Luke 24:13-35

CHAPTER 30

HE WAS SEEN BY PETER

1 Corinthians 15:5. As He appeared to the women on their first visit to the sepulcher before it was clear light; also to Mary Magdalene (and doubtless other women, as it is hardly probable she was alone), on the second visit to the sepulcher, which occurred very early in the morning, for the women hastened back immediately after delivering the glorious tidings to the apostles, there is at least a probability that they arrived the second time at the sepulcher before the first arrival of Peter and John. Then, sometime in the morning, He evidently appeared to Peter, as we see here, indefinitely revealed by Paul.

THE WALK TO EMMAUS

Luke 24:13-35. “ Behold, two of them on the same day were going to a village, sixty furlongs from Jerusalem, to which was the name Emmaus, and they were conversing with one another concerning all those things which had taken place. And it came to pass, while they are talking and surmising, Jesus also drawing nigh, fell in company with them; and their eyes were held so as not to recognize Him. And He said to them, What are these words which you are interchanging to one another while walking along? And they stood sad. And one, to whom was the name Cleopas, responding, said to Him, Art Thou only a sojourner at Jerusalem, and dost not know the things which have taken place in it in these days? And He said to them, What? And they said to Him, Those things concerning Jesus, the Nazarene, who was a prophet, mighty in deed and word before and all the people, and how our high priests and rulers delivered Him to the condemnation of death, and crucified Him. But we were hoping that He is the One who is going to redeem Israel.” You see that these disciples are still solid in their conviction that the Christ, when He comes, will redeem Israel and abide forever (Daniel 9:7-14), which is true when He comes the second time. They never succeeded in dividing the prophecies descriptive of His two advents respectively, but applied them all simultaneously.

Cleopas was the brother of the Apostle James the Less, and some believe his traveling companion to have been the Writer of this Gospel. That is at least very uncertain, as we never hear of Luke till about eight years subsequently, when he becomes the traveling companion and amanuensis of Paul in his second evangelistic tour, starting out from Antioch, the metropolis of Syria, and doubtless the nativity, and at least the residence, of Luke, who, in all probability, was a practicing physician in that city till converted by the preaching of Paul and Barnabas.

“ And in addition to all these things, it is even now the third day since they took place. But certain women from us astonished us, being early at the sepulcher, and not finding His body, came, saying that they have seen a vision of angels, who say that He is alive. And certain ones of those along with us departed to the sepulcher, and found it even as the women said; but they saw Him not.” You see clearly that these disciples had not yet received light on His resurrection, but were still clinging pertinaciously to the idea that when Christ comes He will redeem Israel and reign forever, which is true of the second, but not of His first advent, in which He came to suffer and to die.

“ And He said to them, O ye foolish, and slow in heart to believe in all those things which the prophets spoke.” “Foolish” here is anoetos, meaning spiritual blindness, and not moros, natural imbecility, which He condemns in His Sermon on the Mount, pronouncing a woe on the man who says to his brother, “Thou fool.” You see here that the heart, and not the intellect, is the faculty of faith. Since the Holy Spirit alone can quicken and enlighten the heart, it is in vain to appeal to the intellect. “With the heart, man believeth unto righteousness.” (Romans 10:10.) The trouble with infidels and skeptics is not intellectual, but spiritual.

“ Did it not behoove Christ to suffer these things, and to enter into His glory? Beginning from Moses and all the prophecies, He interpreted unto them, in all the Scriptures, the things concerning Himself. And they were drawing nigh to the village, whither they were journeying; and He made as if He were going farther.” This statement is not at all vulnerable to criticism. When they stopped, He walked directly on, and in all probability would have continued, or have manifested Himself to them on the spot, if they had not constrained Him to come in and abide with them.

“ And they constrained Him, saying, Abide with us; because it is evening, and the day has already declined. He came in to abide with them. And it came to pass, while He was sitting at the table, He took bread, and blessed it, and breaking it, gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him; and He vanished away from them. And they said to one another, Was not our heart burning within us, while He spoke to us on the way, as He opened unto us the Scriptures? Rising up that hour, they returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven assembled, and those along with them, and saying that the Lord truly is risen, and appeared unto Simon. And they were expounding those things on the road, and how He was made known to them in the breaking of bread.” You see here that Emmaus is seven and a half miles from Jerusalem, through that rugged, mountainous country, as the metropolis is situated on the high summit of Mount Zion, Moriah, Akra, Bezetha, and Calvary being, respectively, prominences of that great mountain, the culmination of the great interior mountain ranges, rising from the plain of the Mediterranean on the west and the Jordan and the Dead Sea on the east. Though the moon, which was full on the preceding Friday and now, two hours after sunset, is not yet risen, dropping their edibles, they run back with all expedition over the rugged rocks, arriving at Jerusalem in good time for the night meeting, whose thrilling and absorbing theme is the wonderful reports of the sisters and Peter, who assure them that they actually saw Him that morning. No wonder their hearts did burn along the way as Jesus walked with them, opening the Scriptures. O that He may ever walk with you and me, filling and thrilling us with the blessed Word, revealed to our hearts by His heavenly presence!

HE APPEARS TO THE TWELVE

1 Corinthians 15:5. How could that be when Judas was gone? You know Matthias, an old disciple, took the place of fallen Judas. Though he had not been elected at this date for you must remember we are still expounding the events of that wonderful Sabbath, forever immortalized and sanctified by the resurrection of our Lord yet he had been in his place and on duty long before the Pauline writing to the Corinthians, A. D. 57; i. e., twenty- four years subsequently to this date.