The Road to Emmaus

We all know the account in Luke of two disciples walking the road to Emmaus. It may seem an unremarkable story: two disciples walking together, obviously getting a little more exciting when Jesus enters but they don't recognise Him, then they do when they reach their destination. However, I see it as a phenomenal account, full of nuggets of truth and revelation that truly blesses my socks off.

I believe we all need to take the road to Emmaus at some point in our lives.

I hardly know where to begin with this little study, it could just run away with me, so let's start with Emmaus first. It is thought to come from the Hebrew 'Hammath', meaning warm, and Josephus described it thus: "Now Emmaus, if it be interpreted, may be rendered `a warm bath' for therein is a spring of warm water useful for healing."

Getting straight into the account then, it's resurrection day, the disciples have spent the last 2 days thinking Jesus is dead (which indeed He was), but now they've had reports that the stone has been rolled away from the tomb He was in, the tomb is empty, and the angels have declared He's risen. Some are in complete disbelief, Peter's ran off to the tomb to see for himself, and two of His close circle (Cleopas and another unnamed one), are taking off from Jerusalem and heading to Emmaus, seemingly in discombobulation. What they are travelling for, we are not told. But as the name of the town suggests, perhaps they were off for some healing for their grieving souls? On the way, they're chatting about the events that have taken place. Who can blame them - the last 3 years must have been astonishing, and a culmination of the last 3 days will have been difficult for anyone to get their head around.

There soon appears to be two huge problems though. From Luke, 24 and verse 17 - 23, we can quickly identify a couple of issues. At this point, Jesus has just appeared to them:

And He said to them, “What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?” Then the one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to Him, “Are You the only stranger in Jerusalem, and have You not known the things which happened there in these days?”

And He said to them, “What things?”

So they said to Him, “The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who 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 crucified Him. But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened. Yes, and certain women of our company, who arrived at the tomb early, astonished us. When they did not find His body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said He was alive. And certain of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but Him they did not see.”
(Emphasis added by me)

Problem number one, which Jesus calls out - their conversation as they went along was sad. When you're sad you're often negative, the two just go hand in hand. So this conversation although it was about Jesus and the recent events, was sad and likely negative, or not faith-filled. The word sad in the verse is the Greek skythrōpos and means sad, gloomy and its root word means to appear sullen. So these were not really two people you'd want to walk with on a long journey. They were miserable, and they looked it too! Jesus was listening in to their conversation, as He clearly makes known. Now I love how God always asks us questions. Have you noticed? He knows full well the answer, yet He always gives us the chance to tell it in our own words.

"Where are you" ~ God to Adam in the garden (Gen 3 v 9). He knew where Adam was!
"What is this you have done?" ~ God to Eve a verse later.
"What are you doing here, Elijah?" ~ God to Elijah in 1 Kings 19

I could give more but you get the idea.

God likes to ask us questions because when we answer, we can hear our own words. Very often we have no idea of what we are doing, so God calls us out and says 'Hey, what are you up to?' and we can take stock, and admit we've wandered off the path.We can either answer with words of faith, or words of unbelief (or downright stupidity in some cases!). We are accountable to ourselves when we speak out, and our words make us accountable to God too. He also loves talking to us, and to show us it's a two-way street.

Back to the question, the very simple question that Jesus asks: "What things?"
He's saying, think about it guys, what has happened? Spell it out, piece by piece and look at it. So they do, and we encounter the next problem. Jesus of Nazareth, the Prophet. Now what a problem they have here, they only see the recent events through the lens of Jesus being a prophet. No wonder they're melancholy, no wonder they're sullen and running away! No wonder they're going round in conversational circles. They won't make any sense of what has happened if that's their view of Jesus.

What's your view of Jesus? Is He just a prophet? Or is He something that you've made Him into - a version of Christ that fits in with your life, and within your comfort zone, a more palatable version that fits in with your religious persuasions? Or is He what He says He is - the Great I AM?
If He's the former, your life will be just like the journey of these two disciples so far in the account: frustrated, sullen, trying to head for some warm refreshing springs, but never fully being satisfied. If however, He's the latter, the great I AM, Jehovah Jirah, Saviour, Redeemer, El Shaddai.... then you will experience the downright miraculous, the unexpected, the unimaginable; burning bushes, oceans parting; multiplication and abundance in your need; joy inexplicable, and a peace that passes understanding.

Now the word hoping where it says "we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel" is the Greek word elpizō which means to hope and trust in, and the very same word is used many places throughout the NT, and it conveys a meaning of a confident expectation of good.

So they had hope, they had some faith, but there's something very wrong in that their hope has lead to them being so sad. These do not go hand in hand for if we have a confident expectation of good, and we have faith in God, why should we look so sullen? Yet this is how so many of the church look to the world! We profess to be His disciples, we profess that we have hope in Him, we even talk of Him.....but to what end? Is our knowledge of Him faulty, or insufficient and do we know Him truly as Lord; though our words may be of Him, they are not faith filled and as such they are as empty cups: useless, powerless and devoid of true faith.

These two could recount the events that had taken place, but there was no deeper understanding and no personal knowledge. They could tell a story, but they could give no meaning to it.

Now, if you think I'm being harsh on them, I'm allowed to because Jesus was harsher. "Foolish" He called them! They saw miracles, were around on the very earth Jesus was, stepping where His feet walked and hearing all His teaching directly, yet they still had this warped vision of Jesus as merely a prophet, and had no faith in their hearts. Jesus was being kind just calling them foolish - I'd have been a lot harsher.

The first thing He does is set out the primary error - the prophets and the Christ are very different. The prophets are people, acting on behalf of God, towards the people for instruction and warning. The Christ is God Himself sent to the people, for the people for their salvation.

Then He said to them,
“O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself."

This is the beginning of the road. Jesus sets forth one of the most missed truths in Christendom - He is found in the Scriptures, from beginning to end. He may have started at Moses for these two, but we can clearly see Him from Genesis, right through each book, like a thread woven by each writer; even though the bible was written by around 40 different men, over a period of around 1000yrs, certain truths and revelations lay hidden in each book with clear themes, and amazing accuracy. Each word is divinely inspired and God-breathed to make a supernatural tapestry of prophecy, history and poetry that all beautifully points to Jesus.

Until we see this in His word, we're walking blindly on the road like these two were. Once they saw the Deity of Jesus, their faith could grow and their hearts could be lifted. Spiritually their eyes were opened and they saw Jesus properly, in Spirit and in truth, even though they didn't see Jesus physically yet. There's a powerful message here: to see Him spiritually, to see Him in the Word, is much more important than seeing Him physically. I'd love to see His face, as I'm sure millions of Christians would, but to see Him through the scriptures is more important. Seeing Him face to face will not invoke faith - these two are a prime example. They walked along the streets of Jerusalem with Him just says before, yet still didn't see Him as Lord and Christ! Seeing is NOT believing. This is clear throughout scripture, just take Mark 5 for example. Jesus heals the man at the tombs who was possessed. The people of the town nearby all saw Jesus, they saw the man now healed and in his right mind, yet they told Him to go away! They wouldn't accept Him. Then there's the people of His own town where they couldn't get past the fact that He was Joseph's Son, and although people who had been miraculously healed where there in the crowd, following Him around and they could see the evidence of His works, they wouldn't accept or believe in Him.

Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the WORD. It doesn't come from seeing miracles, or seeing Jesus face to face even. It was only after they'd broken bread with Jesus, accepting His forgiveness through His blood, and taking His broken body - the Bread of Life - true healing that comes from Him, that they were then able to see His face.
Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him;

We must take our bread daily to see Him daily through the Word. The importance of this daily aspect is becoming more and more apparent to me. It really doesn't matter if we start with a few crumbs, a few moments daily, we just must start with something daily.

There are two other key points I drew out of this before I sign off. Firstly, I mentioned Emmaus means warm. Look at what they said when they realised it was Jesus with them -

“Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?”

Does your heart burn for Him? That's the reason for the road to Emmaus - to change you from your doubtful state, to give you a revelation into Who Jesus REALLY is (and this will be via the Scriptures and your personal communication and relationship with Him), and to set your heart ablaze for Him. Your healing comes when you see Jesus as He really is - The Son of God Most High. The road to being "warm" or burning with zeal and love for Him begins with taking the steps in the right direction. But they didn't stay where it was "warm" (Emmaus), they continued to where they should be, back to Jerusalem to receive the fire of the Holy Spirit!

The second thing I also found which I thought was interesting was the name of the disciple we are given - Cleopas. The name derives from two Greek words - Kleo meaning to make known, to tell of, or to make famous. Cleopas is possibly a shorted form of the male equivalent of Cleopatra (Cleopatros) and this name means to make famous the Father! (Patros is father). But the actual Greek word "pas" means everything. So his full name might mean to make famous the Father, but Luke has referred to him specifically as the shorted Cleopas - which means to make known everything, which is incredibly apt as this is exactly what Jesus did. He made known everything about Himself to these two very fortunate people. And of course, when we know Jesus, we can then know the Father.

Our road to Emmaus may be tough to begin with, a place where unbelief and doubts pave the road, where sadness and sullenness mars our countenance, a place where our first steps find us beholding Jesus as something He isn't. But our journey should end with a revelation of Him as He truly is; however that requires us to let go of our preconceived ideas of Him and see Him in His Word.

To get to know Him truly, we must see Him though His Word. We must put aside our own ideas and desires of reaching our own destination as it will never bring healing; only partaking of communion with Him will bring healing. When we open our hearts to Him truly, and when we really see Him and our hearts burn for Him, we will reach a place where we can echo with Job:

I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees You
Job 42 v 5.

The road to Emmaus is one of the most exciting journeys we will take. But remember, it is only the beginning of a longer road to our own 'Jerusalem' or promised land of God's will, wherever that may be for us.