Each of the four gospels contains a story about Jesus appearing to His disciples after the Sunday morning when they had found the sepulcher empty. For example, see Matthew 28:16-20; Mark 16:14-19; Luke 24:13-33; John 20:19-31, and John 21.

In Luke, there’s a story of two disciples walking from Jerusalem to the village of Emmaus, a walk of about seven miles. Shortly after they leave the city they are approached by another traveler who has noticed their troubled faces and serious talk and asks them what is troubling them. Walking along together, they ask the stranger, “Haven’t you heard of the troubles in Jerusalem, how the prophet from Galilee, who we hoped would be the one to save Israel, was given up to be crucified? And strange to say, when some of the women went on the third day to anoint His body, they saw angels who told them that he was not there but was risen from the dead.”

On hearing this, the traveler chides them for not believing, and says “Don’t you see that Christ had to suffer these things and to enter into his glory?” The stranger then tells the two disciples many things concerning Jesus, from the books of Moses, and the prophets, in the Old Testament. The two disciples listen with awe, but do not recognize the stranger. At length they arrive at Emmaus. The stranger appears to want to go on when the two stop, but they beg him to stop also, because it’s getting late in the day, and they want to hear more. So they all sit down to share the evening meal, and when the stranger takes up the loaf of bread and breaks it and gives them pieces, their eyes are opened and they recognize Him, and He vanishes.

One can imagine the stunned awe that came over them both as they realized that this was Jesus. They knew He was crucified, and yet He had walked and talked to them for several hours. The women were right! The angels were right! He was alive!

The New Church believes that there are internal meanings to all the stories in the Word of the Lord, the sacred scriptures, and that this internal meaning, within the literal stories about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Joshua, Samuel, David, and the rest, and all the sayings of the prophets from Isaiah to Malachi, and the four gospels… this meaning is what makes the Word holy.

So what can we see here in this story? Well, that internal meaning in “Moses and the prophets” is the story of Jesus’ life in the world, from His birth in Bethlehem through all His growing years until His “death” and then His rising. Because Jesus knew that, and had certainly read the Scriptures and understood them internally, He knew for a long time how His earthly life was going to close, and that it was necessary for it to close as had been “written”, in order to save the human race. So He told the two disciples that story as they walked toward Emmaus.

More about that walk... In the Word, any mention of walking is really referring to how we live our lives from day to day. In many stories of the Word, it is said that someone walked with God. It is said that we should walk in His ways and that we should walk the straight and narrow path.

Also in this story we are told that this was a journey of sixty stadia (in the original Greek). Sixty (or other multiples of "six") represents the lifelong work of rejecting the temptations that come from our inborn selfishness. Apocalypse Explained 648. So, this journey to Emmaus means our life’s journey - as a person that is trying to follow the Lord’s teachings and become an angel.

The destination was Emmaus. In the Word any city represents a doctrine, an organized set of truths that we have put in order so that we can live according to them -- our rules of life. See Arcana Coelestia 402. They are not necessarily good, as with Jerusalem or Bethlehem, but can also be evil doctrines, e.g. Sodom or Babylon. My dictionary tells me that the name Emmaus means “hot springs”. Another universal meaning in the Word is that water means truth in its beneficial uses, but can also mean truth twisted into falsity by those in hell, in an opposite sense. See, for example, Arcana Coelestia 790. Think of the wells that Abraham dug, or the waters that Jesus promised to the woman of Samaria as they talked by Jacob’s well, or the pure river of water flowing out from under the throne in the New Jerusalem in the book of Revelation. In its converse sense, where water is destructive, think of the flood that destroyed all but Noah and his family, or the Red Sea that had to be parted so that the children of Israel could cross. The springs represented by Emmaus were holy truths bubbling up from the Word for us to use. And these are hot springs, and heat means love. So that's our destination, where truth and love together are flowing out for us to use, in a continual stream from the Lord.

This plain little anecdote about the disciples meeting the Lord on the road to Emmaus isn't just a story about Jesus's resurrection with a spiritual body. It is also a story of how we should be living our lives. We can be traveling toward heaven, listening to the Lord, walking in the way with him, and at the end He will break bread and have supper with us.

The Word of the Old and New Testaments clearly teaches that the Lord will come again. Thus, although He would (and did) come into the world in His own human form once, it is promised that He will come again. The appearance is that He will come again in exactly the same form as He did before. So it is written in the book of the Acts of the Apostles (which is a history of the early Christian Church) that when Jesus ascended into the sky and went to heaven 40 days after Easter two angels stood nearby and said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven" (Acts 1:11). Largely because of this teaching the whole Christian world generally has believed that when the Lord comes again He will be seen in a physical human body coming down out of the sky!

Now this certainly sounds dramatic and simple enough, but in reality it's not quite that easy. For when the Lord taught He also warned about false Christs (Matthew 24:24; Mark 13:22) who might confuse people and lead them to misunderstand His Second Coming. Is it possible that others might also come down out of heaven like the Lord? No! Then how could people be confused? Anyway, remember that most people didn't know who He was the first time! Even if He came in exactly the same way, how could they be so sure next time? The answer is that people have misunderstood what the angels meant by coming down from heaven.

The Heavenly Doctrine for the New Church explains the second coming so that we can be sure about the Lord. However, in doing so they clearly show that it could not take place literally, exactly as it did before. For one thing, what would be the use? What the Lord did once in His Human body He did most perfectly, and so it would not need to be done again. Besides, there is something very interesting about that statement, "This same Jesus...will so come in like manner as you saw Him go...."

Do you know how the disciples had seen the Lord after Easter, after His resurrection? Do you remember how He walked through closed doors to meet them, and suddenly appeared or disappeared at different times? The answer to this whole mystery is that the disciples had not then seen the Lord with their natural eyes at all, but with their spiritual eyes. For although He appeared to them in His own body, this was no longer a physical body but a heavenly body, since He had put off that physical body at the crucifixion. Notice also that no one ever saw the Lord after Easter except His disciples. They were the ones who believed in Him, and no one can have his spiritual eyes opened if he does not believe in something. Therefore, to see the Lord coming again as the disciples had seen Him go, is to see Him with our spiritual eyes.

But how is this done?

Let's take an example from the Word. In Luke, chapter 24, we read about how two disciples met the Lord while walking on the road to Emmaus. At first they did not know Him and talked with Him as if he were a stranger in that country. But then the Lord taught them "in all the scriptures, the things concerning Himself" (v. 27). And when they sat down to eat together, it is written, "their eyes were opened," and they suddenly knew who He was. So the Word teaches that although they saw the Lord at first with their natural eyes, still they did not really see Him until their spiritual eyes were opened. This was done by their learning the truth about Him and understanding it.

So it is with the Lord's second coming. He came to us the first time by being present with people as to their natural eyes, and also by making sure that the story of His life was written down for all future people to read with their natural eyes. But He comes to us the second time by giving us a true understanding of all that He did.

When the angels in the book of Acts said that the Lord would return "in like manner" as the disciples had seen Him go, they meant with understanding, for it was with joyful, thankful understanding that they saw Him go on that day. And it is with love and wisdom that we will see Him again.

Now, just to be sure that this is clear, let us take one more illustration. Use your imagination. Suppose that the Lord did come again in a physical body exactly as He did before; suppose He were to come in to this very room right now and tell you that He was the Lord. If someone did that, would you believe it? Well, it sounds so amazing that you would almost certainly be doubtful. You would have to be convinced that He was the Lord, wouldn't you? And you would not be convinced just because He said so, or because He looked like the Lord. You would only be convinced if all the things that He said seemed true to you, and you understood them. Now if it is the truth itself that convinces you, and not just the appearance of a man, you can easily see why the Lord's second coming could only take place by means of the teaching of truth!

And this is exactly what has already taken place. The Lord has come again in the teaching of the truths of the internal or spiritual sense of the Word, in short, the teaching of the Heavenly Doctrine for the New Church. By means of these teachings, which are so clear and logical, so beautiful, so deep and so helpful, we are able to understand many wonderful things about the Lord's life (and about our own lives, too, even unto eternity in heaven or hell). And so, our spiritual eyes are opened.

But how or where did we get the Heavenly Doctrine? If the Lord has no need to come into the world again in His own physical body, how could He bring His truth to us?

The answer is quite simple: in the way that He has always done it, by means of a living person! Throughout the history of the world the Lord has always used natural, finite people to teach and lead in His truth. Each has been taught by the Lord in a different way, and so each has also taught in a different way: Moses, David, Isaiah, Malachi, Matthew, Luke; even the Lord Himself was only able to teach and lead people after He put on a human body from His mother, Mary. And so now, as He comes again, He comes through the faithful work of another man who himself was able to understand, and write clearly, and publish by means of the press, all those wonderful things that were revealed for the benefit of all people who would be willing to read (or hear), and be convinced. So the Lord comes to us in the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, which we call the Heavenly Doctrine.

Remember, the Lord said, "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth" (John 16:12-13). What better time is there than now, when the world needs it so much? And what better way could the Lord possibly come than as He has done, in the clear, pure truths of the Heavenly Doctrine?

(Riferimenti: Luke 24:27)