ON THE ROAD TO EMMAUS / Bible Reading : Luke 24:13-35
There was once a small town in Judea, called Emmaus. It is not on the google GPS service today because according to the wikipedia, its archeological identification and its ancient location is not clear as several different coordinates having been suggested throughout history.
To humanity this small town of Emmaus is known only from the Gospel of Luke, and that the town was connected by a road to Jerusalem. The distance from Jerusalem given by Luke varies in different Gospel manuscripts and the figure given has been made even more ambiguous by interpretations.
At the end of the Gospel of Mark, chapter 16, there is also a mentioning of an appearance of Jesus when some of the disciples were walking in the countryside after the resurrection. Nonetheless, no name of any town is defined by Mark, as it is written that “after these things he (Jesus) was revealed in another form to two of them, as they walked, on their way into the country. They went away and told it to the rest. They didn’t believe them, either.”
Most of the scholars think, that this part of the Gospel of Mark is a late extension and interpolation using the story from the Gospel of Luke. The other Gospels do not have the story at all, it might have been the case that Luke had an independent source in recording it.
In many cases Luke is not a champion of historical or geographical accuracy rather it looks like that he wanted to convey a message to the international, mostly Greek and Roman audience about the Christ, the Savior of the world. Regarding accuracy we can not simply demand accuracy on a 21st century digitalized level with orbiting satellites, because the account of Luke was written decades after the events, based on mostly embellished and colorful oral tradition.
The name of the town Emmaus in Greek-Latin, itself is also not too specific because it means Warm Spring in its own Hebrew form, Hama. It was a very common name of a town in the Levant and in the Middle East as many towns were named Warm Spring all over the conjacent regions.
Although the Book of Joshua mentions a town called Motza but the etymological root of the name is quite different from Hama, though its distance from Jerusalem, 8 km, is quite convenient.
Thus even the very existence of the town in question is a little ambiguous.
The tale of walking on the road leading to the small town of Emmaus was maybe a metaphorical one, belonging to the teaching literature as for example the Book of Job, as odd mystical occurrings are intertwined within its narrative.
Like, they did not recognize Jesus in the stranger who joined them, however they recognized him from his move of sharing the bread, and then after the meal, in a moment, Jesus was just vanishing into the thin air. Thus we have a narrative with a message where the message is more important than the subtle details.
So to say, there must have been a walk, there must have been a destination, but actually the circumstances are not that important, even the Gospel of Mark, taking the storyline probably from Luke, did not have any specifics in its description other than general terms.
The main message might be that meanwhile they were walking, the resurrected Jesus joined them.
It might have been a physical reality or it could have been a metaphysical reality as well.
Jesus himself promised them that he can be with them without being physically present, as he told them that "where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
The disciples were confused after the devastating experience of the cross and meanwhile getting faint news about the possibility of his resurrection, Jesus just appeared among them out of nowhere.
He does not seem to be on the road with them as a real physical person rather the disciples were talking to each other disputing over what happened. It was a conversation somehow which involved also Jesus, their master who maybe was not present physically but by his teachings and by his memory.
They wanted to make sense out of the latter events and they comforted each other with the writings of the prophets and the prophecies regarding the Messiah, as they were taught by Jesus, as their teacher used to explain the scriptures, and as Jesus foretold them the upcoming events in advance.
Like when some of the scribes and Pharisees went to Jesus, saying that
“Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.” But he replied to them, “An evil and adulterous generation craves a sign. Yet no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah, because just as Jonah was in the stomach of the sea creature for three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. "
Or when Jesus began to teach the disciples " that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
The disciples on the road were contemplating about what just happened in Jerusalem, and they felt the very presence of Jesus.
When they sat down to eat they continued their conversations, thus they invited Jesus to sit with them to eat with them, and when day broke the bread as it was not only usual but because now it was a commandment of Jesus too. They realized that the Master is with them, with his teachings, by his example, with his life and death, by his love as an empowering force and a commandment too, and by the ritual of the Communion.
It was, it should have been a mystical experience of the disciples underlined by the mystical appearance of Jesus, by his vanishing form, and also by that that there was no straight quote from Jesus stated as if they had been physically talked to Him.
The road to Emmaus has a great significance because to understand that why the cross must have happened was not an easy task as it as also written that :
“He said to them, "The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise." But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.”
Even when Jesus was among them they did not understand this prophecy. Thus on the road to Emmaus a miracle happened that even that the form of Jesus vanished at the and of the day, the grieving disciples returned to Jerusalem with joy, hope and faith.
Thus this narrative is a close match to the story told about the doubting Thomas, who was not with the disciples to whom Jesus appeared in a closed room.
Thomas said that ‘you, my fellows, are all delusional, maybe you had seen a ghostly vision, but I do not believe that this happened until I, myself, will see Him and touch his wounds.’
The famous encounter between Thomas and Jesus is written in the Gospel of John, in the chapter 20 that “ after eight days again his disciples were inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, the doors being locked, and stood in the middle, and said, ‘Peace be to you.’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘Reach here your finger, and see my hands. Reach here your hand, and put it into my side. Don’t be unbelieving, but believing.’ Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’
Jesus said to him, ‘Because you have seen me,you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen, and have believed.’ ”
Very likely that even the Gospel of John, which was written as the latest among the Gospels, had this account of the doubting Thomas as a piece of teaching literature having the major message about the crucified but resurrected Christ in a hagiographic style, a mystical storytelling toward the people who were not there, toward the next generations in order to gain faith, that although Jesus is not anymore with us in the physical world, he is with us for ever by his spirit and his spiritual presence as it is promised at the end of the Gospel of Matthew in the very commandment of the Baptism:
“ Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.”
There are a lot of gatherings on Earth for very different reasons and occasions, physical or digital gatherings. Nonetheless it is a major task of the observing Christians, if they gather, to gather in the name of Jesus in order to make his presence among us a spiritual reality, until he comes again.
Amen
