Commentary - Luke 24:13-35

Bird's-eye view

In this profound post-resurrection account, Luke shows us the movement from utter despair to blazing faith. Two disciples, walking away from Jerusalem, are walking away from the very center of God's redemptive triumph, but they are doing so under the impression that it was the center of a tragic defeat. They are joined by a stranger who turns out to be the resurrected Lord Himself. But He does not reveal Himself to them through a simple display of His wounds. Rather, He reveals Himself through the authoritative exposition of Holy Scripture. He shows them that the events that caused their despair were in fact the necessary fulfillment of all that the prophets had spoken. The climax occurs not with a grand miracle, but in the simple, intimate act of breaking bread. Their eyes are opened, their hearts are set on fire, and they are transformed from moping mourners into urgent evangelists. This passage is a masterful lesson on how Christ is to be found: not in our subjective hopes or feelings, but in the objective Word of God, illuminated by the Spirit.

Outline

Context In Luke

This episode on the road to Emmaus is unique to Luke's gospel and serves as a crucial bridge in his resurrection narrative. It follows the initial report of the empty tomb by the women (Luke 24:1-11), which the apostles dismissed as nonsense. Peter had run to the tomb and seen the linen cloths, but left wondering (Luke 24:12). The Emmaus road story, therefore, is the first detailed account of an appearance of the risen Jesus. It functions to demonstrate the nature of resurrection faith. It is not based on mere sight or empirical evidence alone, but on the Spirit-wrought understanding of the Scriptures. This event prepares the reader for Jesus' subsequent appearance to the eleven in Jerusalem, where He will once again open their minds to understand the Scriptures (Luke 24:45).

Key Issues

Verse-by-Verse Commentary

v. 13 And behold, two of them were going that same day to a village named Emmaus, which was sixty stadia from Jerusalem.

The story begins on the very day of the resurrection. And notice the direction of travel. They are going away from Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the place of the cross, but it was also the place of the empty tomb. It was the center of God's promised redemptive work. In their grief and confusion, they are walking away from the action. Despair always leads us away from Jerusalem. They are putting distance between themselves and their shattered hopes. Sixty stadia is about seven miles, a walk of a few hours. Just enough time for a life-altering Bible study.

v. 14 And they were conversing with each other about all these things which had happened.

They are processing their grief the way we all do, by talking it out. They are going over the events again and again. The arrest, the trial, the crucifixion. They have all the facts, but none of the meaning. Their conversation is a closed loop of sorrow. Without the key of Scripture, the facts of the gospel are just a tragedy.

v. 15-16 And it happened that while they were conversing and debating, Jesus Himself approached and was going with them. But their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him.

The grace here is astounding. They are walking away from Him, and He comes and joins them on their way. He meets them in their despair. But there is a divine restraint placed upon their perception. "Their eyes were prevented." This is a divine passive. God was preventing them from recognizing Him. This was not because Jesus was in a clever disguise. It was a form of spiritual blindness, providentially imposed. Why? Because Jesus wanted to teach them to walk by faith, not by sight. He was going to build their faith on the foundation of the Word, not on the mere fact of His physical presence.

v. 17-18 And He said to them, “What are these words that you are discussing with one another as you are walking?” And they stood still, looking sad. And one of them, named Cleopas, answered and said to Him, “Are You the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days?”

Jesus opens with a question, drawing them out. Their reaction is telling. They stop dead in their tracks, their sadness written all over their faces. Cleopas's response is filled with dramatic irony. He addresses the central figure of all history, the one in whom all these events find their meaning, and asks if He is some kind of out-of-touch tourist. The only person in the universe who truly understands what has happened is accused of being the only one who doesn't know.

v. 19-21 And He said to them, “What things?” And they said to Him, “The things about Jesus the Nazarene, who was a mighty prophet in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to the sentence of death, and crucified Him. But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened.”

Jesus plays the part of the ignorant traveler, "What things?" and they unload their story. Their summary is actually quite good. They correctly identify Jesus as a prophet, mighty in deed and word. They correctly identify the culprits: their own rulers. They correctly identify the result: crucifixion. But then comes the heart of their despair: "But we were hoping." Hope is in the past tense. They had a script for how redemption was supposed to look, and a crucified Messiah was not in it. Their hope was in a political, earthly redeemer, and that hope was now dead. They even note that it is the third day, the very day He had promised to rise, but they mention it as just another puzzling fact, not as a potential clue.

v. 22-24 But also some women among us astounded us...they had also seen a vision of angels who said that He was alive...Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just exactly as the women also said, but Him they did not see.

Here is the tragedy. They have the evidence. They have the testimony of the women. They have the angelic message. They have the confirmation of the empty tomb from their own companions, Peter and John. They have all the pieces of the puzzle right in front of them, but they cannot put them together. Why? Because they are trying to fit the pieces into the wrong picture. They are working from a blueprint of their own expectations, not from the blueprint of Scripture. They conclude with "but Him they did not see." For them, seeing is believing, and because no one has seen Him, the other evidence is just confusing, not convincing.

v. 25-26 And He said to them, “O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?”

Now the Lord drops the disguise of ignorance and reveals Himself as the master teacher. His rebuke is sharp, but loving. "O foolish ones." The word means un-thinking, not grasping the point. And notice the core of the problem: "slow of heart to believe." Their issue was not intellectual, but volitional. It was a heart problem. They were slow to trust the Word of God. And what Word was that? "All that the prophets have spoken!" They had been selective readers, highlighting the verses about glory and skipping over the ones about suffering. Jesus corrects this immediately. He frames the central issue with a rhetorical question. "Was it not necessary...?" The cross was not a tragic mistake. It was not plan B. It was a divine necessity, the divinely appointed path for the Messiah to suffer first, and then to enter His glory. The cross was the doorway to the crown.

v. 27 Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He interpreted to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.

And here we have the greatest Bible study in the history of the world, given by the author Himself. He doesn't start with new revelation. He starts with the old. "Beginning with Moses," the Law. "And with all the prophets." He takes them on a tour of the entire Old Testament, and the theme of the tour is Himself. He interpreted, or explained, how all of it pointed to Him. The sacrificial system, the prophecies of Isaiah 53, the Psalms of the suffering king. He showed them that the Old Testament was not a random collection of stories and laws, but one unified story that culminated in His suffering and glory. This is the bedrock of all true Christian faith: an understanding that the entire Bible is about Jesus Christ.

v. 28-29 And they approached the village where they were going, and He acted as though He were going farther. But they urged Him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is now nearly over.” So He went in to stay with them.

Jesus tests them. He "acted as though He were going farther." He will not force Himself on them. He waits for an invitation. Their hearts have been warmed by the Word, and they cannot bear for this teacher to leave. They "urged Him strongly." Their hospitality is a fruit of the Word that has been planted in them. They want more of what this man has. And so, He accepts their invitation.

v. 30-31 And it happened that when He had reclined at the table with them, He took the bread and blessed it, and after breaking it, He was giving it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him. And He vanished from their sight.

The setting is a simple meal. But the actions are deeply significant. As the guest, Jesus takes the role of the host. He takes the bread, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to them. These are the very actions of the Last Supper. In this familiar, covenantal act, God opens their eyes. The scriptural instruction has prepared their hearts, and the breaking of the bread becomes the catalyst for recognition. They finally see. And as soon as they see Him, He is gone. The point was not for them to have a resurrected travel buddy. The point was for them to know He is alive and to believe the Word. Now that the lesson is complete, the visual aid is removed.

v. 32 And they said to one another, “Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was opening the Scriptures to us?”

This is the testimony of every believer who has sat under the faithful preaching of the Word. When the Scriptures are opened, and Christ is shown to be on every page, the heart burns. This is not mere emotionalism. It is the internal, spiritual witness of the Holy Spirit confirming the truth of the Word. They now understand that the fire in their hearts was kindled by the exposition of Scripture.

v. 33-35 And they stood up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found gathered together the eleven and those with them, who were saying, “The Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon.” And they were relating their experiences on the road and how He was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread.

The effect is immediate. Despair had led them away from Jerusalem; faith drives them right back. They don't wait for morning. They get up "that very hour" and make the seven-mile journey back in the dark. True faith cannot keep silent; it must bear witness. When they arrive, they find that the others have their own story to tell. The Lord had appeared to Simon Peter. Their testimony does not bring new news, but rather confirming news. And they add their part to the growing chorus of witnesses, telling how He opened the Scriptures on the road, and how He was made known to them "in the breaking of the bread." The church is built on such shared testimony, grounded in the Word of God.

Application

The lesson of the Emmaus road is a lesson for the church in every age. How do we encounter the living Christ? We encounter Him in the same way these disciples did. We meet Him when we open the Scriptures and see Him on every page. We are often like these disciples, walking in a direction of our own choosing, mired in confusion and sadness because events have not gone according to our script.

The answer to our despair is not a new vision or a private miracle. The answer is to go back to the Word. The answer is to ask the Spirit to open our eyes to see the Christ who is revealed from Genesis to Revelation. When the Word is faithfully preached and taught, Christ Himself draws near and walks with us. And when that happens, our hearts will burn within us. Faith comes from hearing the Word of God, and that faith will then be confirmed in the fellowship of the saints, particularly as we break bread together in remembrance of Him.