The Walk to Emmaus - A Close Reading of Luke 24:13-35

And He Walks with Us and He Talks with Us, and He Tells Us We are His Own...

I really enjoy onomatology, which is a word I just made up that happens to already exist. It refers to the study of the meaning of names. In the Bible, especially the Pentateuch, one can almost always know what role the person in a story plays by the meaning of their name. The same can often be said of cities.

In the case of the "Walk to Emmaus" in Luke 24, however, it appears to be either a coincidence or an oxymoron. The name of the city has ties to the Hebrew word for a "warm spring." While the root word literally meaning "heat of the day" can have a figurative meaning of "perpetual life," saying that the disciples walking into Emmaus were walking into the city of perpetual life makes no sense. Most dictionaries simply show that it is a city about 5-7 miles from Jerusalem, and commentaries specify that it is important only in its proximity to Jerusalem, implying both nearby yet a short distance away.

One thing that I have found in reading Luke's Gospel is the importance of his verbs of motion. His account is presented out of chronological order so that first Jesus is "descending" into areas in the first third of the Gospel, "walking around" in the second third, and "ascending" to Jerusalem in the final third. Of course prior to Jesus' ministry we read the Spirit descending, and after his regular life we read of Him ascending to Heaven. Luke's verbs of motion continue to play an important part in this passage even though most of them do not apply to Jesus.

The verb of motion at first seems largely insignificant here regarding the disciples going into Emmaus. It simply means "going" or "traveling" and has no "descending," "going around," or "ascending" connotation that we have seen in play regarding Jesus' verbs of motion within Luke. The preposition used likewise has little significance but shows they had intent to reach the city that same day. Thus the movement and physical locations gain their significance solely in their relationship to Jerusalem. Emmaus is near to Jerusalem, but the disciples here are separating themselves from Jerusalem.

When Jesus enters the scene the verb of motion gains more significance. Although they are hindered from recognizing him, a term connoting intimate knowledge, he begins traveling with them. Both the primary verb of motion (travel with) and the helping verb (draw near) have connotations of Jesus joining the disciples on a more intimate level than simply two groups of people walking the same direction. Although the intimate connotation is not as strong as other verbs, there is still an intentional connotation of fellowship.

Jesus asks what they are discussing and specifies "while (they) are walking."  He makes the first move to enter the conversation about His own passion, that is, the events surrounding His death. His words include the "walk in/abide in" connotation that is quite a bit more intimate. Whatever they are talking about is sadly consuming their life. They respond by standing still. Given Luke's particular use of verbs of motion, this verb of lack of motion should be interpreted with extreme, figurative significance. Their disposition regarding their sad state of life remained unchanged.

They ask Jesus if He is ignorant of the surrounding events. He feigns it. They refer to Him (still not knowing it is Him) as a Prophet mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and the people. They acknowledge that He spoke on behalf of God to the people and also acted upon those words. He was a hearer, speaker, and doer of the word of God. (Recall, Him being the word is a later concept in the book of John.)

They recount His passion succinctly, blaming the Chief Priests and their Roman rulers, but not blaming the Pharisees, nor the nation of Israel. These later groups we come to find out are moving more in line with Jesus' "in the world but not of the world" thought per Luke's perspective late in Luke and in Acts.

The disciples then recounted their seemingly misplaced hope in Jesus' redeeming Israel. Redemption is in the middle voice, meaning the action also applies to Jesus, connoting that they also had seemingly misplaced hope of His redeeming Himself. They justified their ongoing state of sadness and mundane activity by recounting the seemingly unreliable story by women about angels saying He had risen but admitting they saw no evidence for it. Despite the empty tomb, Jesus had not appeared, and no angels had told them what the women had seemingly so unreliably stated.

Jesus then explains the Torah and the Prophets and how the Writings require the Passion before the glorification. They get to town. He pretends He has further business that does not include them but responds to their request accordingly by staying with them, presumably for them to hear more of His uncanny interpretation regarding Israel's Redeemer.

Jesus then sits at the table with them and breaks the bread and blesses it for them. Sharing meals is an intimate act, and when He broke the bread and blessed it they instantly recognized him. More specifically, they shared intimate knowledge with Him regarding who He was. As soon as they did this, He vanished. Then they got up that very hour and turned back into Jerusalem, the City of God and the City of the King. They had been going away from the City of God in sadness, but when they recognized the burning in their hearts had come from Jesus Himself, they literally repented of their sadness and went back to the City of God to tell their story.

The disciples thus were not going to a city of perpetual life when they journeyed to Emmaus. Rather, they were going away from one. Their encounter with Jesus began with Jesus meeting them where they were and even traveling away from His throne to explain to them the Gospel. The final revelation came at the meal, the most intimate occasion, where the Passover was in a small way reenacted. The response was joy and a full act of repentance-spurred evangelism. He had risen, and their hopes for Israel's redemption were just a small part of the joyous picture yet to come.

... And the Joy We Share as We Tarry There, None Other Has E'er Known

LORD God,

Thank You for walking with us and talking with us, even when we are walking the opposite direction of where You want us to be. Give us the ears to hear Your voice amidst signals that are unfamiliar. Give us eyes to intimately perceive who You are and where You are working. Give us wisdom to turn from our disheartened ways of life to pursue the realization of Your Kingdom.

In the Matchless Name of our LORD, Savior, and Redeemer,
Let it be so.

~ The Deeper Magician's Apprentice ~ 

Pentecost - The Origins and Application of the Hebrew and Christian Holiday

Today is Pentecost Sunday for the Western Church. I hope it is an inspiring day for you!

Pentecost marks 50 days after Passover, where the Spirit of God descended upon Sinai to tell this soon-to-be-formed People of God the purpose for which they had been set free from slavery. They were set free so that they could hear God's voice, keep his commands, be his treasured possession, for the purpose of reclaiming the whole Earth as God's own (Exodus 19:4-6). For Israel, this meant keeping the Covenant: loving God, walking in his ways, and celebrating the entirety of the gift of the Torah (Deut 30:16). By doing this, Israel chose to live an abundant life in the land promised to Abraham for the purpose of blessing all the peoples of the Earth (Genesis 12:3).

Christians are most familiar with Pentecost being a New Testament event, which is true, but it is less than half of the story. Acts 2 records the commissioning of the Christian Church in terms very similar to the Exodus account of the first Pentecost. 50 days after the Passover/First Easter weekend, the Spirit of God again descended upon the soon-to-be-expanded People of God as a violent storm of fire, filling the entire place for all present to see. The grace of the Torah was expanded to not only be instructions given from the mouth of God to the People of God but became the essence of the people--the very words the apostles spoke were the very words of the Spirit of God. (Acts 2:2-3). 

The fulfillment of the Passover was restated, echoing the covenant preamble of God stating that Israel had seen what He had done to fulfill the Passover already (2:14-36). The invitation was given to those present to cleanse themselves with the authority given to them by Christ's Passover (2:37-40). Rather than turning away in dread-fear as Israel had done at Sinai, the people accepted this newly stated covenant, remaining in awe and wonder (a different kind of fear) at God's marvelous works performed by those who He had sent out (2:41-43).

Today marks the day of the formation of the People of God. What it means to be the people of God has not changed. Our identity as the People of God requires us to realize that it is nothing that we have done that has earned us the right to be called People of God. Rather it is God's Nature of being compassionate, gracious, patient, loving, faithful, and merciful that prompts God to offer an abundant way of life to us (Ex 34:6). This new way of life is a free gift, but it is a gift that costs us everything, as it requires us to choose to pursue the best interest of God above all else, and to make the needs of our fellow men an equal priority to our own. 

Pentecost is not about God initiating a paved road for people to go to Heaven. Pentecost is about the People of God accepting that God has paved a road for God to incarnate Himself today through the Church as the Body of Christ. The Spirit of God descended upon Sinai in Exodus 19 and was rejected out of fear. The Spirit of God descended upon Jerusalem in Acts 2 and was embraced in wonder. 

I set before you today life or death, prosperity or adversity. Love YHWH your God, walk in His ways, and keep His Torah so that you might live and live abundantly, and that YHWH your God may bless you in any land you enter. Choose life, in order that you might live, loving YHWH your God, obeying His voice, and clinging tightly to Him; for this is the very source and sustenance of your life.