Walking Along the Emmaus Road – What Does This Mean?

Alleluia! Christ is Risen! He is Risen, indeed! Alleluia!

I want you to close your eyes for a second and imagine yourself as one of those disciples who was walking away from Jerusalem from our text in Luke 24. Can you put yourself into their shoes? Luke says plainly, that they were some of Jesus’ disciples. But here the men are walking away from the Holy City of Jerusalem down trodden and full of sorrow and probably some fear. While we don’t know the exact conversation that the two men had on the road they were having, what we do know is that their conversation revolved around the events of the past days.

Perhaps that conversation went like this:

Has it really been two days since we saw our Teacher hanging on the cross? Those words, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me” still chill my bones. Where do we go from here? 3 years of following him. 3 years of getting our hopes up. He had to know the priests wanted to get rid of him. They tried to stone him once. I don’t want to stay in Jerusalem any more. For if that’s how they treated our teacher, what is in store for the followers like us? We are likely next to hung from a cross. Emmaus is not too far, perhaps there we can find some shelter. But who is this man following us? He seems to be catching up to us.

What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?

Excuse me? You can’t be serious right? Have you not heard? Have you been living under a rock? Do you really not know the events that have just transpired in Jerusalem? Jesus of Nazareth was hung on a cross and was killed. And we were all but certain that he was the One who was promised to Come, the Messiah who was going to redeem Israel. But he was crucified on a cross at the hand of the chief priests and the Romans. And to add to all this, some of the women in our group said they saw Jesus alive this morning along with a vision of angels telling them Jesus had risen from the dead. Dead men don’t rise from the dead.

“O Foolish Ones, and slow to heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”

Well, I haven’t really thought of that. What do you mean? Tell us more that we might understand. Are you saying Moses, the great prophet spoke about Messiah?

Indeed, Moses, the prophet whom the Lord knew face to face, spoke often of the Messiah. Listen to his own prophesy: The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—and later Moses spoke that the Lord would put my words in his and he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.

And many other places in the writings of Moses, the Messiah is promised and spoken of. The Lamb of the Passover, the promise of the seed of the woman, the promise of Abraham, Moses interceding for sinful Israel after the golden calf. The preaching and teaching concerning Day of Atonement. The blood of the Lamb cleansed the people, the Messiah’s blood would have to be poured out in suffering to cleanse the people of sin once and for all.

Okay, so Moses. Who else?

Isaiah spoke of Messiah in this way: “He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely, he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:3-5).

No! The Messiah was to usher in his kingdom and bring peace, He was supposed to restore Israel to its rightful place and break off the chains of Roman tyranny. He was supposed to be the king riding and leading Israel to victory!

But the King did come to the daughter of Zion riding on a colt, the foal of a donkey triumphantly. And His victory and your victory were sealed at the cross. It was indeed necessary for the Messiah, the Christ, to suffer and die. He did not come to free from Roman tyranny, but something much bigger and worse: He came to free the world and redeem you from sin and everlasting death.

Huh? We are learning a lot. Maybe we should open up the scrolls of Moses and the Prophets a bit more because we are getting schooled right now. Sir, where did you say were from? Okay, so what about the women’s reports? The prophet David, King of Israel writes in his 16^th psalm of the resurrection of the Lord’s Holy One, “I have set the Lord always before me, because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore, my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption. You make known to me the paths of life, in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” The Messiah would be indeed be raised from the dead.

Sir, we have much to learn. Our stop is almost here, please stay and tell us more.

Bread and wine await us for our dinner along with other good things. Wait. What is this? The man from the road has taken the place of host for this meal? Didn’t we invite him to this feast?

“Come the feast is prepared,” he says. “Take and it, this is my body which is given for you.” (Luke 22:19)

This is He! This is the Messiah! This is Jesus, the Christ!

No faster than you see Him and He vanishes. Where did He go? One thing is for sure: Jesus is alive! He is risen from the dead! We saw Him in the breaking of the bread! Come let us go back to Jerusalem to tell the others this wonderful news!

Our fears are gone; Jesus is victorious like He said He would be! Why did we doubt the women? Why were we afraid? Christ has triumphed! He is living! We know He is alive, He is with us in the breaking of the bread. Lord, forgive us for our foolish and sinful thoughts. Why did we doubt! For the Lord has done all things well, He has been raised from the dead. And He has freed us from sin and death forever more. Alleluia!

Come then, let us go to Jerusalem to tell the others what we have witnessed in the breaking of the bread. That our eyes are opened to the resurrection of Jesus at the breaking of the bread. Trust Christ’s own Words, it was necessary for Him to die and suffer for our sisn, and like He said He was to rise again from the dead, and He Did to the glory of the Father! Do not walk in sorrow, do not be forlorn. Christ accomplished what was said of him in the Law and the Prophets. That he would suffer and die and rise and enter into his glory.

He died to save you from eternal death, and He who claimed you at the Font as his own, wakening you to new life now and forever through the Water and the Word, now gives to you his own body and blood that was broken and poured out for you at the cross for you to eat and to drink that you may receive and participate in Christ’s victory over sin, death, and the power of the devil. It is the medicine of immortality. Take heart and eat of the feast prepared by your savior, Jesus Christ, who has risen from the dead, for He is there in the breaking of the bread. That is the place of his glory, his Supper given for you.

Alleluia! Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia!

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO