Wednesday in the Octave of Easter, April 20, 2022

Luke 24:13–35

That very day, the first day of the week, two of Jesus’ disciples were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus, and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred. And it happened that while they were conversing and debating, Jesus himself drew near and walked with them, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him. He asked them, “What are you discussing as you walk along?” They stopped, looking downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days?” And he replied to them, “What sort of things?” They said to him, “The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over to a sentence of death and crucified him. But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel; and besides all this, it is now the third day since this took place. Some women from our group, however, have astounded us: they were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his Body; they came back and reported that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who announced that he was alive. Then some of those with us went to the tomb and found things just as the women had described, but him they did not see.” And he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the Scriptures. As they approached the village to which they were going, he gave the impression that he was going on farther. But they urged him, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them. And it happened that, while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight. Then they said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?” So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem where they found gathered together the Eleven and those with them who were saying, “The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!” Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

The Gospel readings this week continue to tell us of what occurred on “that very day, the first day of the week”, Easter Sunday, as the days within the octave of Easter are all a continuation of that day.

“Two of Jesus’ disciples were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus.”  With the conclusion of the Sabbath, these men were free to walk the distance to this town.  Luke does not provide their reason for going there, although they may have lived in that place and had spent the Passover in Jerusalem.  They “were conversing about all the things that had occurred.”  Jesus caught up to them on the road, appearing to them in way that precluded their recognizing him.  This brings to mind how he had appeared to Mary Magdalene in a form that allowed her to believe that he was the gardener of the cemetery.  His purpose in doing this with Mary was to avoid shocking her.  Here, the Lord reveals himself only after some time has passed, and only indirectly, so as to draw out the faith of these disciples.  “What are you discussing as you walk along?”  He begins their instruction with a question which compels them to sum up what they had believed about him.  “They stopped, looking downcast.”  The Greek word means “they were gloomy” or “had sad expressions”.  They were disconsolate.  “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days?”  Jesus retains his Galilean accent and so they surmise that he is a visitor.  And, they suppose, as a Galilean, certainly he should know of the fate of his countryman.  “We were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel.”  The Greek actually says, “We were expecting that he was about to liberate Israel.”  That is, the nation of Israel from the Roman occupation.  Understanding that they were not speaking of a spiritual redemption but a national liberation  is necessary for a clear idea of what happens next.  

“They came back and reported that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who announced that he was alive.”  They are baffled by the report of the women and then of the Apostles.  They did not understand when the Lord had spoken to them, before the Passion, of his rising from the dead.  It did not fit in with their expectations of what he was supposed to do.  “Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”  More literally, “Oh, how thoughtless and slow of heart to believe!”  He does not so much accuse them of foolishness — lack of seriousness — as of maintaining their own opinions in the face of what he had told them in so many words.  It is as though a person who believed the earth is flat walked into a classroom and listened to a lecture thoroughly explaining that the earth is round, and how we can know this, and walking out of the classroom thinking that the lecturer had agreed with his theory.

“Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”  The Lord proposes to them an entirely different Messiah from the one the Pharisees had taught to them, one who triumphed not over the kingdoms of this world, but over something immensely greater: sin and death.  Led by the hand through the Scriptures, especially the Psalms and the Prophet Isaiah, their eyes were opened as to who the Messiah really was and what he was really to accomplish.

“Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.”  This is a prayer we can all make throughout our lives, and one which the Church prays, for we know the world is coming to its end.  “While he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them.”  Jesus and the two disciples have reached the village and they are evidently in the house belonging to one of them.  Contrary to custom, Jesus, the guest, is the one who says the blessing, breaks the bread, and gives it to them.  Does his manner of doing this recall for them how he had done this when he fed the five thousand in the wilderness, after which he called himself the Bread of Life?  Or did the way he did those remind them Pfizer how the Apostles told them that the Lord had done this at the Last Supper, saying, “This is my Body, which will be given up for you”?  At any rate, “with that their eyes were opened and they recognized him.”  And then he disappeared, a manifestation of his divine power which left them hungering for more: “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?” And then they hurried back to the Apostles in Jerusalem, despite the darkness of the night around them.