The Bible

 

Luke 24:13-35 : The Road to Emmaus

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13 And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs.

14 And they talked together of all these things which had happened.

15 And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.

16 But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.

17 And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?

18 And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass therein these days?

19 And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people:

20 And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him.

21 But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done.

22 Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre;

23 And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive.

24 And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not.

25 Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:

26 Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?

27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

28 And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and he made as though he would have gone further.

29 But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them.

30 And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them.

31 And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight.

32 And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?

33 And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them,

34 Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon.

35 And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread.

Commentary

 

On the Road to Emmaus

By Joe David

Lelio Orsi's painting, Camino de Emaús, is in the National Gallery in London, England.

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.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #10053

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10053. This is a burnt-offering unto Jehovah. That this signifies the glorification of the Lord’s Human, is evident from the representation of a burnt-offering, as being the glorification of the Lord’s Human. Among the Jewish nation there were sacrifices and burnt-offerings; the “sacrifices” signified purification from evils and falsities, and the implantation of truth, but the “burnt-offerings” signified the conjunction of truth with good, thus full and complete regeneration. In the supreme sense however, which treats of the Lord, the “sacrifices” signified the casting out of evils and falsities from His Human that was from the mother, and the implantation of Divine truth from the Divine good which was in Him; and the “burnt-offerings” signified the unition of the Divine truth with the Divine good, which unition is what is meant by “glorification.” For when the Lord was in the world He made His Human Divine truth, and successively also by unition with the Divine good which was in Him and was the being of His life, He made His Human Divine good, thus one with Jehovah. The being of His life was that which with man is called the soul from the father, and this was the Divine good itself or the Divine love. (But on these things see wh at was shown in the places cited in n. 9194, 9315, 9528; and that the Lord expelled all the human that was from the mother, until at last He was not her son, n. 9315; and that the “Son of man,” as the Lord called Himself, is not the son of Mary but the Divine truth, n. 9807.)

[2] That where the Lord is treated of “glorification” denotes the unition of His Human with the Divine Itself which was in Him, thus with Jehovah His Father, by which unition He made His Human also the Divine good, is manifest from the passages in the Word where mention is made of “glory,” and “glorification,” when spoken of Jehovah or the Lord, as in Isaiah:

The glory of Jehovah shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it (Isaiah 40:5).

I Jehovah have called thee in righteousness, to open the blind eyes, to bring forth from the prison him that is bound; I am Jehovah; this is My name, and My glory will I not give to another (Isaiah 42:6-8).

Jehovah shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee; the nations shall walk to thy light (Isaiah 60:2-3).

These passages treat of the Lord, and by “the glory of Jehovah” is meant the Lord as to Divine truth, for the Divine truth proceeding from the Lord is the “glory of Jehovah” (n. 9429). That Divine truth is from no other source, the Lord teaches in John:

Ye have neither ever heard the voice of the Father, nor seen His shape (John 5:37).

And as it is the Lord that is treated of, it is Jehovah Himself, for He says, “I am Jehovah, this is My name, and My glory will I not give to another.”

[3] Hence also it is that the Lord is called the “King of glory,” as in David:

Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye doors of the world, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? Jehovah strong and a Hero, Jehovah a Hero of war (Psalms 24:7-10).

The Lord is here called the “King of glory” from the Divine truth from which He fought, conquered, and subdued the hells; that this was done from His Human when He was in the world, see n. 9715, 9809, 10019; hence it is that He is called “Jehovah strong and a Hero of war,” and a “Hero” also in Isaiah:

Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, and His name is God, Hero, the Father of Eternity (Isaiah 9:6).

[4] That “the glory of Jehovah” denotes the Lord as to the Divine truth proceeding from His Divine good, which is Jehovah or the Father, the Lord Himself teaches in John:

The Word was made flesh, and we saw His glory, as of the glory of the only-begotten of the Father (John 1:14).

That the Lord is here meant by the “Word which was made flesh,” is manifest; “the Word” denotes the Divine truth, and so also does “glory.” In Matthew:

The Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father (Matthew 16:27).

Jesus said to the disciples, Ought not the Christ to suffer this, and to enter into His glory? (Luke 24:26);

“to enter into His glory” denotes to be united to the Divine good which was in Him, thus to Jehovah or His Father.

[5] From this is plain what is meant by “being glorified” in the following passages, in John:

The Holy Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified (John 7:39).

These things knew not the disciples of Jesus; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered. Jesus said, The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified. And He said, Father, glorify Thy name. There came forth a voice from heaven, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again (John 12:16, 23, 27-28).

After Judas was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in Him; and God shall glorify Him in Himself, and shall straightway glorify Him (John 13:31-32).

From this it is evident that the unition of the Lord as to the Human with the Divine Itself that was in Him and is called Jehovah the Father, is “glorification,” for it is said that “God will glorify Him in Himself.” It is also plain that this unition was fully accomplished by the passion of the cross, which was the last of the temptations. (That through combats with the hells, which are temptations, the Lord glorified His Human, see the places cited in n. 9528, 9937)

[6] That since the Lord was glorified the Divine truth proceeds from Him, He Himself teaches in John:

The Holy Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified (John 7:39).

The Paraclete, the Spirit of truth, whom I will send to you, shall not speak from Himself. He shall glorify Me, for He shall receive of Mine, and shall declare it unto you. All things whatsoever the Father hath, are Mine (John 16:13-15, 28);

“the Spirit of truth” denotes the Divine truth proceeding from the the Lord, (n. 9818); the unition of the Human with the Divine in Him is also here described by its being said that “all things which the Father Hath are His;” and in another place, that “the Father and He are one;” and that “the Father is in Him, and He in the Father” (John 10:30; 14:10-11; n. 3704); thus that the glorification or unition was reciprocal, which also the Lord teaches in John:

Father, glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee (John 17:1);

“the Father” denotes the Divine Itself that was in Him, and “the Son” denotes the Divine Human. (That “the Father” denotes the Divine good that was in the Lord, see n. 3704, 7499; also that “Jehovah” in the Word denotes the Lord, n. 2921, 6303, 8865; and that the Lord is the Divine Itself or Jehovah under a human form, see the places cited in n. 9315)

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for the permission to use this translation.