their souls are first consoled, then warmed, then heated. While Jesus is speaking the fire kindles; His words fall upon train after train of memory and hope and love, until everything is in a glow, and their hearts are burning within them. A burning heart! what a noble expression; there is something contagious in the very words; we cannot utter them without feeling a sacred ardour in our own hearts. Do you ask me what emotions burned in the hearts of these disciples? I answer, first, love. In the whole account of the Saviours resurrection, we see the difference between the nature of women and of men. The former are less suspicious, more prompt, unhesitating, unquestioning in their confidence; and more true in their affection. Hence Jesus appeared first to women. It is to love that Jesus hastens to manifest Himself, and during the three days between the Saviours crucifixion and resurrection it was only in the hearts of women that love would know no abatement. These disciples, however, had never ceased to love. To me the very ground of their unbelief is a tender proof of their affection. Him they saw not--had they but seen Him; they saw a vision of angels, but saw ye Him whom our souls love? No, Him they saw not; and what if they saw thousands of angels, what if all the angels of heaven should appear, they cannot console us for our bereavement. They still loved, but their hearts bad been crushed by such a blow. The fire was almost extinguished; it is now fanned; the dying embers begin to glow, the smoking flax blazes up. They know not the stranger, but He speaks to them of One dearer to them than life; how much sweeter the memory of Him than the presence of all besides! Do you ask me what emotions burned in the hearts of these disciples? I answer, joy. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. There is vouchsafed to them now a foretaste of the Pentecostal fire. Their hearts burn within them, burn with joy. In a word, and not to dwell too long upon this topic, the hearts of these disciples burned, not only with love and joy, but with the strangest, sweetest surprise. Their astonishment and rapture must have been overpowering an hour later, when their eyes were opened and they knew Him, and He vanished out of their sight. What a moment that! What ages crowded into that moment!
IV. In finishing this discourse, LET US EXTRACT FROM THIS HISTORY TWO LESSONS, and let the first be, The duty of living by faith, not by sight. When we open the sacred Volume we find that to faith nothing is impossible; but where is this omnipotent grace? Yet this entire narrative--the Saviours rebuke of these disciples--the manner in which He instructs them--His sudden vanishing--all teaches us that it is not by the senses, but by faith in revealed truth that we are to walk. He appears to convince them of His resurrection, and to assure them of His constant care and faithfulness. He disappears, to teach that, though they have known Him after the flesh, henceforth they are only to know Him and commune with Him spiritually. Another lesson. Let us seek burning hearts. Faith is a great word; but there is a greater, more imperial word, it is Love. The life of love is a truer, higher life than that of faith; its strength failed not amidst all the unbelief of these disciples; and it will be perpetuated and perfected in heaven, when faith shall cease for ever. Let us seek burning hearts. Intellect is good, and imagination is good; but a heart on fire, a heart inflamed with love, is best of all. (R. Fuller, D. D.)
What manner of communications are these?--
Easter consolations
The Lords question was the language, not of reproof, but of sympathy. Something like reproof came later on: but as yet He can think only of their sadness. Their sadness was written, so the original word implies, in their countenances: but He, of course, saw deeper. And whether the allusion to the sadness formed part of His question, or belongs, as is probable, to the evangelists description, does not really matter: the drift of the early part of His question was plain enough.
I. WHAT WAS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SADNESS OF THE TWO DISCIPLES?
1. It was, first of all, the sadness of a bereavement. They had been with Jesus, we know not how long; they had seen and heard Him: He had conquered a great place in their hearts. They had seen Him arrested, insulted, crucified, dead, buried. So far their sadness was that of the Magdalene, when she asked the supposed gardener where they had laid the sacred body. We most of us know something of the heartache of a great bereavement.
2. But, then, secondly, the sadness of the disciples was also caused by mental perplexity. Here, as elsewhere in the Gospels, we see the different bearing of men and women in the hour of sorrow. A woman is most distressed when her heart has lost its accustomed object. A man is by no means insensible to this source of sorrow; but he commonly feels a distress, which a woman does not feel, at least equally, when his intelligence, his sense of truth, is perplexed.
3. Once more, theirs was the sadness of a forfeited object in life, of a shattered career. They had, as they thought, given themselves to Jesus, to His cause and work, for good and all. They had embarked all the energy and resolve of life in that service, in that companionship, so full, as it seemed, of coming blessing and triumph: when lo! as it appeared, all had collapsed.
II. IN OUR MODERN WORLD ARE TO BE SEEN, NOT SELDOM, DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN NAME, DOWNCAST AND SADDENED, WHO ARE LEAVING JERUSALEM, AS IF ON THE POINT OF GIVING HIM UP. And He, as of old, joins them in another form, so that their eyes are holden, and they do not know Him. He comes to them in His Church, which is in their eyes only a human institution; or in His Scriptures, which seem to them but a human literature; or in His Sacraments, in which they can discern nothing more than outward ceremonies. Yet He has a question to put to them, and a word of comfort to address to them, if they will but listen. For they are sad; sad for nearly the same reasons as were the two disciples on the Emmaus road.
1. First of all, there is the sadness of mental perplexity. The understanding has its fashions as well as the heart; its fashions of distress as well as its fashions of enjoyment. In our day, many men, who have not wholly renounced the name of Christ, are oppressed by what they call, not unreasonably, the mystery of existence. They see around them a world of nature, and a human world too. Each in a thousand ways creates perplexity and disappointment. Whence comes the natural world? If we lose sight of what faith teaches as to the creation of all things out of nothing by God, all is at once wrapped in darkness. Our risen Lord offers us the true solution.
2. Next, there is the sadness of the conscience. Where distinct acts of wrong-doing are not constantly and vividly present to the memory, there is a moral cloud brooding over the soul, from whose shadow escape is rarely possible. Our risen Lord reveals Himself to those who are weighed down by sin, as pardoning and blotting it out. He bare our sins in His own body on the tree; and it is the blood of Jesus Christ which cleanses us from all sin. But what is it that gives His death this power? It is that the worth and merits of His Person are incalculable, since He is the everlasting Son of God. And what is the proof of this which He Himself offered to His disciples and to the world? It is His resurrection from the dead.
3. Thirdly, there is that sadness of the soul which arises from the want of an object in life; an object to be grasped by the affections, to be aimed at by the will. This is a kind of melancholy which is common enough among persons who have all the advantages which money and position can secure: they do not know what to do with themselves. They devote themselves to expedients for diminishing the lassitude of existence; they apply first to this excitement, then to that: they spend their lives in trying to kill time. What a disclosure of the hopeless misuse of life lies in that expression, killing time! To persons who are thus living without an object, Christ our Lord appears, once it may be at least; to teach them that there is something worth living for; the known will of the eternal God. (Canon Liddon.)
Our Lords question
1. This inquiry may be regarded as an instance of our Lords tenderness and compassion towards His disciples.
2. Our Lords question was an indication of His authority. He speaks not on]y as a friend, but as their Lord and Saviour.
3. The question might be proposed in order to teach both them and others the propriety of frequently putting a similar inquiry to themselves.
1. Is the general tenor of our conversation light and indifferent, or is it serious and edifying?
2. Does our conversation never border upon profaneness, even while it is free from the grosser expressions of it?
3. Is our conversation seasoned with salt, so as to minister edification to the hearers?
4. Are we careful as to the manner of our conversation, as well as to the matter of it; to see that the spirit of it corresponds with the subject of discourse?
As spiritual things can only be spiritually discerned, so they can be communicated only by such as are spiritually minded. When our tongues are fluent, are our hearts warm and lively? In order that our conversation may be as becometh the gospel of Christ, let us observe the following directions:
1. Get a good treasure in your hearts, and let them be well stored with Divine truth; for it is out of this that the good householder bringeth forth good things. If the truth dwell in us richly in all wisdom, it will be like a well of water, springing up unto everlasting life.
2. Meditate much upon Divine subjects. Whilst I was musing, says David, the fire burned. What God communicates to us by our thoughts, we shall be ready to communicate to others in our words.
3. Seek Divine direction, and say with the Psalmist, Open Thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Thy praise. If we were as full of matter as Elihu, yet what we utter would not tend to the glory of God, unless we are under the influence of His Holy Spirit (Psa_51:15; Eph_5:18-19).
4. Carefully avoid whatever might prove an impediment to spiritual and edifying conversation. Shun carnal company, disregard the reproaches of ignorant and wicked men, and seek the society of experimental Christians. He that walketh with wise men shall be wise; but a companion of fools shall be destroyed (Pro_13:20; Hos_14:9). (B. Beddome, M. A.)
A wise method of dealing with mourners
Observe that, when the Saviour did come to these mourning ones, He acted very wisely towards them. He did not at once begin by saying, I know why you are sad. No; He waited for them to speak, and in His patience drew forth from them the items and particulars of their trouble. You that deal with mourners, learn hence the way of wisdom. Do not talk too much yourselves. Let the swelling heart relieve itself. Jeremiah derives a measure of help from his own lamentations; even Job feels a little the better from pouring out his complaint. Those griefs which are silent run very deep, and drown the soul in misery. It is good to let sorrow have a tongue where sympathy hath an ear. Allow those who are seeking the Lord to tell you their difficulties: do not discourse much with them till they have done so. You will be the better able to deal with them, and they will be the better prepared to receive your words of cheer. Often, by facing the disease of sorrow the cure is half effected; for many doubts and fears vanish when described. Mystery gives a tooth to misery, and when that mystery is extracted by a clear description, the sharpness of the woe is over. Learn, then, ye who would be comforters, to let mourners hold forth their wound before you pour in the oil and wine. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
Sad hearts
Samuel Rutherford used to say, I wonder many times that ever a child of God should have a sad heart, considering what the Lord is preparing for him. When we shall come home, and enter into the possession of our Brothers fair kingdom, and when our heads shall find the weight of the eternal crown of glory, and when we shall look back to pains and suffering, then shall we see life and sorrow to be less than one step or stride from a prison to glory, and that our little inch of time-suffering is not worthy of our first nights welcome home to heaven.
What things?--
Faith and fact
We naturally inquire, why did He ask this question? Not for His own sake, certainly. He not only knew, but was Himself the very subject of the narrative which He would obtain from their lips. What things? He asks.
I. Notice, first of all, the important circumstance that HE CALLS THEIR ATTENTION TO FACTS. It is an important circumstance. In the world, fact is our master; the truth is, after all, that which we need, and which controls us. No alchemy of logic, no splendour of fancy, can dissolve this. A man may live in an ideal world while he dreams, but waking brings him to solid earth, and to the slow and real steps of daily life. The ultimate question for us, with reference to everything that demands our allegiance or assent, is this: Is it fact? Christianity must submit to this test, as all other things. Men fancy that it does not meet the requirement. The impression is widely prevalent. We may not stop to enumerate all the circumstances that lead to this impression, and yet a few may be referred to. First of all, those circumstances that have existed in connection with widely-spread revivals of religion have impressed upon the minds of many critical observers the conclusion that Christianity is all a romance, a dream. It may be impossible, by any mere human criteria, to discriminate between that which is passional and earthly and that which is the work of the Spirit. God knoweth His own. It is not necessary for me to know whether my neighbour be a Christian; it is necessary for me to know that I am in communion with God. I am not bound to anatomize, dissect, and understand the working of his heart. I must deal with my own heart. A second circumstance that leads to this impression is the wide disparity between the profession of Christians and the manifestation of the power of the gospel in their lives. They cannot probe nor understand hidden life. Christianity seems unreal to them, because it is still and unobtrusive. A third cause of the impression is the persistent and earnest efforts, often reiterated, and especially prominent in our day, to do away with the historic basis of Christianity, and to construct a God out of human consciousness. They tell us that Christianity, after all, is only the religion of nature: it found a temporary manifestation here; but it existed before, and exists now, without revelation. That it is, indeed, the religion which nature demands, the outcry of the soul among all nations, civilized and barbaric, affirms; but that it is the religion that nature offers, the agony of the crucified, and the wail of the philosopher in the early ages, and the burden of those who in heathenism to-day cry out for light and confess their despair, all these deny. And yet we have those who placidly tell us that religion is storax, and chlorine, and rosemary; a mountain air, and the silent song of the stars is it. A mountain air, indeed, is such religion--very thin and very cold, where men soon gasp and die. Not thus did Christ and His apostles deal with the historic facts of Christianity. Here, you observe, He appeals to certain things, upon the reality of which all His further dealings with these men, and all their hopes, are based. If these things have not occurred--if these things are not brought back vividly to their memory--if upon these things and their actuality He cannot build His subsequent words, they are deluded and defrauded, and their hopes are vain. The Gospels themselves are a compend of almost naked facts. Men now, as well as then, have to deal with concrete actualities in Christianity and its attendant evidences. Let me refer to two or three. You remember that famous answer to the king who demanded a visible miracle: Your Majesty--the Jews. They are an anomaly, a perpetual miracle among the nations. Living in every country, yet having no country; intermixed in trade, yet not in blood, with other nations; preserving their distinct identity; a people with a memory and a hope, who look longingly and passionately back to empty Jerusalem, and claim it still as their own, though for hundreds of years they have been only permitted to touch the precious stones of the foundation of their temple. How shall we explain their presence in the world? How are we to account for the circumstances which environ them? I see upon them the brand of blood, and I remember how, at the transaction in Jerusalem, they said, His blood be upon us. If this Bible gives the true history of the Jews, their condition is explained; if not, no theorist, no philosopher, no student of the science of history can explain it to me. I look to the Church of God--and, that I may be more specific, to a single Church--not to the Church universal, whose outlines are not clearly visible. I look to a single Church, as an existing institution, as a fact in the community. I put it alongside of earthly institutions--of those various organizations which men have framed for benevolent, social, and literary purposes. I point to the perpetuity of the individual Church. I come to individuals. It is sufficient if there be a single man who realizes, in any considerable degree, that which the gospel promises concerning the restoration of man to ideal perfectness. Read over that wonderful catalogue which Paul gives us of the Christian virtues, in the thirteenth chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians. Think of a man who is wise, and patient, and pure, and long-suffering, and charitable, and unenvious, and hopeful, and truthful--all the virtues that you can catalogue. But he tells you all this is built upon his companionship with Christ--upon the power of faith in actual redemption through Christ. Is not such a case a fact in life, and has not such a fact come within your reach? But take another case. Let it be a woman, who, in her early womanhood, has given her heart, full of overflowing affection, to the one she trusted as her husband. He has deceived her. The world has dealt coldly with her. She has no longer a home or a husband, and her children look despair into her eyes as she turns to them. Yet there is a Book she clings to, and a sacred place of comfort; and the heart does not burst with agony. Alone! She declares she is not alone. That which no human sympathy could give--that which no human wisdom could teach--has been given and taught; strength has been put into that dismayed soul that makes her master of herself and of the world, notwithstanding its crushing power. Is not this a fact? And now I insist that these facts of which I have spoken have no significance, except they relate back to the facts to which these two men referred. The Lords Supper, celebrated month by month, would have no explanation in facts, and no meaning as a ceremony, if it had not been an uninterrupted and perpetual memorial of an event that transpired. The Church has no foundation, if it be not founded on a real Christ and His authentic work among men. You will find that this monument of fact in the world rests upon Calvary; and Calvary itself thrusts its deep roots down to the earlier world. A solid basis of history is given us, such as no other religion has. Christianity gives us a historic record from the foundation of the world; and the New Testament is knit upon the Old as the subsequent history of the Church is knit upon it. Now I say that, if it be not literal truth, as these men reiterated it, that Christ was crucified; if it be not a fact, as revealed to them, that Christ is risen; if this basis for our faith be swept away, then the Church is dissolved like the fabric of a vision. I look back through the centuries to Paul, and hear him say: If Christ be not risen, your hope is vain; ye are yet in your sins. I hear the army of martyrs cry: Our blood is spilt in vain. I hear Luther lifting up his voice, crying: I have deceived the nations, declaring that the just shall live by faith. But, admitting the need that these facts should exist, why does He ask these men to recount them? Why does He bid them go back again over those painful, thorny steps which they have just trod, and view again those agonizing scenes, and recall the mournful words? Before we answer the question, let us ask another: Why did these facts, so momentous, influence so few? Why was not Palestine convulsed morally as well as physically by the mighty earthquake when Christ died? What things? And, first of all, I recognize the fact that He would fix their attention upon the events that have been transpiring. We must distinguish between the mere open eye upon which passing objects paint their unnoticed outline, and the observing eye. We must distinguish between things which are just seen and then dismissed, and those which are retained by voluntary effort. These men are about to dismiss the subject of their thoughts. He calls it back. What things? They have fallen into mere musing, mere droning over the past. He brings them back to active memory and active study again.
I. In the second place, He asks them, What things? that, in recounting, they may PERCEIVE THE RELATIONS OF THE EVENTS NARRATED. This is the greater part of knowledge. The mere mob of motley transactions that are flowing before us in the world, cannot, as such, be of service to us. He who would learn from nature, must study the order of nature--must bind up like with like, and, study the dissimilarities of things that differ. He who will fairly study Christianity in the earth, must take the dominant facts of Christianity, and impartially weigh them in their relations. Christianity must be contrasted with error, in the whole breadth of each. Things that are alike must be noticed and marked out, as the algebraist strikes out, from the two sides of an equation, elements that correspond, retaining only those that differ. The accidental must be distinguished from the necessary, the formal from the essential; and so a broad and impartial vision must measure the outlines. Compare the godly man with the ungodly, and when you have sifted the two, and so reached radical character, how much is left in the godly man, and how much is left in the ungodly? These are the inquiries with which you have to do. In the history of Christianity as a force among nations--socially and governmentally--in the historic development of doctrine, and its bearings on life--in the history of individual Churches--it is the question for men fairly to consider: What are the facts, the residuary facts? So comes the conclusion of the whole matter. These disciples had not forgotten, but remembered confusedly and in fragments. They must pass the whole in review, in broad vision see the relation of part with part, lest they lose the benefit of the lesson which has been given them. There are two difficulties in attempting fairly to weigh facts. One is, the disposition to prejudge--to test history by theory. These men had a theory. It was perfectly clear to them. God had not given it to them; intuition had not disclosed it; but they had concluded it--they were sure that, when the Messiah should come, He would be a triumphant Saviour; that He would march boldly into Jerusalem, lay His hand upon the sceptre and throne, and the Roman power dissolve before Him. This had not been. They had seen Him hang pale and lifeless upon the cross, and consigned to the tomb stark and dead. How could He be the Messiah? The matter was disposed of in their minds. A second difficulty that lay in their way is a common one. With half glimpses, and a confused idea of facts, they had begun reasoning together. This is almost instinctive. Men get two facts of a ease, and presume a third; and, upon the two facts and a presumption, go to work to build a conclusion. Here is a surveyor who wishes to measure the height of yonder tree. He measures the base-line; he knows the tree is perpendicular, and so has a right-angle; now, he guesses at the angle from here to the top of the tree, and on these data seeks to find the height of the tree. Will he ever get it? Science offers to us two or three data; to these known, we add certain unknown quantities, counting them as also known, and so set off to map out the heavenly spaces. These men had a part only of the facts, and they had begun at once to draw general conclusions. There was a fairer way. They remembered Christs words--they alluded to them. They remembered the event of the crucifixion, and that three days had transpired, and they had heard the words of the women, that He was gone from the tomb. Did they count this a mere vision of enthusiasts, who, by reason of their femininity, might be supposed to be peculiarly imaginative? Still, it was confirmed by their calmer brethren. So far as the testimony went, it was all in the direction of fulfilment of His word. It was no time to deny or surmise, but rather to hope and wait and watch. Philip said to Nathaniel, when he asked, Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Come and see. So far as the facts you have seen go, do they point to the truth of Christianity? Do not pause at that point to argue, much less to deny, but, if you would have confirmation, come and see. It is Gods own method. Once more. It was NOT SUFFICIENT FOR THEM SIMPLY TO THINK OVER the facts--they must also SPEAK them. Now, this may at first seem strange to us; but consider how vital is the relation of human speech to the development of character, and to self-acquaintance. We see now the process by which Christ leads these men out of their bewilderment into perfect light. The facts were all accessible, but, though within reach, they were not grasped, and would soon have been swallowed up in forgetfulness. He calls up again these flitting forms and sets them in array; and beside them sets a prophecy uttered four hundred years before, and shows them how, item by item, it corresponds with these. He goes farther back, from Malachi to Isaiah, and from Isaiah to David, and from David to Moses. He sets a torchlight on every hill, until their wondering eyes look back along the pathway to the gateway of Eden, and they see the glowing words, The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpents head; It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. They understand now the gigantic conflict which has transpired, and that from it the Messiah must come forth, having trodden the wine-press alone, with garments blood-red, to lift His sceptre over a redeemed universe, His bruised heel upon the crushed head of the monster. Their hearts burn within them; they longed for the truth, and now, the truth being come to them, their hearts are aglow, and they constrain Him to abide with them. They have learned the lesson--their faith is confirmed. He is known to them, and vanishes from their sight. This method in the revelation of Himself to a soul, commends itself to reasonable men; proceeding from facts to conclusions--from the known to the unknown--from the natural to the supernatural. (Jesse B. Thomas, D. D.)
But we trusted
A mistaken here
I. THEIR PREVIOUS CONFIDENCE.
1. The object of that confidence. They had formed defective views as to the
(1) needful atonement, and
(2) attendant benefits.
2. The ground of that confidence. In part substantially and in part visionary. They were misled by prevailing misconceptions.
II. THEIR PRESENT DESPONDENCY.
1. Its extent. Heartfelt dejection.
2. The occasion of it (see Luk_24:20).
Lessons:
1. To shame our low distrust. The things we fear are for us
Rom_8:28).
2. To confirm our highest hope. Sufferings, death, and resurrection of Jesus established. (F. Fitch, M. A.)
Sunset sorrow and lost hopes
Here we have an illustration of men who had hoped great things, and God had disappointed them. But we learn that God had disappointed them by making His fulfilment larger than their hope. They hoped too little. It is so yet with many whom sunset sorrow overshadows. It is not easy for us to realize that the world of God is larger than our world. In ancient times the imperfect knowledge of men reduced the world to a mere fraction of its actual size and contents. The entire globe rested on the shoulders of Atlas then; the Mediterranean was the Great Sea; the Straits of Gibraltar formed the worlds end. But with the advance of knowledge the earth widened; Atlas lost the honour of being the supporter of the globe; an Atlantic was discovered beyond the pillars of Hercules at Gibraltar, stretching immeasurable and unknown towards the west. Religious geography has fared no better. The gods of ancient days were mostly lords, with uncertain divinity and still more uncertain morality.
Theology was superstition. Life was an idle dream. But are we sure that our religious geography, even in the present day, is so advanced as to be as broad as Gods world? Councils, and synods, and creeds have eagerly striven to keep enterprising voyagers from passing beyond settled limits. Men have ever been frightened of Gods open seas. They prefer a tideless Mediterranean to the broad swell and shoreless ranges of an Atlantic. We hoped--what? That God was much less than He has turned out to be; that His kingdom would fall peacefully within the limits we had ordained for it! A child, brought up in a deep and narrow glen, never having ventured out of it, has reduced the sum of visible things to a very insignificant item tie has seen the sun rise over the hill, the wheel of its chariot evidently grazing the summit before mounting higher; he hopes to touch the sun some day, and put his hand to hide its face. And the stars that look down upon him at night--such little things, so near and so many--they would be charming to play with. And the blue summer sky--whatexquisite joy it would be to place his cheek for a moment close to the cool sweet surface! The day arrives; the child stands on the hill, with all the pretty dreams of childhood vanished for ever in the painful and overwhelming surprise of new thoughts. The sun has climbed very high, and the summer sky is very far off. Creation has widened, but it has spoilt many a pleasant hope. His former world is judged; it is a very little place! This is only a special case that is typical of a great deal in universal human history. In the star-guesses of ancient days the earth was made out to be a planet of the first order--it was the centre of the universe, having sun and moon and stars under its command. It was the earth--and the rest of creation. We have changed all that. The earth has slowly and quietly sunk into its proper position, a little orb of light and shade in the midst of a thousand orbs much larger than it. But, let it be remembered, it is not the earth that has grown smaller, but the conception of the creation that has widened. The same is true with regard to our spiritual attainments. Thoughts of God and of His kingdom that we had cherished long have to be given up--not because they are too great, but because they are too little. He does away with our hopes by outshining them. We hoped that we might touch the sun and stars and eternal sky; hut God lifts them very high and makes the world very large. It is thus that God, in loving wisdom, disappoints the hopes of men, lest they should satisfy themselves too soon. The hand that breaks our fondest wishes is full of larger mercies than we had expected ever to see. God sends us the pain of a heavy loss in order that we may be led out of our narrowness and self-completeness into broader fields of thought and action. Little hopes make life little; great hopes make a great life. When we limit God we make ourselves poor; when we enlarge our conception of Him we enlarge our whole being. (H. Elvet Lewis.)
But Him they saw not
Him they saw not
I. WE HAVE HERE AN UNBELIEVING SEARCH.
II. WE HAVE ALSO HERE FINDING WITHOUT A SEARCH. An anxious, honest doubt will not shut out visions of God from the soul.
III. WE HAVE HERE THE DISCOVERY OF CHRIST BY WOMANS LOVE.
IV. APPLICATION. Him they saw not. To see Him is the characteristic and end of all true life.
1. Him they saw not--a sad confession when made in reference to our stated worship hours. To meet Him we ostensibly assemble and join in the outer forms of reverence and worship, and yet of how many may our text apply, Him they saw not.
2. Him they saw not, a sad confession when made in relation to the service of work. We see the terrible aspects of human misery, poverty in a thousand forms, and sin in many of its loathsome shapes. Do we see Him in those scenes? In our daily toil how true it is of many--oh, so many--Him they see not!
3. Him they saw not. How sad in relation to earths sorrows! Sad, yet true. The brotherhood of sorrow and trouble is a worldwide brotherhood. There runs a chain of sorrow through time; this is all dark and mysterious if Him the sufferers see not. (W. Scott.)
O fools, and slow of heart
The folly of unbelief
I. UNBELIEF IS FOLLY.
1. It is folly because it arises from want of thought and consideration. Not to think is folly. To give way to sadness, when a little thought would prevent it, is foolishness. If these two disciples had sat down and said, Now the prophets have said concerning the Messias that He shall be led as a lamb to the slaughter, and thus was it with our Master, they would have been confirmed in their confidence that Jesus was the Messiah. In the Scriptures they would have found types, and figures, and plain words, in which the death and the rising again, the shame and the glory of Christ are linked together, and His cross is made the road to His throne. Had they compared the testimony of the holy women with the prophecies of the Old Testament, they would have obtained ground of hope. How many a precious text have you and I read again and again without perceiving its joyful meaning, because our minds have been clouded with despondency! We take the telescope, and try to look into heavenly things, and we breathe upon the glass with the hot breath of our anxiety till we cannot see anything; and then we conclude that there is nothing to be seen.
2. Unbelief is folly because it is inconsistent with our own professions. The two disciples professed that they believed in the prophets; and I have no doubt that they did do so. They were devout Jews who accepted the Holy Books as Divinely inspired, and therefore infallible; and yet now they were acting as if they did not believe in the prophets at all.
3. Folly, again, is clearly seen in unbelieving sadness, because the evidence which should cheer us is so clear. In the ease of the brethren going to Emmaus they had solid ground for hope. They speak, to my mind, a little cavalierly of the holy women as certain women. I say not they speak disrespectfully; but there is a slurring of their witness by casting a doubt upon it. If those who were at the empty sepulchre were to be believed, why did they doubt? The evidence which they themselves detail, though we have it only in brief in this place, was conclusive evidence that Christ had left the tomb; and yet they doubted it. Now, you and I have had superabundant evidence of the faithfulness of God, and if we are unbelieving, we are unreasonable and foolish.
4. Unbelief is folly, because it very often arises out of our being in such a hurry. They said, Beside all this, this is the third day. Although the Saviour had said that He would rise on the third day, He had not said that He would appear to them all on the third day. He told them to go into Galilee, and there they should see Him; but that meeting had not yet come. He that believeth shall not make haste; but they that do not believe are always restless. Well is it written, Ye have need of patience. Gods promises will be kept to the moment, but they will not all be fulfilled today. Divine promises are some of them bills which are payable so many days after sight; and because they are not paid at sight we doubt whether they are good bills. Is this reasonable? Are we not foolish to doubt the sure handwriting of a God that cannot lie?
5. Yet, again, I think we may well be accused of folly whenever we doubt, because we make ourselves suffer needlessly. There are enough bitter wells in this wilderness without our digging more. There are enough real causes of sorrow without our inventing imaginary ones. No asp ever stung Cleopatra so terribly as that which she held to her breast herself.
6. I want you to notice yet further that it was folly, but it was nothing more. I feel so thankful to our Lord for using that word. Though we ought to condemn our own unbelief with all our hearts, yet our Saviour is full of tenderness, and so freely forgives, that He looks upon our fault as folly, and not as wilful wickedness. He knows that it is true of his children, as it is of ours, that folly is bound up in the heart of a child.
II. In the second place, our Lord rebuked them for SLOWNESS OF HEART TO BELIEVE.
1. First, we are slow in heart to believe our God, for we are much more ready to believe others than to believe Him. I am often amazed with the credulity of good people whom I had credited with more sense. Credulity towards man and incredulity towards God are singular things to find in the same person. Let us henceforth accept every syllable of Gods Word as infallible, while we turn our unbelief towards man and his philosophies and infidelities!
2. Is it not clear that we are slow of heart to believe, since we judge this of others when they are mistrustful?
3. There is another point in which we are very slow of heart to believe, namely, that we do believe, and yet do not believe. We must be very slow of heart when we say Yes, I believe that promise, and yet we do not expect it to be fulfilled. We are quick of mind to believe mentally, but we are slow of heart to believe practically. The very heart of our believing is slow. They talk about believing in the Lord for eternity, but for this day and next week they are full of fear. True faith is every-day faith. We want a faith which will endure the wear and tear of life--a practical, realizing faith, which trusts in God from hour to hour.
4. These two disciples must have been slow of heart to believe, again, because they had enjoyed so much excellent teaching, and they ought to have been solid believers. They had been for years with Jesus Christ
Himself as a tutor, and yet they had not learned the elements of simple faith.
5. Once more, these two disciples were very slow of heart to believe, because there is so much in the Word which ought to have convinced them. See how the Saviour puts it--Slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. What a mighty all that is! Brethren, are you half aware of the treasure bidden in the field of Scripture?
III. Now I want to speak on this matter TO THE UNCONVERTED. Some of you are really seeking the Lord, but you say that you cannot believe though you long to believe.
1. This unbelief proves you to be foolish, and slow of heart, for there are other parts of His Word which you easily believe. If there is a text that speaks of judgment to come you believe it. You are ready enough to take in the hard things, but the gracious promises of the loving Christ you will not believe. How can you justify this? How foolish you are t The promises are in the same Book as the threatenings, and if you believe the one, believe the other.
2. Next, you are very foolish, because your objections against believing are altogether poor and puerile. One man cannot believe in Jesus because he does not feel humble enough; as if that affected Christs power to save. If he felt more humbled, then he could believe in Jesus. Would not that be just believing in himself, and trusting in his own humility instead of trusting in Christ?
3. Though you find it so hard to believe Christ, you have found it very easy to believe in yourself.
4. Moreover, you are very apt now to believe Satan if he comes and says that the Bible is not true, or that Jesus will not accept you, or that you have sinned beyond hope, or that the grace of God cannot save you.
5. Then you know how ready you are, you seekers, to stop short of Christ.
6. And then some of you are foolish and slow of heart because you make such foolish demands upon God. You would believe if you could hear a voice, if you could dream a dream, if some strange thing were to happen in your family. What I Is God to be tied to your fancies.
7. You are foolish and slow of heart because, to a great extent, you ignore the Word of God and its suitability to your case. If a soul in distress will take down the Bible, and turn it over, he need not took long before he will light upon a passage which describes himself as the object of mercy. Those two disciples did not, for a while, see how the prophets met the case of the crucified and risen Christ; but as they did see it, their hearts burned within them. As you also see how God has provided for your condition in His Word, in His covenant, in His Son, your sadness will flee away. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
Ought not Christ to have suffered?--
Gain from the sufferings of Christ
I. IN CONSEQUENCE OF THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST, AN INNUMERABLE MULTITUDE OF OUR RACE WILL BE RAISED FROM A STATE OF SINFUL DEGRADATION AND MISERY, AND EXALTED TO THE SOCIETY OF ANGELS AND OF GOD.
II. IN CONSEQUENCE OF THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST, ALL WHO FINALLY BELIEVE AND TRUST IN HIM, AS THE SON OF GOD, WILL BE CONFIRMED IN A STATE OF PERFECT HOLINESS AND HAPPINESS FOR EVER.
III. IN THE PROPITIATORY SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. THE DIVINE CHARACTER, IN ITS VARIOUS ATTRIBUTES, IS GLORIOUSLY DISPLAYED. Reflections:
1. From this subject we are led to admire the character of Gods government.
2. We are led to mourn how exceedingly limited are the views of those who think that the only object of Christs coming into our world was to publish a good system of morality, and to set us a good example!
3. We learn how very imperfect are the views of those who suppose that the only object of Christs coming into our world was to save sinners. But oh! what is the salvation of millions who creep on earth--what is this compared with those glorious displays of Gods character, or compared with that eternal confidence in His government which is inspired among the loftier and wider provinces of His empire?
4. We ought not to distrust the wisdom of Providence, even in those events which seem dark and mysterious.
5. Let Christians be provoked to self-denying sacrifices in the cause of humanity, and untiring devotedness to the Saviour.
6. Let the wicked and the worldling, amid the blaze of gospel light, be constrained to repent and believe.
7. The reflection very naturally follows, that incorrigible sinners must be punished with immeasurable severity.
8. We learn from this subject the great propriety of frequently commemorating the dying of the Lord Jesus. (A. Dickinson, M. A.)
The sufferings and the glory of the Christ
I. THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE SUFFERINGS AND THE GLORY OF CHRIST.
II. THE MORAL OBLIGATION.
1. In reference to the fulfilment of inspired prophecy.
2. In reference to the eternal purpose of God.
3. In reference to the conscious needs of our own nature. (J. Waite, B. A.)
Ends proposed in the sufferings of Christ
1. It was requisite that Christ should suffer, in order that He might verify His own predictions.
2. A succession of prophets had foretold His sufferings.
3. That the salvation of mankind depended on His death, and could not have been effected without it.
4. The full display of the glorious character of God required that Christ should suffer.
5. A farther end, a subordinate one, I confess, was that Christ, in suffering, might give us an example of holiness and virtue. (R. Hall, M. A.)
The sufferings and glory of Christ
I. THE PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS OF CHRISTS SUFFERINGS FOR SIN.
1. He had a clear view of the unspeakable hideousness and odiousness of sin.
2. He was conscious of the Divine displeasure on account of sin.
3. He was conscious of the absence of the Divine favour, and the presence and power of Satan.
II. THE CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH RENDERED THESE SUFFERINGS NECESSARY.
1. They were necessary for the full manifestation of the Divine character in the work of redemption.
2. They were necessary to prevent the salvation of sinners from infringing on the authority and government of God.
III. THE GLORY WHICH IS THE RESULT AND REWARD OF THE SAVIOURS SUFFERINGS (see Php_2:9-11).
1. The glory and honour thus bestowed on Christ, are conferred on Him in His character of Mediator.
2. The glory of Christ arises from His superiority over the hosts of heaven.
3. Christ possesses glory as the Governor of the world.
4. Christ is glorious as the Sovereign Head of the Church. (W. L. Alexander, D. D.)
He expounded
Christs first sermon after His resurrection; or, Christ the theme of the prophets
I. LET US FIRST CONSIDER OUR LORDS SERMON ON THIS OCCASION.
II. LET US CONSIDER THE BENEFITS WE MAY DERIVE FROM THIS SERMON.
1. It encourages us to search and understand the Scriptures.
2. It encourages us to preach Scripture sermons.
3. It calls the people to listen to Scripture sermons.
4. This sermon should move the preachers of the gospel to imitate their blessed Master in preaching Christ, as suitable opportunities are presented, even to small congregations.
5. This sermon strengthens our faith in the truth of the Scriptures.
6. This sermon tends to increase our abhorrence of sin.
7. This sermon should increase our love to Christ.
8. This sermon should revive our zeal for Christs cause, and for the salvation of our fellow-creatures.
9. This sermon confirms our hope of heaven.
10. This sermon affords great encouragement to penitent, believing souls.
11. This sermon should be a warning to us that the threatenings of the Bible will be fulfilled. (E. Hedding, D. D.)
The Bible a rich storehouse
There are promises in Gods Word that no man has ever tried to find. There are treasures of gold and silver in it that no man has taken the pains to dig for. There are medicines in it for the want of a knowledge of which hundreds have died. It seems to me like some old baronial estate that has descended to a man who lives in a modern house and thinks it scarcely worth while to go and look into the venerable mansion. Year after year passes away, and he pays no attention to it, since he has no suspicion of the valuable treasures it contains, till at last some man says to him, Have you been up in the country to look at that estate? He makes up his mind that he will take a look at it. As he goes through the porch he is surprised to see the skill that has been displayed in its construction; he is more and more impressed as he goes through the halls. He enters a large room, and is astonished as he beholds the wealth of pictures upon the walls, among which are portraits of many of his revered ancestors. He stands in amazement before them. There is a Titian, there is a Raphael, there is a Correggio, and there is a Giorgione. He says, I never had any idea of these before. Ah! says the steward, there is many another thing that you know nothing about in this castle; and he takes him from room to room, and shows him carved plate and wonderful statues, and the man exclaims, Here I have been for a score of years the owner of this estate, and have never before known what things were in it! But no architect ever conceived of such an estate as Gods Word, and no artist, or carver, or sculptor, ever conceived of such pictures, and carved dishes, and statues, as adorn its apartments. Its halls and passages cannot be surpassed for beauty of architecture, and it contains treasures that silver and gold and precious stones are not to be mentioned in connection with. (H. W. Beecher.)
Abide with us
Disciples at Emmaus
I. THEIR REQUEST. Abide with us.
1. As a companion.
2. As a teacher.
3. As a comforter.
4. As a guest.
II. THEIR PLEA. Toward evening. Christ makes the night to be light about us.
III. THEIR EARNESTNESS. Constrained.
1. Hearty.
2. Prompt.
3. Persistent.
IV. Their success. He went in. Wonderful power in prayer, Peasants of earth can prevail with Prince of heaven. Creatures of a day can detain Creator of universe. (W. Jackson.)
Christ constrained to abide
I. CHRISTS PRESENCE IS EXCEEDINGLY DESIRABLE TO THE SAINTS. This appears from their earnest desires after it, and their sorrows when deprived of it.
1. The presence of Christ is an evidence of His love. Fellowship is the fruit of friendship.
2. Christs presence is attended with the most desirable effects; none can enjoy it without deriving the greatest advantages from it. It conveys light into the understanding, as well as warmth into the affections; so that in proportion to the measure of Christs revealing Himself to us will he the measure of our profiting in the knowledge of Him.
3. Present communion with Christ is an earnest of everlasting fruition.
II. A SEEMINGLY DEPARTING SAVIOUR MAY BE CONSTRAINED, AS IT WERE, TO ABIDE WITH HIS PEOPLE. Speaking after the manner of men, there are three ways of constraining Christ to abide with us.
1. By the exercise of a lively faith.
2. By fervent prayer.
3. By a suitable conduct towards Him. If we would have Christ abide with us, we must do what we can to delight Him and make His stay pleasant. (B. Beddome, M. A.)
The blessed Guest detained
I. COMPANIONS LIKELY TO PART.
1. Observe the reason of parting. If Jesus had gone further, it would have been entirely because they forgot to invite Him or failed to urge Him to stay.
2. The point at which they were at all likely to part company with Christ.
(1) A point of change.
(2) A point where something had been accomplished.
(3) They were now about to rest for a time.
3. Had they parted company, the act would have been most blameworthy on their part.
II. THE GUEST NEEDING TO BE PRESSED.
1. He could not very well have tarried otherwise.
2. This is a characteristic of the Son of God at all times.
(1) He is jealous of our love.
(2) Another reason is His anxiety to do us good. He wisely wishes that we should value the mercy which He gives, by being led to consider what a case we should be in if He did not give it.
III. A GUEST WORTH PRESSING.
IV. AN ARGUMENT WITH WHICH TO HOLD HIM.
1. They would be dreary and lonely without Him.
2. The night was coming on, and they could not think of His being out in it. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
The evening prayer of Christs friends
I. NOTICE SOME OF THE FEELINGS WHICH MUST HAVE BEEN IN THE HEARTS OF THOSE WHO PRESENTED THIS PRAYER.
1. Grateful interest in a spiritual benefactor. When a soul has become truly alive to God, and to eternal things, there is no tie so pure and deep as that which binds it to the scenes and instruments which opened its view to the higher life. It is when Churches and families and friendships are held together by such ties as these--by helping one another in the way of God and life eternal--that they are united and strong, that they can feel there is no nightfall which has any right or power to part them, and that they must turn in at the journeys close, and dwell together in the same abiding home. One of the enjoyments of that home will be to review and renew the intercourse of the journey, and to discover how the ties were deeper and the benefits higher than our hearts at the time understood, and how these sojourning associations were preparing the way for the unending union of souls. And Christ desires to have a personal share in these ties of grateful affection. He is the Author of spiritual light and life to all who receive it, but here He becomes also the direct instrument--He is the channel as well as the fountain--teaching us that His heart lies hidden behind every other heart that is made a source of blessing to us, and also that He wishes to attach us to Himself as a man speaketh to his friend.
2. A desire to have such conversation continued. He who has had such fellowship in the thoughts of God on the way will desire to have them also in the house at nightfall. He cannot surrender them at the setting of any earthly sun, but will pray as these disciples did, Abide with us, for it is toward evening.
3. The last feeling we mention in the hearts of these friends of Christ was the presentiment of something more than they had yet seen or heard. They had gratitude to the speaker, they had love to the theme, but they felt that there was still a mystery behind. They had learned much, but their heart told them they had not learned all. The sense of a great presence hovered near them; a great truth floated before them ere yet it disclosed itself to their eyes. They fear to ask Him of it; they shrink from whispering it to themselves; but there is a beam of light in the strangers look which promises to lead to fuller revelation, a tone of hopeful confidence in His words that reminds them of a voice which once before spoke from the gloom. What if now, amid a severer storm and out of a denser darkness, that beloved form should step forth again, and the words be heard, It is I; be not afraid? Such a hope of a risen Saviour, and that this was He, unuttered even to themselves deep down in their soul, and fighting with fears as once their ship did with waves, was surely present in their hearts when they urged this request: Abide with us, for it is toward evening.
II. SOME OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES IN WHICH THIS REQUEST MAY BE OFFERED BY US. It may be said to be suitable to the whole earthly life of every Christian. The Church of Christ, and every member of it in this world, is pursuing this Emmaus journey--travelling from the death of Christ on to the house where He shall give the manifestation of His resurrection. We feel that He who sustains us on the way, and drops into our soul great desires and deep presentiments, will answer them when we reach the heavenly house, and show us there things which eye hath not seen, neither hath it entered into mans heart to conceive. Our life is now hid with Christ in God, but when He who is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in glory, and therefore we hold Him fast to the close. Abide with us. Next, it is suitable to those who are suffering under some special despondency of spirit. It is then we need to cling to Him most, and then that He is accustomed to reveal Himself. It is His to lighten mens darkness, lest they sleep the sleep of death. If He seems to be passing by, constrain Him. Abide with us, for it is toward evening. I will not let Thee go until Thou bless me. Oh, faithful heart, thou hast wrestled and overcome. Another time suitable for presenting this request is in approaching the evening of life. Last, we remark that this request is suitable to those who live in an age of the world such as ours. It would be unwarrantable to say that this is the evening of our earths history, and that we are close upon the second coming of Christ. The world has probably much to look on yet before the final end. But there are various days and nights in Gods dispensations, and one of these evenings seems now creeping in upon us. There is a cold vapour of materialism spreading over the minds of many, chilling their conviction of a living God who made and superintends His world. There is only one duty and one source of safety for any man who wishes to have a life that rises above the most barren materialism; it is to seek a close and personal contact with the Saviour as the life of His Spirit, to know Christ as the risen Son of God, who quickens dead souls. These evening shades and doubts and trembling fears, that settle down ever and again on the worlds way, are permitted, to compel us to this--to urge us to seek His fellowship with a closer access, and to constrain Him to enter the house with us and reveal Himself in such living power that we, for our parts, can never doubt His truth any more. We need not fear for the gospel of Christ, whatever dangers threaten it. Calvary has still its Olivet; the shades of the Cross, the ascension glory; and every night of trouble in its history, a brighter day-dawn. (J. Igor, D. D.)
How to detain Jesus in the soul
I. Doubts as to the use of holy things we do, or of Gods gifts to us, or even of the faith, and of the reality of every thing unseen, are parts of Satans assaults against us. Men cannot but see that God does promise, in His Word, that He will hear prayer, bless fasting, enrich those who give alms; that by baptism we are clothed with Christ, in the Holy Eucharist are made one with Him; that the Church is the appointed channel of His gifts and of salvation. But men come short of Gods gracious will for them; and so they are tempted to doubt of His promises altogether. Just so the disciples of Emmaus. They had believed that Jesus was He who should redeem Israel. But He redeemed it not in the way they looked for. He had foretold that He should arise from the dead on the third day; To-day, they say, is the third day since these things were done, and He had not appeared. Had they, upon this, gone away, He never would have appeared unto them. They were saddened, perplexed, yet still they mused on Jesus and His promises. And so, as and when they looked not, relief came. Jesus drew near, and went with them, while they knew not, hoped not, that it was He. And so in the like cases now, doubts will have no real hold upon us while we hold fast to Jesus.
II. Then, while thus communing with Jesus, take we heed that we act as He teacheth. Our deeds are the fruits of our faith, but they fix it and secure it in our souls. Without deeds love grows chilled, and, with it, faith. Nothing shall hurt thy faith while thy heart is whole with God; nothing shall warp thy heart while, for love of Christ, thou dost deeds of love.
III.
There is yet another and larger teaching of this history, which extends over the whole of life, relates to every communion, to every fervent prayer which any, by Gods grace, prays, to every melting of the hard heart, to every drawing of the soul to serve God better.
So is it with the soul.
Jesus visits it many ways.
Every visitation of God, in awe and mercy, is a visit of Jesus to the soul.
It feels His presence.
It is troubled, and turns to Him; it is alarmed at itself, or with fears of hell, and flees to Him; or He brings before it its own crooked ways and the loathsomeness of its sin, and it would fain escape out of itself to Him; or He gives it thoughts of His own everlasting love, and the bliss of ever loving, ever being beloved; and kindles some longing for Him.
Everything which deadens the soul to the world, or quickens it to heavenly things, is a visit of Jesus. And now, what should we do, when, in this fleeting world, nothing, not even virtue, abideth at one stay? What should be our hope, when all fleeteth, but in Him who alone abideth, who alone is our stay? And now, Lord, what is my hope? Truly, my hope is even in Thee. Abide with us, Lord. He giveth His grace, that we may know His sweetness; He seemeth to withdraw it, that He may draw us up after it to Himself. He showeth Himself, that we may love Him; He hideth Himself, that we may long for Him, and the more we seek Him the more may find Him. Abide with us, Lord! For without Thee this worlds light, and all the purest joys of the whole world, were but a false glare, cold and comfortless to the soul. With Thee, who art light and love, all darkness is light and joy. Precious, above the price of the whole world, is every moment in which Christ speaks to the soul. Only, in all we say, think, do, fear, hope, enjoy, let us say, Abide with us, Lord. We fear our own unsteadfastness; Lord, abide with us! The foe is strong, and we, through our sins, weak; Lord, abide with us, and be our strength. We are ever subject to change, and ebb, and flow; Abide with us, Lord, with whom is no change. The pleasures of the world would lead us from Thee; Abide with us, Lord, and be Thou our joy. The troubles of the world would shake our endurance; Abide with us, Lord, and bear them in us, as Thou didst bear them for us. Thou art our refreshment in weariness; Thou our comfort in trouble; Thou our refuge in temptation; Thou in death our life; Thou in judgment our Redeemer. If our Lord give thee any fervour in prayer, say to Him, Abide with me, Lord! Use the fervour He giveth, to stretch on to some higher fervour, to long for some more burning, deeper love; not as though thou couldest gain it for thyself, but, as emboldened by Him who hath held out His golden sceptre of His righteousness and mercy unto thee, that thou mayest touch it, and ask what thou wilt. If Satan would withdraw thee from prayer by weariness, hold thou on the firmer. Say, Abide with me, Lord, and He will be with thee in thy prayer. (E. B. Pusey, D. D.)
As He sat at meat with them, He took bread
The meal at Emmaus
I. THE BREAKING AND DISTRIBUTION OF BREAD.
1. The old, familiar, blessed intercourse between Christ and His disciples had not been put an end to, then, by all that had passed during those three mysterious days. Death vanishes as a nothing in their intercourse; they stand where they were; the fellowship is unbroken; the society is the same; all that there used to be of love and friendship, of peaceful concord, of true association--it abides for ever.
2. The true idea of the relation which results from Christ and His presence is that of the Family. He takes His place at the head of the table; He is the Lord of the household, though it be but the household of two men, and they belong to the family and the society which He founds.
3. Where Christ is invited as a Guest, He becomes the Host. Our Master never comes empty-handed. Where He is invited, He comes to bestow; where He is welcomed, He comes with His gifts; when we say, Do Thou take what I offer, He says, Do thou take Myself.
II. THE DISCOVERY. The consequence of this assumption of the position of Master, Host, Bestower, is that their eyes were opened, and they knew Him. Where Christ is loved and desired, the veriest trifles of common life may be the means of His discovery, There is nothing so small but that to it there may be attached some filament which will bring after it the whole majesty and grace of Christ and His love.
III. THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE LORD.
1. When Christs presence is recognized, the senses may be put aside. We have lost, it is true, the bodily presence of our Master; but it is more than made up to us by the clearer knowledge of His spiritual verity and stature, the deeper experience of the profounder aspects of His mission and message, the indwelling Spirit, and the knowledge of Him working evermore for us all.
2. When Christ is discerned, there is work to be done. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Their eyes were opened
The spiritual eye
It is quite certain that there is an inward faculty in the mind which accurately corresponds to the natural eye. It is the power by which we morally see and morally apprehend truth. And that eye, just like the bodily eye, admits of being either closed or opened. This eye of the soul is a part of mans original constitution. Familiarly we have known it under the name of faith. Faith is that eye of the soul. This eye is born blind. But while nature, in this matter of our blindness, has done much, we ourselves have done much more. The closed eye is being continually closed more and more, and sealed in its closeness. The mistakes of education--the bad early training--youthful prejudice--every neglect of a duty, and every violence done to conscience--the grievings of the spirit, each secret sin and wilful act of disobedience--all our proud tempers, and impure desires, and self-willed thoughts--all that has not God in it--the whole contact with this wicked world--almost every act, and word, and imagination of our lives--all has, every day, been fastening up the fast eye faster and faster. And so at last it comes, that a man can really see nothing but what is material. He has no perception of Divine things. Jesus is practically hidden. Neither his sin, nor its pardon, nor its punishment, nor peace of mind, nor the higher love, nor the heavenly life, nor another world, nor God, does he descry. And yet, all the while, all these things are near him and about him every moment--he moves in that beautiful circle, heaven is round him, but there is a thick curtain before him, it is an unknown thing, it is all to him as if it were not. How is the shut eye opened? Now, it might be enough to say that it is done by an act of sovereign grace and power. That is true; but that would not practically help you. You would then say, I must wait till that act of sovereign power passes upon me. Therefore, let me look at it rather differently. There is the eye of the body, which you shut and which you open. How does the physical eye open? There is an act of will in the brain, and that act of will in the brain moves the organ. It is a perfect mystery how the will can take effect upon the nerves, and so upon the muscles, of any part of our body; but it is done. The will acts naturally; but there is another power, an appointment, and a secret omnipotence, which is wanted. So it is with the opening of the spiritual eye. There must be will. True, God gives the will; but He is always giving it, and you are always resisting it. The will begins--the will produces an effort--the effort puts certain things in motion--and God being in it all--in the will which He has created, and in the effort, and in the process--the thing is done--the eye opens, vision is restored. It may be gradually, it may be with more or less of clearness and growth, but it is vision--the eye is opened--and things which were invisible come in through the new avenue, and make their mark, and stamp their impression on the inner man. And the man, the highest part of the man, sees; he finds he is in a new world, and because he is in a new world, he is a new creature. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
Did not our heart burn within us
Christ talking--hearts burning
I. CHRISTS METHOD OF REVEALING HIMSELF.
1. Scripture exposition.
2. Talking. The grandest things demand the simplest presentation.
II. LOOK NOW AT SOME OF THE EFFECTS OF THIS REVELATION ON HIS DISCIPLES.
1. The first effect was deeply interior and experimental. Their hearts began to burn within them. There was an unusual interest--a feeling they had never had till now--a longing and a love, and a begun enthusiasm which all their after-life was to express. What effect can be finer than this? or more desirable?--the effect of the burning heart. It is well enough to have an idea, and a sight of things; to see the things that can be seen, and know the truth that can be known. But it is yet better to have a deep, warm, inward sense of them; to have them burning in the breast, and all the breast aflame with the holy fire. No better effect could come to us of our talkings together by the way; and of our endeavours to open to each other the Scriptures.
2. The next effect is what we may express in the phrase: the willing feet. They rose up the same hour and returned to Jerusalem. The feeling was instinctive that something must be done, and done immediately. All this good news which has turned their hearts into fountains of joy, must, in some way, be told, and told without delay; in what way may best remain to be seen; but the first thing to be done is to return to Jerusalem. There their hopes were buried three days ago, and they go now to tell of their resurrection. There, their friends are; and probably their work, and possibly their sufferings. No matter. They must go. Is it not always thus with those to whom Christ makes Himself known? Arising out of the feeling of His presence, along with the burning of heart that makes that presence known, is the immediate and ineffaceable conviction that something must be done for Him. Here am I, send me. Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? At least, I feel that whatever my hand findeth to do, I must do it with all my might, and without delay. I must go; and when I reach the end of the little journey, I must speak.
3. Thus we come to another effect of the relation of Christ, which we may call the effect of the ready-tongue. When they came to Jerusalem, they told what things were done in the way, and how He was known of them in the breaking of bread. (A. Raleigh, D. D.)
Hallowed feelings
Our emotions are connected with our intellectual states, yet distinct from them and beyond them, because the result of them. The text records the way in which the feelings of the two disciples were excited by the conversation of the unknown stranger who joined them on the way to Emmaus. It suggests a twofold observation.
I. THE GOSPEL APPEALS TO THE FEELINGS OF MEN. It is a religion intended for man in the sense that it meets the wants of his entire nature. And the emotional is as really a part of mans nature as any other. It would not be a sufficient religion for man if it merely issued its commands as to what should be done in the shape of bodily service, or even in the exercise of a discipline intended for the subjugation of the body; nor if it only furnished the intellect with instruction and elevating material. It must address itself also to the moral and emotional nature. Accordingly, Christianity seizes on the passions, sympathies, and susceptibilities of our nature. The Old and New Testaments are alike full of them, as the experience of the godly. It follows that those whose feelings are not touched by it are unacquainted with its saving power.
II. THE GOSPEL IS ADAPTED TO EXCITE THE FEELINGS OF MEN.
1. The truths of the gospel are in themselves adapted to excite feeling. You attempt to produce emotion by the exhibition of objects that are suitable to that end. Take, as illustrations, the feelings of joy and of love. Could anything be more adapted to their production than the truth that God loves the world of sinners; that He gave His Son to death for them; and that whosoever believes in Him receives pardon and eternal life?
2. This is especially the case when they are addressed to men in certain states of mind. You would never expect to interest a dying man by placing on his pillow the crown of an earthly kingdom. A word of comfort respecting the future is incomparably more to him than all the splendours of this world. Thus, when you laboured under deep conviction of sin and consequent distress, perhaps amounting to hopelessness, the nature, sufficiency, and freeness of salvation in Christ was expounded, and you found it exactly what you wanted. Thus, when you have come to the sanctuary with some trouble on your heart that has almost shaken your faith to its centre, the theme of the ministry has been Gods faithfulness and love, or the mystery along with the benevolence of His providence; and your fainting soul has felt like a falling child whose mother has tenderly taken it up and saved it from hurt.
3. Some circumstances are specially favourable to the excitement of the feelings by the gospel. The public worship of the sanctuary. The communion of Christian friends. The retirement of the closet.
4. Spiritual feelings must be sustained by the means which first produces them. Do you wish to keep your heart warm in this sense? Often walk and talk with Jesus. Let Him be much in your thoughts. (John Rawlinson.)
A suggestive question
I. This question which these disciples asked themselves, illustrates THE DIFFICULTY WE HAVE IN UNDERSTANDING AT THE TIME THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF EVENTS IN OUR LIVES, AND ESPECIALLY OF THE RELIGIOUS EVENTS IN THEM. We are naturally disposed to think that the Important events must be striking; that they must address themselves powerfully to the imagination; that they must stand out, in obvious prominence, from among surrounding occurrences. Whereas it may very well happen that what is most important in reality, that is to say, in its bearing on our prospects in the future life, is in appearance commonplace and trivial. Of course in this world we look at the plan of our lives from below, not from above. We deal with the task of each day, of each hour, as it comes; we have no time or capacity to make a map or theory of the whole and to arrange the several parts in their true proportion and perspective. It is with our conceptions of life as with a landscape painting; some tree in the immediate foreground fills up a third of the canvas, while the towers of a great city, or the outlines of a mountain range, lie far away in the distance. In another state of existence the relative worth of everything will be clear to us: here we constantly make the wildest mistakes, partly from the narrowness of our out look, and partly from the false ideals which too often control our judgment. We look out for the sensational, which never comes to us quite as we anticipate it; we walk near Jesus Christ, who veils His presence, in the ordinary paths of life; perhaps we never get beyond a certain passing glow of emotion, which dies away and leaves us where we were. Our hearts burn within us. But what this has meant we only find out when it is too late.
II. Another point suggested by the words is THE USE OF RELIGIOUS FEELING. Did not our heart burn within us? The disciples ask each other the question in a tone of self-reproach. While our Lord explained to them the true sense of the Hebrew Scriptures with reference to His person and His work, His sufferings and His triumph, their whole inward being, thought, affection, fancy, had kindled into flame. They were on fire, and yet it all had led to nothing. Ought it not to have led to something? Ought it not, at the least, to have convinced them that, within the range of their experience, One only could have spoken as He did? Certainly, my brethren, true religion cannot afford to neglect any elements of mans complex nature; and so it finds room for emotion. That glow of the soul with which it should hail the presence of its Maker and Redeemer is as much His handiwork as the thinking power which apprehends His message or the resolve which enterprises to do His will. Yet religious emotion, like natural fire, is a good servant but a bad master. It is the ruin of real religion when it blazes up into a fanaticism that, in its exaltation of certain states of feeling, proscribes thought, and makes light of duty, and dispenses with means of grace, and passes through some phase of frantic, although disguised, self-assertion, into some further phase of indifference or despair. But, when kept well in hand, emotion is the warmth and lustre of the souls life.
III. A third consideration which the words suggest, is THE DUTY OF MAKING AN ACTIVE EFFORT TO UNDERSTAND TRUTH AS IT IS PRESENTED TO US. I say, an active effort; because, as a rule, our minds are apt to be passive. We let truth come to say what it can; we do not go out to meet it, to welcome it, to offer it a lodging in the soul, and, if it may be, to take its measure and understand it. If we have serious thoughts now and then, and look into our Bibles in a casual way, and attend some of the Church services, we think we have good reason to be satisfied that we know all that it concerns our souls health to know; perhaps even that we know enough to discuss religious questions of the day with confidence, We drift through life in this way, some of us; malting our feelings and preferences the rule of truth; assuming that what is popular for the passing hour, or what comes readily to us, must be the will of God. He indeed is near from whom we might learn the truth; walking by our side, ready and longing to be inquired of if we only will; but we dispense ourselves from the necessity. Religious truth, we say to ourselves, is very simple and easy of acquirement; that which is intended for all must be open to all, and cannot be the monopoly of those who make efforts to know it. And yet nothing in the Bible is clearer than that it makes the attainment of truth depend upon an earnest search for truth (Mat_7:7; Pro_8:17; Jer_33:3; Pro_2:3-5). In conclusion, let us reflect that our Lords presence with His disciples during the forty days after His resurrection was in many ways an anticipation of His presence in His Church to the end of time. His religion wears a commonplace appearance; its sacred books seem to belong to the same category as the works of human genius; its Sacraments are, St. Augustine said, rites chiefly remarkable for their simplicity; its ministers are ordinary, and often erring and sinful, men. But for all that, the Incarnate Son is here, who was crucified and rose from death, and ascended and reigns in heaven, He is here; and the trial and duty of faith is what it was eighteen centuries ago, namely, to detect, under the veil of the familiar and the commonplace, the presence of the Eternal and the Divine. We, too, walk along the road to Emmaus; and the Divine Teacher appears to us, as St. Mark puts it, in another form; and our hearts, perhaps, glow within us, yet without doing anything for our understandings or our wills. (Canon Liddon.)
Christ warms the heart
I. CONSIDER THE OCCASION, OR THE MEANS EMPLOYED. He talked with us by the way. He opened to us the Scriptures.
II. CONSIDER THE EFFECT PRODUCED BY THAT OCCASION AND THOSE MEANS. Did not our heart burn, etc. There is in real communion that which warms the heart. Away from Christ, all is coldness in regard to God and spiritual things; away from Christ, men even pride themselves in a sort of stoical apathy in regard to the claims of God; away from Christ, the most constraining motives of the gospel are heard with unconcern. There is communion to be had with Christ in prayer. Many pray in a formal way, but have never yet known the heart to burn within them in prayer. So with meditation: My meditation of Him shall be sweet, said the psalmist. Did not our heart burn within us? And whence this effect? They were, you remember, anxious disciples, perplexed with doubts and seeking the truth. Hence, as they heard Him expound the Scriptures, they found their doubts gradually cleared away. It is when you discover your personal interest in the things spoken of--That promise speaks to me, That Saviour is my Saviour, This God is our God even unto death, He is mine, and I am His--that you will again feel the heart to burn within you. (J. H. Hambleton, M. A.)
The means, author, and effects of Christian instruction
I. We have THE INSTRUMENTALITY USED BY OUR LORD IN THE INSTRUCTION OF HIS DISCIPLES, We are told it was the Scriptures. God honours His word above all His attributes--Thou hast magnified Thy word, says David, above all Thy name; i.e., all Thy perfections. Why does He do so? Because it is by His Word He reveals the mystery of His essence, and His moral perfections. Because without His Word there would be no God to be recognized and worshipped.
II. We have to consider, THE AGENCY BY WHICH THIS INSTRUMENTALITY WAS MADE EFFECTIVE. We read that Christ opened the Scriptures. But where was the necessity for opening the Scriptures? What is there so mystical in the nature of this book, that it should have been as written in unintelligible characters which they did not understand? Remember that the Bible is a sealed book to any who are unenlightened by the Spirit of God I It is true of the Bible as of every department of Divine knowledge, that the natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God--they are foolishness to him: he cannot know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
III. But, again, What was THE SENSIBLE EFFECT PRODUCED IN THE MINDS OF THOSE WHO WERE THUS INSTRUCTED BY OUR LORD? Their hearts burned within them. Observe, they got light and heat at the same time, Did not our heart burn within us? With what did they burn?--with shame for their sins; their hearts were melted into penitence, inflamed with zeal, and filled with the fire of Divine love; the Spirit of God kindled within them what the breath of God breathed in them!--the bright light of hope shone within their minds, and they were enabled to take a clear view of Christ--Christ was manifested to them--their heart burned within them. Here, then, we see the sensible effect produced by the instruction of our Lord in the Scriptures. Here we have presented to us the instrumentality employed in the work of conversion; the agent in the work of conversion; and the effect of the work of conversion--we have the Bible as the instrumentality; we have Christ as the teacher; and we have burning hearts as the effect produced by the Spirit of God. (H. H. Beamish, M. A.)
The Bible gives light and warmth
A gentleman approached the fruit stand of an Italian woman, whom he found very intently engaged reading a book. What are you reading there, my good woman, that seems to interest you so much? he inquired. The Word of God, said the woman. The Word of God! Who told you that? God told me Himself, answered the woman. God told you? How did He do that? Have you ever talked with God? How did He tell you that was His Word? Not accustomed to discuss questions of theology, the woman was a little confused. Recovering herself, she said: Sir, can you prove to me that there is a sun up there in heaven? Prove it, said the man, Why do you ask me to prove it? It proves itself. It warms me and I see its light; what better proof can any one want? The woman smiled and said: Just so; you are right. And that is just the way God tells this Book is His Word. I read it, and it warms me and gives me light. I see Him in it, and what it says is light and warmth which none but God can give; and so He tells me it is His Word. What more proof do I need?
Divine influence needed to understand the Scriptures
Unsanctified men cannot read the Bible to profit. If you bring me a basket full of minerals from California, and I take them and look at them, I shall know that this specimen has gold in it, because I see there little points of yellow gold, but I shall not know what the white and the dark points are that I see. But let a metallurgist look at it, and he will see that it contains not only gold, but silver, and lead, and iron, and he will single them out. To me it is a mere stone, with only here and there a hint of gold, but to him it is a combination of various metals. Now take the Word of God, that is filled with precious stones and metals, and let one instructed in spiritual insight go through it, and he will discover all these treasures; while, if you let a man uninstructed in spiritual insight go through it, he will discover those things that are outside and apparent, but those things that make God and man friends, and that have to do with the immortality of the soul in heaven, escape his notice. No man can know these things unless the Spirit of God has taught him to discern them. (H. W. Beecher.)
While He opened to us the Scriptures
The opening of the Scriptures
I. THE SCRIPTURES CLOSED.
1. The mysterious nature of the Bible itself.
2. The degenerate faith of the disciples.
II. THE SCRIPTURES OPENED.
1. It is necessary to have Christ as the interpreter.
2. The disciples must possess a sympathetic heart.
3. Given these conditions, the Scriptures are opened with the utmost ease.
III. THE RESULT OF THE OPENING OF THE SCRIPTURES.
1. The two disciples understood that a thorough unity of design pervaded the whole Bible.
2. They perceived that Christ was the great theme of the Scriptures.
3. They were filled with wonder at the aspect in which Christ was revealed.
4. They experienced true happiness. (H. C. Williams.)
Christ opening the Scriptures
I. OUR LORDS SERMON ON THIS OCCASION.
II. THE BENEFITS WE MAY DERIVE THEREFROM.
1. It encourages us to search the Scriptures.
2. It encourages us to preach Scripture sermons.
3. It calls on the people to listen to Scripture sermons.
4. It strengthens our faith in the truth of the Scriptures.
5. It strengthens our faith in the predictions concerning the increase of Christs kingdom. (Canon Fleming.)
Scripture opened
I. THE HOLY SCRIPTURES ARE THE ONLY SOURCE OF DIVINE WISDOM AND CONSOLATION.
II. FOR THE FULL UNDERSTANDING OF THE SCRIPTURES, WE NEED THE SPIRITUAL TEACHING OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.
III. THIS SPIRITUAL TEACHING IS OFTEN SPECIALLY GRANTED TO TRUE DISCIPLES, WHEN ENGAGED IN HOLY CHRISTIAN COMMUNION.
IV. WHEN YOUR AFFECTIONS ARE WARMED BY DISCOVERIES MADE TO YOU IN THE WORD OF GOD, THEN YOU SHOULD AT ONCE RECOGNIZE THE PRESENCE OF JESUS, AND EARNESTLY ENTREAT HIS CONTINUANCE WITH YOU. (J. Jowett, M. A.)
Christ opening Scripture
I. IT IS CHRISTS WORK TO OPEN AND APPLY THE SCRIPTURES WHERE THEY REACH THE HEART. He is the great Prophet of His Church, who hath already revealed the will of God for our salvation. He opens the Scripture that it may not remain a sealed Book, and opens the understanding, and unbars the heart, that the light may enter to make the first saving change, and to be our strength and comfort afterward.
II. THE OPENING AND APPLYING OF THE SCRIPTURES ARE THE MEANS CHRIST WILL ORDINARILY USE, TO REACH AND CARRY ON HIS DESIGN UPON THE HEART.
III. TIS IN THIS WAY OF OPENING AND APPLYING THE SCRIPTURES, THAT CHRIST IS TO BE CONCEIVED OF, AND REGARDED AS TALKING WITH HIS PEOPLE. He did so personally while He was upon earth, and continues to do so by His ministers and Spirit now when He is gone to heaven.
IV. IN WHAT RESPECTS THEIR HEARTS MAY BE SAID TO BURN, TO WHOM CHRIST EFFECTUALLY SPEAKS. To keep your thoughts distinct, I shall consider this, either with respect to sinners, whom He is drawing to him: or to believers, whom He is acquainting with their interest in Him.
1. As to sinners whom He is drawing to Him. When Christ opens the Scriptures, and talks with such, their hearts may be said to burn--
(1) With a sense of sin, and a fearful apprehension of deserved wrath.
(2) Their hearts are made to burn with ardent desire for deliverance from their sinful wretched state, and for an interest in Christ the only, all-sufficient Saviour.
2. As to believers, whom Christ is acquainting with their interest in Him, and thereby talking with them to their comfort; whilst He does so, their hearts may be made to burn.
(1) With love to Him; and
(2) With longing desires to be with Him. And both these are excited by what He makes the subject of His discourses with them, namely, His sufferings, and His glory. The followers of Christ may have their hearts made to burn, with desire to see, and be for ever with Him.
V. WITH WHAT TEMPER THEY, WHO UNDER CHRISTS SPEAKING TO THEM HAVE FELT THEIR HEARTS TO BURN WITHIN THEMSELVES, SHOULD BE LED TO OPEN IT TO OTHERS. The answer to this is obvious.
1. With deep humility; as having their eye upon their unworthiness, that the Lord of glory should talk with such as them, and in so plain and powerful a manner lead them into an acquaintance with the Word of truth; and thereby with the things concerning Himself, which are so necessary to their safety and peace.
2. With raised wonder; they being ready to say, How strange an ardour did we feel within us kindling into an heavenly flame, while He talked with us, and opened to us the Scriptures?
3. With thankfulness and joy; from a just sense of the value of that distinguishing grace of Christ, which made the remembrance of the time and place where it was vouchsafed so pleasant to them afterwards.
4. With desire and endeavour to bring others acquainted with Christ, by whom their hearts were made to burn within them. (D. Wilcox.)
The right point of view
I go into a gallery where there are illustrious persons hung in portraiture. I see one that I am attracted to, and I look upon it, and I know this much--that it is a man. I know that it is a man of beauty, or, lacking beauty, indicating great intellectual development and power of brain. A number of such external things I know of him, but nothing more. By and by, some one says to me, His name is Goethe. Ah! instantly a vision springs up in my mind. I have read of Goethe. I know his poems. I know his dramas. I know much of the whole German literature which he has created. And the moment I hear his name, and associate it with that portrait, it assumes new life. It is a hundred times more to me than it was before. I say to myself, Then that is Goethe, is it? Well--well--well; and all these wells merely mean that I am thinking, and gathering together all my scattered knowledge, and concentrating it on that effigy. I do not know him personally, though I know him as well as a book could interpret him to me. But suppose I had been in Germany; suppose I had been invited to his house; had seen him in the morning, at noon, and at night; at the table, familiarly; with his manuscripts, in his study; suppose I had seen him when topics came before him for discussion, or in his intercourse with men; suppose I had seen him surrounded by little children, and seen how they affected him; suppose I had seen how noble personages affected him; suppose I had seen him in moments of calmness and silence and reverie; or at funerals; or at great public rejoicings; in all those moods and circumstances which go to show exactly what a man is; suppose I had lived with him, and seen the coruscation, the whole play of his soul, would I not then have a knowledge of him which no portrait could give me? Having gained this larger knowledge of him, I say, I never knew Goethe before; but one exclaims, You never knew Goethe before? Yes you did. I pointed him out in such a gallery at such a time; and now you say you never knew him before! But would it not be true? (H. W. Beecher.)
Understanding the Scriptures
The biographer of Dr. Arnold, of Rugby, when describing his plan of studying the Bible, makes this important observation: There are two methods of reading Scripture, perfectly distinct in their object and nature: the one is practical, the other scientific; the one seeks the religious truth of Scripture as bearing on the inquirers heart and personal feelings; the other, the right comprehension of the literary and intellectual portions of the Bible … Only those who feel the Bible can understand it.
Christs method of imparting instruction
There are here several points of very great interest. We have a striking illustration of our Lords method of teaching, which was to give more when that already given had been duly received. We have also a most emphatic warning as to the danger of losing golden opportunities, or of letting slip through ignorance or procrastination the means of acquiring great accessions of knowledge and grace. These truths will open before you as we proceed: at present we need only announce, as the general object of our discourse, the showing you how near the disciples were to the losing the manifestation of their Master, forasmuch as though He made as though He would have gone further, and how certainly they would have lost that manifestation, had they not been enabled to say with perfect truth, in the words of our text--Did not our heart burn within us, while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us the Scriptures? Now, you may all see, if you study with any attention the record of our blessed Saviours ministrations, that He required a peculiar state of mind in those to whom He taught truth, withholding it where likely to be despised or made an instrument of injury, but imparting it where He saw that it would be reverently and profitably received. It was evidently a principle with Christ, as indeed He expressly announced, to give more where what had been given had been duly improved, so that fresh communications were made to depend upon mens use of past. He did not pretend to open truth after truth, just as though His whole business had been to furnish to the world a certain amount of revelation, whether they would hear or whether they would forbear; but He watched with great attentiveness the reception of truth, and He added or withheld according as that reception did or did not indicate Jove for truth and a readiness to obey its demands. And the importance to ourselves of observing the course which Christ pursued upon earth lies mainly in this. We have no reason to suppose that such course was followed only in the days of His public ministrations, bug rather, that it was universally characteristic of Gods spiritual dealings. You will never make way with the Bible by going to it in a spirit of speculation, carrying to it the same feelings as to a treatise on some branch of human science. It is not indeed now, as it was when our Lord personally taught; when the letter, so to speak, of Scripture might be variously distributed, according to mens various dispositions and capacities, but it still is, that the letter, though equally accessible to all, is not equally illuminated to all; and by keeping altogether to Himself the power of illuminating the page, so that He can leave that a parable to one which He clears from all mystery to another, God can cause that now, as much as in the days of the Redeemer, the amount of knowledge shall be proportioned to certain moral qualities and acts. You may be sure that it is as true now as ever it was, and in as large a sense, that whosoever doeth the will of God, he shall know of the doctrine; for there are innermost meanings in Scripture which will never be reached through learning and ingenuity, but which open before the humble and prayerful inquiry; so that passages on which criticism is vainly turning all its strength, and to which it can attach none but an obscure and unimportant sense, reveal to many an uneducated and simple.minded Christian the counsels of God and the glories of eternity; so that it still depends on your love for truth, and on your willingness to act on it so fast as discovered, whether you shall grow in the knowledge of heavenly things; just as it was in the days of the Redeemer, when a parable was employed to veil truth from the careless, or a miracle concealed, to withhold evidence from the obstinate. But never think that an unaided intellect can master scriptural difficulties, or that unimproved knowledge can be a good thing. There is a certain point up to which Divine teaching will advance, but there will pause, in order that it may be ascertained whether you prize what you have learned, and are sincere in the desire to learn more. And all this was imaged by the conduct of Christ with reference to His disciples. This making as though he would have gone further, was but an instance of that cautiousness of which we have spoken as characteristic of His ministry. He just wanted to have evidence whether truth were duly loved; for on His finding that evidence depended, according to His universal rule, His continuing His instruction. There are many, we are thoroughly persuaded, who often miss the manifestation of Christ through the indolently letting slip some presented opportunity; nay, we doubt whether there be any man who is brought within hearing of the gospel unto whom there have not been moments in which he has stood upon the very threshold of the kingdom of heaven, in which it has depended upon his immediately obeying some impulse or hearkening to some suggestion whether the door should fly open or remain closed against him. The mind of the unconverted man, stirred through some secret instrumentality, has felt it proposed to it that it should take into its chambers a Guest who might discipline the passions and remodel the character; but then it has been questioned whether the proposal should be instantly closed with, or longer time given for deliberation, and because the latter course has been adopted--because, that is, the disciples when at Emmaus have parted from their Teacher in the street, and gone alone into the house, the golden opportunity has been lost, and there has been no manifestation of Christ to the soul. You may not be thoroughly aware of it, but we should wish you to be assured, that religion is of such a nature that eternity is very frequently dependent on a moment. You can never be certain that an impulse will be repeated or a suggestion renewed; so that in parting from the Teacher who has awakened some serious emotion, in place of taking Him with you into your dwelling, that the emotion may be deepened, you are perhaps letting go your last likelihood of salvation, and shutting yourselves up to indifference and impenitence. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
While He talked with us
I have lately seen, wrote Mr. Hervey, that most excellent minister of the ever blessed Jesus, Mr.
--. I dined, supped, and spent the evening with him at Northampton, in company with Dr. Doddridge, and two pious clergymen of the Church of England, both of them known to the learned world by their valuable writings; and surely I never spent a more delightful evening, or saw one that seemed to make nearer approaches to the felicity of heaven. A gentleman, of great worth and rank in the town, invited us to his house, and gave us an elegant treat; but how mean was his provision, how coarse his delicacies, compared with the fruit of my friends lips! They dropped as the honeycomb, and were a well of life.
The Lord is risen indeed
Jesus risen
The evidence for the resurrection of Christ is of two kinds, predictive and historical. From the Old Testament it appears that Messiah was to rise; from the New, that Jesus of Nazareth did rise, and therefore is the Messiah. Among the predictive witnesses, the first place is due to that ancient and venerable order of men, styled patriarchs, or heads of families, whose lives and actions, as well as their words, were descriptive of the person, in faith of whom they lived and acted, instructing, interceding for, and conducting their dependents, as representative prophets, priests, and kings; looking forward unto the Author and Finisher of their faith and ours, who, by dying and rising again, was to exhibit to the world the Divine fulness of all these characters. In the class of the predictive witnesses of our Lords resurrection, the second place is claimed by the law. When we see the Levitical high priest arrayed in the garments of glory and beauty; when we behold him purifying all the parts of the figurative tabernacle with blood, and then entering within the veil, into the holiest of all, to present that propitiating blood before the offended Majesty of heaven; is it possible, even though an apostle had not applied all these circumstances for us, to detain the imagination a moment from fixing itself on the great High Priest of our profession; the plenary satisfaction made on the cross; His resurrection in an immortal body, no more to stand charged with sin, no more to see corruption; the purification of the Church by His precious blood; His ascension into heaven, and intercession for us, in the presence of God? Next to the patriarchs and the law, the prophets press for admittance, to deliver their testimony; for the testimony of Jesus, as saith the angel in the Revelation, is the spirit of prophecy. Some of these give their evidence in the ancient way of figure and emblem; others, with less reserve, in express literal declarations. A fact of so extraordinary a nature as the resurrection of a body from the dead, predicted, as we have seen, at sundry times and in divers manners, by the patriarchs, the law, and the prophets, cannot be supposed to have happened without sufficient witnesses of its accomplishment. (Bishop Home.)
The Lord is risen indeed
I. LET US VERIFY THE STATEMENT OF THE TEXT. In attempting this, let me first of all call your attention to Christianity as an existing fact. And the centre of that belief is the doctrine of the resurrection. We can thus trace the doctrine of the resurrection to its source, and see that it was no gradual innovation into the Churchs belief; no doctrine gradually taking shape, as myths do, from ideas which have been floating about in the minds of men; but an alleged fact, attested by those who professed to be eye-witnesses of the event; and behoved in by the Church at a time when these witnesses were still alive. Now, in testing the value of their testimony, two questions present themselves, and give rise to two concurrent traces of thought, both of which, as we think, lead to the conclusion, that no testimony could be more trustworthy than that borne by the evangelists and others to the resurrection of our Lord. This first question, Were they competent witnesses, divides itself into two. Were they deceived themselves? Did they attempt to deceive others? If either of these questions can be answered in the affirmative, their testimony is invalid; if answered negatively, their testimony deserves to be received. That they could not be deceived themselves, is evident from the following considerations--
1. The question to which they bear testimony is not one of doctrine, on which their judgment might have misled them; but one of fact, on which they were guided by the evidence of their senses.
2. The witnesses were not one or two, but a large number--upwards of five hundred having seen the risen Redeemer at the same time.
3. The men were not fanatics, whose excited imagination might cause them to mistake some uncommon appearance for, or to invest it with, the form of their Lord. Their whole demeanour is the very antipodes to anything like fanaticism. No finer specimen of sobriety than their narrative presents can be found in any language.
4. The times and the manner of the Saviours appearing were such as to render deception impossible. He appeared repeatedly--at different times and in various circumstances, and was not only visible to the eye, but palpable to the touch. Lastly, their familiarity with the Saviour previous to His death qualified them for recognizing Him after tits resurrection. They had been with Him in all circumstances. These considerations amply suffice to show that they could not be deceived. But did they attempt to deceive others? One would think the principles they propagated should be sufficient to acquit them of such a charge. Could impostors devise and propagate principles which surpass the practice of the nations almost as much as heaven contrasts with hell--principles which, wherever they obtain, promote the highest morality, making men truthful, honest, upright, generous, and devout--could impostors devise and propagate such principles as these? We think not. Besides, men do not practise imposition without an object. If they attempt to deceive, if is with a view to some selfish end--could there be any such end contemplated by the disciples of Christ? They could not hope to improve their temporal circumstances. Then, did they hope to gain for themselves a reward in heaven? A reward in heaven, for publishing a falsehood, and imposing on their fellows! We pass on now to consider the second question, Would their testimony if false have been believed in Jerusalem and elsewhere? and the concurrent though different train of thought to which it gives rise. All these statements of the history must have been known to be false by those among whom they were circulated; or at least their falsehood might easily have been made so manifest as to render their reception impossible, and to confine them to the parties with whom they originated. And not only were they capable of effectual contradiction; but those who had the power, had also the strongest inducement to make known their falsehood.
II. LET US ACCOUNT FOR THE EXULTANT FEELINGS WITH WHICH THE DISCIPLES PUBLISHED THIS STATEMENT. In attempting this it is necessary to place ourselves to some extent in the position of the disciples, in order that we may judge of the manner in which they were personally affected by the event. It is evident from the Gospels that they were greatly overwhelmed by His death. They had sacrificed all they possessed, and were, as it now appeared to them, to gain nothing. Their temporal prospects were blasted. Their friends were alienated from them; and all they could look for in return was the derision of their neighbours for having indulged baseless expectations. In this state of mind, when it became evident to them that the Lord was risen, when they saw and heard Him, and knew from the old manner and spirit that it was He himself, what a strange revulsion of feeling they must have experienced! What new light must suddenly have flashed upon them! Then He is a king after all, though in another sense than we imagined. Then our expectations are not disappointed; there is a reward for us still, higher than we had dreamed of. Then we have still our friend to lean upon, to care for us, and comfort us, and guide, and help us. Now we have a new conception of our calling and of our Masters reign. Now we can see how our carnal-mindedness kept us from perceiving the full meaning of His gracious words; and that when we attributed to Him hard sayings, He was but holding out to us greater blessings than our hearts were prepared to receive. No wonder that when such thoughts dawned upon them, their hearts were filled with joy! There were reasons, perhaps, for their joy, which even they did not yet fully apprehend--reasons relating to us as well as to them. They did not yet perceive all the results to humanity which were to flow from His death, though ultimately they showed that they knew what importance was attached to it--Peter, e.g., making it the principal subject of his sermons, connecting it with the miracles which he wrought, and in his Epistle attributing to it the new birth of believers; while Paul, in 1Co_15:1-58., to which we have already referred, makes it lie at the basis of the entire Christian faith--If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. The meaning of these words, and the supreme importance of the event to which they refer, may be illustrated by the following considerations: The resurrection was the Divine seal to the Saviours mission. During His life He claimed to be the Son of God in a sense which made Him equal with the Father--to have come from the bosom of the Father that He might reveal His character to mankind, and open a way by which sinners might approach and find acceptance with Him--to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, and, ere His death, exclaimed in reference to this work, It is finished! Now, suppose that after all this, He had not risen. In that case His claims would have been falsified. It would have been evident that He was a mere impostor. God does not own this pretended Son of His, who claimed to be one in nature with Himself. His revelation of the Father is untrue. Whereas the resurrection put the Divine seal to His claims, and made manifest His own Divine attributes. By it God declared before all the worlds that He was all that He professed to be, and had done what He professed to do; that His life and teaching contained a true revelation of the Divine character; that He had opened a way of access to God through the atonement which He had offered for the sins of the world; that through Him the love of God was free to our fallen race; that in Him there was pardon and life for mankind sinners. All this, if His miracles had not previously made it manifest, was clearly revealed in the light which shone on the sepulchre on that first Easter morning. But oh the joy which comes to us from that deserted gravel The Lord is risen indeed! Then woe unto those by whom His overtures of mercy are rejected and His authority set at nought. As the conqueror of death no one can successfully resist His will. The power which rifled the grave can crush the proudest rebel. (W. Landels.)
Christs resurrection
I. THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST IS A PIVOTAL FACT. The key-stone of Christs religion. All turns upon this. Either Jesus rose, or else He is an impostor, and imposture in one thing makes Him false in all. Take away the resurrection, and there is no link left between heaven and earth: preaching is a lie, faith is idle, happy dying is a delusion, and happy living is a greater fiction still. But, with St. Paul, we may challenge the world to disprove the assertion in the text.
II. THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST WAS A MIRACLE. Otherwise impossible. Nature possesses no power to raise a dead body. But once admit that the work is Gods, and all difficulty disappears.
III. WHAT THE RESURRECTION BODY WAS. The same palpable and substantial frame which quivered on the cross. I argue this--
1. From the fact that He prophesied His own personal resurrection, in His own proper identity.
2. From the fact that the disciples recognized that identity, though reluctantly.
3. From the fact that He recognized His own identity. (T. Armitage, D. D.)
The resurrection of Christ
I. HIS RESURRECTION IS THE PLEDGE OF OURS.
1. First, because He promised that it should be--because I live, ye shall live also. His human nature was the grain of seed (Joh_12:1-50.) which, sown by the hand of God in the field of the world, was to fructify in death, to bear a thousandfold in resurrection, He linked our nature with His. It was united not for a season, but for ever.
2. But we have, secondly, more than the identity of our nature with His, to establish the fact that in His resurrection we have the pledge of our own We need to be assured that His triumph will avail for us; and we are. In His Rev_1:18), we are told, are placed the keys of death and hell. No longer is death in Satans power; he was compelled to surrender his dominion to the Saviour.
II. We proceed to view our Lords resurrection as THE PATTERN OF OURS. To be raised in the lowest character in which it were possible, would be an exaltation too glorious to be understood in our present humiliation. Let us examine a few of the particulars of resemblance between His resurrection and ours.
1. And, first, He retained the identity of His person. No change passed upon Him, save that round His humanity glory appeared, like that, perhaps, which He wore for a season on the Mount of Transfiguration. And we, too, shall rise, in the likeness of His resurrection, our very selves.
2. We shall be raised, too, by tim same instrumentality. We are told by the Saviour that He had power to lay down His life, and power to take it up again. We are nowhere told that He did so; on the contrary, it is plainly declared that He was not His own deliverer from the prison-house of death. He is said, in the first of Peter, the third chapter, at the eighteenth verse, to have been quickened by the Spirit; and again, in the eight chapter of Romans, the second verse, to have been raised by the Father. Hence it is evident that God the Father was the Author, and God the Spirit the Agent of the resurrection of Christ. If it should be asked, Why is it so? the answer is, that Christ came to fulfil all the conditions of our salvation; He must be made like unto His brethren in all things, and therefore in His resurrection.
3. Angels were employed instrumentally in the resurrection of Christ; and they will be in ours. Wherefore is the Lord of Hosts indebted to an angels hand for His deliverance? Why does not the prison door fly open as the God-Man awakens from His death-sleep? Why? Because He must fulfil all righteousness; He must travel back to the glory He had left in the character of those He ransomed; He must submit to every condition of that covenant by which the ransomed fallen are to enter into life; He must, in short, return to glory as a Man.
III. We come to speak upon some of THE EFFECTS OF THE SAVIOURS RESURRECTION. These we regard in a twofold aspect.
1. As the resurrection affects our present relation to God. The atonement and resurrection of Christ are inseparably connected. We take but a defective view of the atonemeat when we limit it to the work wrought on Calvary; nay, we will say, that if the work of the Saviour ended here, there could have been no atonement. The work was commenced on Calvary--it is completed in heaven. Without the resurrection there could be no triumph over death, no entrance into glory, and hence no atonement available for our entering where Christ had not gone before.
2. But there is another and most important way in which the tidings of our text affect us. We stand in the same position as Israel of old occupied on the day of atonement, as regards our justification our privileges in other respects exceed. We have lost more than Gods favour in the fall; we have lost our right of access to Him. A rebel may be pardoned, and fully pardoned, and yet never find access to the royal presence. It was so with Israel! they approached God only through the person of their high priest. Ours is the high and holy privilege of access to God.
3. We connect the resurrection of Christ with our own; not as regards its reality for this we have done before, but its glory. But what can we say of this? To tell of the glory which shall burst upon a waiting Church in the resurrection morning, would be to describe that sun which shall no more go down; it would be to fathom the perfections of that God whose glory fills heaven and earth. In conclusion: There is not a being in the universe which will not be affected by the resurrection of Jesus. (A. C. Carr, M. A.)
The necessity of Christs resurrection
The resurrection of Christ was necessary--
1. In order to the atonement.
2. In order to the holiness of the believer.
3. In order to the salvation of the Church. (M. H. Seymour, M. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 13. Two of them were going that very day.…
13. Two of them were going that very day. This account is given in detail by Luke only. Cleopas was one of the two (verse 18). Emmaus. Six or eight miles west of Jerusalem.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Luk_24:13. Two of them.—It is evident from Luk_24:33 that…
CRITICAL NOTES
Luk_24:13. Two of them.—It is evident from Luk_24:33 that neither of them were apostles. The name of one of them is given in Luk_24:18, Cleopas (i.e., an abbreviation of Cleopatros), a different name from Cleopas of Joh_19:25. Conjectures as to the name of the other are futile. Went.—Rather, “were going” (R.V.). Emmaus.—Mentioned in Josephus, B.J., VII. Luk_6:6. Omit “about”; omitted in R.V.
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Luk_24:14. They talked.—Rather, “communed” (R.V.); the same word as in Luk_24:15.
Luk_24:15. Reasoned.—Rather, “questioned together.” (R.V.).
Luk_24:16. Their eyes were holden.—A certain change had passed over Jesus, so that He was not instantly recognised in all cases by the disciples after His resurrection (see Luk_24:37; Mat_28:17; Joh_20:14; Joh_21:4). In the present instance St. Mark refers to this in saying that He appeared to these two disciples “in another form.” St. Luke, however, speaks here of a subjective impediment to recognition in the disciples themselves: perhaps their absorption in grief. A supernatural restraint may possibly be indicated: cf. Luk_24:31.
Luk_24:17. What manner? etc.—Lit., “What words are these that ye exchange one with another?” As ye walk and are sad.—A better reading is, “and they stood still, looking sad” (R.V.).
Luk_24:18. Art thou only? etc.—Rather, “Dost thou alone sojourn in Jerusalem?” (R.V.) or “Dost thou sojourn alone in Jerusalem?” (R.V. margin). “Cleopas thought that the supposed stranger was one of the numerous persons who had come up to sojourn at Jerusalem during the period of the paschal feast, and expressed his surprise at his being there without having heard of the death of Jesus of Nazareth; he assumes that no other person could have been in Jerusalem at the time without hearing of it” (Speaker’s Commentary).
Luk_24:19. A prophet, etc.—See a similar description in Act_2:22.
Luk_24:20. Our rulers.—This shows that the speakers were Jews. Delivered him.—I.e., to Pilate.
Luk_24:21. We trusted.—Rather, “we hoped” (R.V); “a word of weakened trust, and shrinking from the avowal that they ‘believed’ this” (Alford). Is the third day.—The expression in the original is peculiar, and might be translated, “He is now in the third day, since,” etc. The reference, of course, is to the prophecy about rising again on the third day.
Luk_24:22. Yea, and certain women.—R.V. “moreover.” The phrase used implies, “Certainly, thus much has happened, that,” etc. Made us astonished.—R.V. “amazed us.”
Luk_24:24. Certain of them, etc.—This refers to the apostles; to the visit of Peter and John to the sepulchre, though St. Luke has in his narrative only mentioned Peter (Luk_24:12).
Luk_24:25. O fools.—Rather, “O foolish men” (R.V.); the word means unintelligent. Defects both of understanding and of heart accounted for their unbelief.
Luk_24:26. Ought not Christ?—Rather, “behoved it not the Christ?” (R.V.). “The sufferings were the appointed way by which Christ should enter into His glory” (Alford).
Luk_24:27. Beginning at.—I.e., taking His arguments from. Taking up the words of one sacred writer after another, he deduced from them in turn certain great principles; basing what He taught upon their testimony. In all the scriptures.—The general tenor of the Old-Testament Scriptures, types, Law, and prophecies, led up to Christ.
Luk_24:28. Made as though, etc.—There was no dissimulation, for He would have gone further, if they had not constrained Him to abide with them. His having joined them on the road was no pledge that He would remain an unlimited time in their society.
Luk_24:29. Abide with us.—I.e., in the same quarters with us. It is not implied that the home of either of the disciples was in Emmaus; indeed, from Christ’s assuming the position of master of the household, it would seem probable that the resting place was an inn. To tarry.—Rather, “to abide” (R.V.); the same word as in the earlier part of the verse.
Luk_24:30. Sat at meat.—Rather, as in other places, “reclined at meat.” Took bread, etc.—No reference to any sacramental rite. These disciples could not have been reminded by His action at the last supper, for neither of them was then present. But they may have witnessed similar actions at common meals with the disciples and at the miraculous feeding of the multitudes. Perhaps they recognised the prints of the nails in His hands.
Luk_24:32. Did not our hearts? etc.—Rather, “Was not our heart burning within us” (R.V.). Talked with us.—Rather “to us” (R.V.).
Luk_24:33. Rose up the same hour.—“They have now no fear of the night-journey from which they had so lately dissuaded their unknown companion” (Bengel). Found the eleven.—With the exception of Thomas, if this appearance of Jesus be the same as that recorded in Joh_20:19.
Luk_24:34. Appeared to Simon.—I.e., to Simon Peter. No details are given of this appearance, but it is mentioned again in 1Co_15:5. Probably at this interview between Jesus and Peter, the sin of his threefold denial was formally forgiven.
Luk_24:35. In breaking of bread.—Rather, “in the breaking of bread” (R.V.),
Luk_24:36. Jesus Himself.—Rather, “He Himself” (R.V.). Stood in the midst.—A sudden appearance, corresponding to the disappearance in Luk_24:31. St. John (Joh_20:19) says that “the doors were shut.” Peace be unto you.—The ordinary Jewish salutation, but having special significance in the mouth of our Lord. Cf. Joh_14:27.
Luk_24:37. Terrified.—“On account of His sudden appearance, and the likeness to one whom they knew to have been dead” (Alford). A spirit.—I.e., a ghost or spectre.
Luk_24:38. Thoughts.—Rather, “reasonings” (R.V.), or “disputing.”
Luk_24:39. My hands, etc.—Probably as evidence both of His corporeity and of His identity. The latter was proved by the marks of the nails. Sometimes those crucified had their feet tied to the cross: from this it is evident that the feet of Christ had been nailed to the cross. Handle me.—St. John uses the same word in the same connection (1Jn_1:1). Flesh and bones.—From the omission of “blood,” some have argued that this was absent in His resurrection body, as being the seat of animal life. But this is doubtful.
Luk_24:40. Some ancient authorities omit this verse; but it is, no doubt, genuine. It is not an interpolation from Joh_20:27.
Luk_24:41. Believed not for joy.—A very natural touch. Any meat.—Rather, “anything to eat.”
Luk_24:42. Fish.—Fish was brought in great quantities to Jerusalem at the principal festivals. Honeycomb.—Curiously enough these words are omitted from the most important uncial MSS. They are, however, of great antiquity, and are found in nearly all the cursive MSS. and in some of the uncials. It is difficult to understand how they could have been inserted if they had not been genuine. This proof of the resurrection by eating with the disciples is referred to by St. Peter (Act_10:41).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Luk_24:13-43
The Eyes of the Understanding Opened.—Jesus appeared in the morning first of all to Mary of Magdala the second appearance was vouchsafed to Peter. Then, in the course of the day, He appeared to the two brethren who journeyed to Emmaus, and in the evening to the eleven apostles—or rather, to the ten. In the two last of these cases we notice a difference in the order of procedure followed by Jesus. In the one case He opened the eyes of the understanding first, and the eyes of the body second; in the other He reversed this order.
I. The eyes of the understanding opened.—In thus varying the order of revelation Jesus was but adapting His procedure to the different circumstances of the persons with whom he had to deal. The two friends who journeyed to Emmaus did not notice any resemblance between the stranger who joined their company and their beloved Lord of whom they had been thinking and speaking. “Their eyes were holden, that they should not know Him.” The main cause of this, we believe, was sheer heaviness of heart. Sorrow made them unobserving. They were so engrossed with their own sad thoughts that they had no eyes for outward things. They did not take the trouble to look who it was that had come up with them; it would have made no difference though the stranger had been their own father. It is obvious how men in such a mood must be dealt with. They can get outward vision only by getting the inward eye first opened. The diseased mind must be healed, that they may be able to look at what is before them and see it as it is. On this principle Jesus proceeded with the two brethren. He accommodated Himself to their humour, and led them on from despair to hope; and then the outward senses recovered their perceptive power, and told who the stranger was. “You have heard,” He said in effect, “a rumour that He who was crucified three days ago is risen. You regard this rumour as an incredible story. But why should you? You believe Jesus to be the Christ. If He was the Christ, His rising again was to be expected as much as the passion, for both alike are foretold in the Scriptures, which ye believe to be the Word of God.” These thoughts having taken hold of their minds, the hearts of the two brethren began to burn with the kindling power of a new truth; the day-dawn of hope breaks on their spirit; they wake up as from an oppressive dream; they look outward, and, lo! the Man who has been discoursing to them is Jesus Himself.
II. The eyes of the body opened.—With the ten the case was different. When Jesus appeared in the midst of them they were struck at once with the resemblance to their deceased Master. They had been listening to the story of Cleopas and his companion, and were in a more observing mood. But they would not believe that what they saw really was Jesus. They were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit—the ghost or spectre of the Crucified. The first thing to be done in this case, therefore, manifestly, was to allay the fear awakened, and to convince the terrified disciples that the Being who had suddenly appeared was no ghost, but a Man; the very Man He seemed to be, even Jesus Himself. Not till that has been done can any discourse be profitably held concerning the teaching of the Old Testament on the subject of Messiah’s earthly history. To that task, accordingly, Jesus forthwith addressed Himself, and only when it was successfully accomplished did He proceed to expound the true Messianic theory. Something analogous to the difference in the experience of the two and of the ten disciples, in connection with belief in the resurrection, may be found in the ways by which different Christians now are brought to faith. The evidences of Christianity are divisible into two great categories, the external and the internal; the one drawn from outward historical facts, the other from the adaptation of the gospel to man’s nature and needs. Both sorts of evidence are necessary to a perfect faith, just as both sorts of vision, the outward and the inward, were necessary to make the disciples thorough believers in the fact of the Resurrection. But some begin with the one, some with the other. Some are convinced first that the gospel story is true, and then, perhaps long after, waken up to a sense of the importance and preciousness of the things which it relates. Others, again, are, like Cleopas and his companion, so engrossed with their own thoughts as to be incapable of appreciating or seeing facts, requiring first to have the eyes of their understanding enlightened to see the beauty and the worthiness of the truth as it is in Jesus. They may at one time have had a kind of traditional faith in the facts as sufficiently well attested. But they have lost that faith—it may be, not without regret. They are sceptics, and yet they are sad because they are so, and feel that it was better with them when, like others, they believed. Yet, though they attempt it, they cannot restore their faith by a study of mere external evidences. They read books dealing in such evidences, but they are not much impressed by them. Their eyes are holden, and they know not Christ coming to them in that outward way. But He reveals Himself to them in another manner. By hidden discourse with their spirits, He conveys into their minds a powerful sense of the moral grandeur of the Christian faith, making them feel that, true or not, it is at least worthy to be true. Then their hearts begin to burn; they hope that what is so beautiful may turn out to be all objectively true; the question of the external evidences assumes a new interest to their minds; they inquire, they read, they look, and, lo! they see Jesus revived, a true historical person for them—risen out of the grave of doubt to live for evermore the sun of their souls, more precious for the temporary loss coming—
“Apparelled in more precious habit,
More moving, more delicate, and full of life,
Into the eye and prospect of their soul”—
than ever He did before they doubted.—Bruce.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Luk_24:13-43
Luk_24:13-32. The Unrecognised Presence: a Narrative with a Typical Value.
I. Christ draws near while they talk of holy things.
II. He draws them out by His inquiries.
III. He draws out the meaning of Scripture.
IV. He draws out their invitation.
V. Then He goes in to tarry.—Sits at meat, He blesses and breaks and gives the bread.
VI. Two forms of revelation.—
1. He makes their hearts burn.
2. He makes Himself known in breaking bread.
The Journey to Emmaus.
I. The way.
II. Christ with us by the way.
III. Christ opening the Scriptures to us by the way.
IV. Our hearts burning in us in the company of Jesus.—
1. The kind.
2. The degree.
3. The effects of this emotion.—Arnot.
The Journey to Emmaus.
I. Two sad travellers on the way to Emmaus.—
1. The afternoon journey.
2. The sympathising Companion.
3. The willing Teacher.
4. The risen Lord.
II. Two glad travellers on the way to Jerusalem.—
1. A rapid, eager, impatient return.
2. Glad and joyful hearts.
3. A journey to convey glad news to others.—W. Taylor.
These Two Men Types of Disciples in Calamity.—If these two men are types of disciples suddenly visited by calamity, the Saviour’s dealings with them are manifestations of His permanent method of comforting such as they.
I. He first brings them in a human way to open their hearts to Him. This is, however homely, really always the first step to comfort.
II. Then comes the light of His Divine instruction.
III. A still greater comfort was in store for them—the discovery of the Lord Himself.
IV. There are two lessons from this story:
1. One as to experience. The “burning” heart had been a token of His presence with them all the way. The real signs of the Divine life are within.
2. One as to service. After vision comes work. Worship is followed by service to their brethren. Christ in the heart, then the heart in Christ’s work.—Macleod.
Luk_24:13. “That same day.”—They left the city, probably, between three and four o’clock in the afternoon, as they arrived at Emmaus (six and a half miles) before sunset.
Luk_24:14. “They talked together.”—In the verse following they are spoken of as “reasoning,” so that we may conclude that they were not altogether of one mind on some of the questions that engaged their attention. As the one of them named Cleopas in the ensuing dialogue speaks in a tone of deep melancholy and despair, it is probable that his companion was inclined to a somewhat more hopeful view of matters.
Luk_24:15. “Jesus Himself drew near.”—A fulfilment of the promise, “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them” (Mat_18:20).
I. Jesus draws near when His friends speak of Him.
II. How much we miss when we meet if we fail to speak of Christ!
III. What a blessing every hour of conversation would be if we would only talk together of Christ and His kingdom!—Miller.
Luk_24:16. “Their eyes were holden.”—When Jesus in temptation holds our eyes, so that the soul neither can nor may recognise, that is good, for soon will joy, light, and comfort, follow; but when the sinner holds his own eyes, and will not recognise Jesus, that is evil, for he incurs danger of eternal blindness and darkness.—Starke.
Luk_24:17. The Sadness of The Two Disciples—
1. The sadness of bereavement.
2. Sadness caused by mental perplexity.
3. Sadness of a shattered career. In our modern world, too, nominal disciples are to be found vexed by almost the same kind of sadness. There is
(1) the sadness of mental perplexity;
(2) the sadness of conscience;
(3) that which arises from the want of an object in life. Christ draws near to them
(1) in His Church;
(2) in His Scriptures;
(3) in His sacraments.—Liddon.
“Sad.”—The sadness was an indication
(1) of unbelief, but also
(2) of love. They parted very reluctantly with their faith in Him for whose memory they cherished so strong an affection. The unbelief which is conjoined with sadness is likely to be transformed into faith, while that which is devoid of regret or sorrow is likely to undergo no change for the better.
Luk_24:18. “Hast not known.”—So absorbed are they in grief that they take for granted that every one else must be fully acquainted with the events that have occasioned it.
Luk_24:19-24. Causes of The Disciples’ Despondency:—
I. The memory of the holy and beneficent life of Jesus so sadly brought to an end by His ignominious death.
II. The defeat of the hopes of redemption through Him which they had cherished.
III. The perplexing nature of the reports which had reached their ears. All that they certainly knew being that the tomb was empty, but that no one had seen Christ.
Luk_24:25-27.
I. Rebuke (Luk_24:25).
II. Instruction (Luk_24:26-27).
Luk_24:25. “O fools and slow of heart.”—Folly in the state of their minds; slowness in the state of their affections.
Luk_24:26. “And to enter into His glory.”—What had seemed to them incompatible with the glory of the Messiah was precisely the appointed way thereto. The Lord does not mean that He is already entered into His glory, but speaks as one who has come so near to His glory as that He sees already the suffering behind Him.—Van Oosterzee.
The Need of a Suffering Saviour.
I. It was necessary that Christ should suffer, in order to His work of salvation.
II. In order to the exercise of sympathy with us.
III. To fit Him for His office of sovereignty.—Ker.
Luk_24:27. “The things concerning Himself.”—Doubtless He began with the prot-evangelium (Gen_3:15): the Seed of the woman who would inflict a deadly wound on the serpent, yet be Himself wounded. Then there were the types of the brazen serpent (Num_21:9; Joh_3:14), and the paschal lamb (Exo_12:46; Joh_19:36). Nor can we doubt that Isaiah 53 was the central prophecy which he expounded. Add to these the psalms of the Crucifixion (cf. Luk_24:44), the 22nd (Mat_27:46; Mar_15:24) and the 40th (Heb_10:5); then, further, Dan_9:26, and the book of Jonah, and Zec_12:10; Zec_13:7.
Types of Christ.—The likeness of the promised Mediator is conspicuous throughout the Sacred Volume; as in a picture, moving along the line of history in one or other of His destined offices—the dispenser of blessings, in Joseph; the inspired interpreter of truth, in Moses; the conqueror, in Joshua; the active preacher, in Samuel; the suffering combatant, in David; and, in Solomon, the triumphant and glorious king.—Newman.
The Testimony of the Scriptures to Christ.—In studying the Scriptures for Himself He had found Himself in them everywhere (Joh_5:39-40). He had now only to let this light which filled His heart ray forth from Him.—Godet.
Luk_24:28. “He made as though.”—The reasons for this were
(1) that this was in accordance with the assumed character of a stranger under which they had hitherto known Him, and
(2) that, having enlightened their minds, He would make trial of their affections.
“Our blessed Saviour pretended that He would pass forth beyond Emmaus; but if He intended not to do it, yet He did no injury to the two disciples, for whose good it was that He intended to make this offer; and neither did He prevaricate the strictness of simplicity and sincerity, because they were persons with whom He had made no contracts, to whom He had passed no obligation, and in the nature of the thing it is proper and natural, by an offer, to give an occasion to another to do a good action, and, in case it succeeds not, then to do what we intended not; and so the offer was conditional” (J. Taylor).
Luk_24:29. “They constrained Him.”—Consider on how many occasions besides the present it is intimated that constraint is necessary on the part of those who would secure the abiding presence of Christ. “Pass not away, I pray Thee, from Thy servant,” was the respectful language of the patriarch Abraham (Gen_18:3); and, “I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me,” was the earnest exclamation of the patriarch Jacob (Gen_32:26). “Depart not hence, I pray Thee, until I come unto Thee, and bring forth my present, and set it before Thee,” said Gideon to the angel (Jdg_6:18). “I pray Thee, let us detain Thee” was the entreaty of Manoah and his wife (ibid. Luk_13:15).—Burgon.
Entertaining Strangers.—They had not been “forgetful to entertain strangers” (Heb_13:2), and they found a reward in being privileged to entertain the Son of God unawares.
“Abide with us.”
I. But for this request, Jesus would have passed on.—He loves to be constrained.
II. We have so little of Christ’s fellowship, because we do not ask for it.—If we wanted more we would get it.
III. If we were truly to desire Christ to abide with us always, He would never go away.—Miller.
Our Need of Christ in Later Life.—The words of the text may suggest to us our special need of the presence and the power of Christ in the different, and particularly in the later, periods of our life. We begin with—
I. Our special need of Christ in the midday of life.—When we have to say of ourselves that it is “towards noon,” or when it is the early afternoon with us; when we are in the midst of life, when the burden of its cares, and its anxieties, and its responsibilities, rests upon us; when we are feeling most of its strain and stress;—then there are two peculiar perils besetting us.
1. That of over-confidence. We are tempted to speak thus to ourselves: “I am through the heats and excitements of youth; I have met and mastered its temptations (to impurity, intemperance, irreverence, etc.); I may relax a little now, I may trust myself now, I may give the reins to inclination now”; and then comes indulgence, which begins by being occasional and harmless, and may end by being habitual and harmful. Then comes declension, and, it may be, even downfall.
2. Absorption. The claims of the business, of the household, of friendship; invitations to various gratifications, each of which is innocent, but which, in their aggregate, are seriously taxing;—these are so urgent and imperative, so present and powerful, that they absorb; they absorb time, strength, energy; so much so that too little is left for worship, for communion, for the direct service of Christ; and the soul is starved, Christian character is weakened; we are in serious peril of “losing those things which we have wrought” (2Jn_1:8). There is, therefore, abundant need for us to make an earnest and continual appeal to our Divine Lord, to address Him thus: “Abide with us, O Master, for it is noontide with us; uphold us by Thy power in the way of heavenly wisdom and holy service; so help us to abide with Thee that we shall never become lax and careless, but shall always watch unto prayer; so aid and influence us that we shall not let this world wind its silken cords around us, but that we shall always give the strength and wealth of our hearts and lives to Thee. Be Thou ever near us, to shelter and support us, or our spirits will be bent under the burden and scorched by the heat of the day.”
II. Our special need of Christ in the late afternoon of life.—There comes a time when our life has passed its meridian, and when the sun is sinking in the sky; it is late afternoon with us. Our powers are not what they were, physical or mental. We cannot walk or work as long, or so well, as we could; we cannot think as hard, or remember as easily, or sustain our attention, as long as we once could; we are falling behind those whom we were once before—our sons and daughters can do many things better than we can. Peculiar perils belong to this hour of life.
1. That of pride or of vanity, of refusing to acknowledge to ourselves or to admit to others the waning of our power.
2. That of envy, a disposition to disparage the work of those who are younger and stronger than ourselves, to depreciate their work, or, at any rate, to withhold the admiration and delight which a more generous spirit would cherish in what they are and in what they do. Here is special need for looking up and praying, “Lord, abide with us, for it is toward evening; we are not what we were, and we need Thy abounding grace that we may be true enough and humble enough to recognise that our days and powers are failing—in order that we may be able to welcome those who are coming up, to honour and to love them, and to work heartily and happily with them, to say with joy, like Thy servant John, ‘They must increase, but we must decrease’ ” (see Joh_3:29-30).
III. Our special need of Christ in the late evening of life.—“The day is far spent.” This is that
(1) we have been privileged to witness. We have known those who have gone through all the hours of the day, and have gone down into the night of death. Their health failed them; the infirmities of age overtook and imprisoned them; life lost its charm for them, its worth to them; their treasures were taken from them; nothing was left, of this world’s giving, in their hands: only the future beyond the grave remained to them. What they needed was a Divine Friend whose hand they could hold as they took their last steps on earth, and as they entered the “silent land.” “Abide with us,” they had reason to say, and (in some language did say) “for the day is far spent”; let us know and feel that Thou art near. And their Divine Lord did not fail them; He was with them at the end, and unto the end; and in their “glorious Leader’s” presence they went down with tranquil, if not triumphant, spirit into the darkness of death, to awake in the bright and glad morning of immortality.
(2) The hour will come—and it will arrive sooner than we think—when we also shall have occasion to say, “the day is far spent”; when we shall have had our earthly heritage, shall have played our part, shall have nothing more to look for as citizens of the present time. Well, indeed, will it be for us if then we have some resources of which time has no power to rob us—which are imperishable and unfailing; well, indeed, if we can then look up confidently to a Divine Saviour, and say, “Lord, abide with us, for the day is far spent; our friends have fallen from us, or gone beyond us; but be Thou ever with us, that we may have fellowship with Thee. Earth has no enjoyment for us; but speak Thou Thine own peace to our souls [Joh_14:27]; we have no prospects this side the grave, but let us hear Thy voice, speaking of the many mansions in the Father’s house, and we shall be at rest.” “They constrained Him … and He went in.” Our Lord will need but slight constraining on our part. Let us only wisely accept Him in the earlier years, and be loyal to Him through all the periods of our life, and He will not withdraw Himself from us at the last; having “loved His own,” He will “love them to the end”; He will—
“Meet us in the valley
When heart and flesh shall fail,
And softly, safely, lead us on,
Until within the veil.”
Clarkson.
The Evening Prayer of Christ’s Friends.—Some of the feelings which must have been in the hearts of those who presented it.
I. Grateful interest in a spiritual benefactor.
II. A desire to have such conversation continued.
III. The presentiment of something more than they had yet seen or heard.
Circumstances in which this request may be offered by us:—
I. It is suitable to the whole earthly life of every Christian.
II. It is suitable to those who are suffering under some special despondency of spirit.
III. It is suitable to those who are approaching the evening of life.—Ker.
Luk_24:30. “Took bread,” etc.—The position of superiority which Jesus had assumed in the rebuke He had administered and in His exposition of the Scriptures, authorises Him to act as the head of the household. Though nominally a guest of the disciples, He becomes their host and they become His guests.
Luk_24:31. “Their eyes were opened.” But before this the eyes of their understandings had been opened. Christ did not reveal Himself until He had effected the principal object of His appearing to them at all.
“Vanished out of their sight.”—The expression is a peculiarly strong one, implying a sudden and supernatural disappearance. His body was now approaching its glorified condition, and obeyed more freely than before the will of His Spirit. Moreover, we must recollect that, properly speaking, Jesus was already no longer with them (Luk_24:44), and that the marvel lay rather in His appearance than in His disappearance.—Godet.
Luk_24:32. The Emmaus Journey a Type of Christian Experience.
I. The pilgrimage of sadness.—Darkness comes because of
(1) the trial of doubt and unbelief;
(2) the trial of solitude and bereavement;
(3) that of backsliding and repentance.
II. Light and gladness return when
(1) we seek this blessing in company;
(2) when we seek it through the Scriptures; and
(3) when we seek it at the Communion Table.—Cairns.
The Emmaus Road.
I. This question suggests the difficulty which we commonly have in understanding the real importance of many incidents in our lives at the time of their occurrence.
II. Religious emotion is a precious gift of God.—Only it should always be made to lead to something; it is a means, not an end.
III. The duty of making an active effort to understand truth as it is presented to us.—Liddon.
“Did not our hearts burn?”—The heart of the genuine believer, who has communion with Christ, burns with joy, with hope, with longing, and with love.
“While He opened.”—It is a good sign for their inner growth that at this moment it is not the breaking of bread, but the opening of the Scriptures, which now stands before the eye of their memory.—Van Oosterzee.
Burning Hearts.—The cause and the effect of successful Christian work.
I. The cause—the burning heart of the teacher.—Spiritual intercourse with Jesus Himself will give it.
II. The result—the burning heart of the taught.—The fire will communicate itself to the hearts of those we teach.—Stock.
Luk_24:34. “Appeared to Simon.”
I. A proof of Christ’s love.—
1. In the implied forgiveness of his heinous sin.
2. In appearing to him first of all the apostles.
3. In appearing to him without any witness.
II. A special boon to Peter in banishing his doubts and fears, and in absolving him from guilt.
III. Welcome news to the disciples of Emmaus.—
1. It confirmed their faith.
2. It restored Peter to their fellowship.
3. It prepared them to expect fresh revelations of the Risen Lord.
Luk_24:36. “He Himself stood.”—With this word begins the evening appearance, which we unhesitatingly venture to name the crown of all Hisappearances on the Resurrection-day. Till now He has satisfied individual needs, but now He comes into the united circle, into the first Church of His own.—Van Oosterzee.
The Salutation of the Resurrection.
I. Peace: the storm is over.
II. Peace: old associations are to be revived.
III. Peace: the prospect will never be darkened.
Luk_24:37. “Terrified.”—The evening hour, fear of the Jews, and anxieties concerning their own future, may well have tended to increase the feelings of surprise and alarm occasioned by the sudden appearance of Christ and the supernatural character of His entering into the room where they were.
Luk_24:38. “Arise in your hearts?”—How gentle is the rebuke! Jesus speaks of the “thoughts” or questionings arising, as it were, of themselves in the hearts of the apostles, as doubts and perplexities for which they were not fully responsible. The heart is not under our control; but out of a pure heart, which is strong in faith, no such perplexities and gainsaying thoughts can rise.
Luk_24:39. “Behold My hands,” etc.
I. The identity of Him who appeared to them with Him whom they had known.
II. The reality of the appearance.
“Handle Me and see.”—
1. An encouragement for the timid.
2. A direction for the perplexed.
I. Our Lord’s indulgent treatment of mistakes and imperfections in religious belief.
II. His sanction of the principle of inquiry into the foundations of our religious belief.
III. The direction which our Lord purposely gave to the thoughts of His perplexed disciples.—Liddon.
Luk_24:40. “He shewed them His hands and His feet.”—Not merely as the signs of His crucifixion, for the identification of His body, did the Saviour show His wounds, but manifestly as signs of victory, proofs of His triumph over death. Moreover, therefore—and this is properly the deepest sense of His entering salutation—as the signs of peace, the peace of the sacrificial death, of the completed atonement.—Stier.
Luk_24:41. “Believed not for joy.”—It was doubtless belief that He had really risen that filled their hearts with joy; yet the excess of joy hindered their faith. It seemed too good news to be true.
“As St. Luke had excused the sleeping of the apostles in Gethsemane, on the ground of their being overcome by sorrow, so here he attributes the difficulty they experience in believing to the excess of their joy” (Godet).
Luk_24:43. “Did eat before them.”—Not because He had need of food for the body, but because they had need of faith for the soul.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain 1Co 15:5. As He appeared to the women on…
CHAPTER 30
HE WAS SEEN BY PETER
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1Co 15:5. As He appeared to the women on their first visit to the sepulcher before it was clear light; also to Mary Magdalene (and doubtless other women, as it is hardly probable she was alone), on the second visit to the sepulcher, which occurred very early in the morning, for the women hastened back immediately after delivering the glorious tidings to the apostles, there is at least a probability that they arrived the second time at the sepulcher before the first arrival of Peter and John. Then, sometime in the morning, He evidently appeared to Peter, as we see here, indefinitely revealed by Paul.
THE WALK TO EMMAUS
Luk 24:13-35. “Behold, two of them on the same day were going to a village, sixty furlongs from Jerusalem, to which was the name Emmaus, and they were conversing with one another concerning all those things which had taken place. And it came to pass, while they are talking and surmising, Jesus also drawing nigh, fell in company with them; and their eyes were held so as not to recognize Him. And He said to them, What are these words which you are interchanging to one another while walking along? And they stood sad. And one, to whom was the name Cleopas, responding, said to Him, Art Thou only a sojourner at Jerusalem, and dost not know the things which have taken place in it in these days? And He said to them, What? And they said to Him, Those things concerning Jesus, the Nazarene, who was a prophet, mighty in deed and word before and all the people, and how our high priests and rulers delivered Him to the condemnation of death, and crucified Him. But we were hoping that He is the One who is going to redeem Israel.” You see that these disciples are still solid in their conviction that the Christ, when He comes, will redeem Israel and abide forever (Dan 9:7-14), which is true when He comes the second time. They never succeeded in dividing the prophecies descriptive of His two advents respectively, but applied them all simultaneously.
Cleopas was the brother of the Apostle James the Less, and some believe his traveling companion to have been the Writer of this Gospel. That is at least very uncertain, as we never hear of Luke till about eight years subsequently, when he becomes the traveling companion and amanuensis of Paul in his second evangelistic tour, starting out from Antioch, the metropolis of Syria, and doubtless the nativity, and at least the residence, of Luke, who, in all probability, was a practicing physician in that city till converted by the preaching of Paul and Barnabas.
“And in addition to all these things, it is even now the third day since they took place. But certain women from us astonished us, being early at the sepulcher, and not finding His body, came, saying that they have seen a vision of angels, who say that He is alive. And certain ones of those along with us departed to the sepulcher, and found it even as the women said; but they saw Him not.” You see clearly that these disciples had not yet received light on His resurrection, but were still clinging pertinaciously to the idea that when Christ comes He will redeem Israel and reign forever, which is true of the second, but not of His first advent, in which He came to suffer and to die.
“And He said to them, O ye foolish, and slow in heart to believe in all those things which the prophets spoke.” “Foolish” here is anoetos, meaning spiritual blindness, and not moros, natural imbecility, which He condemns in His Sermon on the Mount, pronouncing a woe on the man who says to his brother, “Thou fool.” You see here that the heart, and not the intellect, is the faculty of faith. Since the Holy Spirit alone can quicken and enlighten the heart, it is in vain to appeal to the intellect. “With the heart, man believeth unto righteousness.” (Rom 10:10.) The trouble with infidels and skeptics is not intellectual, but spiritual.
“Did it not behoove Christ to suffer these things, and to enter into His glory? Beginning from Moses and all the prophecies, He interpreted unto them, in all the Scriptures, the things concerning Himself. And they were drawing nigh to the village, whither they were journeying; and He made as if He were going farther.” This statement is not at all vulnerable to criticism. When they stopped, He walked directly on, and in all probability would have continued, or have manifested Himself to them on the spot, if they had not constrained Him to come in and abide with them.
“And they constrained Him, saying, Abide with us; because it is evening, and the day has already declined. He came in to abide with them. And it came to pass, while He was sitting at the table, He took bread, and blessed it, and breaking it, gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him; and He vanished away from them. And they said to one another, Was not our heart burning within us, while He spoke to us on the way, as He opened unto us the Scriptures? Rising up that hour, they returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven assembled, and those along with them, and saying that the Lord truly is risen, and appeared unto Simon . And they were expounding those things on the road, and how He was made known to them in the breaking of bread.” You see here that Emmaus is seven and a half miles from Jerusalem, through that rugged, mountainous country, as the metropolis is situated on the high summit of Mount Zion, Moriah, Akra, Bezetha, and Calvary being, respectively, prominences of that great mountain, the culmination of the great interior mountain ranges, rising from the plain of the Mediterranean on the west and the Jordan and the Dead Sea on the east. Though the moon, which was full on the preceding Friday and now, two hours after sunset, is not yet risen, dropping their edibles, they run back with all expedition over the rugged rocks, arriving at Jerusalem in good time for the night meeting, whose thrilling and absorbing theme is the wonderful reports of the sisters and Peter, who assure them that they actually saw Him that morning. No wonder their hearts did burn along the way as Jesus walked with them, opening the Scriptures. O that He may ever walk with you and me, filling and thrilling us with the blessed Word, revealed to our hearts by His heavenly presence!
HE APPEARS TO THE TWELVE
1Co 15:5. How could that be when Judas was gone? You know Matthias, an old disciple, took the place of fallen Judas. Though he had not been elected at this date — for you must remember we are still expounding the events of that wonderful Sabbath, forever immortalized and sanctified by the resurrection of our Lord — yet he had been in his place and on duty long before the Pauline writing to the Corinthians, A. D. 57; i. e., twenty- four years subsequently to this date.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain Luk 24:13 - Luk 24:32.
Luke
THE RISEN LORD’S SELF-REVELATION TO WAVERING DISCIPLES
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Luk 24:13 - Luk 24:32.
These two disciples had left their companions after Peter’s return from the sepulchre and before Mary Magdalene hurried in with her tidings that she had seen Jesus. Their coming away at such a crisis, like Thomas’s absence that day, shows that the scattering of the sheep was beginning to follow the smiting of the shepherd. The magnet withdrawn, the attracted particles fall apart. What arrested that process? Why did not the spokes fall asunder when the centre was removed? John’s disciples crumbled away after his death. When Theudas fell, all his followers ‘were dispersed’ and came to nought. The Church was knit more closely together after the death that, according to all analogy, should have scattered it. Only the fact of the Resurrection explains the anomaly. No reasonable men would have held together unless they had known that their Messianic hopes had not been buried in Christ’s grave. We see the beginnings of the Resurrection of these hopes in this sweet story.
I. We have first the two sad travellers and the third who joins them.
Probably the former had left the group of disciples on purpose to relieve the tension of anxiety and sorrow by walking, and to get a quiet time to bring their thoughts into some order. They were like men who had lived through an earthquake; they were stunned, and physical exertion, the morning quiet of the country, and the absence of other people, would help to calm their nerves, and enable them to realise their position. Their tone of mind will come out more distinctly presently. Here it is enough to note that the ‘things which had come to pass’ filled their minds and conversation. That being so, they were not left to grope in the dark. ‘Jesus Himself drew near, and went with them.’ Honest occupation of mind with the truth concerning Him, and a real desire to know it, are not left unhelped. We draw Him to our sides when we wish and try to grasp the real facts concerning Him, whether they coincide with our prepossessions or not.
It is profoundly interesting and instructive to note the characteristics of the favoured ones who first saw the risen Lord. They were Mary, whose heart was an altar of flaming and fragrant love; Peter, the penitent denier; and these two, absorbed in meditation on the facts of the death and burial. What attracts Jesus? Love, penitence, study of His truth. He comes to these with the appropriate gifts for them, as truly-yea, more closely-as of old. Perhaps the very doubting that troubled them brought Him to their help. He saw that they especially needed Him, for their faith was sorely wounded. Necessity is as potent a spell to bring Jesus as desert. He comes to reward fixed and fervent love, and He comes, too, to revive it when tremulous and cold.
‘Their eyes were holden,’ says Luke; and similarly ‘their eyes were opened’ {Luk 24:31}. He makes the reason for His not being recognised a subjective one, and his narrative affords no support to the theory of a change in our Lord’s resurrection body. How often does Jesus still come to us, and we discern Him not! Our paths would be less lonely, and our thoughts less sad, if we realised more fully and constantly our individual share in the promise,’ I am with you always.’
II. We have next the conversation {Luk 24:17 - Luk 24:28}.
The unknown new-comer strikes into the dialogue with a question which, on some lips, would have been intrusive curiosity, and would have provoked rude retorts. But there was something in His voice and manner which unlocked hearts. Does He not still come close to burdened souls, and with a smile of love on His face and a promise of help in His tones, ask us to tell Him all that is in our hearts? ‘Communications’ told to Him cease to sadden. Those that we cannot tell to Him we should not speak to ourselves.
Cleopas naively wonders that there should be found a single man in Jerusalem ignorant of the things which had come to pass. He forgot that the stranger might know these, and not know that they were talking about them. Like the rest of us, he fancied that what was great to him was as great to everybody. What could be the subject of their talk but the one theme? The stranger assumes ignorance, in order to win to a full outpouring. Jesus wishes us to put all fears and doubts and shattered hopes into plain words to Him. Speech to Christ cleanses our bosoms of much perilous stuff. Before He speaks in answer we are lightened.
Very true to nature is the eager answer of the two. The silence once broken, out flows a torrent of speech, in which love and grief, disciples’ pride in their Master, and shattered hopes, incredulous bewilderment and questioning wonder, are blended.
That long speech {Luk 24:19 - Luk 24:24} gives a lively conception of the two disciples’ state of mind. Probably it fairly represented the thought of all. We note in it the limited conception of Jesus as but a prophet, the witness to His miracles and teaching {the former being set first, as having more impressed their minds}, the assertion of His universal appreciation by the ‘people,’ the charging of the guilt of Christ’s death on ‘our rulers,’ the sad contrast between the officials’ condemnation of Him and their own fond Messianic hopes, and the despairing acknowledgment that these were shattered.
The reference to ‘the third day’ seems to imply that the two had been discussing the meaning of our Lord’s frequent prophecy about it. The connection in which they introduce it looks as if they were beginning to understand the prophecy, and to cherish a germ of hope in His Resurrection, or, at all events, were tossed about with uncertainty as to whether they dared to cherish it. They are chary of allowing that the women’s story was true; naively they attach more importance to its confirmation by men. ‘But Him they saw not,’ and, so long as He did not appear, they could not believe even angels saying ‘that He was alive.’
The whole speech shows how complete was the collapse of the disciples’ Messianic hopes, how slowly their minds opened to admit the possibility of Resurrection, and how exacting they were in the matter of evidence for it, even to the point of hesitating to accept angelic announcements. Such a state of mind is not the soil in which hallucinations spring up. Nothing but the actual appearance of the risen Lord could have changed these sad, cautious unbelievers to lifelong confessors. What else could have set light to these rolling smoke-clouds of doubt, and made them flame heaven-high and world-wide?
‘The ingenuous disclosure of their bewilderment appealed to their Companion’s heart, as it ever does. Jesus is not repelled by doubts and perplexities, if they are freely spoken to Him. To put our confused thoughts into plain words tends to clear them, and to bring Him as our Teacher. His reproach has no anger in it, and inflicts no pain, but puts us on the right track for arriving at the truth. If these two had listened to the ‘prophets,’ they would have understood their Master, and known that a divine ‘must’ wrought itself out in His Death and Resurrection. How often, like them, do we torture ourselves with problems of belief and conduct of which the solution lies close beside us, if we would use it?
Jesus claimed ‘all the prophets’ as His witnesses. He teaches us to find the highest purpose of the Old Testament in its preparation for Himself, and to look for foreshadowings of His Death and Resurrection there. What gigantic delusion of self-importance that was, if it was not the self-attestation of the Incarnate Word, to whom all the written word pointed! He will still, to docile souls, be the Interpreter of Scripture. They who see Him in it all are nearer its true appreciation than those who see in the Old Testament everything but Him.
III. We have finally the disclosure and disappearance of the Lord.
The little group must have travelled slowly, with many a pause on the road, while Jesus opened the Scriptures; for they left the city in the morning, and evening was near before they had finished their ‘threescore furlongs’ {between seven and eight miles}. His presence makes the day’s march seem short.
‘He made as though He would have gone further,’ not therein assuming the appearance of a design which He did not really entertain, but beginning a movement which He would have carried out if the disciples’ urgency had not detained Him. Jesus forces His company on no man. He ‘would have gone further’ if they had not said ‘Abide with us.’ He will leave us if we do not keep Him. But He delights to be held by beseeching hands, and our wishes ‘constrain’ Him. Happy are they who, having felt the sweetness of walking with Him on the weary road, seek Him to bless their leisure and to add a more blissful depth of repose to their rest!
The humble table where Christ is invited to sit, becomes a sacred place of revelation. He hallows common life, and turns the meals over which He presides into holy things. His disciples’ tables should be such that they dare ask their Lord to sit at them. But how often He would be driven away by luxury, gross appetite, trivial or malicious talk! We shall all be the better for asking ourselves whether we should like to invite Jesus to our tables. He is there, spectator and judge, whether invited or not.
Where Jesus is welcomed as guest He becomes host. Perhaps something in gesture or tone, as He blessed and brake the bread, recalled the loved Master to the disciples’ minds, and, with a flash, the glad ‘It is He!’ illuminated their souls. That was enough. His bodily presence was no longer necessary when the conviction of His risen life was firmly fixed in them. Therefore He disappeared. The old unbroken companionship was not to be resumed. Occasional appearances, separated by intervals of absence, prepared the disciples gradually for doing without His visible presence.
If we are sure that He has risen and lives for ever, we have a better presence than that. He is gone from our sight that He may be seen by our faith. That ‘now we see Him not’ is advance on the position of His first disciples, not retrogression. Let us strive to possess the blessing of ‘those who have not seen, and yet have believed.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [CXXXVII. Third and…
J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [CXXXVII. Third and Fourth Appearances].
CXXXVII. THIRD AND FOURTH APPEARANCES OF JESUS. (Sunday afternoon.) bMARK XVI. 12, 13; cLUKE XXIV. 13-35; eI. COR. XV. 5.
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b12 And after these things he was manifested in another form [i. e., another manner] unto two of them, as they walked, on their way into the country. c13 And behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus [Several sites have been suggested, but the village of Emmaus has not yet been identified beyond dispute. Its location is probably marked by the ruins called el Kubeibeh, which lies northwest of Jerusalem], which was threescore furlongs from Jerusalem. [el Kubeibeh is distant seven and thirteen-sixteenths of a mile, or sixty-two and one-half furlongs, from Jerusalem.] 14 And they communed with each other of all these things which had happened. 15 And it came to pass, while they communed and questioned together, that Jesus himself drew near, and went with them. 16 But their eyes were holden that they should not know him. [Jesus himself designedly restrained their vision, that, unlike John ( Joh_20:8, Joh_20:9), that might see the resurrection of Jesus in the Scriptures before they saw it in reality.] 17 And he said unto them, What communications are these that ye have one with another, as ye walk? And they stood still, looking sad. [Our Lord's abrupt question brought them to a standstill. We may well imagine that they considered his interruption very unwelcome. But his kindly mien won their confidence and they tell him all.] 18 And one of them, named Cleopas, answering said unto him, Dost thou alone sojourn in Jerusalem and not know the things which are come to pass there in these days? [Of Cleopas nothing further is known. It has been suggested that the other disciple was Luke himself. [748] This is possible, for the other Evangelists mention themselves thus impersonally. The preface to Luke's Gospel in no way forbids us to think that he had a personal knowledge of parts of Christ's ministry. Cleopas marveled that there could be a single man in Jerusalem who had not heard concerning the crucifixion, etc.] 19 And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, The things concerning Jesus the Nazarene, 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 up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. 21 But we hoped that it was he who should redeem Israel. [To Cleopas, redeeming Israel meant freeing the nation from the Roman yoke.] Yea and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things came to pass. 22 Moreover certain women of our company amazed us, having been early at the tomb; 23 and when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. [Rationalists might see their own reflection in these two disciples, who suppressed the statement of the women that they had seen the Lord as too idle to be repeated, and told the least marvelous part of their story--that about the angels--as too visionary to be credited. Thus the renowned Renan held that the resurrection was a story or fabrication which grew out of the hallucination of Mary Magdalene. But these two men on the way to Emmaus had less use for feminine hallucinations than even M. Renan. But in the end they believed in the resurrection because they themselves had substantial evidence of it.] 24 And certain of them that were with us [Peter and John] went to the tomb, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not. [The last clause unconsciously suggests the omitted fact that the women had professed to see Christ.] 25 And he said unto them, O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Behooved it not the Christ to suffer these things, [749] and to enter into his glory? 27 And beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. [The counsel of the Father revealed in the Scriptures shows that Jesus should enter into his glory through suffering. The books of Moses foretell Christ largely in types, such, as the passover, the rock in the wilderness, Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac, the day of atonement, etc., but the prophets show him forth in clear-cut predictions and descriptions. Jesus evidently applied both these divisions of Scripture to himself, making it plain to these two who were both thoughtless in mind and slow in heart. Those lacking in a knowledge of the Christology of the Old Testament are slow to believe in it. Those who know that Christology, and yet doubt the Old Testament, do so because they lack faith in the Christ therein portrayed.] 28 And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they were going: and he made as though he would go further. 29 And they constrained him, saying, Abide with us; for it is toward evening, and the day is now far spent. [They were loth to part with this delightful stranger who by his wonderful use of the Scriptures revived their failing faith and hope in Jesus.] And he went in to abide with them. 30 And it came to pass, when he had sat down with them to meat, he took the bread and blessed; and breaking i it he gave to them. 31 And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight. [While he was breaking the bread to supply their bodies he opened their eyes and revealed to them that it was he also who had just been feeding their hungry hearts with the truth and consolation of the divine word.] 32 And they said one to another, Was not our heart burning within us, while he spake to us in the way, while he opened to us the scriptures? [Thus they admit to each other that the joy of beholding the risen Lord was but the consummation of a joy already begun through a right understanding of the truth contained in Scripture. The sight of the Lord was sweeter because it was preceded by faith that he ought [750] thus to rise.] 33 And they rose up that very hour, b13 And they went away cand returned to Jerusalem [their news was too precious to keep. They could not sit still till the disciples in Jerusalem knew it], and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them [the women and some of the one hundred and twenty-- Act_1:15], 34 saying, The Lord is risen indeed [his resurrection is not an hallucination of the women], and hath fappeared to Cephas; cSimon. [Paul and Luke both mention this appearance, but we have none of the details of it.] 35 And they rehearsed the things i that happened in the way, and how he was known of them in the breaking of the bread. [This does not mean that they knew Jesus because of any peculiar way in which he broke the bread; it means that he was revealed at the time when he broke it.] bneither believed they them. [They now believed that Jesus had risen, but they did not believe that these two had walked and talked with him without recognizing him. *]
* NOTE.--Here again we dissent. So general a statement of unbelief would not be used when there was a mere doubt as to some of the narrated details. We prefer in our original comment to this substitution, and it was this: Mark shows us that little dependence can be placed upon the apparently strong admission which Luke records. Unable to contradict the testimony of Peter, they said, "The Lord is risen indeed;" but their hearts were, nevertheless, full of doubt. Luke himself shows this in the next section, for these professedly believing apostles took Jesus for a spirit when they saw him.
[FFG 748-751]
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain And, behold
And, behold
For order of our Lord’s appearances after His resurrection, (See Scofield "Mat 28:9")
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain The Emmaus Disciples.
The Emmaus Disciples.
The walk to Emmaus:
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v. 13. And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs.
v. 14. And they talked together of all these things which had happened.
v. 15. And it came to pass that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus Himself drew near and went with them.
v. 16. But their eyes were holden that they should not know Him.
"Two of them," not of the apostles, but of the larger body of the disciples. Most commentators agree in stating that Luke himself was one of the two men, and that he here tells his own experience in such graphic detail. Emmaus was a village lying to the northwest of Jerusalem, now generally identified with Kalonieh. sixty stadia from Jerusalem, each stadium being six hundred feet in length, and the total distance being between six and seven miles. The two men were conversing together on all the things which had taken place in Jerusalem in the last few days, on all the happenings that had transpired there. The discussion at times waxed lively, being carried on almost with some heat. It may be that one was skeptical about the reported resurrection, while the other was strongly inclined to believe. And while they were thus traveling along, all oblivious to their surroundings, a third wanderer joined them, Jesus Himself having chosen to walk with them. But their eyes were restrained, were held from recognizing their Master, in order that they might not know Him for the time being. Jesus had His own reasons for dealing with them thus; He wanted to give them a lesson in believing the Word. "And behold, with what great diligence He shows His interest in these two men of weak faith and does everything to help their weakness and to strengthen their faith! Since He sees and knows that they, in their affliction and grief, have gone away from the apostles and know neither what to think or what to hope for, He does not want to leave them in such doubt and disturbance, but comes to help them out and becomes their partner on the way; He even lets the other apostles sit all alone, although they also were in deep grief and weak enough in their faith."
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
Two of the disciples are on their way to Emmaus. (See: Introduction of a New Event)
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Behold
The author uses this word to mark the beginning of a new event. (See: Introduction of a New Event)
two of them
"two of the disciples"
that very day
"that same day." This refers to the day when the women found the tomb to be empty.
Emmaus
This is the name of a town. (See: How to Translate Names)
sixty stadia
"eleven kilometers." A "stadium" was 185 meters. (See: Biblical Distance)
translationWords
Jerusalem
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 24:13-34 This account is Luke’s unique contribution to the…
24:13-34 This account is Luke’s unique contribution to the resurrection narratives. Jesus corrected these disciples’ misunderstanding by showing from Scripture that it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer. He then opened their eyes to the truth of his resurrection.
24:13 two of Jesus’ followers: Jesus had many disciples in addition to the Twelve (see 10:1, 17). Nothing else is known of Cleopas (24:18) or the other disciple (who may have been his wife). They were probably returning from celebrating the Passover in Jerusalem.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.