The road to Emmaus: the risen Christ opens the Scriptures

Luke 24 is the last chapter of the third Gospel and the bridge to its sequel, Acts. For the author, date and audience, see the class on Luke 1 and 2: church tradition names Luke, the physician and Paul's companion; scholars date the Gospel anywhere from the early 60s to the 80s; and it is addressed to Theophilus so that he may know the certainty of what he has been taught. The final chapter reaches back to the preface and the promise of the first chapters, and it ends where the Gospel began, in the temple at Jerusalem.

The resurrection accounts in the four Gospels differ in detail. They agree that women found the tomb empty on the first day of the week, that Jesus appeared to his followers, and that the event changed them. Matthew and John tell of appearances in other places and times, and Luke confines all his appearances to Jerusalem and its neighborhood. Scholars differ on how to relate the accounts, and many Christian writers have offered harmonizations that treat the accounts as complementary. A small number of early manuscripts omit some verses in this chapter, such as 24:12, but most scholars accept them as original.

The Jewish background is important. By the first century many Jews, among them the Pharisees, believed in a bodily resurrection of the dead at the end of the age, following texts such as Daniel 12:2, and the Sadducees denied it (Luke 20:27). No one expected one person to rise ahead of the rest. Greek thought generally hoped for the survival of the soul, not the body's revival. According to some later Jewish legal sources, women were not accepted as witnesses in many legal settings, and scholars have noted that the accounts' reliance on women as the first witnesses suggests the story was not built for effect.

This chapter is narrative, and it works as a single day: dawn at the tomb, the afternoon road, and the evening room. Luke's handling of time and place is careful. The chapter begins at the tomb in Jerusalem, travels to Emmaus and returns, and ends in the city. A reader should notice how each scene supplies what the last lacked. At the tomb there are the facts without understanding; on the road there is understanding without recognition; and in the room there is recognition, touch and a commission.

The chapter is also about how Scripture is read. The risen Jesus gives an account of the entire Old Testament as pointing to himself, but Luke does not list the passages. He gives a summary: the Christ had to suffer and then enter his glory, and the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms speak of him (24:26-27, 44). This three-part reference is the Jewish way of naming the whole of what Christians call the Old Testament, with the Psalms leading the third division, the Writings. The reader should not suppose that the chapter gives a complete set of proof texts. The examples that are commonly offered, such as Deuteronomy 18:15, Psalm 16, Psalm 22, Psalm 110 and Isaiah 53, show likely cases and are not a transcript of what Jesus said.

The narrative also invites the reader to consider Luke's own method. The pattern of the Word explained and the bread broken has been seen by many readers as a form of the church's gathering, and Acts will show that pattern in practice. Luke writes so that the hearers of the story can walk the road with the two disciples and arrive at the same recognition.

Verses 1–12

On the first day of the week, at early dawn, women who followed Jesus from Galilee come to the tomb with spices. Luke names Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Mary the mother of James, with others. They find the stone rolled away and the body gone. Two men in dazzling clothes ask why they seek the living among the dead and remind them that Jesus had said in Galilee that the Son of Man must be delivered to sinful men, be crucified and rise on the third day. The women remember his words. They report to the Eleven, who think their words nonsense and do not believe them. Peter runs to the tomb, stoops in, sees the linen cloths alone and goes home wondering.

Verses 13–27

That same day two disciples are walking to Emmaus, a village about seven miles from Jerusalem whose site is uncertain. One is named Cleopas. Jesus draws near and walks with them, but their eyes are kept from recognizing him. He asks what they are discussing. They stop, looking sad, and tell him the news: Jesus of Nazareth, a prophet mighty in deed and word, was handed over by the chief priests and rulers and crucified. They say they had hoped he was the one who would redeem Israel, and now it is the third day, and some women have reported an empty tomb and a vision of angels. Jesus calls them foolish and slow of heart to believe all the prophets have spoken and asks whether the Christ was not bound to suffer these things and enter his glory. Then, beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explains to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. Their expectation of a Messiah who redeems without suffering is the one Jesus corrects, and he does it from the Old Testament itself.

Verses 28–35

Near the village he acts as if to go further, but they urge him to stay. At the table he takes the bread, blesses it, breaks it and gives it to them. Their eyes are opened and they recognize him, and he vanishes. They say to each other that their hearts were burning within them while he talked on the road and opened the Scriptures. They return at once to Jerusalem to find the Eleven and others gathered and saying that the Lord has risen indeed and has appeared to Simon. They add their own report.

Verses 36–43

While they are still speaking, Jesus stands among them and speaks peace. They are startled and think they see a spirit. He shows them his hands and feet and says to touch him, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as he has. In their joy and disbelief he asks for something to eat, and they give him a piece of broiled fish, and he eats it in front of them. The emphasis on touch, flesh and food excludes the idea that the resurrection was only a ghostly survival or a vision. It was the body that was crucified, raised and changed.

Verses 44–49

Jesus reminds them that he had told them that everything written about him in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. He opens their minds to understand the Scriptures. The pattern is that the Christ will suffer and rise on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins will be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. They are witnesses of these things. He will send the promise of his Father upon them, and they are to stay in the city until they are clothed with power from on high. The promise points directly to Acts 1 and 2.

Verses 50–53

He leads them out as far as Bethany, lifts his hands and blesses them. While he blesses, he parts from them and is carried up into heaven. They worship him, return to Jerusalem with great joy and are continually in the temple blessing God. The last act of Jesus in the Gospel is a blessing, and the last act of the disciples is worship.

Luke 24 teaches the bodily resurrection of Jesus as a historical event that fulfils God's promises. It is the vindication of the crucified One, the beginning of the new creation, and the ground of the church's preaching. The New Testament elsewhere builds on it. Paul calls the resurrection of Christ the first fruits (1 Corinthians 15:20) and says that if Christ has not been raised, faith is futile. The chapter's emphasis on a body that could be touched and that ate teaches that God's redemption includes the material creation and that the final hope is the resurrection of the body, not the escape of the soul.

The chapter also teaches the unity of the Bible. The Old Testament is read as one story that points to Christ, and the Christ's suffering and glory are the key. This is consistent with Peter's preaching in Acts 2 and 3, Paul's in Acts 13 and 26, and with 1 Peter 1:10-12. The chapter teaches the necessity of the Spirit's work in understanding: the disciples need their minds opened. It gives the content of the gospel to be preached: repentance and forgiveness for all nations. And it shows that the church's mission begins from Jerusalem and goes outward, as Acts will narrate.

Everything in Luke 24 concerns the person and work of Christ. The risen Jesus declares that his sufferings were the necessary path to his glory, answering the disciples' view of the Christ as a conqueror without a cross. He claims that the whole Old Testament, in its three parts, speaks of him. The fulfilment is shown at the level of pattern more than of a single text: the righteous sufferer of the Psalms, the servant of Isaiah, the prophet like Moses, the king of David's line, the Son of Man of Daniel. Jesus brings these together into one story, and the New Testament writers then follow his lead.

He is also seen as Lord of the new creation. The one who died now lives in a body that is truly his own but is no longer subject to death. He offers peace, shows his wounds, eats with his disciples and commissions them, and he promises to send the Spirit, the gift of the Father, so that Jesus is the giver of the Spirit, as John the Baptist had promised (Luke 3:16). He is worshiped at his ascension, which no prophet or angel would receive (compare Revelation 19:10). The ascension marks his enthronement at the Father's right hand, as Acts 2:33 and Psalm 110:1 teach.

As a gentler echo, some interpreters see in his lifting of hands to bless the disciples a priestly gesture, like Aaron's blessing of the people in Leviticus 9:22. Luke does not draw the link, and it is best held as suggestive. What Luke does say is that the Gospel closes with a blessing from the risen Lord.