Luke 24:21, commentary and pictures

On the afternoon of His resurrection two grieving followers walking home to Emmaus said they had trusted Jesus to be the Messiah who would free Israel, meaning an earthly kingdom reigning from Jerusalem, and that this was now the third day since His trial and crucifixion. His rejection and death on the cross therefore seemed to destroy that hope, leaving them sorrowful and hopeless, repeating their disappointed trust as a lament without remembering His promise to rise on the third day. They did not understand from Moses and the prophets that Christ had to suffer before entering His glory, and even with the report of women, angels and Peter that He was alive they still doubted and thought the witnesses mistaken. He walked beside them as a stranger and opened to them all the Scriptures concerning Himself, grounding faith on unquestionable prophetic evidence before making Himself known in the breaking of bread and vanishing from their sight. Their despair then turned to burning joy that sent them back that night to Jerusalem to proclaim a risen Saviour, showing that He still walks unseen beside perplexed believers to comfort them and kindle their hearts as they search the Scriptures and talk of His salvation.

Emmaus Road Setting

The words are spoken on resurrection day, late in the afternoon, by two earnest believers of no prominent place as they walk the eight miles from Jerusalem to Emmaus after keeping the Passover, returning home to meditate and pray while talking over the trial and crucifixion. They are grieving and perplexed by the trial and crucifixion, by the removal of the body, by the empty tomb, and by reports that women had seen angels and Jesus and that Mary and certain disciples had seen Him.

They are leaving Jerusalem in depression and grief, intending to take up their old employment again and conceal their crushed hopes as best they could. Their trust that Jesus would redeem Israel seemed blighted, and they recounted their unfulfilled hopes in Him as they walked sadly and talked over the scenes of the trial and crucifixion.

The risen Jesus draws near and walks beside them as a humble fellow traveler and toiling man, teaching and comforting them in their despondency. He is by their side on their hardest path, which shows He identifies with His suffering and perplexed followers, and He is by the side of those who are despondent now, offering peace and life. They see in Him only a traveling man like themselves, a mighty prophet mighty in power whom wicked hands had taken and crucified.

They do not recognize Him, because their eyes blinded by unbelief do not discern the risen Saviour when He walks beside them as a fellow traveler. He has no special marks of appearance that immediately identify Him as the Son of God, keeps Himself disguised, and appears only as a stranger. They know who He is only when He tells them, and afterward by His manner and marks.

Hoped Earthly Redemption

They had trusted Jesus as the Messiah who should redeem Israel, and their trust was real. They understood that redemption as an earthly kingdom, a temporal kingdom to be set up at His first coming. They expected Him to sit on the throne of His father David and to reign in Jerusalem as redeemer of Israel and as a temporal prince.

His rejection, condemnation, humiliating suffering, and death on the cross therefore seemed to destroy that hope. The humiliation made them question whether He could be the Christ they had hoped for. In sorrow and disappointment their crushed hopes turned to doubt of His divinity and even to fear that they had been deceived.

While His body hung in dying agony He appeared conquered in all other eyes amid rejection and mockery. Around Him triumphed Satan and evil angels together with the chief priests, scribes and rulers. His own disciples could speak no word of faith, and He listened with longing heart for some expression of faith from them and heard only disappointed trust. Yet He was in truth a Conqueror, even then seen and acknowledged as the sin-pardoning Saviour who to the last of His work pardons sin. That stands in grateful contrast to the dying thief, who alone in that hour acknowledged Him as Lord with faith and love.

Sorrow and Unbelief

With His death on the sixth day the sun of their hope set and night settled upon their hearts, leaving them sorrowful, lonely and sick at heart, mournful, astonished, broken-hearted, hopeless and helpless. Their words about trusting Him to redeem Israel became an oft-repeated lament for disappointed trust. They felt their hopes had perished and that the hope which had trusted Him to deliver Israel had failed.

Their mention that this was the third day since these things were done marked how long it had been, yet they said it without remembering that He had said He would rise on the third day and without remembering His foretold resurrection. They did not understand what Moses and the prophets had plainly stated about His life, suffering, death, resurrection, glory, and the treatment He would receive from those He came to save, that Christ had to suffer before entering His glory. Had they been familiar with those Scriptures their faith would have been sustained and their hopes unshaken, and when those promises were recalled their faith revived.

Even though they had heard Christ foretell His resurrection and the appointment to meet Him in Galilee, they could not cast off doubt and perplexity. Even when women declared they had seen the Lord and angels, and Peter testified of meeting the risen Lord, they would not believe, thinking the witnesses under an illusion. The report of His resurrection seemed unbelievable to them, and among all the disciples hope and faith were struggling for ascendency, with some too hopeless to believe the testimony of Mary Magdalene and the other women, though Peter's ardent and assured testimony began to revive faith. Deprived of His body and accused of stealing it to deceive the people, they despaired of correcting the false impressions, feared the enmity of the priests and the wrath of the people and that their Teacher's fate might become theirs, and longed for the presence of Jesus who had helped them in every perplexity.

Their hearts were so full of grief that they did not believe the angels' message or the words of Christ Himself. Their grief kept them from recognizing that He was alive and near, and their eyes blinded by unbelief did not discern the risen Saviour when He drew near. All the time they might have been rejoicing in the knowledge of a risen Saviour. Their disappointment when Jesus did not redeem Israel as expected was greater than that of those who expected the Lord to come in 1844, and the 1844 disappointment followed messages given at the right time that accomplished the work God intended.

Scriptures Explained to Them

He met their sadness by opening their understanding, beginning at Moses and in all the prophets and the typical law and tracing through them His very history as the Christ of God. He laid open to them that everything that had transpired was written there, setting forth His divinity and character, His mission to earth, His life and death and resurrection, and the plan of salvation. He gave the Old Testament teachings a meaning they had not perceived before, so that what had been obscure became plain concerning Himself.

He kept Himself disguised as a stranger and delayed revealing that He had risen until He had interpreted the Scriptures and led them to an intelligent faith in His life, character, mission, death, and resurrection. He did this so that truth would take firm root in their minds not because it was supported by His personal testimony but because the Old Testament agreeing with the facts of His life and death presented unquestionable evidence. Only when the object of His labor with them was gained did He make Himself known, that their joy might be full.

Seeing that His life and death fulfilled the prophecies about the Messiah showed them that the very events causing their despair were proof that their belief was right. The Lord opened their eyes to the straight chain of prophecy reaching from the days of the patriarchs to that time, foreshadowing all that had transpired regarding their Saviour, including His resurrection. That discovery restored their faith and brought them new hope.

As the educator who spoke as never man spoke, He bound their hearts with a holy, new, and sacred hope and joy, and He did the same for those assembled in the upper chamber. Their hearts burned within them by the way through the illuminating power in the Scriptures that quickened their faith. That burning came as He talked with them and opened the Scriptures concerning Himself.

Such understanding comes only as the Holy Spirit shines upon the sacred page to open understanding to know what is truth. It is needed in studying Daniel, Revelation, and the other prophecies of the Old and New Testaments.

Recognition and Renewed Joy

When they pressed Him to stay with them, He made Himself known in the breaking of bread by His very way of handling the bread and by the cruel marks of His crucifixion, showing He had already overcome death, and then He vanished from their sight.

Their joy then far exceeded their former despair, so that they forgot hunger and fatigue and left their prepared meal untouched. Late as it was they retraced the rough, uncertain, moonless road to Jerusalem with wholly different feelings, stumbling over stones and ledges and losing the path yet pressing resolutely on, longing to proclaim a living Saviour risen from the dead.

Entering with joyful tidings that Jesus was alive, they were met by many voices declaring that the Lord was risen indeed and had appeared to Simon. Their report, heard in breathless silence, helped revive the faith of the excited disciples assembled at Jerusalem, with some inspired to new faith and others still incredulous.

The disappointed trust belongs after His death on the cross, the earthquake at His death, the coming of mighty angels who rolled back the stone, and His coming forth proclaiming over the rent sepulchre of Joseph that He is the resurrection and the life. It means believers have a risen Saviour who lives to make intercession, and because He lives they shall live also. The fact of Christ's resurrection, proved to them by abundant evidence that the Saviour was living and not dead, was to become the great central truth around which all the faith and hope of the church would center, a sure tried anchor holding the soul and bringing sight of the glory of God.

Present Lessons for Believers

Searching the Scriptures with a humble heart and believing the truth in its simplicity as verity warms and kindles the heart with the love of God. The travelers were sad and disappointed because their hope that Jesus would redeem Israel seemed ended by His crucifixion, seeing in Him only a toiling traveling man like themselves, a mighty prophet whom wicked hands had taken and crucified. Christ answered their sadness by opening the Scriptures, beginning at Moses and the prophets, tracing His very history as the Christ of God and laying open that everything that had transpired was written there, though at first they could not take it in. When they urged Him to abide, He revealed Himself in the breaking of bread by His very manner of handling the bread and by the cruel marks of His crucifixion, then vanished from their sight. Their burning heart by the way came from the illuminating power in the Scriptures that quickened their faith.

The same burning of heart happens in those seeking the righteousness of Christ when the Bible supplies nourishing food to the soul, when they dwell upon the themes of the great salvation, meditate upon the incarnation of Christ, and contemplate the great sacrifice made to save from perdition and bring pardon, peace, and everlasting righteousness. When holiness and truth, grace and righteousness occupy the thoughts, self dies and Christ lives in His servants. Jesus, unseen, walks by the side of believers today as He walked with the two to Emmaus, surrounding them with the holy atmosphere of His presence. He was by their side in their despondency, and He is by the side of the despondent now, offering peace and life and comfort in despondency and grief to those who accept Him.

Knowing He is by their side brings holy joy and feeding on the bread of life, with a relish for talking of His lessons of instruction and for holy things. Their hallowed fellowship and conversation about the plan of redemption shows the gladness found in walking with Christ and talking of Him. That experience invites others to long for and desire His company and presence with them.

When they received light they did not take a different line but returned and found those whom God had led and was still leading and told them they had seen Jesus and talked with Him. That return and testimony is the course for all who claim great light concerning the church: to show it by keeping unity, sharing what they have seen with those chosen to bear living testimony, and seeking counsel from those of deep experience still bearing the truth and giving the last message of warning to prepare a people to stand in the great day of God, instead of breaking unity and drawing disciples after themselves.