Emmaus – A Preacher’s Ponderings

Reading scripture

Third Sunday of Easter; 23 April 2023; Easter 3A (RCL); Acts 2:14a, 36-41; Psalm 116:1-3, 10-17; Luke 24:13-35.

The story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus is one of the most familiar in all of the Gospels, lending itself as it does to easy depiction. One of the charming aspects of the story is the Cleopas’ unnamed companion. I believe Luke’s leaving him unnamed serves as an invitation to the reader to see her or himself in the story, walking with Cleopas and Jesus to Emmaus.

Into exile

Third Sunday of Easter; Easter 3A (RCL); Acts 2:14a, 36-41; Psalm 116:1-3, 10-17;1 Peter 1:17-23; Luke 24:13-35.

I wonder to what extent Luke wrote this story with the history of Israel in mind. The two disciples are walking away from Jerusalem when Jesus joins them and begins to interpret Moses and the prophets to them. It was in the Exile in Babylon that the exiles began to compile the books of Moses and the prophets. It was there they began to become people of the scroll. After the interpretation of Moses and the prophets, and the breaking of the bread, the two disciples run back to Jerusalem, mirroring the hope of the great restoration that shaped so much of Second Temple expectation.