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.

4769. 'And killed a he-goat of the she-goats' means external truths received from delights. This is clear from the meaning of 'a he-goat of the she-goats' in the Word as natural truths, that is, truths belonging to the external man which give rise to the delights of life, and also as external truths received from delights, dealt with below. Truths belonging to the external man which give rise to the delights of life are Divine truths such as are present in the literal sense of the Word, which form the basis of the teachings of the genuine Church. These truths are meant strictly speaking by 'the he-goat', and the delights which spring from them are meant by 'the she-goats'. This being so, 'a he-goat of the she-goats' in the genuine sense means those who know truths of this kind and enjoy the delights that spring from them. But in the contrary sense 'a he-goat of the she-goats' means those who know external truths, that is, appearances of truth drawn from the sense of the letter which go along with their delights of life, such as things delighting the body, which are generally called pleasures, and those delighting the mind, which are generally called honours and gains. People of this kind are meant in the contrary sense by 'a he-goat of the she-goats'. In short, 'a he-goat of the she-goats' in this contrary sense means adherents to faith separated from charity, for these people take no other truths from the Word than those which are in agreement with their delights of life, that is, which accord with self-love and love of the world. And they reduce other truths to the same level by the use of interpretations, and in this way they present falsities as appearances of truth.

[2] This meaning of 'a he-goat of the she-goats' as adherents to faith separated from charity may be seen in Daniel,

Behold, a he-goat of the she-goats came from the west across the face of the whole earth, without touching the ground; ¹ and this goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes. Out of one of the four horns there came forth one little hoary, and it grew exceedingly towards the south, and towards the east, and towards the glorious [land]. Indeed, it grew even towards the host of heaven, and cast down to the earth some of the host, and of the stars, and trampled on them; and it cast down truth to the earth. Daniel 8:5, 9-10, 12.

This refers to the state of the Church in general, not merely to the state of the Jewish Church but also to the state of the Church that followed it, the Christian one; for the Word of the Lord is all-embracing. When used in reference to the Jewish Church 'a he-goat of the she-goats' means those who considered internal truths to be worthless; but they did accept external truths, insofar as these were in accord with their loves, which were their desire to be the greatest and to be the wealthiest people. Consequently they did not think of their expected Christ or Messiah as anyone other than a king who would exalt them above all nations and peoples throughout the world and would make these subject to them as the meanest slaves. This was the level to which they reduced their love of Him. As for what love towards the neighbour was, they had no knowledge at all, except as being associated with others with whom they shared the exalted position referred to above and as enjoying material gain.

[3] But when used in reference to the Christian Church 'a he-goat of the she-goats' means those who possess external truths received from delights, that is, who adhere to faith separated from charity, for these people too have no interest at all in internal truths. If they do teach these it is solely so that they may thereby earn acclaim, be raised to exalted positions, and acquire material gains. These are the delights their hearts are set on when they utter truths with their lips. What is more, by wrong interpretations of the truths of genuine faith they make these accord with their own loves. From this one may see what the words in Daniel that are quoted above mean in the internal sense. The phrase 'a he-goat of the she-goats' means adherents to faith separated from charity. The he-goat 'came from the west' means coming from evil, for 'the west' means evil, see 3708. It came 'across the face of the whole earth, without touching the ground' means coming into the whole Church, for 'earth' or 'land' in the Word means nothing else than the earth where the Church exists, and so means the Church, 566, 662, 1067, 1262, 1413, 1607, 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118 (end), 2928, 3355, 4435, 4447. 'The horns' it had means powers derived from falsity, 2832, 'a conspicuous horn between the eyes' meaning power derived from reasoning about the truths of faith, as becomes clear from what has been shown regarding the eye in 4403-4421, 4523-4534. 'The one horn which grew towards the south, the east, and the glorious [land]' means the expansion of power derived from faith separated from charity even into states lit by the light of heaven - states of goodness and truth; for 'the south' means a state of light, see 3708, 'the east' a state of goodness, 1250, 3249, 3708, 'the glorious [land]' a state of truth, as is clear from various places in the Word. 'It grew even towards the host of heaven, and cast down to the earth some of the host, and of the stars, and trampled on them' means that such a thing happened to cognitions of good and truth, for 'the hosts of heaven, and the stars' means cognitions of good and truth, 4697. From this one may see what is meant by 'it cast down truth to the earth', namely that faith itself was cast down, which in essence is charity; for faith looks to charity because it stems from it. That which in the Ancient Church was called truth is in the new one called faith, 4690.

[4] 'He-goat' is used with a similar meaning in Ezekiel,

Behold, I am judging between one member of the flock and another, between rams and he-goats. Is it a small thing to you? You feed off the good pasture and tread down with your feet the rest of your pastures; you drink the water that has settled down ² and stir up the rest with your feet. You butt with your horns all the weak [sheep] till you have scattered them abroad. Ezekiel 34:17-18, 21.

Here also 'he-goats' means adherents to faith separated from charity, that is, those who set doctrine above life and at length have no interest at all in life. Yet it is life that makes the human being, not doctrine separated from life; and it is life that remains after death, not doctrine except insofar as this teaches about life. Of these people it is said that they feed off the good pasture and tread down the rest of the pastures with their feet, and that they drink the water that has settled down and stir up the rest with their feet; also that with their horns they butt the weak [sheep] till they have scattered them.

[5] From this one may now see which persons are meant by 'the he-goats', and which by 'the sheep', that the Lord speaks of in Matthew,

Before Him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the he-goats; and He will peace the sheep at His right hand, out the he-goats at the left, etc. Matthew 25:32-33.

The fact that 'the sheep' means those who have charity and therefore have the truths of faith, and that 'the he-goats' means those who do not have any charity even though they have the truths of faith - that is, they are adherents to faith separated from charity - is plain from each detail in this passage, where such people are described.

[6] Which ones are the adherents to faith separated from charity, meant by 'the he-goats', and what kind of people they are, may be seen from the following two places: In Matthew,

Every tree that does not make good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and by Your name cast out demons, and do many mighty works in Your name? But then I will confess to them, I do not know you; depart from Me, you workers of iniquity. Matthew 7:19-23.

And in Luke,

Then you will begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But He replying will say to you, I do not know where you are from. Then you will begin to say, We ate in Your presence and we drank; and You taught in our streets. But He will say, I tell you, I to not know where you come from; depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity. Luke 13:25-27.

These are the ones who adhere to faith separated from charity and are called 'the he-goats'. But what is meant by 'he-goats' in the good sense, such as the ones used in sacrifices and those mentioned in various places in the Prophets, will in the Lord's Divine mercy be stated elsewhere.

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