Luke 24:13-35

The Emmaus Road Catechism Text: Luke 24:13-35

Introduction: The Sadness of Misguided Hopes

It is entirely possible to have all the correct facts and still arrive at a profoundly wrong, and debilitatingly sad, conclusion. This is the condition of much of the modern church. We have the facts of the gospel. We know Jesus was born, that He lived a sinless life, that He performed miracles, that He was crucified, and that the tomb was empty on the third day. We have these facts catalogued and memorized. And yet, we often walk our own roads to Emmaus, away from Jerusalem, with long faces, debating our circumstances, and wondering why God's plan doesn't look more like ours.

The two disciples in our text are not ignorant men. They are not faithless pagans. They are disciples, followers of Jesus, who are heartbroken because their Messiah did not conform to their script. They had a particular narrative in mind, a story of political redemption and national glory, and the bloody crucifixion was a brutal and unwelcome plot twist. Their problem was not a lack of information but a lack of submission to the story God was actually writing.

Their sadness was a theological problem. Their despair was rooted in a faulty hermeneutic. They had a Bible, but they did not know how to read it. They did not understand that the cross was not a tragic interruption of the story but the very hinge of it. And so, the risen Lord, in His grace, does not begin with a dazzling miracle to prove His identity. He begins by taking them back to the book. He teaches them how to read. This encounter is a divine intervention to correct a faulty worldview. It is a lesson in how to interpret reality, not through the lens of our disappointed hopes, but through the grid of the whole counsel of God. This is the cure for our own sad-faced walks away from Jerusalem.


The Text

And behold, two of them were going that same day to a village named Emmaus, which was sixty stadia from Jerusalem. And they were conversing with each other about all these things which had happened. 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. 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?” 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. But also some women among us astounded us. When they were at the tomb early in the morning, and not finding His body, they came, saying that 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.” 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?” Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He interpreted to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. 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. 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. 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?” 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.
(Luke 24:13-35 LSB)

The Anatomy of Pious Despair (vv. 13-24)

The scene opens on a retreat. These two disciples are walking away from Jerusalem, the city of God's great redemptive act, because they think the show is over. They are walking about seven miles, a significant distance, putting the whole sorry affair behind them. Their conversation is a closed loop of confusion. They are "conversing and debating," turning the same tragic facts over and over, getting nowhere.

Into this bubble of grief, Jesus Himself draws near. But notice, "their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him." This is a sovereign act. This is not a clever disguise. God Himself holds their eyes shut. Why? Because He wants to address the root of their problem, which is not their lack of sight, but their lack of faith. A mere physical recognition would have short-circuited the whole lesson. He wants to heal their unbelief first, and He will do it with His Word, not with a sign.

When Jesus asks them what they are talking about, they stand still, "looking sad." Their sadness is the presenting symptom of their theological disease. Cleopas's response is dripping with irony. He assumes Jesus is the only one in town who doesn't know what has happened. The reality is that Jesus is the only one in the universe who truly knows what has happened.

Their summary of the situation is a masterpiece of failed faith. Let's break it down:

They are drowning in evidence, but their unbelief is a weight that holds them under. Their worldview cannot process a crucified Messiah, and so even the evidence of an empty tomb is just another confusing fact in a pile of sorrow.


The Necessary Cross (vv. 25-27)

Jesus' response is not, "There, there, I know it's hard." It is a sharp, loving, and necessary rebuke. "O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!" He identifies their problem precisely. It is not intellectual; it is moral and spiritual. They are "foolish" because they have not applied God's Word to their circumstances. They are "slow of heart," which means their affections and their will are sluggish and resistant to believing God's promises.

Their foolishness consisted in their selective reading of the Bible. They were happy to believe the parts about the Messiah's glory, but they were slow to believe the parts about His suffering. They wanted the crown without the cross. Jesus corrects this by asking the central question of redemptive history: "Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?"

The word is "necessary." Dei in the Greek. It means it was divinely appointed, it had to be this way. The cross was not a mistake. It was not a tragedy. It was the fulfillment of the entire Old Testament. It was the plan. Suffering was the ordained path to glory. This is the logic of the gospel, and it turns the world's wisdom on its head.

And so, Jesus gives them the Bible study of a lifetime. "Beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He interpreted to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures." This is the key to the whole Bible. The Bible is not a collection of disconnected moral stories. It is one unified story, and Jesus Christ is the subject of it. From the protoevangelion in Genesis 3, to the sacrificial system in Leviticus, to the suffering servant in Isaiah 53, to the smitten shepherd in Zechariah, it is all about Him. To read the Old Testament and not see the necessity of Christ's suffering and glory is to be, in Jesus' own words, a fool.


Burning Hearts and Opened Eyes (vv. 28-35)

As they arrive at Emmaus, Jesus "acted as though He were going farther." This is a test of their desire. Has the Word kindled anything in them? It has. They don't want the Bible study to end. "They urged Him strongly, saying, 'Stay with us.'" Their hospitality is the fruit of their warming hearts. They make room for the Word.

And it is in the context of this hospitality, around a dinner table, that the revelation comes. The scene is profoundly covenantal. "He took the bread and blessed it, and after breaking it, He was giving it to them." This action is saturated with meaning. It points back to the feeding of the five thousand and, more importantly, to the Last Supper. This is an act of covenant fellowship. As the Word was preached on the road, the sacrament is now administered at the table.

And in that moment, "their eyes were opened and they recognized Him." The divine prevention is lifted. The Word preached has done its work on their hearts, and now the sign confirms it to their eyes. And as soon as they see Him, "He vanished from their sight." The goal was not for them to have a physical Jesus to walk around with. The goal was for them to have their faith restored, grounded not on sight, but on the authoritative Word of God which they now understood.

Their immediate reaction confirms the change. They don't say, "Wasn't it amazing to see Him?" They say, "Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was opening the Scriptures to us?" The true miracle was not the physical appearance; the true miracle was what the Word did in their hearts. The preaching of a Christ-centered Bible by the Spirit of God sets the hearts of believers on fire. If your heart is not burning for Christ, it is because you are not having the Scriptures opened to you in this way.

And what does this fire produce? Immediate, joyful, costly obedience. "They stood up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem." They walk the seven miles back, in the dark, uphill. The retreat has become an advance. Despair has turned to mission. They return to the fellowship of the believers and find that their personal testimony is confirmed by the corporate testimony of the church. Peter has seen Him too. The Lord is building His church, and the foundation is the testimony to His resurrection.


Conclusion: The Cure for Sad Christians

This story is a permanent diagnosis of and prescription for the church in every age. When we find ourselves downcast, confused, and walking away from our Jerusalem, the problem is almost always the same as that of these two disciples. We are operating with a faulty, man-centered theology. We have a script for how we think God ought to run the world, and we become sad and disillusioned when He deviates from it.

The cure is not to look for a sign. The cure is not to trust our feelings. The cure is to plead with the risen Christ to do for us what He did for them. Open the Scriptures to us. Show us the necessity of the cross. Show us how all of it, from Moses to the prophets, is about You. Show us that suffering is the path to glory.

When the Word of God, centered on the crucified and risen Christ, is taught in the power of the Spirit, hearts will burn. And when hearts burn, feet will move. Sadness will give way to testimony, retreat will turn to mission, and we will join the great chorus of the church in declaring the foundational fact of all reality: "The Lord has really risen."