The gospel reading we just read about Jesus' journey to Emmaus with two persons is one of my favourite resurrection stories and possibly my favourite from the Gospel of Luke. Over the twenty-six years of my ministry, among many other texts in the Gospels, this is one of the most-loved stories I would wait to come up in the Lectionary to preach on. When it comes up, I have always struggled to decide what not to say in the sermon.
This has been a challenge for me. As an ardent seeker and expositor of God's Word, I have—and continue to—extensively research the vast background of the Scripture passages that I particularly like. My twenty-five-year teaching responsibility at universities and theological colleges further propelled this thirst.
However, when I was appointed to the United Arab Emirates in 2010, I somewhat broke with my practice of sharing something of the vast background behind the Scripture readings when preaching. The congregations there -- mostly five hundred or more in numbers in one sitting -- were not interested in the finer details than what they already knew superficially of the Biblical text.
Looking back, this was among the many reasons that led me to return home to Australia on top of the unbearable heat of the desert that I could not bear.
Now that I am back on home soil with you as the congregation God has given me to look after, I know I can share more with you based on my experience over the past few years.
So, I would like to share with you some background information about the two gentlemen Jesus met on the way to Emmaus, which Luke does not give. This information helps us understand the message behind the story of Jesus' journey to Emmaus.
St Luke, a real historian, may have decided to leave out this information because, in his day, the facts about the two gentlemen may have been widely known. It would have been unnecessary to give details about them, which would have been evident to everybody.
This information comes from a variety of sources, including some gospels. These were written towards the end of the first century, and sometime later, the books that should have been included in the New Testament were finally decided. Today's New Testament was agreed upon by the Council of Carthage in Tunisia in 397 AD. (If you may remember, I visited Carthage in 2018 and visited the site and the ruined church complex where this Council was held)
In the Gospel story of Jesus' journey to Emmaus, Luke mentions two gentlemen talking about the events that had taken place in Jerusalem a few days ago. Luke names one gentleman, Cleophas, but the name of the other is not mentioned. The place where they were going, Emmaus, is not on the present map of Israel. Only recently have archaeologists found this place.
Sources external to the New Testament say that Cleophas was a tax collector who lived in Capernaum (where Jesus spent some of his adult years—Matthew 4:12) as a neighbour of Joseph and Mary. His daughter Susan grew up with Ruth, Jesus' youngest sister. And for Jesus, he was Cleophas, who had lived next door. Cleophas admired Jesus but wasn't in the inner circle of disciples.
What about the other gentleman? His name is said to be Philoees. He was a Roman tax administrator married to Ruth, Jesus' youngest sister (there is no record of this in the NT). He arrived in Jerusalem only the day after Jesus had died.
They didn't have mobile phones, TVs, or texting facilities in those days. Ruth and the other family members could not have informed Philoes about the events leading up to Jesus' arrest, death, and resurrection. He may have arrived in Jerusalem from Rome (which is km 2300 kilometres away from Jerusalem) over many days only to be assigned to go to Emmaus the following day.
So, Philoes may have arrived in Jerusalem between Jesus' death on Friday and resurrection on Sunday. The Gospel story says that the two gentlemen had left for Emmaus on foot Sunday. Emmaus was a town about 7 kms north of Jerusalem.
If we take this little extra information into account, we may guess why Luke leaves out the personal details of the two gentlemen. Perhaps people knew them so well that he did not have to mention their names. It would have even been an amusing story people knew about the brother-in-law of the Lord and the next-door neighbour Cleophas not having recognised Jesus.
Or, having mentioned one name, maybe Luke wanted to keep people guessing who the other person who missed out on recognising the Lord was. Either way, they would have been known as "the famous two" who had met the Lord on the way to Emmaus. I hope you can see the irony and humour of this.
Cleophas and Philoes, who had known the Lord so well yet did not recognise him when he appeared to them, may have been the punch-point of the story, where the message for us today resides.
The experience of Cleophas and Philoees of the Risen Jesus seems not hugely different from ours. Cleophas and Philoees were very interested in discussing current affairs and preoccupied with their jobs and couldn't recognise the Lord. The same morning of their journey to Emmaus, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary, the mother of James, had a similar experience.
These women had followed the Lord almost every day of his and even financially supported him (See Luke 8:3). But on this occasion, they were preoccupied with the logistics of caring for Jesus' body. Mary Magdalene was preoccupied with her grief and loss (See Luke 24:1 & John 20:11-17). Their experience, sometimes like ours, was real but somewhat ambiguous, profound, and easily misunderstood and unrecognised.
How can we have the risen Christ with us, walking and talking with us, and yet we are not aware of him, and we do not just recognise him?
Well, I think the answer may be found in the human experience of "not being able to see the wood for the trees." When we see too much of something, we don't notice it at all. We become completely oblivious to it. It just kind of merges into the background of normality.
The risen Christ is with us always. He walks with us on every road. He is with us at the heights of joy and celebration and with us in the pits of terror and despair. He is always with us, but we do not recognise him. We are preoccupied with our daily chores or the things we are concerned about, whether it be our hurts, losses, or misfortunes. Other times, we may simply be preoccupied with passing the time in the ordinariness of life.
But this is the problem, isn't it? What is so present in our lives soon becomes taken for granted, and we live our lives without recognising the risen Christ who is with us. The Risen Christ walks with us on the road, gives us the joy of living, or sits with us at the dinner table, and we fail to recognise him.
What, then, can we do? How can we re-attune our awareness so that we become increasingly, and perhaps eventually regularly, conscious of Christ's presence with us? The story offers us a message of hope here.
There are two stages of awakening in this story. Firstly, as the scriptures were read and discussed, the two gentlemen experienced their hearts burning within them. Something was stirring them up, trying to break through to them. This may have happened long as they walked down the unpaved seven kilometres to Emmaus from Jerusalem. The discussion of the Scriptures with Jesus was insufficient on this occasion to open their eyes to the Risen Lord. It may be the emotional tiredness of coping with the things that had happened and the physical fatigue of a long journey on foot.
Then came stage two. The story tells us that they decided to break the journey and invite Jesus to stay the night with them. Their eyes were opened at dinner when Jesus blessed and broke the bread. Then they recognised Jesus, who had been with them all along. But Jesus disappeared from their sight. What an amazing experience it would have been! Having witnessed what had happened and being deeply moved by the experience, they asked each other: "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?" (Luke: 24:32)
The two got up and returned to Jerusalem at once. They shared their experiences with the Eleven and those with them, assembled, and shared their experiences with them.
This is how it is for us, too. The Risen Lord journeys with us on every road we take in our life journey. He has not abandoned us. Gently, he journeys with us every day of our lives, ensuring that we are loved, encouraged, and supported. He also journeys with us while bearing our wounds, scars and hurts in his body and leading us to heal. In this journey, he explains to us what had been said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. He explains that he came from God to remind us that we belong to God and are to live here as bearers of His Light gifted with eternal life (John 13:3; 17:2; 8:12; Matthew 5:12-14).
Jesus invites us to read the Scriptures to learn more about him and God's purposes for us. He wants us to recognise and receive him each time we break bread at home and during the Eucharist with His Body (the church) gathered and present.
Let us behold the Risen Christ in his glory and thank him for journeying with us.
Christ is Risen; Halleluiah! He is Risen, Indeed, Halleluiah!
Let us pray:
Jesus, our Lord, we believe you; all we heard is true.
You break the bread, we recognise you; you are the fire that burns within us;
use us to light the world. Hear this prayer for your love’s sake. Amen.
