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13 Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 15 As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16 but they were kept from recognizing him. ~ Luke 24:13-16
The most important reality in this world is God’s truth which is only found in the Bible which is the Word of God. All matters of life are contained in the Bible. All of the purposes of God for us from the beginning to the end are discovered throughout the Scriptures. It is hard word to read the Bible and discover its application to our lives in the here and now. This why we do not invest in it more than we do.
In v.13 of today's text we read, "Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem."
Emmaus was a small village located about eight miles northwest of Jerusalem. These two disciples of the Lord Jesus were walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus. Although it was in the middle of the day, they were in the dark regarding the events of the resurrection. They were in the dark for their lack of understanding the Scriptures.
We live in a world which no longer appreciates a deep understanding of the Scriptures. The greatness of America is clearly traced back to the influence of the Bible on the thinkers of the framers of the U.S. Constitution, the greatest human document to have ever been drawn up.
In fact, C.S. Lewis once wrote, "The founding fathers read the Bible. Their many quotations from and allusions to both familiar and obscure scriptural passages tell us that they knew the Bible well; they knew the Bible from cover to cover. Biblical language and themes liberally seasoned their rhetoric; the phrases and the cadences of the King James Bible, especially, informed their written and spoken words. The ideas of the Bible shaped their habits of mind and informed their political pursuits. The Bible was the most accessible and authoritative text for eighteenth-century Americans. We know this, for example, by looking at probate records, the records, the catalogs, of what people left behind when they died, and they reveal that if a family owned a single book it was almost certainly going to be the Bible. So this was the one book that Americans would be most familiar with."
The American people, as I write this, are largely being deceived because we do not have our moorings in the Bible. We have largely forsaken that which made us great in the first place. Part of the problem is that the Bible is not only information about life and God, it is the very voice of God in print. When we approach the Bible for just information, we miss its ultimate purpose. The Bible was given to us that we might know God personally, and as we grow in a personal relationship with Him, He transforms us from the inside out. And, this transformation transfers the wisdom of God to us.
These two disciples walking on the road to Emmaus had no reason to be discouraged. They had heard the reports of the women that the tomb was empty and that the Lord Jesus was alive, but they did not believe them. They had hoped that the Lord Jesus would redeem Israel, but their hopes had been shattered. Like these men, we get discouraged and disappointed because although we have seen a measure of the glory of God's kingdom, we failed to understand the suffering that ushered His glory in.
Like you and me, these disciples had a lack of understanding of the Scriptures, that’s why they couldn’t deal with the death of Christ. They had no place in their theology for the death of the Messiah, and therefore they had no place in their theology for the resurrection. This was not because they never read the Scriptures. This was due to their partial understanding of the Scriptures. And, a partial understanding of the Scripture is not enough.
In v.14-15 we read, "14 They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 15 As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them."
The discussion that took place between these two disciples was necessary because all of us have come to that place where we have contemplated with another the meaning of life. This story took place on the Sunday afternoon that the Lord Jesus overcame all that hampers us in our pursuit of the truth. It was the first day of the week and the third day since the Lord Jesus had been crucified. By the time their conversation comes to its end, it’s about to be sundown.
From their point of view, it was over. All their hopes, all their dreams, all their explanations attached to the Lord Jesus had been crushed. And there was nothing to stay in Jerusalem for, the Passover was over. So, they headed home, gloomy, sad, and confused. Perhaps they felt duped.
Their condition of confusion and fear was necessary. This has been my experience along the way. I have wondered to myself, "Is all of this Jesus stuff really real?" This is a provocative question which solicits true self-examination. These types of questions make us assess what we truly know and believe. Asking the right questions helps us to wrestle with the truth and to discover its origin.
In Luke’s gospel, there are about a dozen times when the Lord Jesus taught by asking questions. He did this due to the fact that His hearers had to come to grips with what it was that they knew and believed. In addition, the entertaining of these deeply driven questions enabled them to identify what caused their confusion and ignorance in the first place.
According to v.15, “As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them.”
Without knowing it these disciples were joined by the Lord Jesus in His glorified form. He was in this glorified form when Mary Magdalene saw Him, and she thought He was the gardener. Even though He had been glorified, there was something really human about Him at that point. His post-resurrected body was not dazzling and His followers were not surprised by His form and appearance.
In v.16 we read, "but they were kept from recognizing him." There have been many times in my walk with the Lord that I did not recognize Him. And, some of those times, He was the cause of my lack of recognition. These disciples were prevented from recognizing Him by Him. Of course, they could not recognize Him because they were so sure that He was dead.
Up to this point after His resurrection, every time the Lord Jesus appeared to His disciples, they didn’t know who He was. Mary Magdalene thought He was the gardener. They did not know who He was until He disclosed Himself to them. God’s design for these two was to hold back their recognition until the time He wanted them to see Him.
We should not be surprised that He works this way with us, at times. There are times when I am not ready for certain revelations of Him and He knows it. So, the revelation is delayed. All of this is to say that we must address those things in our lives that we have control over like reading and studying our Bibles with goal of knowing Him. In addition, we can trust Him to work and deliver in our lives in such a way that is best for us and best for those whom we influence.
