Hi All,
I hope it's okay to keep sharing.
This is a reflection on Luke 24: 13-35 - I won't clog this up by reciting the same.
Again, it's very personal. I wrote this over a decade ago. So I suppose for me it's doubly personal.
On my website: Daily Bible Verses Easter Season To Pentecost | Wednesday Week 1 | The Road To Emmaus | Jesus Walks Beside Us | King James Audio Bible – Listen To the Bible! | King James Audio Bible | KJV | King James Version
Please visit and see what you think.
The reflection goes like this:
This is a dark time, and, as Luke writes his Gospel, it is a dark time for the Christian communities. Jesus has been crucified. Well then, so the logic of the Old Law states, Jesus could not possibly have been the Messiah. Except he was.
Luke writes primarily for the communities of Greece, mostly pagan converts. There has been the great persecution of Nero. Jerusalem has been destroyed in the year 70 by the Romans. The Apostles and other disciples of Jesus have progressively disappeared or been martyred. It must have been hard to believe in Jesus in these times. Christians must have felt tired on their journey. We needed to be reassured, to be given the confidence to keep going. In this sense, these early Christians were in a similar position to the disciples on the road to Emmaus.
On the road to Emmaus, the disciples are lost and despondent. They are talking with each other to try to make some sense out of what has happened. Their Lord has been crucified. According to their understanding, the Messiah could not have met with such a fate. It seems to them that all their faith in Jesus has been in vain. They feel great sorrow. Jesus comes to them to reassure them, to help them to see the truth of what has happened through the crucifixion, to give them hope to go on.
The disciples do not initially recognize Jesus. This tells us something about how Jesus approaches us in our lives. It can take a long time before we recognize the call to vocation, and then we realise just how often we have been called in the past without our realizing that we are called. It is when we are truly open to our Lord that we know that he has been calling to us so much before to have faith and to follow him.
Jesus asks the disciples what is wrong and he patiently hears them recount what we know of the death of Jesus, and his burial, and the events of Easter Sunday when Jesus’ tomb was found empty. The disciples even speak of the witness of Mary Magdalene and the other women, who have told them what the angels have said to them, and yet they have not seen what the women saw. The disciples are shrouded in gloom and the failing of faith. Their world at this time must have seemed a very hollow space, emptied of life and hope.
Jesus now, without directly revealing himself, teaches the disciples again about the Scriptures. Jesus presents to the disciples the truth of faith, tells them once again of the necessity of his death on the cross to bring about all men’s salvation, of his path to glorification being via the cross, and Jesus interprets the Scriptures to them, leading the disciples to a new and truer understanding of the words with which they were already familiar. Jesus wants the disciples to realise they already know the truth; that what they need to do is to free themselves from the preconceptions of the old way of seeing things, and with the eyes of faith understand the reality of Scripture.
The disciples are energised by Jesus’ words. They beg Jesus to stay with them and Jesus consents. And so a stranger on the road is offered and consents to receive hospitality. There is friendship, the sharing of a meal, just as there was at the feast of the Passover, the Last Supper. Trust has been offered, received, shared.
It is perfectly fitting that recognition comes to the disciples as our Lord blesses and breaks the bread at this meal, and shares it. Now the disciples see who has been with them. Our High Priest has shared his body once again, bloodlessly now. The disciples’ eyes are opened. They now understand how their hearts have burned through Jesus’ presence. They have shared Christ’s body. They are a part of the body of Christ. Jesus can leave them now, knowing that they can walk onwards together, as it were by themselves, without further immediate assistance. We might be reminded of the time we learned to ride a bicycle, when the stabilizers were removed and our mother or father who had supported us let us go.
The disciples’ faith has been restored. It is beautiful to know that the first instinct of these disciples was to return to Jerusalem, no matter the danger, to share the good news with their friends.
Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us; you take away the sins of the world, receive our prayer.
I hope it's okay to keep sharing.
This is a reflection on Luke 24: 13-35 - I won't clog this up by reciting the same.
Again, it's very personal. I wrote this over a decade ago. So I suppose for me it's doubly personal.
On my website: Daily Bible Verses Easter Season To Pentecost | Wednesday Week 1 | The Road To Emmaus | Jesus Walks Beside Us | King James Audio Bible – Listen To the Bible! | King James Audio Bible | KJV | King James Version
Please visit and see what you think.
The reflection goes like this:
This is a dark time, and, as Luke writes his Gospel, it is a dark time for the Christian communities. Jesus has been crucified. Well then, so the logic of the Old Law states, Jesus could not possibly have been the Messiah. Except he was.
Luke writes primarily for the communities of Greece, mostly pagan converts. There has been the great persecution of Nero. Jerusalem has been destroyed in the year 70 by the Romans. The Apostles and other disciples of Jesus have progressively disappeared or been martyred. It must have been hard to believe in Jesus in these times. Christians must have felt tired on their journey. We needed to be reassured, to be given the confidence to keep going. In this sense, these early Christians were in a similar position to the disciples on the road to Emmaus.
On the road to Emmaus, the disciples are lost and despondent. They are talking with each other to try to make some sense out of what has happened. Their Lord has been crucified. According to their understanding, the Messiah could not have met with such a fate. It seems to them that all their faith in Jesus has been in vain. They feel great sorrow. Jesus comes to them to reassure them, to help them to see the truth of what has happened through the crucifixion, to give them hope to go on.
The disciples do not initially recognize Jesus. This tells us something about how Jesus approaches us in our lives. It can take a long time before we recognize the call to vocation, and then we realise just how often we have been called in the past without our realizing that we are called. It is when we are truly open to our Lord that we know that he has been calling to us so much before to have faith and to follow him.
Jesus asks the disciples what is wrong and he patiently hears them recount what we know of the death of Jesus, and his burial, and the events of Easter Sunday when Jesus’ tomb was found empty. The disciples even speak of the witness of Mary Magdalene and the other women, who have told them what the angels have said to them, and yet they have not seen what the women saw. The disciples are shrouded in gloom and the failing of faith. Their world at this time must have seemed a very hollow space, emptied of life and hope.
Jesus now, without directly revealing himself, teaches the disciples again about the Scriptures. Jesus presents to the disciples the truth of faith, tells them once again of the necessity of his death on the cross to bring about all men’s salvation, of his path to glorification being via the cross, and Jesus interprets the Scriptures to them, leading the disciples to a new and truer understanding of the words with which they were already familiar. Jesus wants the disciples to realise they already know the truth; that what they need to do is to free themselves from the preconceptions of the old way of seeing things, and with the eyes of faith understand the reality of Scripture.
The disciples are energised by Jesus’ words. They beg Jesus to stay with them and Jesus consents. And so a stranger on the road is offered and consents to receive hospitality. There is friendship, the sharing of a meal, just as there was at the feast of the Passover, the Last Supper. Trust has been offered, received, shared.
It is perfectly fitting that recognition comes to the disciples as our Lord blesses and breaks the bread at this meal, and shares it. Now the disciples see who has been with them. Our High Priest has shared his body once again, bloodlessly now. The disciples’ eyes are opened. They now understand how their hearts have burned through Jesus’ presence. They have shared Christ’s body. They are a part of the body of Christ. Jesus can leave them now, knowing that they can walk onwards together, as it were by themselves, without further immediate assistance. We might be reminded of the time we learned to ride a bicycle, when the stabilizers were removed and our mother or father who had supported us let us go.
The disciples’ faith has been restored. It is beautiful to know that the first instinct of these disciples was to return to Jerusalem, no matter the danger, to share the good news with their friends.
Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us; you take away the sins of the world, receive our prayer.