‘The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place.“ [Luke 24:19-21, NRSV]
[L] The Walk to Emmaus, by Lelio Orsi, 1560-65. [M]Caravaggio, Supper at Emmaus, 1601. [R] Duccio di Buoninsegna, Christ Appears to the Apostles Behind Closed Doors, 1308-11.
Death did not end the story of Jesus.
At every Sunday communal worship, Christians recite the Nicene Creed and proclaim that the same Jesus who suffered, died, and was buried also was raised on the third day. Each of the gospels carries the story of Jesus beyond his execution at Calvary with narratives of an empty tomb and of the Crucified and Risen Lord’s post-resurrection appearances to his disciples at various places and in different settings. In fact, well before any of the evangelists wrote their gospel accounts, St Paul had already written to the bickering and divisive Christian community at Corinth that if Christ were not raised, the faith he preached and the faith they shared as well as the work and discipline they committed themselves to would all be in vain [1 Cor 15:17].
Christianity is plainly grounded in the whole gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the story of Israel, the life and works of Jesus of Nazareth, his suffering, his death and his resurrection and ascension, and his promise to come again. The central and indispensable hinge is the resurrection from his suffering death. And he appeared to his disciples.
Does any of those post-resurrection appearances teach us how to read Scriptures, including both the Old and the New Testaments?
In chapter 24 of his Gospel, St Luke lays down for us the principles upon which all Christian reading of the Scriptures is based.
Deflated, beaten, their hopes dashed upon the cruel and humiliating death of Jesus on the cross, Cleopas and another disciple of Jesus had left Jerusalem and were on the seven-mile track homebound towards Emmaus when a stranger drew near to them and asked them what they were discussing.
They replied:
- “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him.”
Then, Jesus said to them:
- “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?”
Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he then interpreted to them the things about himself in all the Scriptures. [Luke 24:19-27]
As this familiar story of the Walk to Emmaus continues, the disciples invited the stranger to join them for supper and to stay the night with them. It was in the breaking of the bread, that they recognized that the stranger was in fact Jesus. Once the disciples’ eyes were opened to the truth of the resurrection, Christ promptly disappeared. They became restless and felt driven to tell the other disciples. As they hurried back to Jerusalem, they said to each other:
- “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures?” [Luke 24:32]
When they arrived back at Jerusalem and while they were speaking with the other disciples, Jesus appeared and stood in their midst, startling them and causing fear in them. Resurrection and its promise of new life is of course the most joyous thing about Easter. But the disciples were without such resurrection experience, and so were naturally fearful. Jesus calmed their fear and agitation, showing them his wounds and proving by his “flesh and bones”, and eating a piece of broiled fish they gave him, that indeed he had risen. Then he said to them:
- “These are my words which I spoke to you, while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled.”
Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and said to them:
- “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” [Luke 24:44-47]
In this Lukan narrative, Scriptures present to us some basic rules for unpacking the meaning of the Scared Text.
1. Jesus appears where believers are gathered
The story of Emmaus points to the fact that the work of understanding and interpreting the Scriptures is at its best undertaken within a communal setting.
Jesus had promised earlier: “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” [Matthew 18:20]
Their faith, to be sure, was far from perfect; in reality, it was in shambles. Let’s face it: with Jesus’ excruciating death, they had been tested quite beyond their human capacity to endure. What “little faith” they had was now in ruin. But still, they gathered. That’s the point, they gathered – two on the country road to Emmaus, and a much larger group in Jerusalem. And Jesus appeared in their midst and proved to them the truth of his resurrection.
2. Scriptures best read in the light of the mystery of the death and resurrection of Jesus
The Scared Text is best understood in the light of the mystery of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In other words, we must always read the Scriptures with an eye on the cross of Jesus.
Holy Scriptures present to us the working out of God’s plan of salvation. In reaching out to his people, God sent prophets of old, but in the fullness of time, God sent his Son, born of a woman [Galatians 4:4]. Scriptures tell us that through twists and turns, God’s plan of salvation touched and reached his people when it finally burst forth in all the splendor and the light of its glory in the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Son of God. Scriptures cannot be understood apart from this divine mystery. The Holy Book of the Bible would remain closed to us in its rich meaningfulness, unless our lives are increasingly open to that mystery, that divine plan of salvation. Hence, in Luke 24, it is the Crucified but Risen Lord who opens the minds of the disciples to the understanding of the Scriptures.
3. Real understanding results from divine initiative
In a profoundly humbling manner, the Word of God reminds us that salvation is the initiative of God and not the work of humans. Ours is the hard work and diligence which we must put in to read and interpret the Bible, but real understanding of the Scriptures does not come from human resources alone, but is fundamentally the result of the divine initiative.
- It was the Risen Lord who explained to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus that the Messiah had to suffer and thus enter into his glory.
- It was the Risen Lord who opened the minds of the disciples to the understanding of the Scriptures.
- It was the Risen Lord who revealed to the disciples the truth of his resurrection at the breaking of the bread.
4. Full recognition of Jesus as the Christ at the breaking of the bread
The Lukan text reveals that full recognition of Jesus as the Resurrected Lord and Christ only comes at the breaking of the bread. In this regard, one must not lose sight of the fact that it was the initiative of the disciples, in consideration of the needs of a fellow traveler, to prevail upon the stranger to dine with them and to stay the night, that the genuine dialogue and hospitable communion could take place, in the midst of which the Risen Lord manifests himself.
Evidently, at the core of the understanding of Scriptures lies the work of prayers. This is why the “simple” prayer of St Pio is so preciously “powerful” in our view:
- “Stay with us please, O Lord, for you are our light, and without you we are in darkness.” [Adapted]
We are to pray to the Crucified and Risen Lord, who is Jesus the Christ, through the Holy Spirit, to invite him into our hearts and minds, to open them, to detach them from self-attachment and the preoccupations of the world, so that we can enter into the glories of his mystery.
The gift of that recognition is never idle. Seeing things with new eyes is always a dangerous gift, for we are now called to do something. The two disciples who hailed from Emmaus experienced that first hand. Once they had seen the Risen Lord, they just could not stop; they had to go tell the rest – to announce the Good News! – which teaches us that the Resurrection of Christ is not an idea to be grasped or a case to be proved. It is a life to be lived. Every time we live in the power of the resurrection, we engage the world, one another, and our life in a new way.
Copyright © Dr. Jeffrey & Angie Goh, April 2013. All rights reserved.
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