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.

2813. 'He bound Isaac his son' means the state of the Divine rational which, in this condition as regards truth, was about to undergo the last degrees of temptation. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'binding', and also of 'Isaac his son' - of 'binding' as the assuming of a state for undergoing the last degrees of temptation, as may become clear from the consideration that anyone in a state of temptation is altogether like one who has been bound or fettered; and from the meaning of 'Isaac his son' as the Lord's Divine Rational, here as regards truth, see 2802, 2803. The whole genuine rational part of the mind consists of good and of truth. The Lord's Divine Rational as regards good could not suffer, nor undergo temptations, for no genius or spirit initiating temptations is able to get near Divine good, as this stands above their every endeavour to tempt. But Divine truth once it had been bound was that which could be tempted, for illusions, and still more falsities, are what invade it and so tempt it. Indeed some idea of Divine truth can be formed, but not of Divine good except by beings who have perception and are celestial angels. It was Divine truth that people no longer acknowledged at the time of the Lord's Coming into the world, and therefore it was Divine truth from which the Lord underwent and suffered temptations. Divine truth within the Lord is that which is called the Son of Man, whereas Divine good within Him is that which is called the Son of God. Speaking of the Son of Man the Lord many times says that He is to suffer, but He never says this when He refers to the Son of God. The fact that He speaks of the Son of Man, or Divine truth, having to suffer, is clear in Matthew,

Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn Him and deliver Him to the gentiles to mock and scourge Him, and to crucify [Him]. Matthew 20:18-19.

In the same gospel,

Jesus said to His disciples, Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of sinners. Matthew 26:45.

In Mark,

Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, but after three days rise again. Mark 8:31.

In the same gospel,

It is written of the Son of Man that He will suffer many things and be treated with contempt. And the Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men who will kill Him; but when He has been killed He will rise again on the third day. Mark 9:12, 31.

In the same gospel,

Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes who will condemn Him to death, and deliver Him to the heathens. They will mock Him, and scourge Him, and spit on Him, and kill Him; but on the third day He will rise again. Mark 10:33-34.

In the same gospel,

The hour has come; behold, the Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of sinners. Mark 14:41.

In Luke,

The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day rise again. Luke 9:22, 44.

In the same gospel,

We are going up to Jerusalem where everything will be accomplished that has been written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man. He will be delivered to the gentiles, and will be mocked, and suffer insults, and be spat upon. And they will scourge and kill Him, but on the third day He will rise again. Luke 18:31-33.

In the same gospel,

The angel said to the women, Remember what He told you while He was still in Galilee, saving that the Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again. Luke 24:6-7.

[2] In all these places 'the Son of Man' is used to mean the Lord as regards Divine truth - that is, as regards the Word in its internal sense - which was to be rejected by the chief priests and the scribes, suffer insults, be scourged, spat on, and crucified. This is made quite clear by the fact that the Jews took every single thing literally, applying and misappropriating it to themselves, and had no wish to know anything whatever about the spiritual sense of the Word and about a heavenly kingdom. They believed, as they do even today, that when He came the Messiah would raise up their kingdom above all the kingdoms of the earth. From this it is evident that it was Divine truth which was rejected, insulted, scourged, and crucified by them. Whether you speak of Divine truth or of the Lord as regards Divine truth it amounts to the same, for the Lord is Truth itself just as He is the Word itself, 2011, 2016, 2533 (end).

[3] Also implied in the Lord's rising again on the third day is the fact that Divine truth, or the Word as to its internal sense - as it was understood in the Ancient Church - will be brought back to life again at the close of the age, which also is 'the third day', 1825, 2788. And this is the reason why it is said that the Son of Man, that is, Divine truth, will appear at that time, Matthew 24:30, 37, 39, 44; Mark 13:26; Luke 17:22, 24-26, 30; 21:27, 36.

[4] The fact that the Son of Man is the Lord as regards Divine truth is clear from the places quoted already and further still from the following: In Matthew,

He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world. At the close of the age the Son of Man will send His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all offences. Matthew 13:37, 41-42.

Here 'the good seed' means truth, 'the world' men, 'he who sows it' the Son of Man, and 'offences' falsities. In John,

The crowd said, We have heard from the Law that the Christ remains for ever. Why therefore do you say, The Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man? Jesus answered them, The Light is with you for a brief while. Walk, as long as you have the Light, lest the darkness overtakes you, for he who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. As long as you have the Light believe in the Light, that you may be sons of the Light. John 12:34-36.

Here, when the crowd ask, 'Who is the Son of Man?' Jesus speaks in His reply about the Light, which is truth, and says that He Himself is the Light or Truth in which they ought to believe. Regarding the Light which comes from the Lord, and which is Divine Truth, see 1053, 1521, 1529-1531, 1619-1632.

[5] But as for the truth that the Son of God, or the Lord as to the Good within His Divine human, could not be tempted, as stated above, this is evident also from the Lord's reply to the tempter, in the gospels,

The tempter said, If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down, for it is written, He will give His angels charge regarding you, lest you strike your foot against a stone. Jesus said to him, Again it is written, You shall not tempt the Lord your God. Matthew 4:6-7; Luke 4:9-12.