April 2024
My Dear Friend in Christ:
Recent I was asked, “what is your favorite book in the Bible”? My response was, ‘how do you pick just one?’ Some you read and study more often, they may speak more readily to you, or you find more in them. But there are so many, and all add something to our faith. At Easter season one usually looks at all four of the Gospel Narratives, as all add something, and then there are Paul’s ringing words of assurance.
So let us look at one of those appearances of our risen Lord. One found only in Luke’s gospel. That is not surprising; Luke’s two books have proven to be two of the finest examples of historical writing in antiquity. Clearly he used those two years, while Paul was imprisoned in Caesarea, wisely (Acts 24:27). He remained in the area (see Acts 27:1), so he had time to talk with Mary, the mother of Jesus, the Apostles who remained in Judea, surely James, the Lord’s brother, many who had heard Jesus, traveled with Him, and of course witnessed the resurrected Lord, like Clopas, who encounter the risen Jesus on the road to Emmaus (Lk.24:13-35).
It is a wonderful story of two followers of Jesus distraught, and dejected. As they will tell the ‘stranger’ who joins them, “We had hoped He was the one to redeem Israel” (v.21). All their hopes they saw as gone as they walked the seven miles from Jerusalem to Emmaus. As they walked they mulled over what was uppermost in their mind; the searing events that had occurred the last few days in Jerusalem. Then a stranger “drew near.” Luke tells us it was Jesus, But they did not recognize Him. Why is puzzling; were they kept from seeing Him, was His cloak’s hood drawn tight about His face, or was it at this time impossible to imagine that one you knew was dead was somehow walking on a rural road with you?
Whatever the reason, the stranger asked them what they were discussing, and Clopas will state, quite emphatically; “are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” Jesus faints ignorance, of something that obviously was well known. He is then regaled with all that had befallen their beloved “Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people,” and how He was taken by the leaders of the people condemned and crucified. Then they add that some of the women had gone early this very morning to care for the body, but did not find it, and had seen visions of angels saying He was alive.
It is then they are treated to one of the great expositions of scripture, ever. “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe…and beginning with Moses and all the prophets He interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself.” As they approached the village, it appeared that this stranger was going on, so they prevailed upon Him, as it was getting late to join them for a small respite. Then as He blessed and broke bread with them they recognized Him. But He then vanishes. Everything has changed; the reason for coming to Emmaus is forgotten, that it’s late means nothing, for they quickly return to Jerusalem. For they have a story to tell, and how their “hearts burned within’ as He opened to them the scriptures.
Does not this story have the ring of eyewitnesses, of truth, something they had to share. Then that night suddenly He appears to all “those who were with them” (except we learn one of the eleven). I understand the skepticism concerning the dead appearing alive, but our Biblical authors have provided a stunning array of narratives, prophecies, and more of what God was bringing about. My heart burns within as I ponder all that God has, and is doing. We have a world aflame in chaos, but it is also aflame with the Spirit of God moving; in various colleges as hundreds are being baptized, churches growing in numbers so fast, mass meetings with thousand accepting the Lord, and in villages as separated as the savannah of Kenya, or the hills of Thailand and India. There is more than hope, but a flame that our Lord in His Spirit is confronting this unbelieving world with His reality, may we be fully prepared to be a part of what He is doing.
Oh, Lord Jesus Christ, again let your Spirit move!
Thomas Randolf Wyatt
