Series > Cultivating Faith: Post-Resurrection Appearances of Christ
Understand: Jesus on the Road
Discover how the Holy Spirit helps us cultivate our faith yet today as we develop a greater understanding of God and his ways through Scripture.
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Darrell Delaney
The resurrection is the most important event of all history. The fact that Jesus lives sets him apart from any other leader, and Christianity apart from any other movement. Our Lord changed the outcome of all who follow him from hopeless to full of hope. On this episode of Groundwork, we want to look at what happened right after the resurrection, and how it affects our lives, even to this day. Stay tuned.
Scott Hoezee
Welcome to Groundwork, where we dig into scripture to lay the foundation for our lives. I am Scott Hoezee.
Darrell Delaney
And I am Darrell Delaney; and Scott, we are in part two of our four-part series where we focus on the events that happened right after the resurrection of Jesus. You would think that there would be many, many accounts of what happened, but as we found out in the first episode, there are very few.
Scott Hoezee
Very few; nothing at all in Mark, only the great commission in Matthew…other than, again, the immediate aftermath. John gives us the most. We will be getting to him in future programs. Luke, though, gives us a story…it is on the day of the resurrection…it is the evening of the day, but it is one of the most memorable stories, and it is in Luke 24, and we always refer to it as the “road to Emmaus.”
Darrell Delaney
Picking up at verse 13, it says: Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. 14They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 15As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16but they were kept from recognizing him. 17He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?” They stood still, their faces downcast. 18One 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.
Even when I was a young Christian, Scott, I was thinking about how this passage of verses was very interesting and curious to me. Why would Jesus walk alongside them and keep himself from being recognized by them? I really thought about the show, Undercover Boss…
Scott Hoezee
Oh, yes.
Darrell Delaney
Where the CEO is there, but they don’t know it because he has on a disguise, but he is the one who is running the company and he is rubbing elbows with those people who are on lower levels.
Scott Hoezee
Yes, it is interesting; he just all of a sudden just walks up…we said that in the previous episode, that post-resurrection stories in the gospels tend to be way less dramatic than you might think; and so, Jesus doesn’t just sort of fly in or…he just sort of quietly walks next to them. All of a sudden, there is a third person walking with them. It is like, oh, that is interesting, you know. Every once in a while, that happens in a big city. You are walking down the sidewalk and all of a sudden, why is this person walking with me? So, they don’t know who he is; they don’t recognize him immediately. He keeps them from seeing him. Some people, by the way…we know the name of Cleopas…some people think this is a married couple…we don’t know…going to Emmaus, but in any event, we know the name of one of them: Cleopas; but they don’t recognize him; and you know, Darrell, it is interesting. We human beings love stories like this. In classic Greek literature, the myth of Odysseus…Odysseus is this warrior who has gone away, and he travels the world, and the gods prevent him from coming home. He finally gets home, but he wants to make sure his wife still loves him, so he disguises himself. His babysitter…when he was a little boy…his nurse bathes his feet, you know, a foot washing ceremony; and while she is talking to Odysseus, she is talking about Odysseus and how much she misses him, and all of a sudden, she brushes against a scar on his leg, and she remembers that Odysseus had a scar there from a wild boar attack, and she knows it is Odysseus; and we love that moment of recognition, you know. It is sort of…those of us who remember the old I Love Lucy show, her husband would never let her get into his musical show, so Lucy would disguise herself and worm her way in; and everybody waited for that moment when her husband would recognize her: LUCYYYY!! You know…
Darrell Delaney
What have you done?!
Scott Hoezee
We loved those jolts of recognition, and that is what we get in this story eventually.
Darrell Delaney
Yes; it is interesting, too, because as a Christian who walks around every day, there are many times when Jesus is doing things or he is involved in our lives, and we don’t recognize him. He might be helping us through a co-worker or a family member. He might even be helping us through a stranger. He could be very near and we don’t recognize him; and the fact that he is lowkey like that sometimes, it doesn’t mean that he is not actively working, but it does mean that he could be present in a different way; and another thing that really sticks out to me in this passage is the questions that he asks. Oh, I love the questions. I wish we could do a study on the question themselves. Why does an all-knowing God ask questions like that? Why do you think he does that, Scott?
Scott Hoezee
I think ultimately it is going to be his way to teach them, which is what we are going to see coming up next; but by being in the interrogative mood, he gets at what they are thinking about, what they are talking about; and it is interesting to me, Darrell, that I would imagine…I don’t know for sure…but I would imagine, you know, Jesus died over Passover weekend in Jerusalem; one of the biggest holidays of all times. Jerusalem was probably packed with people…packed with Jewish people who had come to Jerusalem for the holy festival of Passover. I will bet there were an awful lot of people who didn’t know anything about Jesus…who hadn’t heard anything…sure, there were three people crucified outside the city. It happens all the time; but for these two…for Cleopas, and maybe his wife…this was so important that they just assumed everybody knew about it, right? I mean, we have that sometimes. When a tragedy happens to me, it is hard for me to believe that everybody doesn’t know about it. But of course, everybody didn’t know about it. So, when this person…this stranger…says: Oh, what happened? They are like: Where have you been?! Everybody is talking about this. Probably an exaggeration, but it shows you how in love with Jesus they were, that they think everybody must know about this.
Darrell Delaney
Definitely deeply affected about it. I appreciate the fact that we have a caring God who actually wants to listen intently to where we are. When he says: Where are you, Adam? He is actually having Adam locate himself; and when he is asking: What is your name, or: What do you want me to do for you? Whatever question Jesus is asking, he is trying to help us to understand what we believe so that he can actually come alongside that and encourage us and teach us something deeper. I love a God who tells me: Tell me more. I want to hear more about what you think and how you feel. Even though it seems that in this situation, he is kind of playing dumb, but the fact that he is willing to walk with us on the journey, help us to understand what is going on, and actually give us a perspective that we might not have is something that encourages me about this passage.
Scott Hoezee
You mentioned Adam in the garden. I love the comment of a rabbi once. Somebody once asked a rabbi, you know: Why did God have to ask Adam where…didn’t God know where Adam was? The rabbi replied: Oh, yes; God knew. It was Adam who didn’t know where he was, right?
Darrell Delaney
Exactly.
Scott Hoezee
It also reminds me of the classic line, you know, somebody asked a rabbi once: Why does a rabbi always answer a question with another question? And the rabbi said: Why shouldn’t a rabbi answer a question with another question? It is a very rabbinic way of teaching, right, through the asking of questions. So, Jesus is trying to unearth what is going on. They cannot believe he hasn’t heard about it, and so, they are going to go on to tell him about it in just a minute, but it is interesting how downcast their faces are. Darrell, I think we have all walked the road to Emmaus at some point. You know, you just gotta get out of Dodge—you gotta get out of town. Jerusalem was a haunted city with all the memories of Jesus. These two just had to get out of Dodge. They had to leave Jerusalem. They had to go to Emmaus to escape, because they are so sad; and we are going to see that they are going to express that even more in just a minute in the next segment; but they are downcast; they are sad; they assume the whole world is as upset as they are, which is ridiculous, but it shows how deep their grief is; and it is into that situation that Jesus walks.
Darrell Delaney
I love that we serve a God who is willing to journey with us on the road, spiritually speaking, through puzzling and confusing times; and in a minute, we are going to look more into this passage to see what more God has to teach us there. So, stay tuned.
Segment 2
Scott Hoezee
You are listening to Groundwork, where we dig into scripture to lay the foundation for our lives. I am Scott Hoezee.
Darrell Delaney
And I am Darrell Delaney; and Scott, we are in the passage on the road to Emmaus. We have the disciples here…we have Cleopas and whoever else he is talking to…and we have undercover Jesus; and I am loving the fact that this set of passages can help us to understand what is going on. I really wish I could have been on that path to listen in, but since I am not, we have this scripture here that we can read from Chapter 24:19.
Scott Hoezee
So, Jesus just said: What are you talking about? They said: Haven’t you heard, you know; where have you been? And Jesus says; No, I don’t know what you’re talking about; and so, they say: “About Jesus of Nazareth,” [they replied]. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. 20The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him, 21but 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. 22In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning, 23but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. 24Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.” 25He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” 27And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning himself.
Darrell Delaney
Oh, man; so, in this passage, you have basically the whole gospel in a nutshell of what Luke is trying to get to everyone who reads this gospel. I really wish this was like the abstract that goes before, so you could get like a summary or a synopsis of what the gospel is going to be; but I think Luke, in his wisdom empowered by the Spirit, put that synopsis at the end. So, if you missed it the whole time, here is your chance to understand this is what the gospel message is, so that it is correct and we get an accurate account.
Scott Hoezee
And it is interesting, too, Darrell…we mentioned in the previous segment that Luke tells us their faces were downcast, and they were so sad that they assumed everybody was just as sad as they were; but then there is this little line in here. In grammar it is called the pluperfect [tense]. It is not just a past tense; it is like a past-past tense. When in verse 21 they say to Jesus: We had hoped that he was the one who would redeem Israel—had hoped. That is a heartbreaking verb tense, if a verb tense can be heartbreaking. Had hoped; in other words, our hopes are dead…
Darrell Delaney
It’s gone.
Scott Hoezee
We had hoped; but now it is all over, because he was killed; and so, he cannot be the one; although, we’ve got some rumors of angels and visons and so forth; but who could believe it. These two are at the end of their rope. They are the picture of dejection.
Darrell Delaney
Yes; so, in the African American national anthem, Lift Every Voice and Sing, it says: …when hope unborn had died; and it seemed that they had a hope that he would be the fulfilment; but then when he died, they realized they were broken because they didn’t think it could actually happen. They had kind of given up on the hope; but what was interesting is that Jesus corrects that and he shows them everything from Moses and all the Prophets, all the scriptures concerning himself; and I would love to have heard what happened there. They never tell us what he said. I know the fact that we have the scriptures themselves gives us encouragement there, because we can always go back to the Old and New Testament to see those scriptures that concern Christ.
Scott Hoezee
It is the great part about Luke 24, here on the road to Emmaus, and then in a passage we will maybe pick up in a future program, too, when Jesus appears to the disciples. What we get at the end of Easter Sunday is Bible study; isn’t that interesting? Bible study; and so, these two…well, Cleopas and the other person who thought Jesus was so clueless a minute ago…it is like: You haven’t heard what happened? Oh, my goodness! All of a sudden, it is like: Hey, this guy knows some stuff. He has just walked us through the entire Bible. When it says Moses and all the Prophets, that is the whole Old Testament basically…
Darrell Delaney
Yes.
Scott Hoezee
That is the Pentateuch; all the Prophets; you can throw in the Psalms and the writings. He walks them through the whole Bible, and says how it points to…well, he doesn’t say it, but to himself. This had to happen; and so, yes, indeed; this had to be probably the most amazing Bible teaching ever, and we don’t get the details. You know, it kind of makes you a little nuts; but Luke gives us the idea. It is what we said in the first program, Darrell. Why don’t we have more stories about what happened during the forty days between Easter and Ascension? Because everything we need to know was already taught.
Darrell Delaney
Exactly.
Scott Hoezee
Jesus has already said it all; so now, really, he is just repeating it—he is recapitulating what he had said during the three to five years of his public ministry in connecting the dots: He had to suffer, he had to die, and he had to rise again.
Darrell Delaney
And all we need to do is pick it up and reread it and remember and reflect on what Christ has already taught us; and actually, he continues in this section of verses, where there is more to the story; and we would like to pick that up here at verse 28. It says: As they approached the village where they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. 29But 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. 30When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. 31Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. 32They 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(Then) they got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together 34and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” 35Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.
Scott Hoezee
So, great story; kind of typical, too; you know, they finally recognize him and then *POOF* he disappears. Isn’t that the way? Every time we catch a glimpse of Jesus in our lives, it is like, whoops, nope, he is gone again; but, in Luke, that rhythm with the bread: Take, thank, distribute, right?
Darrell Delaney
Yes.
Scott Hoezee
Take, thank, distribute; that is always shorthand for the Lord’s Supper. We will even get it at the very end of Luke right before the shipwreck in Acts, Paul takes, thanks, gives. It wasn’t an ordinary meal; it was the Lord’s Supper. So, they recognize him in the breaking of the bread because that is exactly how Jesus had always done it, and *BOOM*, they see him; and in hindsight, they realize, indeed, it had been him all along; and no wonder our hearts were burning; we knew something was up, because who could teach the Bible like that other than Jesus himself? Something had been up, even on the road, and now they knew exactly what. They had been walking with Jesus all along. Interestingly, we were told earlier, Emmaus was seven miles from Jerusalem…
Darrell Delaney
Yes.
Scott Hoezee
That is a long walk—it would take a couple of hours. I think they made it back in record time. I think they sprinted back and probably made it back in half the time it took them to get to Emmaus, because they were so excited.
Darrell Delaney
Well, coming up next, we want to talk about why the post-resurrection events are significant today in the lives of believers. So, stay tuned.
Segment 3
Scott Hoezee
I am Scott Hoezee, along with Darrell Delaney, and you are listening to Groundwork, and this final segment of a second episode in a four-part series on the very few stories we have, Darrell, in the New Testament of what Jesus said and did those forty days he was on earth and before he ascended back to his Father. We have been in Luke 24, the famous story of the road to Emmaus. We have just seen this couple, Cleopas and another person who ended up, unbeknownst to them, walking with Jesus, who then eventually opens the scriptures to them and teaches the whole Old Testament, connecting all the dots to Jesus himself. They invite him to stay for dinner; he breaks the bread in his normal way, and they recognize him. He disappears from their sight and they sprint back to Jerusalem to tell the disciples that they, indeed, have seen the Lord alive.
Darrell Delaney
So, the disciples in this passage have a physical Jesus walking around with them for a limited time, and they have immediate access to him; but Jesus has ascended since then and sent the Holy Spirit, not only to inspire the writers to write the New Testament, but also to continue the work of discipleship; and so, the good news is even though Jesus is gone and not physically here, we have the rest of the New Testament and the historical account to help us…to encourage us…in how we should live each and every day; and so, with that in mind, I would like us to look at Hebrews Chapter 7, because the first thing we can expect is that we have a high priest who is interceding for us in this life right now today. In Hebrews Chapter 7:23-25, it says:
Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; 24but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. 25Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
So, he is always living to intercede for us, Scott.
Scott Hoezee
Exactly; and again, for those brief forty days, the disciples had Jesus on earth, but he made it clear, and we saw it in the previous program, Mary Magdalene in John 20 tried to kind of hug him, and he said: No, you cannot hold me—you cannot hold me back. I cannot stay here; I have to ascend to my Father and your Father, my God and your God; and it is from that vantage point, at the right hand of God, that we now have fellowship with Jesus through the Holy Spirit. So, although we don’t really walk the road with him literally—physically—yet, we sort of do. We’ve got that Easter hymn: And he walks with me and he talks with me…
Darrell Delaney
Right.
Scott Hoezee
Along life’s…you know. So, he is with us by the Spirit; but one of the things Jesus made clear when he was still here is that: Look, to you it is going to seem bad that I go away; but it is not. It is going to be good—it is going to be good for you because I can then pray for you…
Darrell Delaney
Right.
Scott Hoezee
And send you power and send you my Spirit. So, from his vantage point now, at the right hand of the Father, he does walk with us and talk with us every day, just like with Cleopas and the other person; and he is praying for us to help us in our times of trial. He is praying for us to help us resist temptation. He is on our side, and with us every day.
Darrell Delaney
That is very encouraging for us. No matter where we are in our lives, we are spiritually on the journey with Jesus. Another thing that is really important is that we have a resurrected savior who has given us the power to put away the misdeeds of the flesh we did before we were saved, and that is picked up in Colossians Chapter 3.
Scott Hoezee
1Since, then, you have raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. 5Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. 7You used to walk in those ways in the life you once lived. 8But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
So, Darrell, Jesus rose again from the dead. That is why he was able to walk on the Emmaus Road with Cleopas and his companion; but we now have been raised with him, we now know; and so, we walk with him in newness of life already now, even though we are still short of the full glory of the kingdom.
Darrell Delaney
That is true, Scott. We did actually a few episodes earlier than this that talked about the cross of Christ and the significance of it, and the last episode of that was participation in the cross. So, he says we have been raised with him…Paul says that right here in Colossians. So, we participate in Christ’s death and we participate in his resurrection, which means we have an opportunity to use that resurrection power that raised him from the dead to put to death the old misdeeds of the flesh. If I could do that with accountability, if I could do that by Jesus praying for me, if I could do that by making better choices, I have the responsibility to live as a believer in faith, but I have the power that raised God from the dead to help me with that in my times of weakness.
Scott Hoezee
And it really is all about the resurrection, because if we participated in his death with him, we don’t want that to be the last word. Life is the last word, and that is why it is so important the resurrection happened. You know, Darrell, we did a series on 1 Corinthians a while back, where Paul went through a lot of different questions and controversies, and the last big one he tackled was the fact that some people in Corinth were saying there was no such thing as a resurrection; and Paul said you cannot think that way.
Darrell Delaney
Right; and here in this passage in Chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians, picking up at chapter 15*, he explains it. He says: 1Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. 3For what I received, I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, 5and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. 6After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.
So, you know you cannot have him appear to five hundred people and that be some mass hallucination scheme. Everybody is not crazy. That has to be an accurate account. I mean, they usually only ask for two or three witnesses.
Scott Hoezee
Yes; five hundred…that is a story I would like to read, but no; the Holy Spirit did not give us that one. Five hundred people…when did that happen? But the point being, Paul says it is all about the resurrection. The Gaither song: Because he lives, I can face tomorrow; because he lives, all fear is gone; because I know he holds the future, and life is worth the living just because he lives. Thanks be to God.
Darrell Delaney
Well, thank you for listening and digging deeply into scripture with Groundwork. We hope you will join us again next time as we study Jesus’ first appearance to the disciples, and his later appearance to Thomas, the disciple who doubted the truth of Jesus’ resurrection until he could see it for himself.
Connect with us now at groundworkonline.com to share what Groundwork means to you, or to tell us what you would like to hear discussed next on Groundwork.
Scott Hoezee
Groundwork is a listener supported program produced by ReFrame Ministries. Visit reframeministries.org for more information and find more resources to encourage your faith. We are your hosts, Scott Hoezee and Darrell Delaney.
*Correction: In the audio of this episode, host Darrell Delaney misspeaks and says " verse 15," when he meant to say "chapter 15" as he begins reading the 1 Corinthians passage at chapter 15 verse 1.