Luke 24:13-27

Luke 24:13-27 … We’re in the period of time between the resurrection (covered in Luke 24:1-12) and the ascension (Luke 24:51). This is a forty day period of time. Each of the four Gospel accounts contributes to our understanding of these days as does the first chapter of Acts and a few verses in Corinthians (1 Corinthians 15:4-7). During this time, Jesus spoke with the women who accompanied Him, with His disciples and with hundreds of others.

Here, we have perhaps the most well known of these post-resurrection encounters in a portion of Luke that we call “The Road to Emmaus.” The encounter is as natural as it could be. Two men walking from Jerusalem to nearby Emmaus are profoundly moved by the events surrounding the crucifixion they’ve witnessed. Who wouldn’t be … we should still be moved by the events, even 2000 years later. One of the two is named Cleopas. One of the wonderful proof points of Scripture is that it names and identifies places. Because of that, there is irrefutable evidence and witnesses to the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. Over the lifetimes of these first century folk, people and places were known and the account of the resurrection could be easily verified by those who came later and who didn’t witness these events first hand. The opportunity was there to verify accounts factually. That ought to increase our confidence in the biblical account. Next, we shouldn’t miss the fact that, before they recognized Jesus, they’re sharing these events with Him as they would with a stranger. And they reveal a great deal of worshipful admiration for Jesus (v.19) and their expectation that He would have restored the Kingdom to Israel (v.21).

They identify for us that it’s still the third day (that is, Sunday afternoon after the Friday crucifixion) and just that morning, the women had been to the empty tomb and encountered angels there (v.23). The resurrected Jesus breaks the suspense in verse 25 and calls their attention to the Scriptures (which, of course are the Old Testament Scriptures) and the fact of Scripture (Isaiah 53) that the Messiah came to suffer for the sins of the world. Interestingly, they still haven’t recognized this “Stranger” as Jesus. Still, Jesus continued to speak with them and explained, in a Bible survey kind of way, all the prophecies of Christ in the Scriptures (v.27). This wonderful revelation of Himself through the passages of the Old Testament is one of the great events of Scripture and highlights for us the importance of knowing the whole Bible thoroughly.