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.

946. For Thy judgments have been made manifest, signifies that Divine truths have been revealed to them. This is evident from the signification of "judgments," as being Divine truths (of which presently); also from the signification of "made manifest," as being to be revealed. That Divine truths are revealed at the end of the church, and that they have been revealed, will be shown in what follows in this chapter, because this is there treated of. "Judgments" signify Divine truths because the laws of government in the Lord's spiritual kingdom are called "judgments;" while the laws of government in His celestial kingdom are called "justice." For the laws of government in the Lord's spiritual kingdom are laws from the Divine truth; while the laws of government in the Lord's celestial kingdom are laws from the Divine good. This is why "judgment" and "justice" are mentioned in the Word, in the following passages. In Isaiah:

Of peace there shall be no end upon the throne of David, to establish it, and to uphold it in judgment and in justice from henceforth and to eternity (Isaiah 9:7).

This is said of the Lord and His kingdom. His spiritual kingdom is signified by "the throne of David;" and because this kingdom is in Divine truths from Divine good it is said, "in judgment and in justice."

In Jeremiah:

I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and He shall reign King, and He shall act intelligently, and shall do judgment and justice (Jeremiah 23:5).

This, too, is said of the Lord, and of His spiritual kingdom. And as this kingdom is in Divine truths from Divine good it is said, "He shall reign king, and shall act intelligently, and He shall do judgment and justice." The Lord is called "King," from Divine truth; and as Divine truth is also Divine intelligence it is said that "He shall act intelligently." And as the Divine truth is from the Divine good it is said that "He shall do judgment and justice."

[2] In Isaiah:

Jehovah is exalted, for He dwelleth on high, He hath filled Zion with judgment and justice (Isaiah 33:5).

"Zion" means heaven and the church, where the Lord reigns by the Divine truth; and as all the Divine truth is from the Divine good it is said, "He hath filled Zion with judgment and justice."

In Jeremiah:

I Jehovah doing judgment and justice in the earth; for in these things I am well pleased (Jeremiah 9:24).

Here, too, "judgment and justice" signify the Divine truth from the Divine good.

In Isaiah:

They ask of me the judgments of justice, they long for an approach unto God (5 Isaiah 58:2).

The "judgments of justice" are Divine truths from the Divine good, as are "judgment and justice;" for the spiritual sense conjoins things that the sense of the letter separates.

In Hosea:

I will betroth thee unto Me forever; and I will betroth thee unto Me in justice and in judgment and in mercy and in truth (Hosea 2:19, 20).

This treats of the Lord's celestial kingdom, which consists of those who are in love to the Lord; and as the Lord's conjunction with such is comparatively like the conjunction of a husband with a wife, for so does the good of love conjoin, it is said, "I will betroth thee unto Me in justice and in judgment," "justice" being put here in the first place, and "judgment" in the second, because those who are in the good of love to the Lord are also in truths; for they see truths from good. As "justice" is predicated of good, and "judgment" of truth, it is also said, "in mercy and in truth," "mercy" belonging to good, because it is of love.

[3] In David:

Jehovah is in the heavens. Thy justice is like the mountains of God, and Thy judgments are like the great deep (Psalms 36:5-6).

"Justice" is predicated of the Divine good, and is therefore compared to "the mountains of God;" for "mountains of God" signify the goods of love (See above, n. 405, 510, 850); and "judgments" are predicated of Divine truths, and are therefore compared to "the great deep;" for "the great deep" signifies the Divine truth. From this it can now be seen that "judgments" signify Divine truths.

[4] In many passages in the Word, "judgments," "commandments," and "statutes" are mentioned; and "judgments" there signify civil laws, "commandments" the laws of spiritual life, and "statutes" the laws of worship. That "judgments" signify civil laws, is evident from Exodus (21, 22, 23), where the things commanded are called "judgments" because according to them the judges gave judgments in the gates of the city; nevertheless they signify Divine truths, such as are in the Lord's spiritual kingdom in the heavens, for they contain these in the spiritual sense; as can be (Arcana Coelestia 8971-9103) seen (Arcana Coelestia 9124-9231) from (Arcana Coelestia 9247-9348) the explanation of them in the Arcana Coelestia 8971-9103, 9124-9231, 9247-9348). That the laws given to the sons of Israel were called "judgments, "commandments," and "statutes," can be seen from the following passages.

In Moses:

I will speak unto thee all the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which thou shalt teach them, that they may do them (Deuteronomy 5:31).

In the same:

These are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which Jehovah your God commanded to teach you (Deuteronomy 6:1).

In the same:

Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which I command thee this day, to do them (Deuteronomy 7:11).

In David:

If his sons forsake My law and walk not in My judgments, if they profane My statutes and keep not My commandments, then will I visit their transgression with the rod (Psalms 89:30-32).

So in many other places, as Leviticus 18:5; 19:37; 20:22; 25:18; 26:15; Deuteronomy 4:1; 5:1, 6, 7; 17:19; 26:17; Ezekiel 5:6, 7; 11:12, 20; 18:9; 20:11, 13, 25; 37:24. In these passages "commandments" mean the laws of life, especially those contained in the Decalogue, which are therefore called the Ten Commandments; while "statutes" mean the laws of worship which related especially to sacrifices and holy ministrations; and "judgments" mean civil laws; and as these laws were representative of spiritual laws, they signify such Divine truths as are in the Lord's spiritual kingdom in the heavens.

[5] It follows from this that when man shuns and turns away from evils as sins and is raised up into heaven by the Lord, he is no longer in what is his own (proprium), but in the Lord, and thus he thinks and wills goods. Again, since man acts as he thinks and wills, for every act of man proceeds from the thought of his will, it follows that when he shuns and turns away from evils, he does goods from the Lord and not from self; and this is why shunning evils is doing goods. The goods that a man then does are meant by good works; and good works in their whole complex are meant by charity. Man cannot be reformed unless he thinks, wills, and does as if from himself, since that which is done as if by the man himself is conjoined to him and remains with him, while that which is not done by the man as if from himself, not being received in any life of sense, flows through like ether; and this is why the Lord wills that man should not only shun and turn away from evils as if of himself, but should also think, will, and do as if of himself, and yet acknowledge in heart, that all these things are from the Lord. This he must acknowledge because it is the truth.