35 Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.
This is the tail end of the two disciples explaining Jesus’ appearance to them to the apostles on the road to Emmaus, it included Cleopas and an unnamed disciple. Scholars have speculated that the exclusive inclusion of this story in Luke’s Gospel could indicate that the unnamed disciple is Luke himself. A lot of Acts, also written by Luke uses the plural “We” without ever indicating when the Greek doctor became a follower of the Nazarenes, although it is pure speculation, I like the idea of it.
Cleopas is considered the brother of Joseph, Jesus’ foster father by Saint Jerome and Eusebius, making him Jesus’ uncle. He and the unnamed disciple have come to the apostles and explained how Jesus’ has appeared to them and especially the important moment of Jesus’ identity become known at the breaking of the eucharistic bread.
36 As they were saying this, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to You.”
37 But they were startled and frightened, and supposed that they saw a spirit.
Jesus has made a few appearances at this point after his resurrection, each one shocking his audience in some way and this is no difference. He appears to the group whilst the two from the road are finishing their story and Jesus just suddenly appears. It implies that Jesus did not walk through the door, he was just suddenly standing among them, this has led to many speculations on the supernatural abilities that come from a glorified resurrected body, one being some kind of phase-shifting, Jesus can pass through matter like a non-corporeal entity whilst maintaining a corporeal body. Jesus simply says “Peace to you” likely to not startle them but that is going to be difficult considering the supernatural appearance.
The gathered apostles and disciples are immediately startled by Jesus’ appearance, this is understandable. They presume that what they are seeing is a spirit. Although modern day Jews have attempted to shift their foundational views on non-corporeal entities, as well as non-apostolic Christians, the apostles along with the majority of Second Temple Jew’s believed in ghosts and spirits. The resurrection was the difficult thing to believe, not spirits, which is kind of funny how so many groups these days have it the other way around.
38 And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do questionings rise in your hearts?
39 See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have.”
40 And when he had said this he showed them his hands and his feet.
Jesus perceives their doubts (their assumption that he is just a spirit) and asks them why, it is a rhetorical question as he will then go on to demonstrate how bodily he is. He shows his hands and feet that still show the wounds of the nails from the crucifixion. He invites them to touch him to show that he is physically present, a real resurrection of the body has occurred. He reaffirms their belief about spirits but in contrast to himself, yes spirits exist but they do not have flesh and bone, Jesus very much has flesh and bones.
41 And while they still disbelieved for joy, and wondered, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?”
42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish,
43 and he took it and ate before them.
It is very difficult especially in our two thousand years of church history to explain something that has been normalised to the point of trivialisation but a simple question of “What can no man escape?” the answer is death. All of Jesus’ miracles pale in comparison to the resurrection, all his ethical teachings are by many orders of magnitude easier to believe and understand than the conquering of death itself. Even after touching Jesus, seeing his wounds, they still disbelieved although Luke points out that it is not for evil reasons, the news is simply too good. Which again, think of the gravity of beating the final boss that no man could ever beat; death. It is hard to comprehend.
Jesus then repeats in his person what he does in his teachings before his resurrection. He lives out a parable. You understand eating food right? I am going to eat some food. It might seem silly but this is necessary for Jesus to reach his brothers. He has to do something kind of trivial like eating to demonstrate that he is physically there in his body. This does not mean that Jesus feels hunger, he doesn’t in his glorified body but he can eat because it is still a physical body.
44 Then he said to them, “These are my words which I spoke to you, while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled.”
Jesus through his ministry and his words lived, died and rose by the scriptures. On many occasions he will justify actions by appealing to historical narratives, he will espouse ethical corrections by offering the creation account, he will die on the cross quoting the psalms, many of his miracles will be direct lived versions of things said in scripture that only God could do. Jesus says everything about him in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms but be fulfilled. This is basically Jesus saying that the entire Old Testament speaks of him in some way.
I’ve gone over many living parable stories which we just see as history like Abraham and Isaac, Moses, Joshua, David, Solomon and so on. They are history but they are also typological parables that point to what would happen in the future in an even greater way. There are also direct prophecies like those of Jeremiah, Isaiah and Amos that Jesus will live out or quote. The Jews at the time of Jesus were blind to many of these things because they could only be seen in humility and faith.
45 Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures,
46 and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead,
47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
48 You are witnesses of these things.
Jesus then gives the biggest and most important Bible study ever given. Unfortunately we do not get to read it in a literal sense but I think we do get to in a general sense. I’ve pointed out before that Matthew for example brings up prophecies at the start of his Gospel that are actually quotes and things that are on the face of it unrelated to Jesus but the Holy Spirit guided Matthew to say these were actually about Jesus. An example is from the Prophet Hosea, Matthew quotes Hosea in reference to Jesus and the Holy Family leaving Egypt to go to Nazareth “Out of Egypt I called my Son” but Hosea was talking about the historical story of the Hebrews Exodus out of Egypt, it wasn’t even considered Messianic by Second Temple Jews, where did Matthew get the idea from? I’d argue this and the myriad of other examples that do not have Second Temple backing, come directly from this speech that Jesus gives.
We then get what we can presume is the end of the speech that Jesus gives. The sum total of all the things that Jesus has said,
“Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”
The anointed one suffering would refer to Isaiah’s suffering servant and Daniel’s anointed who would be “cut-off”. The resurrection on the third day could be referencing Prophet Jonah but early Church writers like Tertullian make the much more obvious (and I think accurate) reference to be that of the Prophet Hosea. Hosea will say “After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.” It’s way more explicit and obvious. Repentance and forgiveness of sins is literally the ink that the prophets themselves write with and also they will be the ones most explicit in the future inclusion of the nations as a part of God’s covenant. It will start from Jerusalem, where Jesus dies and rises. The Apostles will be the witnesses to all these things. It also implies that they will in the future tense be witnesses too, they have things to do, live out the Great Commission and die as martyrs, this is what history attests to.
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