Now You See Me
Exploring the Gospel of Luke
Can you imagine the conversation between the women who met angels at Jesus’s empty tomb and the other disciples? Apparently, the other disciples couldn’t wrap their heads around the women’s report about Jesus’s tomb. But one thing was certain—Jesus’s body was no longer there. Even Peter had run to the tomb and found only linen cloths. So, where is Jesus?
Luke 24:13 Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 15 As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16 but they were kept from recognizing him.
17 He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”
They stood still, their faces downcast. 18 One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”
19 “What things?” he asked.
“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people.
Every time I read this passage, I can’t help but chuckle a little at the fact that they start telling Jesus about what happened to… Jesus lol.
Notice how they describe Jesus: he is a prophet who is “powerful” (Greek: dynatos) in “word” (Gk: logos), and “deed” (Gk: ergon). The only other time these words are used together to describe another person in the New Testament is in Stephen’s speech about Moses in Acts 7:22:
Acts 7:22 Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in word and deed.
But Jesus wasn’t educated in the wisdom of the Egyptians like Moses was in his youth; he was educated in the wisdom of God’s Spirit. Jesus is the Greater Moses who leads a new Exodus. Let’s continue:
Luke 24:20 The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; 21 but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place.
This is almost exactly what Jesus told his disciples would happen in his predictions before his crucifixion, and what the angels reminded the women at the empty tomb. In other words, Jesus had been handed over to the Romans, crucified, and he was supposed to rise from the dead on the third day.
However, they mentioned they were hoping Jesus would be the Redeemer of Israel. To “redeem” something means to buy it back, so its rightful owner can repossess it. But from whom were they hoping Israel would be redeemed?
Perhaps they expected redemption from Roman oppression, which was what some Jewish groups anticipated a Messianic figure would do. Who knows? But what seems clear is that their hope had faded due to what happened with Jesus that weekend. Still, they seem to have a little hope as they recall what their co-disciples told them:
22 In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning 23 but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. 24 Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.”
25 He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
28 As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. 29 But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.
Interestingly, Jesus rebukes them. Why? It appears they were slow to trust the testimony of the Torah and Prophets, which foretold what would happen regarding the Messiah. To reveal their shortsightedness, Jesus held a Bible study with them — yet, they still did not realize that this was their rabbi teaching them. But all of that was about to change.
30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. 32 They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
33 They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together 34 and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.”
Their eyes were opened as Jesus did what he’d done before—he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to them.
We witnessed Jesus perform similar acts during his feeding of the crowds in Luke 9:16:
“Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people.”
And we witnessed this during the Last Supper in Luke 22:19:
“And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.’”
After these disciples recognized that this was Jesus, Jesus pulled a Houdini move by “disappearing.” So, the two disciples headed back to the others to report their encounter with Jesus, reaffirming the report of the women who were the first to state that Jesus was not in his tomb. What once seemed like nonsense to them was now very clear.
They even clearly state how they identified it was him:
35 Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.
But this isn’t the last appearance of Jesus, as we read:
36 While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
37 They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. 38 He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? 39 Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”
40 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. 41 And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and he took it and ate it in their presence.
Look, I don’t know about you, but I totally understand why the disciples freaked out when Jesus showed up. It’s not often that someone can suddenly appear out of nowhere during a conversation, and then ask for some food lol. Let alone rise from the dead!
Then, Jesus begins to unpack the Scriptures with the rest of these disciples:
44 He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”
45 Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46 He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things.
Jesus mentions: “This is what is written…” but the question is where? If we look through the Scriptures, we won’t find a direct quote. Instead, the biblical texts of Jesus’s Bible (the Tanakh/Septuagint) were arranged in a way that collectively testified about the Messiah’s suffering, resurrection, and the unleashing of forgiveness to the nations.
In other words, Jesus’s summary can be broken down into four parts:
The Messiah is God’s chosen and blessed figure
The Messiah will endure suffering
The Messiah will rise on the third day
Through the Messiah, repentance for the forgiveness of sins will go out to all peoples
The sequence of events that the Messiah will go through is based on the patterns that many biblical characters also experienced in the biblical story. Where a chosen/blessed figure endures suffering, but is ultimately brought out of that suffering for the benefit of many others. Consider the story of Job as an example:
Job is God’s blameless and upright servant
Job endures suffering at the hands of the satan figure. He loses possessions, his health, and his children.
Job is delivered from his suffering by God, and is restored in his health, given more children, and a long, full life.
Job intercedes on behalf of his friends who misrepresented God. These friends were from different nations (Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite), and God forgives them for talking recklessly.
Like Job and many other characters in the biblical story, Jesus the Messiah went through this sequence of suffering, vindication, and beneficence, too. Yet, he did so to redeem Israel, which those two disciples had hoped for—but in a way that many didn’t see coming. He redeemed them from sin, death, and the evil one.
The king is back from the dead, but his earthly ministry isn’t over just yet.
Brilliant. Simply brilliant.