As drama it has everything – sorrow, suspense, puzzlement, gradual dawning of light and then unexpected actions, astonished recognition, a flurry of excitement and activity. It is both a wonderful, unique spell binding tale and also a model for what being a Christian, from that day to this, is all about.
The origins of the story are debated and difficult to reconstruct. In fact some scholars – such as Dominic Crossan - argue that it probably didn’t happen and is included as a parable involving Jesus rather than a parable told by Jesus. We think nowadays that Luke’s gospel draws on Mark’s gospel and in Mark 16: 12 – 13 we are told:
12 Afterward Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking in the country. 13 These returned and reported it to the rest; but they did not believe them either.
And it could be that Luke constructed his story of the road to Emmaus from these two verses in Mark. But do you know what? I don’t think it matters. I’m happy to accept it did happen as Luke describes but even if it is as Dominic Crossan says a parable involving Jesus, it still holds a huge truth.
Anyway, let’s look at the story for a moment. Over the years it has proved difficult to identify exactly where Emmaus is. There are several possibilities. The most likely place is mentioned in an ancient document that describes it as being 60 stadia from Jerusalem. A stadium was a Roman measurement of 600 feet, so 60 stadia or 36,000 feet equates to about 7 ½ miles. Other manuscripts place Emmaus as being about 160 stadia from Jerusalem or 19 ½ miles.
The opening of the story tells us it is the evening of Easter day. And we find two followers of Jesus going to Emmaus. We don’t know why. Are they going home? Are they going on business? Are they just running away from Jerusalem because they are afraid they may be arrested? We don’t know.
Initially we don’t know their names – though later we learn that one is Cleopas. (It is often said that the other one may have been Cleopas’ wife.)
And of course as we know so well from the story, when Jesus appears to them they do not recognise him. Or rather:
16 but they were kept from recognizing him.
Something, someone, (God perhaps?) kept them from recognising Jesus.
Those of us reading the story are told that the two are meeting the risen Jesus. But they do not know themselves.
Jesus starts a conversation with them by asking what they are talking about.
18 One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days?”
Or as the NRSV puts it:
“Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?”
Of course the irony is that Cleopas thinks the stranger is the only person who doesn’t know about the events of the last few days. Whereas in fact it is the stranger Jesus who is the only one who does know the full meaning of all that has happened.
The two disciples assume they know much more about what has happened than the stranger who has joined them and Jesus plays along with it
19 “What things?” he asked.
And then the disciples tell the story no doubt tumbling over each other to fill in bits of information. And after having listened to them Jesus says to them:
25 ….. “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Christ[b] have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
Despite this they still do not recognise Jesus. But even so, when they arrive at the village and the stranger Jesus is about to walk off they urge him to stay with them.
And for me this is where this wonderful story suddenly takes on great significance. This is the turning point in the story for us.
28 As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther.
Or as the NRSV puts it “he walked ahead as if he were going on”
In the custom of the time of Jesus, a guest was obliged to turn down an invitation to dine until it was vigorously repeated. So it could be said that Jesus is complying with the custom. However, there is deeper meaning to what Jesus does. Jesus’ action demonstrates that he never forces himself upon others. Jesus’ action shows that faith must always be spontaneous. Faith must be a voluntary response to God’s grace.
There is also meaning in “ … as if he were going farther.” “ … as if he were going on”. In Luke’s Gospel there is always a sense of Jesus journeying. He was journeying round Galilee and from the end of chapter 9 to the end of chapter 19 Jesus is journeying on the way to Jerusalem. For Luke then Jesus was always going further.
Once indoors, the scene shifts to the table for the evening meal.
30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them.
There is something about this that suggests other meals we know of involving Jesus such as the feeding of the five thousand and of course the Last Supper. The guest become the host and Jesus takes bread, blesses it, breaks it and gives it to the two disciples.
As Alan Culpepper puts it in his commentary on Luke “The four verbs are Jesus’ signature in which the disciples (and readers) recognise Jesus”.
Jesus takes bread, blesses it, breaks it and gives it to the two disciples.
We can tend to think of the meal at Emmaus as being like communion as if it was a special meal. Or a sacred act. It was these things but also it wasn’t either of these things. This was Jesus enjoying table fellowship with two friends and showing that such fellowship can become sacred.
Cleopas and his companion discovered at the table that their travelling companion was the Lord Jesus himself. And when they laid out the table and prepared the meal they did not prepare it as if it was going to be a sacred meal. It was a meal at which two companions invited a guest to dine with them. But in the act of sharing their bread with a stranger, they recognised the risen Lord in the stranger.
I mentioned Dominic Crossan earlier. In an interview he gave for the "Living the Questions" DVD discussion series, he says that whether we take the Emmaus story as an account of what actually happened, or merely as a parable involving Jesus, the truth remains the same. The real meaning of the story is that we find Jesus not through studying the scriptures – though that is preparatory and important – but by taking the stranger in. Not to eat your food but because if you believe everything is from God then the food you are sharing is God’s food.
When we sit with someone over coffee on at a church coffee morning or talk to some having a bowl of soup at a lunch club (or elsewhere)we are sharing communion. In that moment Jesus is with us.
An American pastor Wheaton Webb tells about a time when a stranger approached him and asked, "You couldn't let a man have a dollar for a meal?" A group of people was about to eat a potluck supper, so the pastor invited the man, who had the look of one who hadn't had a good meal for some time, to join them; they sat down at the end of one of the tables by themselves. "How long have you been on the road?" asked Webb. "A long time, a very long time," came the answer. "And it never occurred to you to settle down and take some steady work?" "No," the man replied, "I used to be a carpenter. But I'm one of those who has to be on his way. I'd never be happy settled in just one place." Webb comments: "It was odd the way he said it - like the wayfarer who visited Emmaus and who made as if he would have gone further until Cleopas and his companion (in the earlier episode) invited him to stay for supper." Webb asked him his name and he answered, "Mr. Immanuel."
As we know, Immanuel means "God-with-us."
Wheaton Webb concludes the story this way: "Presently he said his thanks and was off on his lonely journey that has no ending. And I thought: He still goes on his way, the hungry man, Mr. God-with-us, in his shabby coat, and always a look in his eyes as if he would go further. But when he had gone, my heart began to burn within me, and I had no doubt that Cleopas and his companion, in that silence that suddenly fell over their table, would have understood."
So would the eleven on the occasion when Jesus asked for something to eat, and so do we when the Lord occasionally appears in others who come to our tables hungry and lonely.
Much of this blog was the basis of a sermon I preached last Sunday 22nd April. After the service a young man who comes to the church occasionally - I'll call him Jason - came and spoke to me. "What you've preached on has just helped me make sense of something that happened to me a couple of weeks ago. And Jason told me his story.
Jason had been driving back home from the north of England. He stopped at a motorway service station for something to eat. The cafe was crowded and Jason was soon joined at his table by another traveller. In a very un British way they started to chat. And the other traveller said he was called Trevor and was a lorry driver. Jason said they talked for the best part of an hour and then Trevor left.
Jason told me he was left with a sense of something he couldn't put his finger on. But after hearing the idea of encountering Jesus through breaking bread with a stranger it all seemed to make sense.
Acknowledgements
Dominic Crossan interview from Living the questions 2. Study 12 "Practising resurrection" 2007 livingthequestions.com
Alan Culpepper - The New Interpreters Bible commentary Vol IX Luke
Wheaton Webb story via esermons.com
And of course thanks to Jason and Trevor.
