Emmaus

Note: First day of the week after Sabbath: draws attention to the importance of Sunday, the day of resurrection.

Jerusalem: St Luke’s theme for the public life of the Lord is a journey up to Jerusalem, the city of God, the place where great events happen, his passion, death and triumphant rising again. These disciples are going the wrong direction. They see only what has been, and failure. In the ordinary course of events, to believe in the resurrection of the dead is a belief in what is beyond what is humanly perceptible.

Some women from our group: St Luke attaches great importance to women throughout his gospel, which was in contrast with prevailing attitudes in society and in the Law—and in the view of these disciples.

Cleophas: St Luke names one disciple as Cleophas. If this is the same person as the Clopas mentioned in John 19:25, the second disciple may have been his wife Mary, who was one of those who stood at the foot of the cross, according to John.

The couple assumed that Jesus was a fellow traveller who had overtaken them. Remarkably, all the time he was with them it never crossed their minds that he was other than a person of flesh and blood like themselves This was because they were sure miracles like resurrection did not happen. Jesus was dead and nothing could persuade them otherwise. Their expectation had been redemption from domination in Jewish nationalist terms. Jesus overcame their disillusionment by leading them in a re-examination of how they understood the Word of God.

The disciples recognised Jesus by the way in which he broke bread. It is unlikely that these disciples had been at the Last Supper, so it may have been past memories of how Jesus broke bread that clinched the issue, or, perhaps less likely, an account of the Last Supper that they had been told. For St Luke and the early Church, of course, the ‘breaking of bread’ was a shorthand expression for the Eucharist. The couple now see Jesus as one who gives himself totally.

The disciples rush back to Jerusalem with their new story, forgetting their previous caution about travelling by night. They are told on arrival about Simon Peter whom the Lord has again singled out.

The Emmaus account underlines:

meeting together on Sunday
listening to the Word of God
gathering around the table
the breaking of the bread
the recognition of the Lord
the renewal of commitment as disciples
going off to share the Good News.