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.

443. Verse 7. Of the tribe of Simeon twelve thousand sealed, signifies obedience, and that all who are in obedience are in heaven, and come into heaven. This is evident, from the representation and consequent signification of "the tribe of Simeon," as being obedience (of which presently); and from the signification of "twelve thousand sealed," as being all who are in heaven and who come into heaven (of which above). The tribes of Simeon, Levi, and Issachar, which are now mentioned, and which constitute the third class of the sealed, signify those who are in the first or lowest heaven, and who come into that heaven. For, as was said above, all who are in heaven, and who come into heaven are here treated of; and as there are, three heavens, the third or inmost, the second or middle, and the first or lowest, those who are in the third, in the second, and in the first are separately treated of. Those who are in the third or inmost heaven and who come into that heaven are signified by "Judah, Reuben, and Gad," these constituting the first class of those sealed; those who are in the second or middle heaven and who come into that heaven are signified by "Asher, Naphtali, and Manasseh," these, therefore, constituting the second class of those sealed; but those who are in the first or lowest heaven and who come into that heaven are signified by "Simeon, Levi, and Issachar," these constituting the third class of those sealed.

[2] Those belonging to this first or lowest heaven are all obedient in doing the truths and goods that are commanded in the Word or in the doctrine of the church in which they were born, or that they have heard from some master or religious teacher, from whom they have heard that this or that is true and good, and ought to be done. Most of these are not in truths themselves, but in falsities from ignorance, nevertheless these falsities are accepted by the Lord as truths because they have the good of life for their end, and by this the evils that usually cling to falsities are removed (respecting these falsities, and those who are in them, see in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 21). Such, then, are in the lowest or first heaven. But in the second or middle heaven are all such as are in the spiritual affection of knowing and understanding truth and good, and in the affection of doing it; while in the third or inmost heaven are all such as are in love; but these two classes have already been spoken of above.

[3] "Simeon" and his tribe signify those who are in obedience, because Simeon, the father of the tribe, was named from the word that means "to hear," and "to hear" signifies to obey. This can be seen from the words of Leah his mother when she bare him, which are these:

And Leah conceived again and bare a son, and said, Because Jehovah hath heard that I was hated He hath therefore given me this one also; and she called his name Simeon (Genesis 29:33).

(For explanation of these words see Arcana Coelestia 3867-3872; and that "to hear" signifies to obey there, n. 2542, 3869, 4653-4660, 5017, 5471, 5475, 7216, 8361, 8990, 9311, 9397, 9926, 10061; and above, n. 14, 108, 249.) Because "Simeon" signifies obedience he also signifies faith, for faith becomes faith in man when he obeys and does the commandments; before this is done the knowledge of such things as man has drawn from the Word, from the doctrine of the church and from preaching, appears as faith, but this is not faith until man does these things; until then it is merely a matter of thought from the memory, in which there is nothing of the will, consequently nothing of the man, for the will is the man himself; it is therefore when a man does this, that is, obeys, that it enters the will, thus the man himself and becomes faith.

[4] This faith, which is obedience, is signified also by Peter, when he is called "Simon;" and the faith that is the affection of truth is signified by Peter when he is called "Simon son of Jonah" (as in Matthew 16:17-19, et seq.; Mark 1:16-18, 36; 14:37, 38; Luke 5:3-11; 7:40-43; 22:31-33, et seq.; Luke 24:34; John 1:40-42; 21:15-21). Because "Simeon" in the Hebrew signifies hearing and hearkening, and thence obedience, as was said above, and "the son of Jonah" signifies truth from good, but "Peter" truth itself, Peter is called by the Lord sometimes "Peter," sometimes "Simon Peter," and sometimes "Simon son of Jonah." That these names have such a signification anyone can see from Peter's having been called by the Lord now "Peter," now "Simon," now "son of Jonah," which was not done without cause or meaning. What was said to him at the time makes clear what is meant; thus when he confessed that the Lord was the Son of God, and in consequence the keys of the kingdom of the heavens were given to him, he is called "Simon son of Jonah" (Matthew 16:17, et seq.) and is also called a rock (petra), as the Lord Himself often is in the Prophets. Again, he is called "Simon son of Jonah" when the Lord said to him, "Lovest thou Me," and he answered, "I love Thee;" but when he presently turned himself away from the Lord and was indignant because John, who signifies the good of charity, was following Jesus, he is called "Peter" (John 21:15-21), "Peter" here signifying truth without good, or faith separate from charity.

[5] From this it can be seen that "Simon," when Peter is so named, has a similar signification as "Simeon" the son of Jacob, namely, obedience, the faith of charity, the affection of truth, and in general, truth from good; for in the Hebrew Simon means hearing, hearkening, and obedience, and Jonah in the Hebrew means a dove, which signifies in the spiritual sense the good of charity; and "the son of Jonah" signifies the truth of that good, or the faith of charity; while "rock" [petra], from which he is named Peter, signifies truth and faith, and in the contrary sense, falsity and absence of faith (See above, n. 411).

[6] That "Simeon" the son of Jacob, with the tribe named from him, signifies obedience, and truth in the will, and thence faith, can also be seen from the contrary sense, in which he signifies non-obedience, and falsity in the will, and thus faith separate from the will, which is no faith; for most things in the Word have also a contrary sense, in which they signify the opposite things. It is in this sense that Simeon is mentioned by Israel his father in the prophecy respecting his sons, where it is said:

Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of violence are their swords; into their secret let not my soul come; in their assembly let not my glory be united. For in their anger they slew a man, and in their good pleasure ¹ they houghed an ox. Accursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their fury, for it is hard. I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel (Genesis 49:5-7).

"Simeon and Levi are brethren" signifies faith separate from charity; "instruments of violence are their swords" signifies that their doctrinals serve to destroy the works of charity, thus charity itself; "into their secret let not my soul come" signifies that spiritual good does not wish to know the evils of their will; "in their assembly let not my glory be united" signifies that spiritual truth does not wish to know the falsities of their thoughts; "for in their anger they slew a man" signifies that they have wholly turned themselves away from truths, and in their aversion have extinguished faith; "and in their good pleasure they houghed an ox" signifies that from their depraved will they have wholly disabled external good which is of charity; "accursed be their anger, for it is fierce" signifies a grievous aversion from good, and consequent damnation; "and their fury, for it is hard" signifies aversion from truth that is from good; "I will divide them in Jacob" signifies that this faith is to be exterminated from the external church; "and scatter them in Israel" signifies from the internal church also. (For fuller explanation of this see Arcana Coelestia 6351-6361.)

[7] The first three sons, Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, were rejected and condemned by their father Israel because that prophecy describes the establishment of the church, and the church is not established by faith separate from charity, but by truth and good from the Lord; for the church, even at that time, had fallen into the error that merely knowing the Word, and saying that it is holy, is the essential of the church, and not life or charity, and that the God of heaven and earth is some other than the Lord. For this reason in that prophecy the three sons born first, Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, were rejected, because "Reuben" there signifies faith alone, "Simeon" faith without charity, and "Levi" the absence of the good of charity; consequently these three in the series signify no church; for when faith alone is assumed as the essential of salvation, charity is immediately rejected and regarded as nonessential and of no value in respect to salvation; and because these three things were signified by these three sons, therefore they were rejected by Israel their father, who signified the church. Moreover, each of these three destroyed the representative of the church, Reuben:

By lying with Bilhah, the maidservant and concubine of his father (Genesis 35:22).

and Simeon and Levi:

By slaying Hamor, his son Shechem, and the whole city, which was the nation descended from Hamor, for no other reason than that Shechem loved their sister Dinah (Genesis 34 to the end).

This deed signifies in the spiritual sense that these two sons of Jacob, in other words, that constituent of the church which they represented, extinguished the truth and good of the Ancient Church, which church yet survived in the nation of Hamor; for this deed signifies in the spiritual sense that every truth and good of the church is extinguished by faith separated from charity. This, therefore, is what is meant in particular by the words of Israel, "into their secret let not my soul come; in their assembly let not my glory be united; for in their anger they slew a man, and in their good pleasure they houghed an ox;" for "man" [vir] signifies in the Word truth and intelligence, and "ox" moral and natural good. (For fuller explanation of this see Arcana Coelestia 4426-4522.)

[8] And for this reason Simeon was passed by in the blessing of Moses (Deuteronomy 33), and instead of him Ephraim and Manasseh are mentioned, by whom the truth and good of the church are signified. But although Simeon and Levi were such, yet elsewhere they signify the faith of charity and charity, "Simeon" the faith of charity, and "Levi" charity. Yea, the tribe of Levi was appointed to the priesthood; for it matters not of what quality the person is who represents, provided he is in external worship according to the laws and statutes; for representation does not regard the person, but only the thing, and nothing is required in the person except the external of worship. (On this see Arcana Coelestia 665, 1097, 1361, 3147, 3670, 3881, 4208, 4281, 4288, 4292, 4309, 4444, 4500, 6304, 7048, 7439, 8588, 8788, 8806, 9229.) For this reason "the tribe of Simeon" in this passage of Revelation and elsewhere in the Word signifies obedience, the faith of charity, the affection of truth, and in general, truth from good, as has been said above. (That "Simeon" and his tribe, when mentioned in a good sense, signify in the highest sense providence, in the internal sense faith in the will, in the interior sense obedience, and in the external sense hearing, may be seen in Arcana Coelestia 3869.)

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