The Emmaus Experience
Jonathan Gallagher
As Cleopas and his friend trudge mournfully back home to Emmaus, they rehearse the final events that turned their hope into hopelessness, their dreams into tragedy. The two lonely, disappointed disciples reason together.
“I still don’t understand it. It seemed so right, so true. He had me believing, that’s for sure.”
“I know what you mean. All the evidence was there. He healed the sick, he fed the five thousand, he raised the dead. We saw it with our own eyes. But now…”
“How could something so right be so wrong? How could we be so badly mistaken?”
“And God. Where is God now? After letting us get so excited for his cause, having given everything we could, to let us down so badly. I just can’t make sense of it. If only Jesus was here with us now…”
Suddenly Jesus is—right there with them. Miracle. Joy. Amazement.
No. They don’t even recognize him. They continue in their disappointment and depression, muttering to this foolish stranger who seems to be the only one in all Jerusalem who does know what’s happened. In response to the stranger’s question, they stand still, with faces downcast, and explain their gloom.1 They go on talking as they walk the weary miles back home, and the stranger just falls into step with them as they plod on down the road.2
What is Jesus doing? Or not doing? Why doesn’t he reveal himself? Why doesn’t he appear before them like on the Mount of Transfiguration, and blind them with dazzling glory? Why not knock them senseless with an awe-inspiring display of majesty? At least show them his pierced hands, feet and side, and show them physically who he is. After all, they’re suffering.3
But Jesus does none of this. No display. No revelation. No miracle.
No overwhelming of their minds and senses. Just a quiet but earnest conversation to help them disentangle the truth from all the rest of their overburdened thoughts.4
Instead he acts as an interested stranger. Not even a clue as to who he might be, and they in their sorrow cannot see. Nothing about the meeting compels the disheartened disciples to believe. Rather it is a neutral and open encounter in which the speaker’s nature is not really relevant.
For Jesus reminds them of what they already know and have access to. He refuses the miraculous, and appeals to their memory and mental processes. He reconstructs their damaged faith using the building blocks of God’s past actions. The truth is not destroyed—even by the intense sorrow at the crucifixion of Jesus. The plan of salvation continues on, despite their blinded eyes.
It would have been so easy for Jesus to simply have said, “It’s me!” They would have been instantly changed from despondency to inexpressible joy. His very presence with them was the answer to their sorrow.
So why did Jesus not reveal himself?
Because he wanted them to believe not because of miracles or glory, or even his physical presence, but because faith is inherently true and based on clear evidence.5
Jesus wanted belief based not on signs and wonders, nor on his word alone, nor on his being there, but solely on the principle that truth is truth. To have revealed himself would have been to side-step the process, to answer just the feelings of the moment and not the questions of truth.6
God seeks true believers, not the miracle-awed, the glory-bedazzled, or the forcefully-persuaded. The reason for faith is vitally important. Is it because of the supernatural manifestations, or the compelling personal presence, or the inspiring oratory?
Or is faith true because it is true of itself, even without the very presence of God himself who chooses to remain hidden as he walks beside us on the way?
At the end, Jesus does choose to show himself. But it is only at the end, when they are already persuaded. The persuasion is not through overwhelming power, nor by the power of personal presence, but by clear reasoned appeal to truth as revealed in God’s word.
Their “hearts burned within them” not at the physical revelation of Jesus but well before. Their restored conviction comes through the assurance of truth—that they had not been wrong, that their faith had been based on solid foundation, that their belief was in a God who acts for the salvation of humanity, and that they could trust in the saving, returning Lord. They were convinced before they knew the identity of this well-informed ‘stranger.’7
As they came near to their home, they invited the stranger to stay. Jesus even then did not impose his presence, but made as if to continue on his journey. Only as they showed that they really wanted him to stay was Jesus persuaded. Only then, as they sat down to eat together, did they realize. Only then—for by then their faith, based on truth and right—had already been established. God never forces: As a God committed to freedom and choice, he waits for our invitation, and responds to our call.
And as soon as they recognize him, the source of truth, and want to worship him in his physical presence, he is gone.
So what is all this telling us?
That God himself wants us our belief to be based on the clear evidence of truth. Our experience must be based on understanding.8 That our own witness must follow the same process—that any other form of faith-sharing is illegitimate. That an “intelligent faith” is what God is looking for.9
This Emmaus experience is what we should be looking for. It tells us that our faith is not to be founded on miraculous amazement, the signs and wonders that Jesus refused to perform to his unbelieving generation. Nor is it based even on blind and unthinking acceptance of whatever God says. Jesus refuses to endorse his words with his personal authority, but remains a stranger until the end. Rather Jesus appeals to all the evidence of God’s past actions, of the historical record of his involvement in human affairs. This record, won at such great cost to God, is the demonstration of who God is and how he chooses to act.
It is easy to make claims, back them up with appeals to personal authority, and then enforce them with immense power, an option clearly available to God the Almighty. But he chooses not to use such methods. Rather he uses the still, small voice, saying, “Come, let us reason together.” For he wants agreement and acceptance of truth and right, not enforced unquestioning submission.
The Emmaus experience is also the model for our outreach. For once convinced, and with their faith energized by evidential truth, the disciples rush back to Jerusalem to share with the others. Their appeal is not based on compulsion or the miraculous, but they have refound their faith through the words of a stranger. That this stranger is the risen Lord confirms their faith, but it was Jesus’ “Bible study” that had re-established it.10
And in his compassion, Jesus waits for these two disciples from Emmaus to explain their experience to the others before he appears to the group. He wants the reasons for faith to be explained even before he returns to speak personally to his closest friends. For while they are still excitedly talking about what has happened. Jesus appears.11He would want to be with them immediately, but he chooses to wait so the fundamentals of faith can be established before they are overwhelmed by the physical presence of their resurrected Lord.
Jesus wants faith based not the thrill of the moment, but on carefully-examined evidence. So our words must also have that same ring of truth, without the need to make appeal to gimmickry or emotionalism, signs or wonders, manipulation or authoritarianism.12
The same appeal to evidence is seen in the disciples’ preaching—by Peter on the day of Pentecost, Stephen to the Ethiopian, Paul everywhere he went. Preaching Christ, and him crucified, as part of the whole panorama of God’s evidence that truth really is truth and does make sense. This is in strong contrast to the ‘mystery’ religions of the time that enshrined the principle that religion did not have to make sense, and was better if it did not make sense. That false religious concept is still very much part of modern ideologies…
In contrast, we believe in a God who has acted consistently throughout history, who wishes to reveal the truth, especially the truth about himself. We preach a revealed mystery, truth demonstrated through the evidence. We have the privilege of sharing our faith in a God who makes sense, who does not need to use any means to overpower us, but simply speaks to convict us of what is true and right, and who chose to die at our hands on a cruel cross to convince us of that supreme reality of truth.
This is the Emmaus experience, Jesus’ fundamental lessons for “all coming time.”13
References
1. Luke 24:17.
2. “After the resurrection, two of the disciples, while travelling to Emmaus, were talking over the disappointed hopes occasioned by the death of their beloved Master. Christ Himself drew near, unrecognized by His sorrowing disciples. Their faith had died with their Lord, and their eyes, blinded by unbelief, did not discern the risen Saviour. Jesus, walking by their side, did not reveal Himself abruptly. He accosted them as fellow-travellers, and asked them the subject of their conversation, and why they were so sad. Astonished at the question, they inquired if He were indeed a stranger in Jerusalem, and had not heard that a prophet mighty in word and in deed had been taken by wicked hands and crucified. And now it was the third day since Jesus died; and strange reports had been brought to their ears that He had risen; and had been seen by certain of the disciples. But Jesus said to them, ‘O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken; ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory?’ And beginning at Moses and the prophets, He opened to them the scriptures concerning Himself.” Ellen White, Bible Echo and Signs of the Times, October 22, 1894.
3. “There were no special marks which would at once cause the men of Emmaus to know that he was the Son of God. They did not know him until he told them who he was.” Ellen White, Spiritual Gifts. Volume 4A, p.119.
4. “The disciples traveling to Emmaus needed to be disentangled in their interpretation of the Scriptures. Jesus walked with them disguised, and as a man He talked with them. Beginning at Moses and the prophets He taught them in all things concerning Himself, that His life, His mission, His sufferings, His death were just as the Word of God had foretold. He opened their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures. How quickly He straightened out the tangled ends and showed the unity and divine verity of the Scriptures. How much men in these times need their understanding opened.” Ellen White, Selected Messages Book 1, pp.20, 21.
5. “Beginning at Moses, the very Alpha of Bible history, Christ expounded in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. Had He first made Himself known to them, their hearts would have been satisfied. In the fullness of their joy they would have hungered for nothing more. But it was necessary for them to understand the witness borne to Him by the types and prophecies of the Old Testament. Upon these their faith must be established. Christ performed no miracle to convince them, but it was His first work to explain the Scriptures. They had looked upon His death as the destruction of all their hopes. Now He showed from the prophets that this was the very strongest evidence
for their faith.” Ellen White, Desire of Ages, pp.798, 799.
6. “Jesus did not first reveal Himself in His true character to them, and then open the
Scriptures to their minds; for He knew that they would be so overjoyed to see Him again, risen from the dead, that their souls would be satisfied. They would not hunger for the sacred truths which He wished to impress indelibly upon their minds, that they might impart them to others, who should in their turn spread the precious knowledge, until thousands of people should receive the light given that day to the despairing disciples
as they journeyed to Emmaus.” Ellen White, S.D.A. Bible Commentary Vol. 5, p. 1125.
7. “Faith begins to revive. Their hearts beat with a strong and renewed hope as they listen eagerly to the plain, simple words of their unknown fellow-traveler. They are surprised to find their burdened hearts becoming light; and as they think of Jesus, of all he was to them, of all he suffered, their tears flow freely. Their confidence had not been misplaced. He was all and even more than they had believed.
“If these men had no reason of their hope within them, their hearts would not have responded to the world’s Redeemer as he strove to fasten their trembling faith upon the testimony of the prophets concerning himself. As it was, the evidences of the truth needed only to be revived in their minds. The very clouds that darkened their faith grew luminous with assurance as they saw the harmony of prophecy and its fulfillment. As the mists began to lift, the betrayal, trial, and crucifixion stood like great waymarks promising the fulfillment of the word of God, witnessing to his providences, and telling the story of the unutterable love and truth of their Saviour. Again their feet stood firm on the sure foundation.” Ellen White, Signs of the Times, January 20, 1888. My emphasis.
8. “The reason that many professed Christians do not have a clear, well-defined experience is that they do not think it is their privilege to understand what God has spoken through his word. After the resurrection of Jesus, two of his disciples were journeying toward Emmaus, and Jesus joined them. But they did not recognize their Lord, and thought he was some stranger, although "beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself…..” This is the work that we may look to Christ to do for us; for what the Lord has revealed, is for us and our children forever.” Ellen White, Review and Herald, December 1, 1891. My emphasis.
9. “He maintained His disguise till He had interpreted the Scriptures, and had led them to an intelligent faith in His life, His character, His mission to earth, and His death and resurrection. He wished the truth to take firm root in their minds, not because it was supported by His personal testimony, but because the typical law, and the prophets of the Old Testament, agreeing with the facts of His life and death, presented unquestionable evidence of that truth. When the object of His labors with the two disciples was gained, He revealed Himself to them, that their joy might be full, and then vanished from their sight.” Ellen White, S.D.A. Bible Commentary Vol. 5, p. 1125. My emphasis. Ellen White often uses the phrase “intelligent faith” to mean faith based on evidence that has been reasonably evaluated. For example: “We do not want a sensational religion; but we want a religion founded on intelligent faith.” Review and Herald, April 9, 1889; “We may have an intelligent faith; we may not only say we believe, but we may in meekness and confidence be able to define what we believe, and why we believe as we do. We should exercise living faith, not a blind credulity.” Signs of the Times, March 31, 1890; “There is always sufficient evidence upon which to base an intelligent faith.” Signs of the Times, December 30, 1886.
10. “But with this great news to communicate it was impossible for them to sit and talk. Their weariness and hunger were gone, and leaving their meal untasted they hurried back to the city, stumbling over the rough places along the way. They did not know that the Saviour journeyed with them. Entering Jerusalem, they went to the house where the disciples were assembled, gave the signal for unlocking the doors, and were admitted. The disciples were listening to a story of the women who had been to the sepulcher and
who declared that Christ had risen from the dead. But those in the room did not believe the story. Then the two disciples told their experience. They said that Christ had walked with them, and that their hearts had burned within them while He opened the Scriptures to their understanding.” Ellen White, Sermons and Talks Volume Two, p. 172.
11. Luke 24:36.
12. Commenting on an evangelistic outreach in Santa Rosa, Ellen White makes the following analogy: “A good work was accomplished by the labor at Santa Rosa, though ittle interest was manifested by unbelievers. The opportunity was gratefully improved by those who loved the truth. They listened to the reasons of our faith with feelings akin to those of the disciples to whom Jesus expounded the Scriptures on the way to Emmaus. When these disciples learned that it was Christ who had walked and talked with them, they said, one to the other, ‘Did not our hearts burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures?’ Christ is still sending chosen servants as his representatives to explain and enforce the truths of his sacred word.” Ellen White, Signs of the Times, March 16, 1882. My emphasis.
13. “As two of the disciples were traveling to Emmaus, conversing in sad tones of their disappointed hopes, Jesus himself, concealing his identity, drew near, and with words of sympathy sought to draw from these sorrowing ones the cause of their grief. Although they had reason to regard with distrust and fear all men outside the little circle of believers, yet they freely unburdened their hearts to this stranger. Now was the time for Jesus to give those lessons which he would have repeated to his followers in all coming time.” Ellen White, Review and Herald, September 14, 1886. My emphasis.
©2001 Jonathan Gallagher