On the Road to Emmaus
By Joe David
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.
Mark 6
1
He went out from there. He came into his own country, and his disciples followed him.
2
When the Sabbath had come, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many hearing him were astonished, saying, "Where did this man get these things?" and, "What is the wisdom that is given to this man, that such mighty works come about by his hands?
3
Isn't this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judah, and Simon? Aren't his sisters here with us?" They were offended at him.
4
Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country, and among his own relatives, and in his own house."
5
He could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people, and healed them.
6
He marveled because of their unbelief. He went around the villages teaching.
7
He called to himself the twelve, and began to send them out two by two; and he gave them authority over the unclean spirits.
8
He commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey, except a staff only: no bread, no wallet, no money in their purse,
9
but to wear sandals, and not put on two tunics.
10
He said to them, "Wherever you enter into a house, stay there until you depart from there.
11
Whoever will not receive you nor hear you, as you depart from there, shake off the dust that is under your feet for a testimony against them. Assuredly, I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!"
12
They went out and preached that people should repent.
13
They cast out many demons, and anointed many with oil who were sick, and healed them.
14
King Herod heard this, for his name had become known, and he said, "John the Baptizer has risen from the dead, and therefore these powers are at work in him."
15
But others said, "He is Elijah." Others said, "He is a prophet, or like one of the prophets."
16
But Herod, when he heard this, said, "This is John, whom I beheaded. He has risen from the dead."
17
For Herod himself had sent out and arrested John, and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, for he had married her.
18
For John said to Herod, "It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife."
19
Herodias set herself against him, and desired to kill him, but she couldn't,
20
for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and kept him safe. When he heard him, he did many things, and he heard him gladly.
21
Then a convenient day came, that Herod on his birthday made a supper for his nobles, the high officers, and the chief men of Galilee.
22
When the daughter of Herodias herself came in and danced, she pleased Herod and those sitting with him. The king said to the young lady, "Ask me whatever you want, and I will give it to you."
23
He swore to her, "Whatever you shall ask of me, I will give you, up to half of my kingdom."
24
She went out, and said to her mother, "What shall I ask?" She said, "The head of John the Baptizer."
25
She came in immediately with haste to the king, and asked, "I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptizer on a platter."
26
The king was exceedingly sorry, but for the sake of his oaths, and of his dinner guests, he didn't wish to refuse her.
27
Immediately the king sent out a soldier of his guard, and commanded to bring John's head, and he went and beheaded him in the prison,
28
and brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the young lady; and the young lady gave it to her mother.
29
When his disciples heard this, they came and took up his corpse, and laid it in a tomb.
30
The apostles gathered themselves together to Jesus, and they told him all things, whatever they had done, and whatever they had taught.
31
He said to them, "You come apart into a deserted place, and rest awhile." For there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.
32
They went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves.
33
They saw them going, and many recognized him and ran there on foot from all the cities. They arrived before them and came together to him.
34
Jesus came out, saw a great multitude, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things.
35
When it was late in the day, his disciples came to him, and said, "This place is deserted, and it is late in the day.
36
Send them away, that they may go into the surrounding country and villages, and buy themselves bread, for they have nothing to eat."
37
But he answered them, "You give them something to eat." They asked him, "Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread, and give them something to eat?"
38
He said to them, "How many loaves do you have? Go see." When they knew, they said, "Five, and two fish."
39
He commanded them that everyone should sit down in groups on the green grass.
40
They sat down in ranks, by hundreds and by fifties.
41
He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he blessed and broke the loaves, and he gave to his disciples to set before them, and he divided the two fish among them all.
42
They all ate, and were filled.
43
They took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and also of the fish.
44
Those who ate the loaves were five thousand men.
45
Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat, and to go ahead to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he himself sent the multitude away.
46
After he had taken leave of them, he went up the mountain to pray.
47
When evening had come, the boat was in the midst of the sea, and he was alone on the land.
48
Seeing them distressed in rowing, for the wind was contrary to them, about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea, and he would have passed by them,
49
but they, when they saw him walking on the sea, supposed that it was a ghost, and cried out;
50
for they all saw him, and were troubled. But he immediately spoke with them, and said to them, "Cheer up! It is I! Don't be afraid."
51
He got into the boat with them; and the wind ceased, and they were very amazed among themselves, and marveled;
52
for they hadn't understood about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.
53
When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret, and moored to the shore.
54
When they had come out of the boat, immediately the people recognized him,
55
and ran around that whole region, and began to bring those who were sick, on their mats, to where they heard he was.
56
Wherever he entered, into villages, or into cities, or into the country, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch just the fringe of his garment; and as many as touched him were made well.
