“Did not our heart burn within us?”: the road to Emmaus in Luke 24

Two friends are walking home, heartbroken. The man they believed would save Israel has been crucified. A stranger falls into step beside them and asks what they are talking about. They do not realise that the answer to their sorrow is walking with them.

The journey

Luke 24 tells how, on the same day that the women found the empty tomb, two disciples were travelling from Jerusalem to a village called Emmaus, about seven and a half miles away. One of them was named Cleopas. As they talked, Jesus himself drew near and walked with them, “but their eyes were holden that they should not know him”. He asked why they were so sad.

Their story

Cleopas was surprised: “Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there?” They described Jesus of Nazareth, “a prophet mighty in deed and word”, his crucifixion, and the women’s report of an empty tomb. “We trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel.”

Jesus answered: “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.” Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained the Scriptures concerning himself.

The breaking of bread

As they reached Emmaus, he made as if he would go further. They urged him: “Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.” He went in to stay with them. At the table, he took bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it to them. “And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight.”

They said to each other: “Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?”

Back to Jerusalem

That same hour, they got up and returned to Jerusalem, found the eleven and told them what had happened on the road and how Jesus was known to them in the breaking of bread. The disciples’ request, “Abide with us: for it is toward evening”, inspired the hymn “Abide with Me”, sung around the world at funerals and evening services.

The disciples did not recognise Jesus during a long conversation about the Bible. They recognised him in an ordinary act at dinner. Many Christians find in that detail a reminder that faith is often confirmed in fellowship and shared meals as well as in study.