Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre;
On the afternoon of the resurrection day two sorrowful disciples walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus told a fellow traveler that certain women of their company had gone early to the sepulchre and astonished them with their report. The report they had heard was that the women found the tomb empty, saw angels, met Jesus after His resurrection, and declared that He had risen. Though they had heard these strange tidings, their faith and hope had failed and they remained slow to believe, weeping as they traveled because they did not recognize that the stranger was Jesus Himself. He kept His identity hidden until He had opened to them the Scriptures concerning Himself, beginning at Moses and the prophets and showing that Christ had to suffer before entering His glory, so their faith would rest on the firm evidence of prophecy fulfilled. His walking with them as an ordinary traveler to teach and comfort them shows that the risen Saviour stays beside the sorrowful and despondent even when they do not recognize Him, bringing peace, hope, and burning joy through the word.
Setting and Wording
The words belong to the sad conversation on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24:13-33, spoken late in the afternoon of the resurrection day by two travelers walking together on foot across open country carrying staffs, leaving Jerusalem for their homes at Emmaus, a little town eight miles away. They were going home to meditate and pray in hope of gaining light on matters dark to them, intending to take up their old employment again and conceal their blighted hopes. As they went they told Him, whom they took for a toiling traveler like themselves and a stranger in Jerusalem who did not know what had taken place, that Jesus was a mighty prophet mighty in power whom wicked hands had taken and crucified.
The verse states plainly that certain women of the disciples' company went early to Jesus' tomb and their report astonished the disciples. That astonishing report was about the removal of His body and His disappearance, which perplexed the disciples and deepened their perplexity. More fully, what the disciples had heard was that the women were early at the sepulchre, had seen angels, had met Jesus after His resurrection, and said He had risen and had been seen by Mary and certain others.
When they said this the two were sorrowful and burdened with grief, weeping as they traveled, with faith and hope failed. They had heard strange reports that Jesus had risen and had been seen by some of His followers, but remained sorrowful and slow to believe. Their sorrow was one Christ pitied and came to comfort, walking beside them to teach and comfort them even while they were despondent and did not recognize the help beside them.
They saw Jesus only as an ordinary, humble fellow traveler and stranger, because His appearance bore no special marks identifying Him as the Son of God. They hardly noticed the stranger who joined them, and did not recognize Him until He told them and later when He blessed and broke bread. Though He understood the prophecies and opened the Scriptures to them, commencing at Moses and the prophets and tracing down His own history as the Christ of God and showing that everything that had transpired was written there, they could not yet take it in.
Christ Teaches Scripture
He kept His identity hidden from the two on the road until He had interpreted the Scriptures, for to have shown Himself alive at once would have overwhelmed them and left them less hungry for the truths He meant them to carry to others. The disguise was maintained until He had led them to an intelligent faith in His life, His character, His mission to earth, and His death and resurrection. Only when that work was gained did He reveal Himself to make their joy full, and then He vanished from their sight.
Walking with them to teach and comfort them, He opened the Scriptures concerning Himself, beginning at Moses and the prophets and tracing down His own history as the Christ of God. He laid open to their understanding that everything that had transpired was written there, showing from the patriarchs onward that prophecy had foretold that Christ must suffer before entering His glory. They had heard strange reports that He had risen and had been seen by some followers, yet their faith and hope had failed and they remained sorrowful and slow to believe until He thus opened the Scriptures. As He talked with them by the way and opened the Scriptures their hearts burned within them.
Their faith was to rest not on His personal testimony alone but on unquestionable evidence from the typical law and the prophets of the Old Testament agreeing with the facts of His life, mission, death, and resurrection, that truth might have a firm root. He opened their understanding so they could comprehend the Scriptures, showing a meaning in the Old Testament that its writers themselves had not seen. That same opening of understanding still comes by the Holy Spirit shining upon the sacred page, to know what is truth through prayerful study of Daniel, Revelation, and the other prophecies of the Old and New Testaments, so that the word about hearts burning while He talked by the way and opened the Scriptures can fittingly be spoken now.
As educator who spoke as never man spoke, His teaching bound their hearts with a holy, new, and sacred hope and joy. The joy kindled by contemplating the Scriptures and learning of Christ exceeded their former despair. Though they had left Jerusalem intending to take up their old employment and conceal their blighted hopes, they forgot hunger and fatigue and pressed on to impart their newly found knowledge that others might rejoice together in a living Saviour risen from the dead.
Resurrection Witness and Proof
The women of their company went early to the tomb and astonished the disciples with their report that Christ had risen, but the disciples did not believe it until He made Himself known to them. All who were gathered in the upper chamber at Jerusalem had heard Mary Magdalene and the other women, and were left in excitement with hope and faith struggling for ascendency. Some were too hopeless to believe the women's testimony.
Some gave more weight to Peter's testimony of his interview with the risen Lord, which began to revive their faith. The certain evidence is that early in the morning of the first day of the week the women of their company and then the apostles went to the sepulchre, found it empty, and were astonished. They saw the shroud that had been wrapped about His body and the napkin that was about His head, but did not find His body. The Lord had indeed risen, His body not seeing corruption, for they had seen Him and talked with Him.
Calm and joyful in belief, the disciples bore unflinching witness that Christ had risen. This was a decided triumph that made of none effect the falsehood of the priests and Jewish priests that the body was stolen. By evidence that could not be controverted it established Christianity, and bearing this witness meant everything for the disciples. When the disciples recognized Jesus as risen and understood the Scriptures their despair gave way to joy. His resurrection is the great central truth around which all the faith and hope of the church center.
Forgetting hunger and fatigue they hurried back to Jerusalem late at night to impart their newly found knowledge that they might rejoice together in a living Saviour risen from the dead. Though the road was rough, dark and moonless and they stumbled and sometimes lost the path, they pressed resolutely on to deliver their precious message. After Christ was raised from the dead and came forth from Joseph's sepulchre, He walked in the way, met two of His disciples, and made Himself known to them before leaving them, proving He is a risen Saviour. Later He revealed Himself in the upper chamber to the eleven as one risen from the dead. With opened eyes the Emmaus disciples reported to the gathered disciples how prophecy from the patriarchs onward had foreshadowed the events concerning the Saviour.
The report that the women found the tomb early belongs to that resurrection account and to the witness the disciples were to proclaim. The risen Christ's commission in that same account shows that His followers are to carry the gospel from Jerusalem to all nations.
Comfort and Christian Life
The risen Jesus joined the two on the road as an apparently ordinary, humble fellow traveler, without special marks to identify Him, and walked with them to teach and comfort them, and this humble companionship shows that He identifies with people in suffering and confusion and remains with them on difficult paths with the same sympathy and love He had before His resurrection. They recognized Him only later, after He had instructed them.
He is by the side of the sorrowful and despondent even while they do not recognize the help beside them, walking beside His followers unseen. His presence brings comfort in grief and gives hope in the resurrection. To those who accept Him He gives peace and life. As He opens the Scriptures their hearts burn with holy joy.
That burning of heart as He walked with them and opened the Scriptures concerning Himself shows that dwelling on the word and on Christ's saving work, contemplating His presence and His lessons from Scripture and learning of Christ, can fill the heart with holy joy. When those seeking the righteousness of Christ dwell upon the themes of the great salvation, feed on the Bible as nourishing food and the bread of life, meditate upon the incarnation of Christ, and contemplate the great sacrifice made to save from perdition and bring in pardon, peace, and everlasting righteousness, the soul glows with grand and elevating themes. Then holiness and truth, grace and righteousness occupy the thoughts, self dies and Christ lives in His servants. Jesus unseen walks by their side surrounding them with the holy atmosphere of His presence and hearing their talk, and hearts burn with holy joy in knowing the Saviour is by their side. He is pleased to hear followers talking of His lessons of instruction with a relish for holy things, and truth abiding in the heart leaves no place for criticism and flows from the lips in conversation about the things God has prepared for those that love Him, while the love of Christ is in the soul as a well of water springing up into everlasting life sending forth living streams that bring life and gladness.
When the two received light and saw Jesus and talked with Him they returned and found those whom God had led and was still leading and told them what they had experienced. That return to the body of believers is the right course for anyone who claims God has given him great light concerning the church. Such a one should go to those chosen of God to bear a living testimony, give evidence that this light will better qualify them to prepare a people to stand in the great day of God, and seek counsel from those who have had deep experience in the things of God and are bearing the truth and giving the last message of warning. The opposite course is to refuse meekness and lowliness of heart, take a different line from the church, break up its unity through deception, and draw disciples away after himself.
On the afternoon of the resurrection day two sorrowful disciples walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus told a fellow traveler that certain women of their company had gone early to the sepulchre and astonished them with their report. The report they had heard was that the women found the tomb empty, saw angels, met Jesus after His resurrection, and declared that He had risen. Though they had heard these strange tidings, their faith and hope had failed and they remained slow to believe, weeping as they traveled because they did not recognize that the stranger was Jesus Himself. He kept His identity hidden until He had opened to them the Scriptures concerning Himself, beginning at Moses and the prophets and showing that Christ had to suffer before entering His glory, so their faith would rest on the firm evidence of prophecy fulfilled. His walking with them as an ordinary traveler to teach and comfort them shows that the risen Saviour stays beside the sorrowful and despondent even when they do not recognize Him, bringing peace, hope, and burning joy through the word.
Setting and Wording
The words belong to the sad conversation on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24:13-33, spoken late in the afternoon of the resurrection day by two travelers walking together on foot across open country carrying staffs, leaving Jerusalem for their homes at Emmaus, a little town eight miles away. They were going home to meditate and pray in hope of gaining light on matters dark to them, intending to take up their old employment again and conceal their blighted hopes. As they went they told Him, whom they took for a toiling traveler like themselves and a stranger in Jerusalem who did not know what had taken place, that Jesus was a mighty prophet mighty in power whom wicked hands had taken and crucified.
The verse states plainly that certain women of the disciples' company went early to Jesus' tomb and their report astonished the disciples. That astonishing report was about the removal of His body and His disappearance, which perplexed the disciples and deepened their perplexity. More fully, what the disciples had heard was that the women were early at the sepulchre, had seen angels, had met Jesus after His resurrection, and said He had risen and had been seen by Mary and certain others.
When they said this the two were sorrowful and burdened with grief, weeping as they traveled, with faith and hope failed. They had heard strange reports that Jesus had risen and had been seen by some of His followers, but remained sorrowful and slow to believe. Their sorrow was one Christ pitied and came to comfort, walking beside them to teach and comfort them even while they were despondent and did not recognize the help beside them.
They saw Jesus only as an ordinary, humble fellow traveler and stranger, because His appearance bore no special marks identifying Him as the Son of God. They hardly noticed the stranger who joined them, and did not recognize Him until He told them and later when He blessed and broke bread. Though He understood the prophecies and opened the Scriptures to them, commencing at Moses and the prophets and tracing down His own history as the Christ of God and showing that everything that had transpired was written there, they could not yet take it in.
Christ Teaches Scripture
He kept His identity hidden from the two on the road until He had interpreted the Scriptures, for to have shown Himself alive at once would have overwhelmed them and left them less hungry for the truths He meant them to carry to others. The disguise was maintained until He had led them to an intelligent faith in His life, His character, His mission to earth, and His death and resurrection. Only when that work was gained did He reveal Himself to make their joy full, and then He vanished from their sight.
Walking with them to teach and comfort them, He opened the Scriptures concerning Himself, beginning at Moses and the prophets and tracing down His own history as the Christ of God. He laid open to their understanding that everything that had transpired was written there, showing from the patriarchs onward that prophecy had foretold that Christ must suffer before entering His glory. They had heard strange reports that He had risen and had been seen by some followers, yet their faith and hope had failed and they remained sorrowful and slow to believe until He thus opened the Scriptures. As He talked with them by the way and opened the Scriptures their hearts burned within them.
Their faith was to rest not on His personal testimony alone but on unquestionable evidence from the typical law and the prophets of the Old Testament agreeing with the facts of His life, mission, death, and resurrection, that truth might have a firm root. He opened their understanding so they could comprehend the Scriptures, showing a meaning in the Old Testament that its writers themselves had not seen. That same opening of understanding still comes by the Holy Spirit shining upon the sacred page, to know what is truth through prayerful study of Daniel, Revelation, and the other prophecies of the Old and New Testaments, so that the word about hearts burning while He talked by the way and opened the Scriptures can fittingly be spoken now.
As educator who spoke as never man spoke, His teaching bound their hearts with a holy, new, and sacred hope and joy. The joy kindled by contemplating the Scriptures and learning of Christ exceeded their former despair. Though they had left Jerusalem intending to take up their old employment and conceal their blighted hopes, they forgot hunger and fatigue and pressed on to impart their newly found knowledge that others might rejoice together in a living Saviour risen from the dead.
Resurrection Witness and Proof
The women of their company went early to the tomb and astonished the disciples with their report that Christ had risen, but the disciples did not believe it until He made Himself known to them. All who were gathered in the upper chamber at Jerusalem had heard Mary Magdalene and the other women, and were left in excitement with hope and faith struggling for ascendency. Some were too hopeless to believe the women's testimony.
Some gave more weight to Peter's testimony of his interview with the risen Lord, which began to revive their faith. The certain evidence is that early in the morning of the first day of the week the women of their company and then the apostles went to the sepulchre, found it empty, and were astonished. They saw the shroud that had been wrapped about His body and the napkin that was about His head, but did not find His body. The Lord had indeed risen, His body not seeing corruption, for they had seen Him and talked with Him.
Calm and joyful in belief, the disciples bore unflinching witness that Christ had risen. This was a decided triumph that made of none effect the falsehood of the priests and Jewish priests that the body was stolen. By evidence that could not be controverted it established Christianity, and bearing this witness meant everything for the disciples. When the disciples recognized Jesus as risen and understood the Scriptures their despair gave way to joy. His resurrection is the great central truth around which all the faith and hope of the church center.
Forgetting hunger and fatigue they hurried back to Jerusalem late at night to impart their newly found knowledge that they might rejoice together in a living Saviour risen from the dead. Though the road was rough, dark and moonless and they stumbled and sometimes lost the path, they pressed resolutely on to deliver their precious message. After Christ was raised from the dead and came forth from Joseph's sepulchre, He walked in the way, met two of His disciples, and made Himself known to them before leaving them, proving He is a risen Saviour. Later He revealed Himself in the upper chamber to the eleven as one risen from the dead. With opened eyes the Emmaus disciples reported to the gathered disciples how prophecy from the patriarchs onward had foreshadowed the events concerning the Saviour.
The report that the women found the tomb early belongs to that resurrection account and to the witness the disciples were to proclaim. The risen Christ's commission in that same account shows that His followers are to carry the gospel from Jerusalem to all nations.
Comfort and Christian Life
The risen Jesus joined the two on the road as an apparently ordinary, humble fellow traveler, without special marks to identify Him, and walked with them to teach and comfort them, and this humble companionship shows that He identifies with people in suffering and confusion and remains with them on difficult paths with the same sympathy and love He had before His resurrection. They recognized Him only later, after He had instructed them.
He is by the side of the sorrowful and despondent even while they do not recognize the help beside them, walking beside His followers unseen. His presence brings comfort in grief and gives hope in the resurrection. To those who accept Him He gives peace and life. As He opens the Scriptures their hearts burn with holy joy.
That burning of heart as He walked with them and opened the Scriptures concerning Himself shows that dwelling on the word and on Christ's saving work, contemplating His presence and His lessons from Scripture and learning of Christ, can fill the heart with holy joy. When those seeking the righteousness of Christ dwell upon the themes of the great salvation, feed on the Bible as nourishing food and the bread of life, meditate upon the incarnation of Christ, and contemplate the great sacrifice made to save from perdition and bring in pardon, peace, and everlasting righteousness, the soul glows with grand and elevating themes. Then holiness and truth, grace and righteousness occupy the thoughts, self dies and Christ lives in His servants. Jesus unseen walks by their side surrounding them with the holy atmosphere of His presence and hearing their talk, and hearts burn with holy joy in knowing the Saviour is by their side. He is pleased to hear followers talking of His lessons of instruction with a relish for holy things, and truth abiding in the heart leaves no place for criticism and flows from the lips in conversation about the things God has prepared for those that love Him, while the love of Christ is in the soul as a well of water springing up into everlasting life sending forth living streams that bring life and gladness.
When the two received light and saw Jesus and talked with Him they returned and found those whom God had led and was still leading and told them what they had experienced. That return to the body of believers is the right course for anyone who claims God has given him great light concerning the church. Such a one should go to those chosen of God to bear a living testimony, give evidence that this light will better qualify them to prepare a people to stand in the great day of God, and seek counsel from those who have had deep experience in the things of God and are bearing the truth and giving the last message of warning. The opposite course is to refuse meekness and lowliness of heart, take a different line from the church, break up its unity through deception, and draw disciples away after himself.