On the first day of the week, three days after His crucifixion, the risen Jesus met two of His disciples on the road to Emmaus, a village about seven miles or a couple hours walking distance from Jerusalem. They were just debating the events of the past few days that culminated in the news of the empty tomb that morning, but absent Jesus’ body they still couldn’t believe He could somehow be alive, not understanding that the immortal nature of His resurrection body was necessarily different from the natural bodies they had surely heard about and perhaps seen Him resuscitate from the dead. Consequently, they didn’t recognize that it was actually Him who had joined them. But their hearts couldn’t help burning within them as He unfolded before them the Scriptures revealing that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer such things to enter into His glory to reign in righteousness forever as the king over God’s kingdom that would now be established on earth. Upon reaching their destination they “forcefully urged” Him to stay with them when He tested their hearts by acting as if He would go further. As best they could, they loved Him, and they loved His words of truth, and so He entered in to abide with them as a picture of the same way He would forthwith come to abide with every true disciple through His Holy Spirit.
What does Luke now record happened as they continued to commune with the unrecognized Jesus? See Luk 24:30. What does Jesus breaking bread, blessing it, and giving it to them remind us of? See Mat 26:26, and note that these two disciples were not among Jesus’ twelve apostles when Jesus established the Lord’s Supper on the night they celebrated the Passover, although they had likely heard about it, along with the rest of the passion narrative that they were discussing when Jesus met them; cf. Mat 26:20, Luk 22:14. What is another name for the Lord’s Supper? What does their communion that they had with Jesus along the road and were now continuing with Him indicate about that being a descriptive name for the Lord’s Supper? While the Lord’s Supper is clearly a reminder of Jesus’ death and shed blood that was poured out for the forgiveness of sins (see Mat 26:28, 1Co 11:24-25), what does this revealing of Himself to these two disciples through the breaking of bread after He had entered in to abide with them teach us about its aspect of communion with Him? Even before the breaking of the physical bread in the house, in what way had He already been sharing with them the bread of life along the road? Cf. Deut 8:3, Joh 1:1, 6:32-35,48-58,63. Do we similarly partake of the Bread of Life in sweet communion with Jesus through His word, of which the Lord’s Supper is a picture? Cf. Mat 26:26,28. What in particular was the essence of what Jesus shared with them along the road that is also the essence of the life that His life imparts to us through our communion with Him? See Luk 24:26 and cf. Mat 16:24-25, 20:22-23, Joh 12:24-26, Rom 8:17, 1Co 10:16-17, 12:27, Phil 3:10, Col 1:24, 1Pe 2:21.
What three things does Luke say happened to the two disciples as the unrecognized Jesus broke the bread and was giving it to them? See Luk 24:31. What does Luke mean that their eyes were opened? Cf. Luk 24:16, Joh 20:14-16. Considering that their physical eyes had been open all the time, what does such a statement indicate about an aspect of the sight God created us with that extends beyond what our physical eyes see in the material world, and that requires something else to actually perceive or recognize it? Cf. 2Ki 6:17,20. Even if our physical eyes are open, if we are in the dark do our eyes allow us to see? I.e., what two things are necessary for us to “see”, whether in the physical realm or the spiritual realm? We understand then that just as physical light allows our physical eyes to perceive physical reality that is otherwise hidden in the physical darkness, so too does spiritual light allow us to see what is otherwise hidden in the spiritual darkness—but only if our eyes are open; cf. Act 13:8-11 and note how Elymas’ opposition to see the spiritual light resulted in the withholding of physical light to see with his physical eyes. What one word describes the spiritual counterpart of our physical reality that is often hidden from us either because we are walking in darkness or the eyes of our hearts are not open to see it? See Joh 8:32; cf. Joh 14:6, 16:13, 17:17, 18:37, 1Ti 2:4. As having access to the truth is the equivalent of being in physical light (cf. Pro 6:23), what is the spiritual equivalent of opening our eyes to see it? See Joh 8:31-32, Act 16:14, 1Jo 1:6; cf. 2Th 2:9-12, 2Ti 2:25, 3:7-8. Is it only unto salvation that one’s eyes are opened to the truth, or are the eyes of all eventually opened to see the truth that they may well have rejected and that will condemn them? See Gen 3:5,7, Mat 23:38-39, 26:64, 27:3-4,24,45, Rev 1:7. As Christians, how do we provide spiritual light in our world? See Mat 5:14-16, 2Co 4:6, Eph 5:8, Phil 2:14-15. Besides providing spiritual light by allowing our own light to shine, how do we also help open the eyes of the unbelieving that they can actually see the truth? See Luk 24:32 where the NAS explaining is actually the same word used in Luk 24:31 for their eyes that were opened; cf. Luk 24:45, Act 17:2-3 (where explaining is again the same word for opened).