On The Road... A Post-
Resurrection Appearance
of Jesus
(Luke 24:13-35)
By Dave Redick, Sweet Home, OR
"...beat your preacher with a leather whip for thirty-nine heavy strokes. Nail him to a cross. Hang him in the sun for six hours. Run a spear through his heart. Embalm him. Put him in an airless tomb for three days. Then see what happens."
Introduction
The Associated Press carried the following article in their news feed dated 3-9-94: In Artesia, New Mexico, Mary Bratcher accidentally ran over her own pet dog Browny. The family tearfully buried the mixed-breed dog in a field near their ranch home. The family's young son, Toby, age 3, refused to accept that his pet was dead. Browny's mother refused to accept it also. The mother dog dug Browny out of the ground and the following day the family returned from a trip to discover Browny caked with mud and dried blood on their porch. Browny, barely breathing, was rushed to a veterinarian. Browny will recover. Browny has lost an eye, has a broken shoulder and has a new name: Lazarus.
The thing that is on the minds of most followers of Christ in our land who are worshiping this morning is the resurrection. They gather, as do we, to celebrate not a resuscitation as in the case of Brownie, but a resurrection, for you see, Jesus died before He was raised.
Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, "For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures..."
A woman once wrote to a well known radio preacher these words:
"Our preacher said that on Easter Jesus just swooned on the cross and that the disciples nursed him back to health. What do you think?" The preacher replied, "Dear Sister, beat your preacher with a leather whip for thirty-nine heavy strokes. Nail him to a cross. Hang him in the sun for six hours. Run a spear through his heart. Embalm him. Put him in an airless tomb for three days. Then see what happens." 1
Jesus Christ died, was buried for three days, and was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. That is what we celebrate today!
This morning we are going to focus on the resurrection, the doctrine that Paul said was "of first importance" to us.
In most places this morning, it will probably be the resurrection description itself that will get the attention of Christian preachers and teachers. I want to do something a little different. I would like to consider one of the post resurrection appearances of Jesus. More specifically, I refer to His appearance after His resurrection to two eye-witness disciples who were returning home from Jerusalem after being present at the crucifixion. It was an early spring Sunday afternoon. These disciples were walking on a road to a city called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. There, as they walked together and talked over the incredible events that had transpired in the Holy City over the past week, suddenly they were joined by a stranger. The stranger, in the end, proved to be someone very familiar. From their story we can learn some valuable lessons about the resurrection of Jesus.
The gospel writer, Luke, is our narrator this morning and his account is found in the 24th chapter of the book of Luke in your Bible. We'll will be considering verses 13-35 in this message.
I've divided this passage into three parts for our consideration this morning. First, we'll look at Their Conversation in verses 13-14. Secondly we will consider Their Encounter with Jesus in verses 15-32. Finally we will look at Their Response to seeing Him alive in verses 33-35. Watch for truths about the resurrection as we go through the passage.
We will break into Luke's narrative in verse 13 as he describes
I. Their Conversation.
(Read v. 13)
Luke gives us very little information about the identity of these two disciples. Verse 18 of this chapter he tells us that one of them was named Cleopas. That is a masculine name in the original language so we know that at least one of the two was a man. The second disciple may have been a man or woman, but was likely a man. We know that the second disciple wasn't one of the apostles of Jesus, since down in verse 33 we find that the apostles were back in Jerusalem. One interesting conjecture says that it might have been Luke himself, since he alone tells this story in full (Mark only mentions it in passing, the other two gospel writers omit it.) While that seems plausible there is really no reliable evidence to confirm it.
Luke says that these two were going "that very day" to Emmaus. He refers to Sunday, the same day as the resurrection of Jesus. It was earlier on that day that the women and later Peter and John had gone to the tomb and found it empty. Those same women reported having seen Him alive. It was probably late morning or early afternoon when these two disciples began their trip back to Emmaus.
(Read v. 14)
Their mood must have been somber, given what they had witnessed three days earlier. They had watched as their Master was taken from them and cruelly crucified. Their conversation would naturally be centered on the events surrounding that tragic scene. Perhaps they discussed the irony of the triumphal entry into the city of Jerusalem just one week before. Maybe they recalled the teaching of Jesus and the high hopes of the people, then the turn of events: the arrest, multiple trials, the awful, torturous execution. Perhaps it was some of the things He had said in private to his disciples that they pondered. Bewilderment and a heavy sadness must have filled them as they walked. To relieve the tension and perhaps make some sort of sense of the confusion, they talked.
As they walked on the road that afternoon, suddenly a stranger joined them. Well, He wasn't really a stranger, but for some reason they didn't recognize Him. Luke tells us what they later realized: It was Jesus. In verses 15-32 Luke tells us of
II. Their Encounter.
(Read v. 15-16)
Maybe He came in from a side road. Maybe He came up behind them. We aren't told, but now there are three walking together on the road. To them, the third man is a stranger.
There are several explanations to account for the strange fact that these disciples didn't recognize Jesus. Perhaps it was because they weren't looking for him. We do tend to see only that which were are attuned to seeing. Certainly, after watching Him die, they would not expect to see Him alive again. No different than you and me, they expected to see things continue to function according to the natural laws of the universe. When a man died, he was dead. For good. You don't expect to see him up and walking around.
The September 1991 issue of Servant Magazine held the following news item:
Bucharest: A Romanian woman fainted recently when she opened her front door and found her husband standing there. The Romanian weekly Tinerama says it all started when a man named Neagu choked on a fish bone, stopped breathing and collapsed. The family doctor, knowing Neagu's heart condition, didn't think twice about proclaiming the 71-year-old dead of a heart attack. But three days later, grave-diggers at the cemetery heard someone knock on wood. They opened Neagu's coffin to find him surrounded by wilted flowers but very much alive. When Neagu arrived home his wife, fearing he was a ghost, barred him from spending nights at home. It took Neagu three weeks to convince the authorities to cancel his death certificate from their registers.
You don't expect dead men to show up alive!
But there may be something else here. Look at what Luke says in verse 16:
"their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him."
Our English translation faithfully renders what apparently is in the Greek. Some thing or Some One was preventing them from recognizing him.
Mark, in his mention of this occasion, uses these words in Mark 16:12,
"And after that, He appeared in a different form to two of them, while they were walking along on their way to the country."
It was something about His appearance that caused them not to recognize Him.
The stranger, then, speaks so as to enter into their conversation.
(Read v. 17)
That word "exchanging" in the original is the word from which we got our English word "volley" or "volleyball." It means literally "to toss back and forth." These two disciples were so engrossed in their conversation that they hardly noticed the stranger until he spoke. And when He did, it stopped them in their tracks. "They stood still." Luke says.
(Read v. 18)
The incredulity of Cleopas gives us an insider's view of just how widespread the knowledge of Jesus was in Palestine in those days. It seemed impossible to him that even a Passover visitor (with which Jerusalem was overrun at this time of year) could have missed the events of recent days. How could there be anyone who would not know of the things that had happened?
(Read v. 19a)
Jesus isn't really seeking information here. He is doing what He so often did in conversation. He is asking a question to make His listeners think.
In the remainder of verse 19 through verse 21 we get a picture of the great sadness and perplexity that filled the minds of these disciples. In one long stream of words, it gushes out.
(Read 19b-24)
Look back, now, at what has just been said.
That Jesus was a prophet of God wasn't even questioned by the people. In verse 19, they describe Him as "a prophet mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people." Both His miracles and His unsurpassed teaching are cited here as evidence.
Then in verse 20 comes what must have been the most perplexing thing to Jesus' disciples to this point. He was a prophet or God. No one questioned that, yet the rulers who should have known it, killed Him. That didn't make sense to them. Perhaps even more to the point, they could not understand why God would let it happen.
A few of us here this morning might not understand that either, so pay close attention to what follows.
Verse 21 holds a description of their dashed hopes: "We were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel." In other words, "we were hoping that He was God's promised Messiah." But, of course, how could that be now? He's dead. The idea of a suffering Messiah didn't fit their expectations.
"And besides that," they say in verse 21, "it's the third day. He spoke over and over in His teaching about something significant that was going to happen on the third day. And whatever He meant, it hasn't happened. Or at least we don't know that it has happened. There have been some strange reports from the disciples at Jerusalem. Some women went to the tomb and found it empty and claim that some angels told them that He had risen from the dead. Some of the disciples did go to the tomb and found it empty, but there was no sign of Him. Besides, how could that make any sense?"
Their thoughts seem confused, don't they? It is as though they have the pieces of a puzzle but don't know how to put it all together. That would be a good description of the whole Jewish nation at that point. They didn't know how to put it all together. We learn elsewhere in Scripture, that was something that God did intentionally. Paul refers to it after the fact in Romans 16:25 as "the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past but is now manifested."
These disciples and later the others and anyone who would listen were now to be told how it all fit together. Jesus begins to inform them of that with a gentle rebuke in the next verses.
(Read v. 25)
Notice in His words that he calls them "slow of heart." He didn't say they were slow of mind or dumb. He said they were slow of heart. The word "heart" in scripture is often used metaphorically to refer to the emotions and the will. We use it that way sometimes. We say, "He didn't have the heart for it." These people and the rest of the Jews were slow in their willingness to believe all the prophets had spoken. What they did that got them into trouble is something that modern disciples do as well. They took the words of the prophets that suited them most and ignored the rest. They wanted a powerful, military Messiah to deliver them from the bondage of Rome, so they emphasized the passages that supported that view. Of course, they ignored those that presented anything different - such as those that spoke of a suffering Messiah. Jesus points that out in the next verse.
(Read v. 26)
Did you pick up on that word "necessary?" That was an important word for them then as it is for us now. It was necessary for the Messiah to be crucified. God planned it that way. Why? Because it was His offering up His life on behalf of sinners! He was the blood sacrifice that was to pay the debt for their sins and ours. Sin has a penalty and that penalty is death. Jesus was paying that penalty for all those who would follow Him as their Savior. Listen to the way Peter put it when he explained it on Pentecost:
"This man, delivered up by the pre-determined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death." (Acts 2:22)
You see, it was all in the plan! That is what they missed! Now it began to make sense as He filled them in on the things they overlooked in their scriptures.
(Read v. 27)
If you have ever heard a lesson that caused the light to come on in your understanding, you know how these disciples must have felt! What a tremendous lesson it must have been!
Perhaps Jesus reminded them of the "bruised heel" passage of Genesis 3:15, where Messiah was to crush the Serpent's head and in return He was to suffer injury Himself as well. Perhaps He explained to them that day about Moses lifting up of the serpent in the wilderness and how that was Messiah becoming a representation of sin on their behalf. He probably showed then how Abraham's offering of Isaac, his only son was a type of God the Father offering the life of His only Son. He must have mentioned the typology of the Passover lamb suffering on behalf of the sins or the people. Maybe he showed them David's description of the crucifixion in Psalm 22 (written a thousand years in advance) and the beautiful picture of the suffering Savior in Isaiah 53. He must have mentioned Daniel's predicting the time of the coming of Messiah and His "cutting off " in Daniel 9. Perhaps He spoke of Zechariah's "pierced victim" and the Shepherd that was stricken down and the sheep scattered. And there must have been more because Luke tells us that He "explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the scriptures."
By the way, you may be new to Bible study and some of the things I just mentioned may sound like a foreign language to you. My intention in mentioning them isn't to snow you with Bible facts. But I do want to challenge you to study some of those things. They are a tremendous validation of faith! If you don't know about them, you're missing out on something great. There are over 300 Old Testament prophecies that predicted the events in the life of Jesus. Don't deprive yourself of that faith building knowledge!
Back to the story...
Having talked over the last few miles of the trip, now the city is coming into view.
(Read v. 28-29)
Had these disciples had the attitude of some of their counterparts today they would have let him go on, figuring that was enough Bible study for one day. (You know, after all, our attention spans are only so long!) But they weren't about to let Him go if they could prevent it. Would to God that more people today were as hungry for the Word!
So He stayed with them for dinner. (By the way, if they were only hallucinating, as some wanting to discredit the resurrection today claim, did they also eat with their hallucination?)
(Read v. 30-31)
Did you notice how it was that they recognized Him? There was something familiar in the way He broke the bread - something they had seen before. Not many days before this He had broken the bread with the eleven, an event that must have been recounted to these disciples. Anyway, suddenly, they recognize who He is and just as suddenly, He's gone! Vanished from their sight.
Some commentators, in a noble effort not to detract from the clear biblical teaching of His bodily resurrection are reluctant to allow this to be anything supernatural in their understanding, so they explain this as though the two disciples were somehow so distracted with their realization of who He was that they didn't see Him slip out of the room. I happen to believe that they are stretching things a bit in that. Luke says here that He "vanished." And I tend to think he means just that. Elsewhere, in other descriptions of His post resurrection appearances, we are told that He suddenly appeared in the midst of His disciples, that He came through a closed and locked door on two occasions. Yet, He was no illusion or hallucination, because at other times He was physically touched, he ate, and was seen by more than one person at a time. At one point 500 people saw him. (500 people don't share the same hallucination!). I gather that His resurrected body was physical - yet had some supernatural characteristics also.
Maybe that is a hint of what the bodies of God's saints will be like in the resurrection. We don't know what form Jesus took after his ascension into heaven, but if this is any clue, it sounds to me as though it is going to be pretty neat! On that score, if you are interested, the apostle John writes in I John 3:2: "It has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is."
The apostle Paul wrote on the subject in I Corinthians 15,
"It is sown (referring to burial of the body) a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body; it is sown in dishonor, It is raised in glory, it is sewn in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body."
Obviously, the resurrected body will be different. I mention this, not to try to reveal to you something that the Apostle John says isn't revealed yet, but to get you thinking about how this matter of resurrection fits you and me. You see. the great Christian hope is the resurrection of the dead and the life hereafter. It is the new body that will not have the weaknesses and stresses that this one does. It won't wear out or get old, or get wrinkles, or get out of shape, or get cancer. Can you imagine that?
Having recognized Him and then had Him vanish from their sight, the two disciples looked at each other and spoke.
(Read v. 32)
"We thought there was something familiar about Him!"
We come finally to,
III. Their Response.
Were these guys excited or what? Remember, it is by now late at night.
(Read v. 33-34)
It was seven miles back to Jerusalem. They made the hurried trip back in the dark.
When they arrived, they found that some of the other disciples had seen Him alive, too! They added their story to the stories of the others.
(Read v. 35)
Conclusion
Winston Churchill was a believer in the resurrection. I cannot tell you how he carried out the responsibilities of that belief, but I do know that he arranged his own funeral. At the end of the service, Churchill had an unusual event planned. When they said the benediction, a bugler high in the dome of the Cathedral on one side played Taps, the universal signal that the day is over. There was a long pause. Then a bugler on the other side played Reveille, the military wake up call.
It was Churchill's way of communicating that, while we say "Good night" here, it's "Good morning" up there. That is the significance of the resurrection to you and me.
If you are a Christian (and I don't mean just a church goer. Being a Christian is more than that), then what we have been talking about is your hope. Paul writes in I Cor. 6:14. "Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power." That is the great Christian hope. Take it away and Christianity is only a philosophy of life of much less worth. I say "of much less worth" because if there is no hope of a resurrection and eternal life, what you and I do here is of little consequence since one of these days we will die and all of our striving will be useless to us. But if there is a resurrection, what we have is a grand purpose for living. Thus the resurrection is central to Christians. You would do well to study your Bibles closely and be familiar with this so that it is not quickly taken away from you because you were too ignorant of it to hang onto it.
If you are not a Christian in the full sense of the word, then you may be thinking that this has little to do with you. That may seem true at present. But one of these days, the prospect of death will come, as it is on every person. Suddenly, these things will take on a new significance. The only problem with that is that death so often doesn't warn us that it is coming. It is just suddenly upon us. There may be little to no time to prepare. A wise person will consider that and make adequate preparation before it is too late.
Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.
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