He'd been away from home for two decades. For ten years, he fought the enemy at war. For another ten, he wandered land and sea to obtain his homecoming. Home he came disguised as a beggar, recognized by his old dog, who breathed his last.
Just as his master came home. But he was not recognized by the wicked suitors pursuing his wife in his absence. One even tried to kick him out of his own home. He had been faithful to his wife, and learned that she had been faithful to him all those years.
And that the suitors have taken advantage of her hospitality. Still disguised as a beggar, he gets to give her news of her husband, that is himself. They say he was like a god. And he tells her not to worry, oh, he will come home soon, and he will make every wrong right.
Now his wife had delayed marriage through a variety of strategies. This time, she says that if anyone can string her husband's bow and shoot it skillfully through twelve iron rings of fixed to twelve axes, then she will marry him. Not a man can do it. Not a man except for the beggar, who strides to the bow and strings it, and then sitting in a chair effortlessly shoots the arrow straight through twelve rings.
He then strips his rags and lets another arrow fly, killing the wickedest suitor. The rest scream at him, stranger, you shall pay for shooting people this way. They tell him he's doomed. The vultures shall devour you.
But the beggar says, dogs, did you not think I would come back from Troy? You have wasted my substance. Have forced my female servants to lie with you, and you have wooed my wife while I was still living. You have feared neither God nor man, and you shall die.
And they do. Odysseus, who's son and a loyal servant slaughter them. And Homer makes the ending of the Odyssey all the more dramatic by concealing Odysseus' identity from his enemies, and even from his wife. The scenes are rich in dramatic irony.
Odysseus, somebody tries to kick Odysseus out of his own home. Odysseus, Penelope's husband, gets to praise Odysseus himself. But it's not just like hearted comedy. By disguising himself as a beggar, Odysseus is able to see that his wife has been faithful, and he gets to see himself, the wickedness of the suitors.
By concealing, he reveals. Now Luke's account of Jesus meeting two people on the road to Emmaus is similarly rich in dramatic irony. But Luke's story is better, because unlike Odysseus, Jesus is not the king of legends, but the one true king of all mankind. So let's turn to Luke chapter 24 and read this exhilarating story.
It's on page 885 if you're looking at the black P Bible in front of you. I'll start with verse 13, Luke chapter 24. That very day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them.
But their eyes were kept from recognizing him, and he said to them, what is this conversation that you were holding with each other as you walk? And they stood still looking sad. And one of them named Cleopas answered him, are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days? And he said to them with things.
And they said to him concerning Jesus, a man who was a prophet, mighty, and deed and word, before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it's now the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us.
They were at the tomb early in the morning. And when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels. Who said that he was alive? Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said.
But him, they did not see. And he said to them, oh foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? In beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them and all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
Well, let's pray and ask God to help us. Lord Jesus, we thank you that you find your people where they are. You teach them what they need to know and that you open blind eyes. Lord open our eyes and open our minds to see you, to trust you and to delight in you.
Give me strength to preach. Give us all ears to understand. And it's in your strong and powerful name we pray. Amen.
Well, let's consider the passage before us under three headings. In Luke chapter 24, we see the pursuit of Jesus in verses 13 to 17. We see the patience of Jesus in verses 18 to 24. And finally, we see the prophetic word about Jesus in verses 25 to 27.
So his pursuit, his patience and the prophetic word about him. First, the pursuit of Jesus verses 13 to 17. The pursuit of Jesus. Now, the current location of Emmaus is unknown.
But Luke gives its relative location very specifically. It's a village verse 13, 60 Stadia, or about seven miles from Jerusalem. These two, it could be the named man Cleopas and a companion, or it could actually be his wife, but the person's unnamed. Talk about the things that happened verse 14.
They're talking and discussing together verse 15. Now this stranger draws near in verse 15. And you can draw near on a road in one of two ways. You can come face to face and get near to each other that way.
Or you can actually walk from behind someone and overtake the person. Now, because Cleopas says in verse 18 that this stranger is a visitor to Jerusalem, we may safely assume that he too is journeying to Emmaus, that he's drawing near by walking in the same direction and overtaking Cleopas and his companion. Now the geography, it's just not a geography lesson here. It's important because that means that they did not come haphazardly upon Jesus, but instead he was actually pursuing them.
But he walked up to them from behind. And Luke tells us who the stranger is. It's Jesus. But the travelers do not recognize him.
Now unlike the Odyssey, Jesus is not disguised as a beggar or anything else. Instead verse 16, their eyes were kept from recognizing him. Now it may be that we think that the Lord and keeping their eyes from recognizing Jesus, that the Lord is doing them as a service. But that's because we don't understand their predicament, their problem.
Cleopas and his companion have seen and heard more than enough to believe and trust in Jesus, but they still do not understand who he is. They need more than the news that Jesus has come back from the dead. As we'll see in a moment, they need to understand why it is that he died in the first place. Think about it by comparison in the Old Testament, Elijah raised a widow's son in 1 Kings 17.
His disciple, Elijah, raised a Shinnomite son back from the dead in 2 Kings 4. That widow's son in Zerephath wasn't the Savior of the world. And the Shinnomite son wasn't the Christ who would suffer in the interns of Worry. Jesus himself raises a widow's only son in Luke 7, and he brings Jairus' daughter back to life in Luke 8.
And people instantly recognize them. But neither the widow's son or Jairus' daughter was the one of whom Moses and all the prophets spoke. Jesus pursues these travelers, and they need to know more than he's the guy that was crucified three days ago. They need to understand the significance of his life, death, and resurrection.
And to do that, he will need patience with them and the prophetic word. He asks in verse 17, what is this conversation that you're holding with each other as you walk? And they stood still, Luke tells us, looking sad. Then I love this answer.
Verse 18, Cleopas says, are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days? Look at the patience of Jesus. Of course, there's rich irony here, isn't there? Because Cleopas in verse 18 is rebuking Jesus for his ignorance of what happened in Jerusalem.
Don't you know what happened in Jerusalem? But we know, don't we, that Cleopas is the one who doesn't know what happened in Jerusalem. One commentator makes this point elegantly. Instead of being the only person who did not know what was happening, Jesus was the only person who did.
And notice the patience of Jesus. He asks simply, verse 19, what things? Well, we then get to hear, in the words of another commentator, the gospel according to Cleopas. The gospel according to Cleopas.
Jesus, in Nazareth, verse 19 was a prophet, mighty, indeed, and word before God and all the people. This language is strikingly similar to the language that the martyr Stephen uses to describe Moses in Luke's second book, The Book of Acts. Stephen says Moses was mighty in his words and deeds. So one way of understanding the gospel according to Cleopas is that Jesus was his greatest Moses.
Or if not his great, at least in the same, lead. But verse 20, Jesus met a terrible death, crucifixion. And it dashed their hopes, verse 21, we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. To redeem Israel.
One commentator, hopefully, defines redemption for us. Redemption in the ancient world, he writes, signified deliverance on payment of a price. Deliverance upon payment of a price. Cleopas has in mind, perhaps, the kind of deliverance that Moses purchased, that Moses got for God's people in the excess.
God's people were being horribly treated by the Egyptians, and Moses, mighty in words and deeds, led them out of Egypt. They were delivered from their oppressors by the servant whom God had chosen. Cleopas and his fellow traveler were similarly hoping that God's people would be delivered from their oppressors by the servant that God had chosen. And except this time, the oppressors were the Romans.
But according to the gospel, according to the Cleopas, God didn't do it. Instead of overthrowing the Romans, instead of rescuing God's people from their oppression, Jesus was killed by them. We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. The implication of that statement is he was not the one.
Notice that Cleopas and his fellow traveler have some vague recollection about the importance of the third day, verse 21. But the gospel, according to Cleopas, doubts the women's testimony. Some women of our company amaze us, verse 22, because the women said that they couldn't find his body. Instead, they saw visions of angels who said that he was alive, verse 23.
Some of those who were with us, you know, the trustworthy men. They went to the tomb, verse 24, and found it just as the women had said. Imagine that. But him, they did not see.
Him, they did not see. Think about that for a moment. They were telling Jesus that the women were amazed because they couldn't find Jesus, and the disciples couldn't find Jesus either. Whereas Jesus, that is the question.
Now it's easy, of course, for us to laugh at Cleopas and his companion. But we are often misguided, ignorant, and foolish. And it isn't a lovely thing to be reminded in this passage that the Lord Jesus is patient. That he's patient with our confusion.
He's patient with our doubts, with our misunderstandings. He's patient. But mercifully and wonderfully, though Jesus is patient, he does not want us to remain in our sin and ignorance. He didn't want Cleopas and his companion to remain there either.
And that's why, in verses 25 to 27, Cleopas and his fellow traveler receive the prophetic word about Jesus. The prophetic word about Jesus. Jesus begins with the rebuke, verse 25. O foolish ones, one commentator suggested that perhaps Jesus was saying, Clueless.
Or how he said, you're so clueless. I think he's saying, you should have known better. O foolish ones, verse 25, what's their problem? What are they missing?
Slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. I want you to focus in on the key word of Jesus' condemnation there, of his critique there. It's the word all.
They believe some of the prophetic word, but they did not believe all that the prophets had spoken. And verse 26 makes clear what they were missing. Was it not necessary, Jesus says, that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? They believed the high notes, but not the low ones.
They delighted in the bright brushstrokes, but not the shadows. The Christ, the anointed coming king, he will come in glory. He will judge the earth. He will write every wrong.
They believed in that coming king. But they did not see that the Lord's Christ, God's chosen rescuer of God's chosen people, must first suffer and only then enter into glory. It should be no surprise to us that when the apostle Peter talks about the prophetic word about Jesus, the Old Testament testimony about Jesus, that Peter unsurprisingly repeats his master's refrain. In verse 1, Peter speaks of the sufferings of Christ and subsequent glories, suffering now, glory later.
And to show them all that the prophets had spoken, not just the glories of God's king, but his sufferings too, Jesus leads Cleopas and is companion in a Bible study. Wouldn't you have wanted to be there on the road to Emmaus? Verse 27, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them and all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. So having patiently given Cleopas the opportunity to preach his gospel, Jesus moves to correct him with the true and genuine gospel.
Now how does Jesus do it? Does Jesus say, hey look at me, look, I'm back again, I'm alive again. No, he doesn't. He points to the prophetic word.
And it's interesting, just as Ted preached last week with the women at the tomb, the angels, if you remember in Luke 24 verses 6 and 7, the angels tell the women, remember what Jesus told you. Remember the perfect word of Jesus. And now Jesus is telling Cleopas and his companion, remember the Old Testament prophecies about me. In both instances, the message is the same.
Understand your current experience by the light of what has already been said. Interpret what you see by what you should remember. Well what should they remember? They should remember the gospel according to the Old Testament.
The gospel according to the Old Testament. The Old Testament is full of Jesus. Many Old Testament passages speak so obviously about Jesus that when New Testament writers want to speak about what Jesus did, they allude to or simply quote word for word what was said in the Old Testament. So the Old Testament is about Jesus.
If someone tells you the Old Testament is not about Jesus, then that person is disagreeing with Jesus himself. Jesus is the promised son in Genesis. He's the Exodus Passover lamb. He's both the atoning sacrifice and the priest in Leviticus.
He is the bronze serpent, lifted high in numbers, drawing all men to himself. He's the promised prophet greater than Moses in Deuteronomy. He's the captain of the Lord's host in Joshua. He's the true judge of God's people.
And he is Ruth Kinsman Redeemer. I could go on and on, but let me just mention one more book, Isaiah, an Old Testament book so clearly about Jesus that it is often called the fifth gospel. If you don't think so, then simply read Isaiah and listen to the five sermons Ted preached over the Christmas break. Here's a foretaste of what you'd hear, what you'd read if you did so.
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Their prince of peace has been born. A bruised read he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench. He will faithfully bring forth justice.
He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace and with his wounds. We are healed.
So, comfort. Comfort might be people. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her that her warfare is ended. Jesus can correct the gospel of Cleopas that is not a gospel with Old Testament words precisely because rightly understood they speak clearly and directly about him.
Well, let's close with two brief points of application. First, prioritize the prophetic word. Prioritize the prophetic word. Ignorance of the Bible is everywhere.
But ignorance is no excuse. Jesus calls Cleopas and his companions foolish ones in Luke 24 verse 25. And one commentator notes that in here I'm reading ignorance like this is deeply instructive. It shows us how little cause we have to wonder at the spiritual darkness which obscures the minds of careless Christians.
Myriads around us are just as ignorant of the meaning of Christ's sufferings as these travelers to Emmaus. So if people in your social circle claim to be Christians, push them to interpret their experiences by the light of the Bible rather than the Bible in the light of their experiences. Prioritize the prophetic word. Second, cling to the whole gospel.
Cling to the whole gospel. A partial gospel is no gospel at all. The gospel according to Cleopas makes some great claims about Jesus. The gospel according to Cleopas says some nice things about him.
But Cleopas has nothing of Christ's divinity. And with his so-called gospel, there's no resurrection, no forgiveness of sins, and no life everlasting. He thinks Jesus wasn't the one to redeem Israel, the one to deliver God's people upon payment of a price. But that's because he did not understand that Jesus on the cross delivered God's people upon payment of the price for their sins.
I think that Cleopas and his companions could stand in for many people today. They want the Jesus who turns the other cheek. But not the Jesus who was punished for their sins. They want love your neighbor as yourself, but not the righteousness of God made known in the earth.
But it must be both and. It cannot be either or. If you want the Jesus of love and life, then you must take the Jesus of justice and death. If you do not, then you will miss him on the road that is your life, and you will have only yourself to blame.
So cling to the whole gospel, to the suffering of the Savior in your place, and the glory, the glory that he now has and he will give to us at the last day, and find that gospel in the Bible. Let's pray.