On the road to Emmaus Jesus appeared to two of His disciples. He wasn’t “disguised” so they couldn’t recognize Him, but in His spiritual, resurrected body, so that their eyes, accustomed only to seeing in the worldly realms, were prevented from seeing in the spiritual realm that this manifestation of His immortal body was Him. They had been discussing the events of the last few days that culminated that morning in the discovery of the empty tomb. Although they had hoped in Him as the Messiah, and understood His predictions that He would be delivered up, crucified, and rise again on the third day—and it was now the third day—still, in spite of the empty tomb, they couldn’t believe. For His body was missing, and they did not yet understand the spiritual nature of His resurrected body, thinking only in terms of the resuscitated bodies they had seen Jesus raise, like Lazarus’, that were physical in nature. John alone of all Jesus’ disciples is said to have believed, absent His body, in spite of not understanding the nature of His resurrection (Joh 20:8-9). For their inability to believe, Jesus called these two on the road to Emmaus foolish men, in the sense of being unthinking or unperceiving, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets had spoken—although the prophets themselves did not fully understand what the Spirit within them was indicating (1Pe 1:10-12). For man’s fallen nature had hidden from them the truth about which they had made careful search and inquiry. But now it was made manifest through Christ’s death and the empty tomb: Before entering into His glory, it was necessary for the Christ to suffer such things. For God’s greatest glory, which not even the angels of heaven could comprehend, was not accomplished through the power of His might to destroy His enemies, of which we all are, but by the might of Christ’s humble submission of His own will, even unto death, even death on a cross, in order that God’s enemies might be reconciled to Himself. Although we understand the difficulty His followers had putting that together from the revealed Scriptures, what does the fact that Jesus chided them as foolish men indicate about His expectations that His followers who know His teachings and example, even in their fallen state, ought to be more discerning to believe the truth, even though they may not completely understand it, even as John did? Do we as His disciples study to show ourselves approved so that even if there are things hidden from us that we may not completely understand, we might not be unperceiving in the day they are revealed but hold fast to the truth in unwavering faith? Cf. Act 17:11, 2Ti 2:15.
After sharing from the Scriptures the things written about Himself as they walked together on their journey to Emmaus, what does Luke note that Jesus did as they were approaching their destination? See Luk 24:28. Why would He pretend to go farther? Cf. Deut 8:2,16, 13:3. What if they had not been genuinely captivated by His company and the things He was showing them, and just wanted to get on with life and relax at their destination so as to bid Him adieu? Would they have come to recognize Him in the breaking of the bread and have their eyes opened forevermore to the truth of His resurrection? Is it possible that we miss grand revelations of Himself to us because when He tests are hearts in a similar way He finds that we really aren’t interested because we are too tired or just want to “get on with life” and don’t urge Him to stay longer? See also Gen 19:1-3, 32:26.
To their great credit, in spite of their inability to believe in the truth of the resurrection absent His body, what did these two do when Jesus acted as if He would go farther and part company with them? See Luk 24:29, and note that urged there means literally to compel by using force, i.e., to strongly persuade; see 2Ki 2:17, 5:16, and Act 16:15 for similar uses of the same word and cf. Heb 13:2. See also Mat 11:12 and Luk 16:16. What reason did they give in pressing Him so urgently to stay with them? About what time would it have been seeing that it was getting on towards evening and the day had now declined? Although their stated reason was the lateness of the day, as if it was to His benefit to tarry with them, for what real reason was the spirit within them urging Him to stay? See Luk 24:32. Even when we don’t see so clearly into the spiritual realm, do our hearts similarly yearn for the real presence of Jesus? What does Luke say that Jesus did at their insistence? See Luk 24:29. Besides their insistence, what promise do we have about Jesus’ own desire to enter in and stay with us if only we will invite Him? See Rev 3:20. What requirements had Jesus just a few days earlier shared with His apostles in the upper room for not only Himself but also His Father to enter in and abide with someone? See Joh 14:23, and note that abode there is the noun derived from the same verbal form translated as stay in Luk 24:29 but often translated as abide, especially in John’s gospel. In what way did the conversation these disciples were having, about which Jesus met and further engaged them, demonstrate that they were abiding in Him, that He should enter in and abide with them? See Joh 5:38, 6:56, 8:31-32, 15:9-10. Although Jesus manifested Himself physically to these and other disciples to establish the truth of the resurrection, what had He communicated about the way that they would in the future come to know and relate to Him? See Joh 14:16-17,25-26; cf. Joh 20:16-17, and recall the significance of Jesus’ ascension to the Father: that it was from there that He would pour out His Holy Spirit to be with them always; see Act 2:33.