The Stranger on the Emmaus Road

Two friends on a dusty road, walking slowly, the way people walk when they have lost something. A third traveller catches up with them. They don’t recognise him. But he is the very person they are grieving.

It is Sunday, the third day since Jesus was crucified. Two of his followers are leaving Jerusalem for a village called Emmaus, about seven miles away. One of them is named Cleopas. We are never told the other’s name. As they walk, they go over everything that has happened, again and again. The arrest. The cross. The tomb. And the strange news some of the women brought back that very morning.

A man falls into step beside them. It is Jesus himself, but Luke says their eyes were kept from recognising him. “What are you talking about as you walk?” he asks. They stop, their faces sad. Cleopas can hardly believe it. “Are you the only visitor in Jerusalem who doesn’t know what has happened there these last few days?” “What things?” the stranger asks. And it all comes pouring out.

“About Jesus of Nazareth. He was a prophet, mighty in word and deed before God and all the people. Our chief priests and rulers handed him over to be condemned to death, and they crucified him. But we had hoped he was the one who would redeem Israel.” We had hoped. Three small words, full of heartbreak. “And now some of the women in our group amazed us. They went to the tomb early and didn’t find his body. They said they had seen angels, who told them he was alive. Some of our friends went and found it just as the women said. But him they did not see.”

The stranger answers. “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Didn’t the Messiah have to suffer these things, and then enter his glory?” And as the road winds on, he walks them through the scriptures, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, explaining everything written about himself. The miles slip by. The sun gets low. They reach the village, and he acts as if he is going further. But they urge him, “Stay with us. It’s nearly evening, and the day is almost over.” So he goes in to stay with them.

At the table, the guest does something only a host would do. He takes the bread, gives thanks, breaks it, and hands it to them. And in that moment their eyes are opened. It’s Jesus. And then he vanishes from their sight. They stare at each other. “Weren’t our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road, and opened the scriptures to us?” Tired legs forgotten, they get up that same hour and hurry all the way back to Jerusalem in the dark. They find the eleven and the others gathered together, who greet them with news of their own. “The Lord has really risen, and has appeared to Simon!” Then the two tell what happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.

Here’s a curious thing. Nobody knows for sure where Emmaus was. Luke says it was sixty stadia from Jerusalem, about seven miles, though a few ancient manuscripts say one hundred and sixty. Over the centuries, several different villages have been pointed out as the place, and each has its supporters. The Bible remembers the conversation, and the moment at the table, far more precisely than the map.

The Stranger on the Emmaus Road. You’ll find it in Luke chapter 24, verses 13 to 35. Two sad friends walked away from Jerusalem, and Jesus walked with them before they even knew it was him. So here’s the question to carry with you. Where might Jesus be walking beside you this week, even when you can’t yet see him?