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.
Luke第24章:30
On the Road to Emmaus
原作者： 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第4章
1
Again he began to teach by the seaside. A great multitude was gathered to him, so that he entered into a boat in the sea, and sat down. All the multitude were on the land by the sea.
2
He taught them many things in parables, and told them in his teaching,
3
"Listen! Behold, the farmer went out to sow,
4
and it happened, as he sowed, some seed fell by the road, and the birds came and devoured it.
5
Others fell on the rocky ground, where it had little soil, and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of soil.
6
When the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.
7
Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.
8
Others fell into the good ground, and yielded fruit, growing up and increasing. Some brought forth thirty times, some sixty times, and some one hundred times as much."
9
He said, "Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear."
10
When he was alone, those who were around him with the twelve asked him about the parables.
11
He said to them, "To you is given the mystery of the Kingdom of God, but to those who are outside, all things are done in parables,
12
that 'seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest perhaps they should turn again, and their sins should be forgiven them.'"
13
He said to them, "Don't you understand this parable? How will you understand all of the parables?
15
The ones by the road are the ones where the word is sown; and when they have heard, immediately Satan comes, and takes away the word which has been sown in them.
16
These in the same way are those who are sown on the rocky places, who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with joy.
17
They have no root in themselves, but are short-lived. When oppression or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they stumble.
18
Others are those who are sown among the thorns. These are those who have heard the word,
19
and the cares of this age, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
20
Those which were sown on the good ground are those who hear the word, and accept it, and bear fruit, some thirty times, some sixty times, and some one hundred times."
21
He said to them, "Is the lamp brought to be put under a basket or under a bed? Isn't it put on a stand?
22
For there is nothing hidden, except that it should be made known; neither was anything made secret, but that it should come to light.
23
If any man has ears to hear, let him hear."
24
He said to them, "Take heed what you hear. With whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you, and more will be given to you who hear.
25
For whoever has, to him will more be given, and he who doesn't have, even that which he has will be taken away from him."
26
He said, "The Kingdom of God is as if a man should cast seed on the earth,
27
and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should spring up and grow, he doesn't know how.
28
For the earth bears fruit: first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.
29
But when the fruit is ripe, immediately he puts forth the sickle, because the harvest has come."
30
He said, "How will we liken the Kingdom of God? Or with what parable will we illustrate it?
31
It's like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, though it is less than all the seeds that are on the earth,
32
yet when it is sown, grows up, and becomes greater than all the herbs, and puts out great branches, so that the birds of the sky can lodge under its shadow."
33
With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it.
34
Without a parable he didn't speak to them; but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.
35
On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, "Let's go over to the other side."
36
Leaving the multitude, they took him with them, even as he was, in the boat. Other small boats were also with him.
37
A big wind storm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so much that the boat was already filled.
38
He himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion, and they woke him up, and told him, "Teacher, don't you care that we are dying?"
39
He awoke, and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" The wind ceased, and there was a great calm.
40
He said to them, "Why are you so afraid? How is it that you have no faith?"
41
They were greatly afraid, and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?"
