Transcript

Maybe you have seen the television show “Undercover Boss.” It is a reality show that takes the owners and CEO’s of major corporations, puts them in a disguise, and sends them out to work with the employees of their company.

In one episode, the CEO of “Roto Rooter” went from his cozy office to out on the road with a technician where he had to fix toilets and clean clogged drains.

Often, during the course of their work, the employees begin to talk about the company and the things they would like to see changed.

And at times they are brutally honest. In some episodes employees vent their frustrations about the CEO unknowingly to the CEO!

Always at the end of the show the CEO will reveal his true identity to the shock and sometimes embarrassment of his employees.

In our text, we find a similar situation, where the Lord, after His resurrection, began walking with two of His followers who were talking about Him and didn’t recognize Him.

They spent a couple hours with Him, and just before He left, their eyes were opened and they realize who He is, and He vanishes.

Luke 24:13-16: “And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs.

“And they talked together of all these things which had happened. And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus Himself drew near, and went with them. But their eyes were holden that they should not know Him.”

This account takes place Sunday afternoon of Resurrection day, the third day since Christ was crucified and died on the Cross.

Two of Christ’s followers are heading toward their home. They lived in a little village called Emmaus and they’re going home because, as far as they’re concerned, it’s over.

All their hopes attached to Christ have been crushed. Now, there was nothing to stay in Jerusalem for after the Passover. And they headed home sad and confused.

Christ’s followers expected that He would become their king, that Israel would be freed from her enemies, and that the earthly kingdom of peace, safety, and joy would be realized and established through Him. But 3 days previous, the One they thought was their Messiah was crucified on a Roman cross just outside the city walls and had died.

This dejected pair began their walk home to Emmaus even as rumors of resurrection were being circulated among Christ’s followers.

Luke records that the distance from Jerusalem to Emmaus was “threescore [or 60] furlongs [or stadion].” A stadion is roughly 600 feet. 60 stadion is 36,000 feet. And with 5280 feet in a mile, this is a distance of just under 7 miles.

This distance would have taken the two men around 2-3 hours to walk. As they walked to Emmaus, they “talked together of all these things which had happened.”

They discussed all the events of the week, from His entry in Jerusalem on the colt the foal of a donkey, to the Last Supper, His arrest, the trials, His crucifixion, to now the tombe being tomb, and hearing that angels were saying He was risen.

In verse 15, Luke described the two men’s conversation that “they communed together and reasoned.” In other words, they were bantering ideas back and forth, discussing with great emotion in a shared search for answers.

These two disillusioned followers desperately wanted to know why their expectations of the Messiah had come to such a tragic end and why everything happened as it did.

While they were fervently talking and conversing, a stranger drew near and began traveling with them. It was Christ Himself, risen from the dead.

And we should stop to consider how, after Christ arose, that He could have appeared in a grand and sudden appearance in the midst of the masses at the Temple in Jerusalem.

But instead the Lord appeared to Mary Magdalene, to the women who came to the tomb, to Peter, to the 11, to His followers.

And out of His loving-kindness, He appeared here to two obscure followers along a dusty road to a tiny village, because they were despairing, confused, and struggling with their faith. This tells us something about our humble, loving Savior.

In Israel at that time, they lived in a walking culture. That’s how you went everywhere at that time. The roads were traversed by many people walking. So it wasn’t necessarily uncommon for a stranger to come up alongside and join in on a conversation.

When the Lord walked up to them, He was not clothed in dazzling, bright white apparel like the angels at the empty tomb. And the two men don’t fall on their faces out of shock or fear at the sight of Him.

His post-resurrected body could be bright and dazzling, but we see that it was really human and normal in appearance as well.

He was in His resurrected glorified body when Mary Magdalene saw Him and she thought He was the gardener. And the two on the road to Emmaus were not or fearful of His appearance when He started walking with them. He looked like a normal man.

Their eyes, however, were prevented from recognizing Him. Their eyes were “holden” or restrained and kept from recognizing Him, like Mary Magdalene earlier this same day.

In His resurrected body, He could do this as He pleased. And it was Christ’s purpose to hold back recognition from these two followers until the time He wanted them to see Him.

Luke 24:17-24: “And He said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?

“And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto Him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days?

And He said unto them, What things? And they said unto Him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people:

“And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and have crucified Him. But we trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done.

“Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre; And when they found not His body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that He was alive.

“And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but Him they saw not.”

In this beautiful, vivid, and picturesque account, Christ approached and came alongside these men. As He walked with them, He listened to their conversation.

The Lord then politely asked a question and engaged the men in conversation: “What kind of conversation is this that you’re having as you’re walking looking so sad?”

The word “sad” means gloomy and sullen. They pulled up and stopped in their tracks at the Lord’s question. They’re shocked and incredulous at the stranger and His question.

This was absolutely common knowledge. They expressed surprise that anyone could have possibly been unaware of all that had happened.

One of the two men, named Cleopas, asked Him: “Are You the only one visiting Jerusalem unaware of the things which have happened here in these days?”

It’s another way of saying, “Everybody knows; where have you been? Are you the only person who doesn’t know about the things everybody’s talking about right now?”

Talk about irony! The One that all were talking about was right there in front of them, and if anyone understood everything that recently happened in Jerusalem it was Him! He knew more about it all than they did!

The Lord patiently asked, “What things?” I like this question. The Lord was probing, asking them to share more of what they were talking about.

And “they,” or both of them, eagerly responded. They told the Stranger that it was about one named Jesus of Nazareth. This was the name that was on everyone’s lips and who everybody was talking about in Jerusalem.

But notice how they said that Jesus of Nazareth “WAS a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people.” They refer to Him in the past tense with “was.”

They thought their experience with Christ was in the past. They thought He was gone forever now that He was dead. The Cross had taken Him from them, and their minds hadn’t made sense of it. The Cross was a great negative to them.

They said that Jesus of Nazareth was “a prophet.” A Prophet was a spokesman for God, one who spoke the Word of God.

The Messiah in Israel was going to be a Prophet like unto Moses according to prophecy. They might have once thought He was that promised Prophet and Messiah, but now they called Him simply, “a Prophet,” believing that He was a distinguished prophet of God.

They told the Lord that His deeds were “mighty,” which was true. By His mighty deeds and many miracles, He demonstrated mighty power, which could only be explained as divine. By this, He substantiated that He was a Prophet.

They told the Lord that He was also “mighty in word.” As a Prophet, He spoke the truth of God, with authority and wisdom, before God and all the people of Israel. One of the testimonies of one who heard Him said “Never man spake like this Man” (John 7:46).

The Emmaus duo then explained how the chief priests and their rulers delivered Him up to the sentence of death and had Him crucified.

But they believed the death of Christ disqualified and removed the possibility of Jesus Christ being that promised Prophet and their Messiah, telling the Lord, “But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel.”

In other words, they thought He was their Messiah. They expected the glory of the promised kingdom would be brought in by Him, their Messiah.

John the Baptist’s father, Zacharias, prophesied about Christ: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for He hath visited and REDEEMED His people, and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us that we should be saved from our enemies.”

The looked at the Messiah as their Liberator who’d bring Israel magnified power, multiplied prosperity, peace, and deliverance from their enemies in His kingdom.

And He will do this. But this will take place at His Second Coming. They didn’t see that the Messiah must suffer and die and rise again at His First Coming to Israel, so that by His payment for their sins, they could enter His kingdom in righteousness and new life.

Their thought was not that the Messiah would come and be killed BY their oppressors, but that the Messiah would come and defeat their oppressors and deliver Israel from them.

But now, in their minds, their hopes of Jesus of Nazareth being the Messiah were put to an end by the cross.

Cleopas’s mind is confused and jumbled. There were so many things that were remarkable in Jesus of Nazareth; there was so much evidence that He was the Messiah; the events had been so wonderful that he is perplexed, and he didn’t know what to think.

“Beside all this,” Cleopas tells the Lord that “today is the third day since these things were done” and now there were rumors of a resurrection!

They tell the Lord about the testimony of the women, which the Lord had just seen! Cleopas and his friend had been in the upper room when the women told the apostles about what happened.

Luke 24:9 says of the women, “And returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest.” These two men were part of the “and to all the rest.”

They were astonished by what the women had said about going to the tomb that morning and finding it empty and that angels had told them that He was alive. But this report did nothing to alter their thinking, it only confused them. What did it all mean?

Then they tell the Lord how certain of them went to the tomb. Since they thought the Lord was a stranger to Jerusalem and unaware of the recent events and people involved, they do not mention who went to the tomb, since He wouldn’t know who they were anyway.

Which again is ironic and amusing to me. We know from the Gospel of John, that they’re talking about Peter and John and how they went and they found the tomb empty, “but Him they saw not.” His body was not there. They verified what the women had said.

And now the direction these two men were walking demonstrated that they did not believe it was possible that He had risen. They were not walking to the empty tomb to see it for themselves, or in and throughout Jerusalem in faith and joy to find the risen Lord, but instead they are walking away from the city in unbelief and sadness.

Luke 24:25-27: “Then He said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory?

“And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.”

The Lord responded, lovingly chiding and reproving their confusion and lack of faith. He reproves them for not knowing and believing Scripture.

Though they hadn’t believed the testimonies of those who saw Him or the empty tomb, they should have seen that the Messiah would suffer, die and rise again from Scripture. This was exactly the pathway the prophets had foretold for the Messiah.

Then He asked them, “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” The order from Scripture for the Messiah was first His suffering, then the glory of the kingdom. Peter wrote how the prophets “testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow” (1 Pet. 1:11).

To help the two followers see, Christ then reviewed the entire history of Israel from Genesis to Malachi, highlighting God’s plan for the Messiah (24:27).

And so on a dusty road on a Sunday afternoon, the Messiah gave them a complete Old Testament survey course in a few miles about Himself.

In doing so, they would’ve seen the suffering, crucifixion, death, burial of the Messiah as the fulfillment of all God promised, not as the end of all their hopes.

In reviewing the full range of Old Testament Scriptures concerning Himself it shows how Christ is the theme of the whole Old Testament, how all those 39 books center on Him.

These two followers of Christ did not have the eyes to see what should have been plainly visible from Scripture, so in light of this, the Lord kept His identity hidden too until they saw and understood and believed it from Scripture.

The disciples had been staring into the face of the risen Christ, yet they were prevented from seeing Him by their unbelief, just like they had been staring at the truth of His death and resurrection in Scripture but were prevented from seeing it by their unbelief!

Christ wanted them to believe God’s Word. The same is true for us. Like the Lord told these two men, we need to believe what the Word says about His resurrection.

And we can see the risen Lord right now by the eye of faith as we read and trust His Word which says that He is alive, He has risen from the dead, and we know 100% it’s true.

This account is here to teach us to trust the Bible, to believe what it says about the prophecies and the actual event of Christ’s resurrection. By the Word, we KNOW He is risen, and has triumphed over death for us.

Luke 24:28-35: “And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and He made as though He would have gone further.

“But they constrained Him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And He went in to tarry with them. And it came to pass, as He sat at meat with them, He took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them.

“And their eyes were opened, and they knew Him; and He vanished out of their sight. And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us the Scriptures?

“And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread.”

As they approach the village of Emmaus, the Lord was going to keep walking by Emmaus. Like the Lord doesn’t impose or force Himself to be accepted in any person’s life, He didn’t want to impose on these two men, and He was just going to continue walking.

But because of His living, heart-moving words, they urged Him to stay. It was now getting toward evening and Resurrection day was now nearly over. Christ accepted their offer and went in to stay with them.

This wasn’t just about hospitality. This is about more teaching. They’ve heard enough to know that they want to hear a lot more. So they say: “Abide with us.”

After a while, as He reclined at the table with them, He took the bread on the table and blessed it, and broke it and gave it to them. This was an unusual thing, because the breaking, blessing, and distributing of the food was the responsibility of the host.

But the Lord was using the action of the breaking of bread and blessing it to graciously reveal His identity to them. Because this was familiar. They had seen Him do this before at the feeding of the 5000, the feeding of the 4000, and at the Last Supper.

And when He broke the bread, they saw His hands, which were different from when He had broken bread at the feeding of the 5000 and 4000, and at the Last Supper.

They were the nail-pierced! And in that instant they knew Him. And in that instant, He was gone. Their spiritual eyes had been opened to the truth of Scripture, and now their spiritual eyes were opened to the reality of Christ’s identity and resurrection.

They see Him, recognize Him, they know who He is and that He really is risen, and He vanishes.

And in an instant they went from depths of despair to transcendent heights of true joy. They had hoped He would be their Redeemer and He was and is.

“He vanishes,” but they don’t comment on the fact that He vanished, they talked about something that we can talk about. With sad, glum faces now gone, in their excitement they were saying, “We should’ve known, wasn’t your heart burning when He was talking and sharing Scripture with us?”

Their hearts, as ours are, were lit on fire by a true understanding of Scripture, understanding its meaning. It produced a burning heart of joy in them, and can in us too.

Their burning hearts came from Christ explaining and opening up the Scriptures’ meaning to them. And when your heart’s on fire because you understand the Scripture, it produces an internal joy and excitement by the Spirit, because you know it’s the truth.

Their joy is so overwhelming and overpowering at Christ’s resurrection that they jumped up from the table after Christ disappeared. And even though it’s the evening, they don’t wait till the morning, they go out into the dusk of the day and head back the 7 miles to Jerusalem to declare that Christ was really alive and how it all agreed with Scripture.

They were traveling pretty slow in their sadness from Jerusalem to Emmaus, but they made much better time in their joy going from Emmaus back to Jerusalem. They got there much quicker.

When they get to Jerusalem that night and burst through the door of the upper room, before these two men could even speak and tell their story, the disciples began telling them that “The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon!” or Peter.

Then they affirmed to the disciples that they already knew and they told their amazing story about the most wonderful walk in history on the road to Emmaus.

Probably never have two people gone from such pits of despair and disappointment to such heights of joy and exhilaration, from believing that all their hopes, aspirations, and expectations were lost because Christ had been crucified, to suddenly realizing that all their hopes, aspirations and expectations, were true because Christ was alive.

From then on, for Cleopas and his companion, the greatest joy of their life then became to find somebody who hadn’t heard their story and tell them: “You haven’t heard? Okay, so one day we were walking to Emmaus and you’ll never guess what happened next…”

Likewise, our greatest joy also is to be able tell others about our living Savior.

Because of Christ’s resurrection, we know that life is not just a short journey from nothingness to nothingness. For the believer, it’s a journey with the Lord, until we go to be with our Lord. Our lives are “a walk” with our risen Savior, who walks with us and teaches us all the way until we arrive at home, like the two on the road to Emmaus.