Are you troubled?

And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. LUKE 24:27

A word for the troubled? Yes, it was certainly that. But the two people who were making their way back to Emmaus from Jerusalem on a Sunday morning following Jesus’ crucifixion were more than troubled. They were devastated. They had been following Jesus for years. They thought he was God’s Messiah who was going to drive out the occupying Roman armies, free his people from their bondage to Rome, and restore the glory of the fallen house of David. But suddenly Jesus had been arrested and killed, and their great dream had ended. It had been exciting while it lasted. But their hopes had died with their Master, and they were going home.

What else could they do? If Jesus were living, they might have been able to handle almost anything. But their faith had been shattered, and there was nothing for them to do but go home and get on with the sad task of picking up the pieces of their lives.

THE EMMAUS DISCIPLES

Who were these disciples? The answer is not as uncertain as many people think. For one thing, the story itself gives one of their names. It is a man’s name, Cleopas (Luke 24:18). Moreover, if you use any good concordance of New Testament words and look up Cleopas, you will find a second mention of this name in another account of the Resurrection, John 19:25. That verse says, “Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala.”

It is true that John spells the name a bit differently. He has Clopas, dropping an e. But the spelling of names often varied in antiquity, and the two names undoubtedly refer to the same person. So we learn from this verse that Cleopas’ wife was also present with him in Jerusalem when Jesus was crucified, and we may assume that she was the one returning to Emmaus with him on the morning of the Resurrection. Her name was Mary. We are told in other places that she was the mother of James the younger and Joses and that she had been a helper of Jesus and his disciples along with other women (see Mark 15:40-41; 16:1; Luke 24:10).

NO ONE BELIEVED

The point of this story, like the similar account of Jesus’ appearances to Mary Magdalene and Thomas in John’s Gospel, is that Cleopas and Mary were not expecting and certainly did not believe in Jesus’ resurrection, even after they had been told about it. 

Mary had seen the crucifixion. She must have seen the nails driven into Jesus’ hands and feet and heard the dull thud as the cross was raised and dropped into the hole prepared to hold it. She had seen the blood. She had noticed the darkness. She had heard Jesus cry out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Finally, she had seen the spear driven into Jesus’ side. She would have had no doubt at all that Jesus was dead. Nor would Cleopas have doubted it. He had been in Jerusalem that weekend too, and he may also have seen some of these things.

When Jesus died, Mary went back into Jerusalem to where she and Cleopas were staying. The Passover came, the event that had hastened the trial and led to the breaking of the crucified prisoners’ legs. Cleopas and Mary would have observed it like good Jews. It was a sad holiday, but there was nothing to be done about it. They were simply waiting for the Sabbath to be over so they could leave the capital and return to their home in Emmaus some distance to the south.

Something else happened that morning. Mary went to the tomb with the other women to pay her last respects to Jesus’ body and to anoint it if that were possible, apparently leaving Cleopas behind to get things ready so they could leave. While she was with the women at the tomb, Mary, like the others, saw the angels and heard them say that Jesus had been raised from the dead. When she got back she told Cleopas about it. But here is the remarkable thing. Instead of believing in Jesus’ resurrection, even when she was told about it, Mary simply joined Cleopas in getting ready to go home. She was certainly not expecting, nor did she believe in a resurrection in any form.

And there is more! During the time Cleopas and Mary were getting ready, some of the women told Peter and John what they had seen, and the two men rushed to the tomb, went in, saw the undisturbed graveclothes, and came back to the city with their report. They told Cleopas and Mary what they had observed. But again—this is most remarkable—Cleopas and Mary simply went on packing, and as soon as they were ready they started out for Emmaus. So little did they anticipate a resurrection!

THE BIBLICAL ACCOUNT

Do you think I am making this up? I am not. It is only what the Emmaus disciples reported to Jesus themselves when he appeared to them before they recognized him. Jesus asked them why they were so sad.

“Are you the only one living in Jerusalem who doesn’t know the things that have happened there in these days?” they replied.

“What things?” Jesus asked. 

They explained that they were talking about Jesus’ crucifixion. 

“He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him, but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel” (vs. 18-21). 

That was a strange thing to have said since that is exactly what Jesus was doing. He was redeeming Israel by his death. But they were not thinking of that. They were only thinking of political redemption. They had expected Jesus to drive out the Romans.

Then Cleopas said, 

“And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition, some of our women [this would be Mary, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Salome, and the others] amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. Then some of our companions [this would have been Peter and John] went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see” (vv. 21-24).

Imagine that! They had heard from angels and reliable human witnesses. 

All declared the tomb to be empty, and the angels had announced the Resurrection. Cleopas and his wife understood this clearly enough to have been able to report it accurately to Jesus. But this was so far from their thinking that they did not even investigate the matter for themselves.

WHAT MADE THE DIFFERENCE?

What convinced them, then? We are inclined to say, “Well, it must have been the appearance of Jesus himself. When Jesus appeared to them, of course, they believed in him then.” But that is not the way Luke tells the story. The fact of the matter is that Jesus had appeared to them. He was with them even while they were telling him about the words of the women, the angels, and the disciples, but they were not convinced by his appearance or his presence. 

They did not recognize him. What convinced them was when Jesus “opened the Scriptures” to them (v. 32).

And notice this: when we are told that Jesus began “with Moses and all the Prophets” and explained to them “in all the Scriptures” what was said about himself, Jesus was working from the entire Old Testament in accord with the common Jewish way of referring to it. 

The Jews had a word for the Old Testament, the word tanakh. It was composed of the three Hebrew consonants t, n, and k, as we would write them, and these stood for the parts of the Old Testament Luke refers to. T is the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, written by Moses. N is for the neviim, the prophets. K is for the ketuvim, or the writings, which is what the word “scriptures” also means. “Writings” and “scriptures” are synonymous. So what we are told in verse 27 is that Jesus used the entire Old Testament to explain that it was necessary for him to suffer and then rise again.

As Jesus did this, their hearts burned within them (v. 32). In other words, they were moved, stirred, convicted, enlightened, and uplifted as Jesus taught the Bible. That is exactly what happens today, of course. And that is exactly why we must turn to the Bible for our instruction and comfort instead of looking for signs and wonders or trying to pump ourselves up emotionally by some other kind of religious experience or entertainment.

LUKE’S WORDS FOR TODAY 

I am sure that when Luke placed this story last in his Gospel, as the Gospel’s climax, he was telling us that this is exactly how it must be today. We don’t think like this, of course. We think we would like to see miracles. 

Like the unbelievers of Jesus’ day, we want to see some sick people healed, more loaves and fish multiplied, and people raised from the dead. 

But people had those miracles in Jesus’ day, and it did not lead to faith any more than it does now. This is because miracles do not convince anyone. All they do is cause unbelievers to want more miracles.

This is why Jesus had determined to be a teacher above all, rather than a miracle-worker. When the disciples wanted him to return to Capernaum to do more healing miracles in Mark 1, since that seemed to be drawing large crowds, Jesus replied, 

“Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come” (v. 38).

That is also why the apostles determined to teach the Bible, though they were able to perform miracles on occasion. When they were in danger of being drawn into controversies over the distribution of food to the widows of the Jerusalem church, they advised the election of deacons to manage it because, they said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the Word of God in order to wait on tables.... We will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:2-4).

Paul also made this the pattern for his ministry. When he went to Thessalonica, 

“As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead ‘This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ,’ he said” (Acts 17:2-3). 

In other words, Paul did exactly what Jesus did when he expounded the Bible to Cleopas and Mary. 

“He said to them, ‘How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself” (Luke 24:25-27).

So I offer this biblical advice. If you are troubled about spiritual things, especially if you are uncertain what to think about Jesus Christ—whether he is the Son of God and the Savior and whether you should commit yourself to him or not—the way to have your questions answered and your doubts settled is to listen carefully as the Bible is taught and also to study it yourself. If you do, your experience will be like that of Mary and her husband. Your heart will be stirred, your eyes will be opened, faith will be born in you, and you will become a Christian or grow spiritually.

Author: Boice, J. M., & Ryken, P. G. (1999). The heart of the cross. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.