In jedem der vier Evangelien wird berichtet, dass Jesus seinen Jüngern am Sonntagmorgen erschien, als sie das Grab leer vorfanden. Zum Beispiel, siehe Matthaeus 28:16-20; Markus 16:14-19; Lukas 24:13-33; Johannes 20:19-31, und Johannes 21.

Im Lukasevangelium wird von zwei Jüngern berichtet, die von Jerusalem in das Dorf Emmaus gehen, ein Weg von etwa sieben Meilen. Kurz nachdem sie die Stadt verlassen haben, werden sie von einem anderen Reisenden angesprochen, der ihre besorgten Gesichter und ihr ernstes Gespräch bemerkt hat und sie fragt, was sie beunruhigt. Als sie gemeinsam weitergehen, fragen sie den Fremden: "Habt ihr nicht von den Unruhen in Jerusalem gehört, wie der Prophet aus Galiläa, von dem wir hofften, dass er Israel retten würde, ans Kreuz geschlagen wurde? Und als einige der Frauen am dritten Tag zu ihm gingen, um seinen Leichnam zu salben, sahen sie Engel, die ihnen sagten, dass er nicht dort war, sondern von den Toten auferstanden war."

Als der Reisende dies hörte, tadelte er sie, weil sie nicht glaubten, und sagte: "Seht ihr nicht, dass Christus diese Dinge erleiden musste, um in seine Herrlichkeit einzugehen?" Dann erzählt der Fremde den beiden Jüngern viele Dinge über Jesus aus den Büchern Mose und den Propheten des Alten Testaments. Die beiden Jünger hören mit Ehrfurcht zu, erkennen aber den Fremden nicht. Schließlich kommen sie in Emmaus an. Der Fremde scheint weitergehen zu wollen, als die beiden stehen bleiben, aber sie bitten ihn, auch stehen zu bleiben, denn es ist schon spät am Tag, und sie wollen mehr hören. Als der Fremde den Laib Brot nimmt, ihn bricht und ihnen Stücke davon gibt, gehen ihnen die Augen auf und sie erkennen ihn, und er verschwindet.

Man kann sich die fassungslose Ehrfurcht vorstellen, die beide überkam, als sie erkannten, dass dies Jesus war. Sie wussten, dass er gekreuzigt worden war, und doch war er mehrere Stunden lang gegangen und hatte mit ihnen gesprochen. Die Frauen hatten Recht! Die Engel hatten recht! Er war am Leben!

Die Neue Kirche glaubt, dass alle Geschichten im Wort des Herrn, den heiligen Schriften, eine innere Bedeutung haben, und dass diese innere Bedeutung in den buchstäblichen Geschichten über Abraham, Isaak und Jakob, Josua, Samuel, David und die anderen, und alle Sprüche der Propheten von Jesaja bis Maleachi und die vier Evangelien... diese Bedeutung ist es, was das Wort heilig macht.

Was können wir also in dieser Geschichte sehen? Nun, der innere Sinn von "Mose und die Propheten" ist die Geschichte von Jesu Leben in der Welt, von seiner Geburt in Bethlehem über all seine Wachstumsjahre bis zu seinem "Tod" und seiner Auferstehung. Weil Jesus das wusste und die Schriften sicher gelesen und innerlich verstanden hatte, wusste er schon lange, wie sein irdisches Leben enden würde, und dass es notwendig war, es so zu beenden, wie es "geschrieben" war, um die Menschheit zu retten. Deshalb erzählte er den beiden Jüngern diese Geschichte, als sie nach Emmaus gingen.

Mehr über diesen Weg... Wenn im Wort Gottes vom Gehen die Rede ist, dann bezieht sich das darauf, wie wir unser Leben von Tag zu Tag leben. In vielen Geschichten des Wortes Gottes heißt es, dass jemand mit Gott ging. Es wird gesagt, dass wir auf seinen Wegen wandeln sollen und dass wir den geraden und schmalen Pfad gehen sollen.

Auch in dieser Geschichte wird uns gesagt, dass es sich um eine Reise von sechzig Stadien (im griechischen Original) handelte. Sechzig (oder andere Vielfache von "sechs") stehen für die lebenslange Arbeit, den Versuchungen zu widerstehen, die von unserem angeborenen Egoismus ausgehen. Die Offenbarung Erklärt 648. Dieser Weg nach Emmaus bedeutet also unseren Lebensweg - als Mensch, der versucht, den Lehren des Herrn zu folgen und ein Engel zu werden.

Das Ziel war Emmaus. In der Bibel steht jede Stadt für eine Lehre, eine organisierte Reihe von Wahrheiten, die wir geordnet haben, damit wir nach ihnen leben können - unsere Lebensregeln. Siehe Himmlischen Geheimnissen 402. Sie sind nicht unbedingt gut, wie Jerusalem oder Bethlehem, sondern können auch böse Lehren sein, z. B. Sodom oder Babylon. Mein Wörterbuch sagt mir, dass der Name Emmaus "heiße Quellen" bedeutet. Eine weitere universelle Bedeutung des Wortes Wasser ist, dass es Wahrheit bedeutet, wenn es nützlich ist, aber es kann auch Wahrheit bedeuten, die von denen in der Hölle ins Falsche verdreht wird, im entgegengesetzten Sinne. Siehe zum Beispiel, Himmlischen Geheimnissen 790. Denken Sie an die Brunnen, die Abraham gegraben hat, oder an das Wasser, das Jesus der Frau aus Samaria versprochen hat, als sie sich am Jakobsbrunnen unterhielten, oder an den reinen Wasserstrom, der unter dem Thron im neuen Jerusalem in der Offenbarung entspringt. Im umgekehrten Sinn, wenn Wasser zerstörerisch ist, denken Sie an die Flut, die alle außer Noah und seiner Familie vernichtete, oder an das Rote Meer, das geteilt werden musste, damit die Kinder Israels es durchqueren konnten. Die Quellen, für die Emmaus steht, sind heilige Wahrheiten, die aus dem Wort sprudeln, damit wir sie nutzen können. Und es sind heiße Quellen, und Hitze bedeutet Liebe. Das ist also unser Ziel, wo Wahrheit und Liebe zusammen in einem kontinuierlichen Strom vom Herrn für uns herausfließen, damit wir sie nutzen können.

Diese schlichte kleine Anekdote über die Begegnung der Jünger mit dem Herrn auf dem Weg nach Emmaus ist nicht nur eine Geschichte über die Auferstehung Jesu mit einem geistlichen Körper. Es ist auch eine Geschichte darüber, wie wir unser Leben leben sollten. Wir können auf dem Weg zum Himmel sein, dem Herrn zuhören, den Weg mit ihm gehen, und am Ende wird er das Brot brechen und mit uns zu Abend essen.

9715. 'From shittim wood' means righteousness. This is clear from the meaning of 'shittim wood' as the good of merit, and righteousness, which are the Lord's alone, dealt with in 9472, 9486. What righteousness and merit are, which are the Lord's alone, must be stated here and now. People think that the Lord earned merit and righteousness because He fulfilled all the requirements of the law and by His passion on the Cross saved the human race. But this is not what anyone should understand in the Word by the Lord's merit and righteousness. Rather they should understand by His merit and righteousness that He fought alone against all the hells and overcame them, and in so doing He restored to order everything in the hells and at the same time everything in the heavens. For each person has spirits from hell present with him, and angels from heaven; without them a person cannot lead any life at all. Unless the hells had been overcome by the Lord and the heavens restored to order no one could ever have been saved.

[2] Salvation could not have been won except through His Human, that is to say, except through conflicts with the hells, fought from His Human. And since the Lord did this by His own power, thus did it alone, to the Lord alone belong merit and righteousness. And for the same reason it is He alone who still conquers the hells with a person; for He who conquers them once conquers them for evermore. No one therefore has any merit or righteousness whatever; yet the Lord's merit and righteousness are his when he acknowledges that none is attributable to himself but all to the Lord. So it is that the Lord alone regenerates a person; for regenerating a person involves driving the hells away from him, consequently the evils and falsities which come from the hells, and implanting heaven in place of them, that is, forms of the good of love and the truths of faith since these constitute heaven. Through the conflicts engaged in repeatedly with the hells the Lord also glorified His Human, that is, made it Divine; for even as a person is regenerated by means of conflicts, which are temptations, so the Lord was glorified by means of conflicts, which were temptations. The glorification of the Lord's Human by His own power therefore is also merit and righteousness; for through this the person is saved because through it the Lord holds all the hells in subjection for evermore.

[3] The truth of all this is clear from places in the Word where the Lord's merit and righteousness are referred to, as in Isaiah,

Who is this who comes from Edom, with spattered clothes from Bozrah, marching in the vast numbers of His strength? I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Why are You red as to Your clothes, and Your clothes like his that treads in the winepress? I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples not a man (vir) was with Me. Therefore I have trodden them in My anger, and trodden them down in My fury. Consequently their blood ¹ has been sprinkled on My clothes, and I have stained all My clothing. For the day of vengeance was in My heart, and the year of My redeemed had come. I looked around, but there was no helper, and I wondered, but there was no one to uphold; therefore My own arm brought salvation to Me, and My own fury sustained Me. And I trod down the peoples in My anger, and shed their blood onto the ground. ² Therefore He became the Saviour. Isaiah 63:1-8.

These words, it is well known, have regard to the Lord. His conflicts with the hells are described by the references to spattered clothes, redness as to His clothes, clothes like his that treads in the winepress, and to the day of vengeance. His victories over the hells and His placing them in subjection are described by the statements that He trod them in His anger, as a consequence of which their blood was sprinkled on His clothes, and that He trod down the peoples in fury ³ and shed their blood onto the ground. The Lord's doing these things by His own power is described by the statements that He trod the winepress alone and from the peoples not a man was with Him; that He looked around but there was no helper, He wondered but there was no one to uphold; and that His own arm brought salvation to Him. Salvation coming as a result of all this is described by the statements that He was marching in the vast numbers of His strength, mighty to save; that the year of His redeemed had come; and that therefore He became their Saviour.

[4] The fact that all these things are aspects of righteousness is even more plainly evident elsewhere in the same prophet,

He saw that there was no man (vir), and wondered that there was no intercessor; therefore His own arm brought salvation to Him, and His righteousness lifted Him up. Consequently He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon His head. He put on clothes of vengeance, and covered Himself with zeal as if with a cloak. Isaiah 59:16-17.

And in the same prophet,

My righteousness is near, My salvation has gone forth, and My arms will judge the peoples. In Me the islands will hope, and on My arm they will trust. Isaiah 51:5.

'The arm' which brought salvation to Him and on which they will trust is His own power by which He placed the hells in subjection, 'arm' being power, see 4932, 7205. From this it is evident what righteousness is and what merit is, which are the Lord's alone.

[5] Something similar occurs elsewhere in the same prophet,

Who stirred up [One] from the East, [One] whom in righteousness He called to be His follower, gave the nations before Him, and caused Him to have dominion over kings? Isaiah 41:2.

In the same prophet,

I have caused My righteousness to draw near, it is not far off; My salvation will not delay. Isaiah 46:13.

In the same prophet,

Jehovah will clothe Me with the garments of salvation; with the robe of righteousness He has covered Me. Isaiah 61:10.

In David,

My mouth will tell of ⁴ Your righteousness, of Your salvation all the day; I cannot measure them. ⁵ I will make mention of Your righteousness, Yours alone. Do not forsake me, until I have declared Your arm, Your power; for Your righteousness [reaches] all the way to the highest, O You who have done great things. Psalms 71:15-16, 18-19, 24.

In Jeremiah,

Behold, the days are coming when I will raise up for David a righteous branch, who will reign as King, and will prosper, and execute judgement and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is His name which they will call Him, Jehovah our Righteousness. Jeremiah 23:5-6; 33:15-16.

And in Daniel,

Seventy weeks have been decreed to atone for iniquity, and to bring everlasting righteousness. ⁶ Daniel 9:24.

[6] The truth that righteousness and merit, which are the Lord's alone, consist in the Lord's subjection of the hells, His restoration of the heavens to order, and the glorification of His Human, and in the salvation that results from all this for the person who receives the Lord in love and faith, becomes clear from the places which have just been quoted. Yet people can have no understanding of this if they do not know that spirits from hell are present with a person and that from them evils and falsities come to him, and also that angels from heaven are present and that from them forms of good and truths come to him; if they do not know that a person's life is for this reason linked on one side to the hells and on the other to the heavens, that is, through the heavens to the Lord; and if they do not know that therefore no one could ever be saved unless the hells had been subdued and the heavens restored to order, and all things had accordingly been made subject to the Lord.

[7] From all this it may be seen why it should be that the good of merit that is the Lord's is the one and only good that reigns in the heavens, as stated above in 9486. For the good of merit now consists also in the everlasting subjection of the hells and the protection of true believers. This good is the good of the Lord's love; for it was from Divine Love that He engaged in conflict while in the world and was victorious. And it is from Divine Power in the Human acquired through that victory that, then and for evermore, on behalf of heaven and the Church and thus the entire human race, He fights alone, conquers, and so brings salvation. This then is the good of merit, which is called righteousness; for the work of righteousness consists in keeping the hells in check as they try to destroy the human race, and in protecting and saving those who are good and are true believers.

Regarding the Lord's conflicts or temptations when He was in the world, see 1663, 1668, 1690, 1691 (end), 1692, 1737, 1787, 1812, 1813, 1820, 2776, 2786, 2795, 2803, 2814, 2816, 4287, 7193, 8273.

The Lord fights alone for the human race against the hells, 1692 (end), 6574, 8159, 8172, 8175, 8176, 8273, 8969.

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