Luke 24:13-35: Are You Walking with Jesus?

INTRODUCTION

Have you ever been excited by great hopes and then been terribly disappointed?

Life was exciting and good and great success was just around the corner, when suddenly all your hopes turned to ashes. Your heart was broken.

This story is about such an event.

I. Here is the story. It was afternoon of Resurrection Day:

A. That very day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him.

And he said to them, “What is this conversation which you are holding with each other as you walk?”

And they stood still, looking sad.

Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”

And he said to them, “What things?”

And they said to him, “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him.

“But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since this happened.

“Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his body; and they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive Some of those who were with us went to the tomb, and found it just as the women had said; but him they did not see” (Luke 24:13-24).

B. These two friends of Jesus had followed Jesus and learned to love him.

They had heard the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount. They had seen his miracles. They had heard his parables.

Cleopas and his companion were not among the 12 disciples Jesus had especially chosen.

But they were two of many other disciples besides the 12 who had given up everything to follow Jesus. You know Jesus had many disciples—men and women—who didn’t belong to the 12 who are named in the gospels.

Perhaps they had been among the 70 disciples that Jesus had sent out on a mission trip.

They had been among those who welcomed Jesus on Palm Sunday, waving their palm branches as he rode on the donkey into Jerusalem amid the Hosannas of the people.

They saw in him the promised Messiah who would bring peace and justice into the world.

They were convinced that in Jesus all their hopes and dreams would come true.

(I want to put in here that—along with many scholars—I am satisfied that the second disciple was Cleopas’s wife, whose name was Mary. They note that a Mary Clopas was with Mary Magdalene and Mary, our Lord's mother at the foot of the cross, according to John 19:25. But whether her name was Mary or not, they lived in the same house in Emmaus, so they must have been man and wife.)

C. Cleopas and Mary remembered the prophecies about the Messiah, such as this one in Isaiah (Isaiah 32:1-2, 16-17):

Behold, a king will reign in righteousness,

and princes will rule in justice.

Each will be like a hiding place from the wind,

a covert from the tempest,

like streams of water in a dry place,

like the shade of a great rock in a weary land…

Then justice will dwell in the wilderness,

and righteousness abide in the fruitful field.

And the effect of righteousness will be peace,

and the result of righteousness,

quietness and trust for ever.

They had been convinced that Jesus was the Messiah, and he had fulfilled these prophecies.

But they had been proved wrong!

The one they had trusted and followed was taken and killed—not only killed but condemned as a criminal, and put to the most shameful, disgraceful death imaginable.

They had read in their Bible: “A hanged man is cursed by God” (Deuteronomy 21:23).

That contradicted everything they had ever believed about the Messiah.

It was inconceivable that the Messiah could die! And Jesus had not only died but he had died under a curse.

They were trying to come to terms with the greatest tragedy they could imagine.

And that’s why they were so sad—so perplexed.

That’s why they were deep in conversation. They were trying to make sense of something that made no sense.

D. One would suppose that they would have been thrilled by the report of the women that they had seen Jesus alive. But this tale seemed to actually increase their confusion.

What had the women seen? A ghost? A vision?

They had heard of ghosts and visions.

But they couldn’t conceive of a dead Messiah come back to life.

And the angel? Had the women really seen an angel? And if Jesus was alive, where was he?

II. We continue the story:

A. And Jesus said to them “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself (Luke 24:25-27).

B. We don’t know all the scriptures Jesus quoted for them. But we know one of them for sure. It was in the book of the prophet Isaiah, the place where Isaiah speaks most directly about the Messiah as the Suffering Servant.

We read some of these words in our Call to Worship:

He was wounded for our transgressions,

he was bruised for our iniquities

upon him was the chastisement that made us whole,

and with his stripes we are healed.

The Stranger explained to Cleopas and Mary how all the books of the Hebrew Bible testified to Jesus, the Messiah.

He showed them from their Bible that Jesus was the descendant of Abraham in whom all the nations would be blessed.

He told how offerings their priests offered at their Temple pointed to Christ’s death.

He told them how the psalmists spoke of Christ when they said things like “The Lord is my Shepherd.”

He told them that Jesus was the one Isaiah spoke of when he said, “Behold to us a child is born…and his name shall be called Immanuel, which means “God with us.”

He told them how Jesus had fulfilled the mission of Israel, to be a “light for the nations.”

He showed them how Daniel pointed to Christ when he said that to him was to be given dominion and glory and a kingdom that would never pass away.

III. Now to finish the story:

A. So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He appeared to be going further, but they constrained him saying, saying, “Abide with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.”

So he went in to stay with them.

When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognized him; and he vanished out of their sight.

They said to teach other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures?”

And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven gathered together and those who were with them, who said, “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!”

Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread (Luke 24:28-35).

B. Luke is famous for his references to dinners that Jesus ate with his friends.

Luke tells of 12 times when Jesus sat down with his disciples or friends or others for dinner.

And that doesn’t count the feeding of the 5000 and the Last Supper and two dinners Jesus told about in his parables.

At this dinner in Emmaus, Jesus took the part of master of the feast. He lifted up the bread and blessed God. They suddenly recognized their guest as Jesus, and he vanished out of their sight.

We don’t know why they hadn’t recognized him before. It only says, “Their eyes were kept from recognizing him.”

Perhaps as he raised the bread say the blessing they saw the nail prints in his hands.

Perhaps it was his special way of saying the blessing that revealed who he was.

We don’t read whether they finished their dinner or not after they recognized Jesus and he disappeared. But as soon as they could, they walked as fast as they could the 7 miles back to Jerusalem to tell their story to the apostles.

APPLICATION

Jesus did not rise from the dead to sit in heaven and wait for us to join him there.

Jesus rose from the dead so that he could walk with us through life, so that he could be our companion and friend.

As we go on our journey through life, Jesus wants to accompany us.

As we walk with him through the ups and downs of life, he opens our hearts to understand the scriptures.

As we read our Bibles, as we pray, as we worship in church, as we enjoy the companionship of other believers—Jesus speaks to us, down deep in our hearts.

He joins us in our joys…and in our sorrows…He keeps telling us he loves us and everything is going to be all right.

He shows us our way…He teaches us how to live…

He promises us a glorious future with him in his Father’s House.

Reflecting on their experience, Cleopas and his wife said to each other: “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures?”

I can hear Cleopas telling Mary: “Didn’t it make your heart glow the way he opened to us the scriptures to us?”

And Mary said, “It was exciting to hear the Bible come alive like that. I never realized that our entire Bible was about Jesus.”

CONCLUSION

In an article in The Christian Century, April 7, 1999, Pastor Susan Andrews tells the story of Michael, a young Jew who was a faithful participant in the Bible studies at her church.

Although not yet a Christian, Michael had a deep interest in God and an understanding of theology.

Michael’s wife was a Christian, and when their baby daughter was born, they had a decision to make. Would they have their baby baptized?

After much soul searching, they decided that yes they should, and Michael stood up with his wife and child and made promises for their little daughter.

Michael continued to hunger for the Word, and one day he asked to be baptized also. He was ready to follow Jesus.

The pastor explains what happened this way: Because he had studied the gospels, his heart had begun to burn. In powerful ways, the Jesus described in the Bible had begun to get up off the pages and walk out into the world with him. Jesus had become Michael’s traveling companion in the journey of his daily life.

Michael had been on the Emmaus journey with the risen Jesus. His heart was set on fire as he came to know Jesus as his Companion and Guide.

The walk to Emmaus is an historical event, but it is also a parable.

As we study and meditate on the stories of Jesus, we meet our Savior.

Our hearts begin to burn …

And as we give ourselves to Jesus, he gets up off of the pages of the Holy Book and walks with us—all the way to the end—even through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and beyond into a glorious eternity with Jesus our Friend.