Luke 24:13-27 The Emmaus Journey Believers have always taken great comfort from this passage. It is good to keep in mind the devotional element in this scripture- that Jesus travels with the two men, teaching and correcting their theology; and the Eucharistic element in the second half of the story- which we ll examine next week- how at first they do not recognize Jesus, verse 16, but their eyes were opened as they broke bread with the Risen Lord. So, it is no wonder there are dozens of websites where a person can read commentary about this text, or that describe various retreats and seminars, publishers, religious groups, singing groups and bands, all of which take their name or inspiration from this meeting of Jesus and two of his followers. It is an important scripture if we want to understand the writings of the author who composed both Luke and Acts, but it also has something in common with the most ancient myths and legends of the old civilizations: ancient, but stories that still influence our outlook on society and the world today. It is significant that this story takes place on the road. That the two men are traveling. We shouldn t think of their journey as simply a trip from one place to another. It is a journey of discovery and should be seen as part of a theme running through the entire Bible, at least as old as the call of Abraham out of Haran, and
the travels and adventures of his grandson Jacob, the stories that caused the Jews to speak the ancient confession of faith from Deuteronomy 26, which begins, A wandering Aramean was my father. It is the continuous story of God creating a people and leading them to a country they could call home. The Exodus out of Egypt and the 40 years of wandering in the desert until they reach the Promised Land are part of that same story. It is a concept that continues through the time of the prophets, perhaps most especially Elijah, and the Exile in Babylon and the return to Judah in the 6 th century before Jesus. Time and again in the Old Testament the people of God are reminded to care for the strangers in their land, for they were once themselves strangers, that is, aliens and travelers. The New Testament carries on this theme, particularly in Mark s gospel as Jesus traveled all about Galilee and the surrounding countryside, teaching and healing; and here in Luke, chapters 9-19 describe the events of Jesus life and ministry as he set his face toward Jerusalem, the scripture has it, and journeys from Galilee to the capital city. Matthew closes his gospel with Jesus command to Go and make disciples, and the end of John has Jesus walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, and saying, Follow me! It is in Luke, of course, where we read the marvelous tale of the Prodigal Son who travels far from home and learns the hard
lessons of life and then travels back to the father who loves him. And it is this short journey to Emmaus at the end of Luke which prepares us for the expansion of the church in Acts as the apostles reach out to the Gentile world, to other cities and towns along the roads leading out from Jerusalem, including the missionary journeys of Paul into the marketplaces and corners of the Roman Empire. Paul, who was himself met by the Lord on the lonely road to Damascus. These travelings are a response to God s call. We can understand them as journeys to find freedom or to make a new life, or journeys of self-discovery. Such is the meaning behind religious pilgrimage, or the walk through the spiritual labyrinth. We might find the same meaning in the trials and travels of Odysseus, and so many other heroes of myth and legend, and the knights errant of King Arthur- errant being an old word for wandering. These journeys are symbolic of a person s life journey, the quest, the search for wisdom or wholeness. They may be even journeys to create new civilizations. They are some of the oldest stories we have, but just as modern as the movement of the American populace from the cities of the north to the Sun Belt, or the peoples of Asia and Latin America immigrating to the U.S. It may even be the story of teenagers running away from a cruel or
stifling home life, trying to find themselves, or looking for purpose and hope in a new place. This myth of the journey is the backdrop of the American movement westwagon trains and cowboys and fur-trappers, the people heading out to wild, unmapped lands, making new lives, and creating a national identity. From this myth grows some of our greatest literature: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, where Huck and Jim- two runaways- raft down the Great River in search of personal liberty and looking for the soul of America, and The Grapes of Wrath, in which a displaced people seek justice and hope and home. Some of our greatest movies have sprung from this theme: The Searchers, (the greatest western ever made), and It Happened One Night, and Apocalypse Now ; and the wonderful movie Sideways, already a near classic; but even such light films as Cars and Fandango have a serious message to tell us about the quest and our life s journey. This is the foundation upon which our story rests, of these two men meeting Jesus on the road to Emmaus. Notice how they know almost the whole story of Jesus. What they tell him is a summary of the gospel message, and nearly identical to the words of the other two men, or angels, which they spoke to the women at the
tomb, earlier in the chapter. Notice how they retell the mystery of the women and the empty tomb. But they are missing the crucial point. And discovering that point is what this journey is all about. It may seem that Jesus was harsh with these two, calling them foolish men! But that is just because they never really understood what Jesus was about. Why couldn t they recognize Jesus when he came up to them on the road? Because they never truly saw him when he was alive. Their eyes were kept from recognizing him, verse 16: so similar to the times Jesus had foretold his suffering and death and resurrection, and his disciples did not grasp what was said, and, the saying was hid from them. There is one word in our passage they interpret wrongly, and because of it they get only half the story, and do not know him, cannot recognize him; and so, they hear his words of rebuke, Foolish men! That misunderstood word is redeem in verse 21. They had thought he was the one to redeem Israel. But their definition of redemption was, like most everyone else believed, that the Messiah would liberate the nation, would run Israel s enemies out of the land. But Jesus was crucified, the Roman overlords were victorious, and he had failed; obviously Jesus was not the Messiah after all.
Foolish men! Too dull-witted to understand the prophets! The Messiah did not come to conquer armies, or to lead armies, to tear down governments, or to set up governments: verse 26, Jesus asks, Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer? Here is the correct understanding of all those recent events in Jerusalem. And their earlier question to Jesus, Are you the only one who doesn t know the things that have happened? is reversed. No, he is the only one who does know. The Messiah must suffer. The writings of Moses and the prophets had always taught this. And the gospels proclaim that this suffering Messiah was resurrected one. And now, on their journey, the two men hear the true interpretation of scripture from the only one who can teach it- he knows the meaning of scripture because he has lived it. Sinful men killed him, verse 7 of this chapter, and foolish men don t believe in him, but his experience of suffering equips him to interpret the scriptures. Because of his suffering we can believe that he is Messiah and Lord. And only with that knowledge of him can we come to grasp that great and hopeful impossibility- his resurrection from the dead. Only in confronting and confessing what he was, the Lord who suffered, are we able to see him clearly.
Each of us is part of the American myth, and a continuing part of the story of the people of faith, whom God calls, to come, or to go out. Our own life stories are journeys- for some of us, journeys of many years- of perhaps learning and unlearning, of trying and getting some things wrong, and learning again. But all the while it is a journey with our Lord, and slowly (and maybe painfully) coming to understand who he is as we let him teach us along the way. It is absolutely essential that we get rid of the old idea these two men on the road to Emmaus had, and that many people have today, that he has come to liberate the nation. Jesus says only that the Messiah must suffer. That understanding of Jesus the Messiah is what impelled the early church to evangelize the world, but it is a concept we seem to have lost, or forgotten, or denied. The suffering Messiah means that persons are important to God, not nations, or patriotism, or institutions, or political philosophies. His suffering is a hard thing for us and we sometimes tend to gloss over it- we d rather talk about happier things and the victorious Jesus- for it comes with a demand for us to suffer with him. But for the writers of the New Testament, resurrection is the promise to those who take up their cross and travel with him. The gospels tell us that those who try to save their lives will lose them, but those who lose their lives because of the Messiah who suffers will save them.