It has been a long while since I last posted, and I need to resume it again. If for no other reason that to let folks know I still exist :)

Well, I recently heard a sermon regarding Luke 24’s Road to Emmaus passage. I plan to come back to this post and flesh it out a bit more. But for now:

Here’s the pre-background:

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they and some others came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb. They entered in, and didn’t find the Lord Jesus’ body. While they were greatly perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling clothing. Becoming terrified, they bowed their faces down to the earth. The men said to them, “Why do you seek the living amongst the dead? 6 He isn’t here, but is risen. Remember what he told you when he was still in Galilee, 7 saying that the Son of Man must be delivered up into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and the third day rise again?” They remembered his words, returned from the tomb, and told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now they were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James. The other women with them told these things to the apostles. These words seemed to them to be nonsense, and they didn’t believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb. Stooping and looking in, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he departed to his home, wondering what had happened. (Luke 24:1-12, WEBBE).

All right, that is the back-story. So we have Jesus risen and some of the Disciples checking things out at the tomb while others are not believing and believe the claims to be “nonsense.”

Now we settle in on the Road to Emmaus.

Behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was sixty stadia (7 miles) from Jerusalem (Luke 24:13, WEBBE).

The followers of Jesus are dispersing on the Sunday following the Friday crucifixion. The Rabi, that they hoped would become the Messiah, had been publicly, horrifically executed by the Roman Empire with the approval, even at the behest of, the main governing religious establishment. We rejoin them:

One of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who doesn’t know the things which have happened there in these days?”

lol - I mean, this is kinda funny. Also, note: we don’t necessarily know this Cleopas person. This isn’t one of the 12 Disciples. But a disciple nonetheless.

He said to them, “What things?” They said to him, “The things concerning Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people; and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. But we were hoping that it was he who would redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. Also, certain women of our company amazed us, having arrived early at the tomb; and when they didn’t find his body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. Some of us went to the tomb and found it just like the women had said, but they didn’t see him” (Luke 24:19-24, WEBBE).

OK - now we finally get to the text that I was intending to discuss - but we had to set the stage. And there are quite a number of other topics we could dive into at another time. For now, we note that they just saw Jesus crucified and cannot make sense of it. Jesus shows up (but they do not understand that it is Him).

He said to them, “Foolish people, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Didn’t the Christ have to suffer these things and to enter into his glory?” Beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he explained to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. They came near to the village where they were going, and he acted like he would go further. They urged him, saying, “Stay with us, for it is almost evening, and the day is almost over.” He went in to stay with them. When he had sat down at the table with them, he took the bread and gave thanks. Breaking it, he gave it to them. Their eyes were opened and they recognized him; then he vanished out of their sight. They said to one another, “Weren’t our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us along the way, and while he opened the Scriptures to us?” They rose up that very hour, returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and those who were with them, saying, “The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” They related the things that happened along the way, and how he was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread. As they said these things, Jesus himself stood amongst them, and said to them, “Peace be to you.” But they were terrified and filled with fear, and supposed that they had seen a spirit (Luke 24:25-37, WEBBE).

Right. Let’s go back to that:

He said to them, “Foolish people, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Didn’t the Christ have to suffer these things and to enter into his glory?” Beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he explained to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself (Luke 24:25-27, WEBBE).

This. This is what I’d wished so badly to have written down. Why? Because this is what so many Christians have wondered about. Why did Christ have to actually suffer and die? For some rules-based law-is-God-so-need-a-scapegoat or to prove that, as precious as is life, God is even in control of that? Was it so that we can better appreciate how much God loves us and is willing to sacrifice for us? Is it so that those who go through loss, or bullying, or abandonment can yet say: Jesus, I can relate to You because of what You’ve been through?

I really don’t know. I do know that he indicated to them through the Scriptures, why the Messiah must suffer and to enter into His glory. Perhaps the character of God was being demeaned through the ages, and Jesus as God enters the world taking all of the derision, scorn, hatred, hostility, bullying, even to the point of death, and then shows it all up by rising from the dead: entering into His glory to show that God, and godly perspectives and actions, still win. Good prevails over evil ultimately because there is a God and that God cannot be thwarted. But we needed to see it. We needed to have tangible evidence that God is more powerful. Perhaps that is the reason that Jesus came to die - not just die though - also conquer death and live. Giving us hope - hope not just that we will live after death - but also hope due to God winning over evil with no recourse for evil to overcome God.

I still wish we knew what Jesus said when He explained why the Messiah had to die. This is what we have for now.

The World English Bible (WEB) and the World English Bible British Edition (WEBBE) are modern translations without copyright constraint. https://ebible.org/web/webfaq.htm