The Emmaus Road Experience

I want to share with you some thoughts on the encounter of the two disciples who Jesus revealed himself too after his resurrection.
Luke 24:13-34
We are told in Luke 24:16 "that there eyes were prevented from knowing Him."
The road to Emmaus is about coming to fully know Jesus, the revealed risen Christ.


The word that Luke uses for know in Luke 24:16 and later on in Luke 24:31 is the Greek word EPIGNOSKO. In Greek there are 8 different words that can be translated to know or known or knowledge or unknown. Luke is very specific in his choice of a word here and he chooses to use the word EPIGNOSKO which denotes a deeper knowledge or "to fully know" than the more general word GINOSKO which means "to come to know".


What we can learn here is that there is a real possibility that we can know Jesus without coming to fully know him. I believe that we all experience, or need to experience, the process that takes us from coming to know Jesus (GINOSKO) to fully knowing Jesus (EPIGNOSKO). Just as these two disciples walked with Jesus, they saw his miracles and they even witnessed his death, it is possible for us to know Jesus just as a "good man" or may even be "a prophet" and yet still not know him as "Lord" (see blog post Seeing Jesus2).


Our experience of Jesus has to become an enriched experience to the point that what we encounter excites us and we are compelled to return to the gathered disciples and share what we have learned and experienced.


This passage is crucial to the living testimony of God through Jesus Christ. It is true to say that had there been no witness to the resurrection then discipleship to Christ would be dead in the water. We can read this encounter as a story written down so as to give credence and evidence to what the gospel writers were wanting to portray, or we can look deeper and engage with the spirituality of the situation and find out that these writers experienced something that goes beyond the figment of imaginations. I believe it is possible for all of us to have the revelation of fully knowing the risen Christ. "To fully know Christ" will radically change our view of God and how we talk and interact with the creator of the world in who we live and move and exist Acts 17:28.


Our two travellers started their day on a rather despondent note, they had witnessed the trial, crucifixion, death and burial of the one that they had come to believe was the messiah that had been spoken about and that all Jews believed would and hoped would come. Their hope had been all about physical and selfish gain, "the one" who would save them from the tyranny of the empire" Luke 24:21. They had failed to grasp, even by spending time with him and witnessing the miracles he performed and the spiritual words he spoke, the real reason why God should come down and suffer as a man. Do we misunderstand the reason why God allowed himself to suffer in this cruel and sinful world? Do we fail to see that this suffering was necessary in order for God to re-establish the everlasting covenant with mankind that had been broken by the very humanity that God had created. The covenant and relationship that is recorded in the opening chapters of the Genesis story where mankind could walk freely in paradise and spend time walking and communicating with "The Word" of God (Jesus).


Lets look at some of the dialogue that takes place between our travellers, who, I suggest, were a husband and wife returning to their home in Emmaus, the point being that our travellers had got to the point where they believed it was all over, their beloved Jesus who they had been following around for three years was now dead so why carry on?


We read in Luke 24:21 that our travellers, in response to the question from Jesus in Luke 24:19 “What things?” reply with the words “But we trusted that he would redeem Israel”. They had hoped that this was he who had been promised, the one who would “save the nation of Israel from tyranny, bloodshed and war. They had failed to “know” Jesus, they had failed to recognise that, as John records the words of Jesus in John 10:10 “I am come that they might have life and have it in abundance.”


To really know Jesus is to know that he died for sin yet rose for life. Do we just expect a release from our human struggles or are we expecting life in all it's fullness? The cross of Jesus is all about a new start not about an end to life.
As our travellers near their home we find in Luke 24:28-29 that it says that Jesus makes it very clear that he will continue with the walk and not turn in. I want you to notice that there had been a lot of talk and discussion about Jesus, the promised messiah and why it was necessary for this man to die, this man who had lived to show the way to the father, the creator of all things. These two travellers had really been captivated by what this man was saying, they had entered into the spirituality of the conversation and not just experienced words. The word of God had come to their hearts and they were beginning to appreciate that there was more to know about the God of the people Israel. They were beginning to see that this God was a personal God and that salvation was for all humanity which needs to be experienced individually and worked out in community. Notice what it says in Luke 24:29 “they constrained him”.


There are two things I want to say here.

1.   Jesus made as if he would go further, indicating that God has no limits

2.   Our two travellers “constrained him (KJV)” or “urged him (NLT)” to stay the night, to turn in with them.

These two were eager to find out more, are we eager and spiritually hungry to find more of Christ to the point that we constrain him or urge him to stay with us? If we want to fully know Christ and His purpose we have to be like these two travellers, purposeful and persuasive in our relationship with Him. Remember God has no limits we set the limits. There is always more of God to know, there is always the possibility of knowing him more fully.


What we find is that Jesus was constrained to enter their home and in Luke 24:30-31 we find him breaking bread and blessing it. This act was recognised as an ancient act of intimacy. What the risen Christ was demonstrating through this act was that he was with them and for them. What we see is that when Jesus broke the bread and gave it to his friends their eyes were opened, and Luke uses the same verb EPIGNOSKO here as in verse 16 “to fully know”. It is only when we see the nail pierced hands and receive from those same hands that our eyes are opened. The outcome of this intimate act of “breaking bread” and revelation is described in Luke 24:32 when our travellers utter the words “did not our hearts burn within” This is exactly what the revelation of the risen Christ will do for each and every one of us, it will be such a burning that we will be compelled to go and share our experience. Notice that they returned immediately to the gathered group in Jerusalem, the group that they had just left to share this wonderful experience. The passage says that our travellers got up and returned within the hour and hurried back to the disciples and the others exclaiming it is true HE IS ALIVE.


It is only when we encounter the risen Christ and then commune and reason amongst ourselves (the apostle Paul calls this “building up yourselves”) the very existence of God whose plan of salvation was enacted before the very foundation of the world, and when we constrain the risen Christ to abide and share our space do we begin to understand what a mighty God we serve. A God who will do immeasurably more than we dare ask or speak. It is this very encounter that will change our lives and give us a story to share and in sharing many will be added to His church.