The Travellers to Emmaus

Luke xxiv. 15

And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus Himself drew near, and Yent with them. — Luke xxiv. 15.

‘THE reasons for the selection of the first witnesses -*- of the Resurrection are partly discernible. Mary was chosen because she loved much, and sorrowed much. Peter was chosen because sin repented always attracts Jesus. Why were these two men chosen? Just because “they communed together and reasoned.” They were trying to extricate themselves from the labyrinth of perplexity in which they were involved, and a seeking mind is as sure to find Jesus as a seeking heart. The comparison between the appearance to Mary, and that to the two travellers on the road to Emmaus, seems to me to throw a great light upon both the incidents. The one picture is all suffused with a rosy glow of emotion, like the dawn; the other is full of the uncoloured light of calm thought. In the one, a word, “Mary,” reveals the Master; in the other,

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the revelation is put almost in the background, and instruction takes the foremost place. Some of us apprehend Christ best by feeling, some of us by reason. It is as worthy of Him, and He counts it as fit an employment of Easter Day, to spend hours in clearing the minds of two humble gropers after truth, as to satisfy the yearnings of a heart.

Now, it seems to me that this whole story carries in it for us all great lessons, and that we shall best apprehend these by noting what I have already said is a peculiarity of the incident, viz., that the foreground is filled by instruction, and that the actual manifestation comes at the end, and is almost, if one might say so, subordinate. We have to distinguish these two stages: the instruction by the way, and the revelation in the house. Let me deal with them, and try to draw the lessons from them.

First, then, we have to look at

I. The Insteuction by the Way.

Now, a very important point, I think, is the entire unimportance of the people to whom the instruction was given. They were not apostles, for the evangelist takes care to tell us that, whilst they were on the road back from Emmaus, “the eleven” were at Jerusalem. They were so insignificant, so evidently merely belonging to the rank and file of the disciples, that the evangelist does not seem to know the name of one of them, and the other whom he does name never appears again. Yet to these two i)erfectly insignificant people, Jesus Christ, with the experiences of death and resurrection fresh upon Him, thought it worth His while to come, to enlighten their understandings, and clear up their thoughts. Was not that a revelation, in fact, of an eternal law, that is as true to-day as it was then? He who let Himself be stopped on His road to the cross by a blind beggar in Jericho, and who came and joined Himself to these two conversing on the road, will come to the poorest and weakest amongst us, and will help us to unravel the tangled skein of our difficulties, and to bear the burden of our sorrows, if only we will let Him. This is part of the message of the Resurrection, that the risen Lord joyfully companies with the humblest seeker after light.

And then, if we go a step further, and look at the disposition and temper of the men which drew Him, we get further instruction. The question, with which the stranger who joined Himself to the two broke the ice, passed the usual bounds of courtesy. A chance companion had no right to know what they were talking about. But there was something in the question which evidently showed that it was not curiosity, but sympathy, that prompted it, and that there was a proffer of help underlying it. The naive answer of Cleopas — “xirt thou the only stranger in Jerusalem that does not know what has happened?”

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—forgets that though the pedestrian who had joined the couple might have known about the crucifixion, He could not know that they were speaking of it. But the repeated question — in one word in the original — “what things?” — was like the touch of the button that sends the gush of the light out, like the turning of the ta]) that lets the flood come. For it was answered by the long, voluble, eager statement, which reveals to us the condition of mind of these two men. They had, as it were, two strands of thought in their minds at once, and their effort was to try and braid them together. On the one hand, there was Christ’s death. That left intact their belief that He was “a ])rophet,” for it was part of a prophet’s role, to die. But it shattered to atoms their belief that He had been the Messiah. And there is an infinite depth of despondency, of ‘throwing up the sponge,” of giving up the whole tiling, in that word, “we ixwicd that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel.” (Contrast that with Mary’s ‘’ they have taken away my Lord, and 1 know not where they have laid Him.” She was crushed with sorrow at the death of the Beloved; they were mourning not so much for a dead Jesus, as for the death of their own hopes. They were lamenting not the departure of a beloved Friend, but the fall of a Leader; and with the fall of a Leader, the loss of a cause.

And now notice that utter despondency which perhaps had put into their minds the notion of beginning to desert, and of going away to Emmaus, when they should have stopped at Jerusalem, was the beginning of a process which would certainly have gone on, unless something had come in the way to stop it. Why was it that when the Shepherd was smitten, the sheep were not scattered? Here is the beginning of the scattering; why did it not go on? “We trusted,” — how did it come that in forty days they were trusting in that Man more than ever? How was it that when the Leader fell, the cause did not collapse? How was it that it did not befall to the disciples of Jesus the Nazarene, as it befell to the disciples of that “Theudas who boasted himself to be somebody,” and when “he was slain his disciples were dispersed,” and the revolt came to an end? How? Because Jesus rose from the dead. Deny the Resurrection, and you cannot account for the Church.

Such was the one strand of their thoughts; and then the other opposite strand, so to speak, which, as I said, they were trying to braid into the former, came from the reports of the Resurrection. Look how incredulous they are. “A woman said “; ‘’ the angel said.” Reports of a report; it is all hearsay. And then comes the staggering fact, “Him they saw not,” which extinguishes the faint glimmer of hope. Ah! if they had not been in such a hurry to leave

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Jerusalem after the news of messages by angels, and the visit of Peter to the grave, if they had stopped an hour or two longer, Mary would have come into the npper room; and instead of their having to commnne and question with one another as to what these things could mean, they would have seen what they did mean. AVe often rack our brains to understand half-finished facts, when, if we had had patience, and waited in the right place for a little longer, they would have cleared themselves.

So we come to the Lord’s answer. One might have expected that He would have flashed His presence upon them, and cleared up everything. Not so! They were not ready for that. They needed instruction before they could get revelation. When the instruction came, it all turned round one point. Their error was in thinking that the death of Jesus Christ was fatal to His claims to be the Messiah, and the answer to that was to show them that the death of Jesus Christ was not fatal to, but confirmatory of. His Messianic character, and the necessary condition of His Messianic glory.

Now, dear brethren, although in different shape yet just as really as with these two, in this generation the death of (Jhrist is misunderstood. And we need, the Church needs, and the world needs still more, the teaching of that Easter Day on the road to Emmaus, that the cross, which is the stumbling-block, is the very centre of the Messianic work; and that He came to die, “and give His life a Ransom for many.” You will never understand the liesurrection; you will never believe the Resurrection, to any useful purpose, unless you discern, first, the meaning of the death, and have learnt that, therein and thereby, the world’s sins were borne by Him, that He was crucified for our ofi’ences, and raised again for our justification. The preliminary of profitable meditation on the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the understanding of the mystery and meaning of His cross.

And then, further, let me draw another lesson here, not less relevant to the present, and some of its burning questions; and that is, that we do not understand the Old unless we recognise in it the introduction to the New. You may hold any theory you like, the most advanced that you can find, about the origin and date and method of composition of the Old Testament — I care very little, except as a matter of literary criticism, about the conclusions that you may draw as to that -if only you see what is written plain upon that whole set of books — which are not only a set of books, but a Book, an organic whole — that “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” Through them all “one increasing purpose runs.” In them is a developed Revelation, converging from all sides and all points of the horizon, rilE TllAYELLERS TO EMMAUR 35

on the one Person, the Incarnate Son of God, and on the one fact of the cross on which He bare the sins of the world. That is the underlying meaning, without the yercoption of which, learning and ingenuity and criticism may he expended on the Old Testament for evermore, and yet its true glory be altogether undiscovered. So much, then, for the instruction by the way.

Now, let me say a word about the second part of this incident:

11. The Revelation in the House.

“He made as though He would have gone further.” That was no make-believe. A chance companion picked up on the road must necessarily part company when they arrive at the house-door, unless he is invited in. They ask Him to enter, partly because they did not wish to lose His companionship; and quite as much because they did not think that it would be hospital)le to let Him go along the dark road by Himself. In recompense for His instruction they ofi’er Him the hospitality of the humble home to which they are going. Jesus Christ would have gone on if He had not been asked to stop. There is a revelation, again in concrete fact, of one of the conditions of His communion and fellowship with us, now that He is the risen Lord. He does not abide with us uninvited. He came to these two unasked, because their communings and questionings drew Him. He will not abide with them unbesonght, for their not asking would show that they do not care to have Him. And if you and I wish to have His presence continnons with ns, we must invite His presence. We must invite Him by desire; we must invite Him by the opening of our hearts to His entrance; we must invite Him by clearing out of the house, into which we ask Him to come, all foul things. Bees will desert a hive if there is the corpse of some animal in it. Doves will not hover above polluted fields of slain. It is of no use to say to Jesus, “Abide with us,” if we do not clear a space for Him in our hearts. If we do so, He will come. Uninvited He will pass on.

Where Jesus is welcomed as a guest He becomes host. It was a strange piece of impoliteness for the Visitor to take the chief place at the table, and begin to break the bread, and bless, and give it to the two. How they must have looked at Him when He was doing this strange thing! And then, ‘’ in the breaking of bread,” not merely at, but by that means, He was known to them. I do not enter upon the question as to how the revelation was effected. There seems to have been the removal of some subjective hindrances in themselves, because Luke says, ^’ their eyes were opened.” But there may have been something in His action which reminded them of the blessed old days when they had often sat at table with Him, which may have sharpened their perceptions and revealed Him to them. Bnt be that as it may, here is another revelation in fact of an eternal law. If I open my heart to His knock, and invite Him in, He will snp with me, for it was their bread that He took; and I shall snp with Him, for He will make Himself the Host, and impart to me the provisions for body, mind, and heart, which are needful. Take Christ into your heart, and He will take the mastery of the heart, and will declare Himself to be its Lord. Take Christ into your heart, and He will not come there empty-handed, but will impart to you the bread of life.

They who know the risen Christ do not need His bodily presence. “Their eyes were opened,” and the opened eyes lost the sun. Yes, just because they were opened. The lesson that was to be taught during those forty days of how to do without the dear Presence as they had hitherto experienced it, was begun at once; and precisely as to Mary the loving, He said, “Touch Me not; for I am not yet ascended,” so to the two inquirers, as soon as their instruction was completed, “and they knew Him “risen. He passed from their sight.” It was expedient for” them, that He ‘’should go away.” And thus we are lifted even by the story of the corporeal presence of the risen Lord into that higher region in which it is the privilege of the Church to live to-day, where communion does not depend upon anything external, and where, though present with the body, and in that sense absent from the Lord, we may have Christ ever with us, till we shall depart to be “with Christ, which is far better.”

The last thought that is here is, that they who know that the Lord is risen are thereby made witnesses of His Resurrection. The two were weary. They had had a day’s journey. They were hungry. They had just sat down to the supper-table. The meal was scarcely begun. Night had fallen; the darkness was on them. But they looked at one another, and said, ‘’ This is a day of good tidings; we cannot hold our peace. Let us go back to Jerusalem,” and at once they sprang to their feet, and set their faces to the road. The men that have known the risen Lord become His witnesses. You and I ought to be that.

Now, all this story, dear friends, which I have been very imperfectly trying, not to tell over again, but to gather the bearings of, lends itself very naturally and beautifully to the use that is so often made of it. It is a symbol of our lives, of what they may become. If we will, Jesus will join Himself to our company. He will walk with us by the way. He will encourage us to tell Him all our intellectual perplexities, as well as all our sorrows and difficulties. Lie will cast His own light upon the word. If we desire, He will come with lis into our house. He will sit with ns at the table. He will provide things necessary for the body and the soul. When the shadows begin to fall, and life’s twilight gathers blackness, He will abide with us, and bring us to that eternal Home where we shall sit at His table in His Kingdom, and with newly oponed eyes will “see Him as He is,” and “know even as we are known.” Nor will He ever vanish from our sight, nor shall we go out thence any more for ever.

Help us, 0 Lord, we beseech Thee, that we may walk with Jesus for our forerunner, with Him for our pattern, with Him for our companion, with Him for our goal and end! And give us grace to live, day by day, in the sweet companionship which clears all difficulties and satisfies all hearts!