And having begun from Moses and from all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
The two disciples walking to Emmaus had lost hope, because their Messiah had died on a cross. Now the risen Lord walks beside them unrecognised and opens the Old Testament to them — why the Scriptures, and not a sight of His face?
The two names are not a short reading list. They are a way of naming the entire Hebrew Bible.
The phrase "Moses and all the Prophets" takes in the whole of the Old Testament. "Beginning with Moses" means the five books of Moses — Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Then come "all the Prophets," and "He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures" — that is, the Old Testament Scriptures — "the things concerning Himself."
That starting point settles a question people still argue over: who wrote those first five books.
He spoke with great care of Daniel as "the prophet" near the close of the Old Testament, and of Moses at the beginning as the writer of the law. He does not simply leave the Jewish view of Moses unchallenged. He affirms it, and He insists on it Himself, again and again, in the plainest terms.
If Christ runs through the Scriptures from Genesis onwards, He is not one theme among many. He holds the whole book together.
He Himself — all honour to His glorious Person! — is the divine centre of all the things contained in the Scriptures from cover to cover. He is the golden chain. It binds every part of the inspired volume, from Genesis to Revelation, into one marvellous and magnificent whole.
What He showed them reached beyond the passages we call predictions. The same teaching is open to us today.
This would include types (pictures) of Himself, of His sacrifice and of His resurrection glory, as well as direct prophecies. How marvellous this long discourse must have been! Yet it was only for these two, however much we might wish someone had written it down for us. But it is the work of the Holy Spirit today to take the things of Christ and show them to us. So, by diligent faith and submission to Him, we too may learn the same things.
He was alive and walking beside them. He could have settled everything by pointing to the plain facts. He opened the Scriptures instead.
Jesus hears their sad story from their own lips. He brings out the state of their hearts. Then He opens the Scriptures, instead of just pointing to the facts as evidence. This use of the Scriptures by our Lord is very significant. The word of God is the truest, deepest and weightiest testimony — even when the risen Jesus Himself stood there as its living proof in person... From then on it was not a question of a living Messiah on the earth, but of One who had died and risen, now seen by faith in the word of God.
Notice what He withheld as much as what He gave.
The written Word was enough to have taught them about all that had happened. First He rebuked them for being slow of heart to believe it. Then He turned them back to it. He would settle their faith on what God had already given. He gave them no fresh revelation. They must stand on the written word of God. That done, He made Himself known as risen from the dead... What He sought for those two, He seeks for still, that souls should take God at His word, and rest on what He has revealed. The sooner a soul does that, the sooner it will have peace with God.
The story He drew out of the Scriptures has two parts in a set order. Human thinking would gladly drop the first.
To reveal the love of His heart He expounds "to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself". And as He expounds He passes before them the touching story of His sufferings and His glories. The disciples, with their poor human thoughts, would have spared Him the sufferings. That would have kept His glories from Him.
The change in these two men was a change of subject.
The two disciples had been thinking of the things concerning themselves. The Lord leads them to "the things concerning Himself". Their desire was to bring Christ into their circumstances. He would lead them into His, and have them know Him as the Risen One outside this present evil world.
Anyone who has been moved by good teaching about Christ can guess a little of what that walk was like.
Think what it must have been to hear Him going through the Scriptures from Moses on, and from type, shadow, figure, offering and sacrifice, picking out what told of Himself, and so explaining it that their hearts began to burn. No wonder — the fact was this: they had never met such a Stranger, they had never had such teaching, and never had such company before.
- Scope. "Moses and all the Prophets" means the whole Old Testament. Christ started at page one and left nothing out.
- Centre. Across that whole range He is the one subject: the golden chain binding every part of the volume into one.
- Method. He opened the Scriptures instead of simply appearing. He wanted their faith to rest on the written word, not on what they could see.
- Order. What He drew out was sufferings first and glory after — the very sequence their hopes had reversed.
- Result. He turns hearts from their own concerns to Himself, and has them know Him as the Risen One outside this present world.
And they drew near to the village where they were going, and *he* made as though he would go farther.
The two disciples reach their village at the end of the day. The risen Lord walks with them, still unrecognised. He then acts as if He is travelling on. It looks like a small detail. But everything that follows at Emmaus turns on it.
He had walked the whole road with them. Even so, He does not invite Himself in. He leaves the next move to them.
How beautiful that touch is. Christ never forces His company on us. He did not force it that day, and He does not do it today. I can tell you exactly how much of Christ you will get. As much as you really want. "He acted as if He were going farther." And now the right state appears. They constrained Him, saying, "Abide with us." Here we see the courtesy that always marked Him. It was one of the perfections of His path as a Man. What right had He to enter that house? He had a right, but He did not assert it. The question was this: did they want Him?
To their eyes He was only a fellow traveller who had fallen in beside them. A stranger has no claim on a home. What we know Him to be decides what He claims.
"He acted as if He were going farther." How perfect that little movement was! What title had He, a Stranger as He seemed to be, to push Himself on them? He had only joined them on the road, with the courtesy of someone travelling the same way. What right had such a person to cross their threshold? If Jesus is only a Stranger in our eyes, He will still walk outside. Until we know Him as the Saviour, the Lover of our souls, He asks for nothing. But when we know Him as the Son of God who has loved us and given Himself for us, then He claims a place in our hearts and our homes. Then He will live with us and eat with us, as it were, uninvited.
The move is deliberate. Having spent the road opening the Scriptures to them, He now puts their new-found affection to the proof.
The Lord had exposed their hearts and revealed His heart, but for what purpose? Clearly to lead them to desire His company above everything else. Now He will test them to see if His purpose has been reached... He had drawn near to win their hearts; He will now draw away to lead out their hearts in longing desire after Him. And they respond beautifully to the Lord's testing. He wants them. He had endured the sufferings of the cross to have them. But He has so dealt with them that at last they want Him.
Was He unwilling to stay? From the outside the move looks like a refusal. From His heart it is the opposite.
The deepest love was shown in that action of the Blessed One. If you look at it merely from the outside, you would fail to see how blessed it is. But He drew off so that He might draw out. Though He tried to leave them, His heart was toward them... How gladly He goes! That is why He drew off. Blessed be His name forever, He loves to be constrained.
Their reply in the next verse is no polite offer. The word itself carries weight — and it met no resistance in Him.
He knew the state of their souls, and that there was still more work to be done before they were fully restored. That further work was the revelation of Himself. So when He acted as if He were going farther, it was only to bring out the request He knew would come — that He would stay with them. The word "constrain" is a strong one; its force is that they would take no denial... How much, we might say, they would have lost if they had not constrained Him to enter!
Writers connect this scene with the risen Christ standing outside a door and knocking. Once inside, the roles quietly reverse.
The Lord will not force His presence where and when it is not wanted. The heartbroken travellers to Emmaus constrained Him to enter, and He went in to stay with them. In the presence of the risen Jesus everything is changed: He becomes the host and they His guests.
- He draws near. On the road He exposes their hearts and reveals His own, kindling a desire He means to test.
- He draws back. Reaching the village He acts as though going on — not coldness, but love drawing off to draw out.
- He waits. He never forces His company; we get as much of Christ as we truly want.
- They constrain. Their words take no denial, and He loves to be constrained.
- He enters. Inside, everything changes: the Guest becomes the Host and they His guests.
And they constrained him, saying, Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is declining. And he entered in to stay with them.
The two travellers reach their village, and their companion acts as if He will walk on. Their plea, stay with us, raises two questions: why did He act that way, and why does such a plea please Him so much?
He had drawn near to them on the road. Commentators see the moment at the door as a test: did they now want His company?
The Lord had exposed their hearts and revealed His heart, but to what end? Clearly to lead them to desire His company above all else. Now He will test them to see if the "end of the Lord" is reached... He had drawn near to win their hearts, He will now draw away to lead out their hearts in longing desire after Him. And very blessedly they respond to the testing of the Lord... He wants them. He endured the sufferings of the cross to have them. But He has so dealt with them that at last they want Him.
The ESV says the disciples "urged him strongly" and asked Him to "stay." Older translations say they "constrained" Him and asked Him to "abide."
Only twice is the word here translated "constrained" found in the New Testament. The other place uses it in exactly the same way. Lydia "constrained" Paul and Silas to stay with her (Acts 16:15). In the same way the two disciples "constrained" our blessed Lord, saying, "Abide with us." It is a strong word. In classical Greek it can even mean doing violence to someone. In the passages referred to, it means constraining in the sense of taking no denial. How such a constraint must have delighted the Lord's heart! With what joy He would answer a plea pressed like that!
He does not force His way in. One writer notes that the pressure runs both ways between Christ and His people.
He will never compel me to have His company. I do not deny what I may call the compulsion of grace upon the sinner. But with a believer He does not act like that. Do you and I covet His company? "He made as though He would have gone further"... There is such a thing as the love of Christ constraining us. But here it was the love of saints constraining Him. It is reciprocal constraint.
They asked because the light was fading. Notice what He did not do about it.
It was not that He revived the day. He did not turn the shadow back on the sundial, not even by one degree. He did not command the sun to stand still. The day still declined. But they had found One who could comfort them among the shadows. So when they reached the point where their ways seemed to divide — for He made as if He would go further — they could not part with Him. They had to keep Him as their comfort in the darkness of the night.
That plea, in its older wording, has travelled far beyond Emmaus:
Luke 24:29. — "Stay." The Authorized Version has "abide," which inspired Lyte's well-known hymn, "Abide with me."
One writer applies the scene to our own homes.
We get as much of the Lord's company as we desire, and if He is to stay with us we must constrain Him. These two disciples constrained Him and He entered their house and stayed with them. First He put them right about Himself, individually, and then He took His place in their home: He was Lord there. It is the only place He can take... They supposed that He was their guest, but in fact they were His guests.
The verse is read as a pattern for believers whose own day is running out.
The disciples on their way to Emmaus asked the Lord: "Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent"... Look at the state of His testimony on earth. Don't we have to say, "it is toward evening" and the day of grace is "far spent"? Is there not the same desire in our hearts, to ask: "Lord, abide with us, be near to us"? This verse shows that the attitude of a broken heart has the assurance of His nearness.
- He withdraws. The move to go further was not indifference but testing — He drew away to draw out their desire for Him.
- They constrain. The word means taking no denial; the only other time it appears, Lydia used the same pressure on Paul and Silas.
- He never forces. He never compels a believer to keep Him, and we get as much of His company as we desire.
- He abides. He did not turn the day back or stop the sun; He became their comfort inside the darkness that stayed.
- He reigns. Invited in as a guest, He took the place of Lord in the house — the pattern for any home that gives Him first place.
And it came to pass as he was at table with them, having taken the bread, he blessed, and having broken it, gave it to them.
Two grieving disciples had asked a stranger to stay the night. At the table He reversed the roles and served them Himself. Two questions follow: what did this simple act mean, and why did they know Him at that exact moment?
The house was theirs. But the moment He handled the bread, the evening changed hands.
Here of course He takes His true place. He must be the master of the house. He is not the guest now. All is His. And sitting at the table, what does He do? "He took bread, and blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to them." At once there is a recognition of Himself, and of His authority.
The act carried a claim no ordinary visitor could make.
Sitting down to a meal with them, the Lord took the place of the host without warning. He took bread, blessed it by giving thanks, broke it, and gave it to these two disciples. Only the Son of God would have the right to do this in the home of another.
The word "blessed" can sound mysterious, as if He worked something on the bread itself. Older translations read "blessed it," while the ESV has simply "he took the bread and blessed." One writer keeps the sense plain.
The Jews already practised the breaking of bread. They broke bread with those who were grieving (Jeremiah 16:7). The Lord took up this custom for the breaking of bread. "He took bread, and blessed it" (Luke 24:30) means He gave thanks to God, no more.
The setting is worth noticing too.
At the evening meal in Emmaus, He "took bread, and blessed" (Luke 24:30). This time the meal was private, not public. It was in the house, not on the hillside. Probably only two people were there with the Lord, not a great crowd. The risen Lord gave thanks at a little cottage meal!
Was this the Lord's Supper? Commentators say no — but the act was chosen with purpose.
This was not the Lord's Supper. But Jesus deliberately used that act of breaking the bread, the act the Lord's Supper keeps setting before us. In it, as we know, bread is broken — the sign of His death. So Jesus, there with them Himself, was pleased to let the truth of His death flash upon the two souls at Emmaus. They came to know Him in the breaking of bread — in that most simple but striking action which symbolises His death.
Teaching alone had not opened their eyes. Recognition came through an act tied to His death.
We are to feed on Christ — not only as a living Messiah, and not only as the One alive again for ever in resurrection. We must feed on Him as the One who died, His body broken and His blood shed in atonement. This is how the Lord was known to the disciples at Emmaus, though it was not the Lord's Supper... But what actually revealed Him was the moving fact of His being personally with them in the breaking of bread. It was Himself who broke the bread. There could be no mistake.
The same act pointed forward as well as back — it cut them loose from the old way of knowing Him.
By making Himself known in the meaningful act of "breaking bread," the Lord showed plainly that His death had cut them off from every connection with Him "after the flesh." At the same time it drew their hearts after Him as the One "risen out of death."
This scene reaches any home that welcomes Him.
They supposed that He was their guest, but as a matter of fact they were His guests. He took bread, and blessed it and handed it to them. There was in that village of Emmaus one home at least that recognised Him as Lord. We may only have a small cottage, perhaps only one room. But what a wonderful thing to be able to say: "Within the four walls of this room the Lord has His true place."
And what happened over a plain supper can happen again in unremarkable moments.
Wherever the heart is made ready by faith in the word of God and submission to it, the Lord will bring His past grace back to us. He does this in many a simple act — not necessarily in the "breaking of bread," but in countless little ways. Then the heart may not only burn; there is a flash of recognition of Himself, and the soul is restored to the enjoyment it knew before.
- Invited — They thought they had welcomed a guest into their home; in fact they were His guests.
- Enthroned — At the table He took the host's place, an authority the writers say belongs to the Son of God alone.
- Blessed — The word means simply that He gave thanks to God, and He did it at a small private meal, not a public one.
- Broken — Not the Lord's Supper, but the same telling act: bread broken as the sign of His death.
- Revealed — Recognition came through that sign. He is known as the One who died and rose again, not as they had known Him before.
And their eyes were opened, and they recognised him. And he disappeared from them.
Two travellers walked the road to Emmaus beside a companion they could not place. They knew Him at last over a meal — so why did their eyes open just then, and why did He go the instant they saw Him?
They knew Him over a broken loaf. Kelly ties that detail to the one sure way of knowing Jesus.
There is only one way of knowing Jesus that can be trusted… So our Lord breaks bread with the disciples. This was not the Lord's Supper. But Jesus used that act of breaking bread with meaning, the same act the Lord's Supper keeps setting before us. In it bread is broken, and that is the sign of His death… He had blessed the bread, broken it, and was handing it to them. Just then their eyes were opened, and they recognised their risen Lord.
Darby takes it further. What they needed was not His presence in the body, but His death.
It was no longer just a question of His bodily presence as the One who had come in flesh. Redemption was necessary, and so was faith in it. We are to feed on Christ not only as a living Messiah, and not only as the One who is alive again for evermore in resurrection. We must also feed on Him as the One who died, His body broken and His blood shed in atonement… He was gone in a moment — "vanished from their sight." But He gained what He came for. They had life through His death.
They had invited Him in as a stranger. At the table the roles reverse. He takes the host's place, and their eyes open.
But if He stoops to sit at a meal with His own people, He must always take the first place. He must be supreme in every circle He enters. Let us remember this when we want His presence. So HE took the bread, and blessed and broke it and gave it to them… This simple act of our blessed Lord opened their eyes. They knew Him, and He vanished from their sight… But why did He leave so quickly? His work was done. He had found His wandering sheep, and He had restored their souls.
He goes the very moment they know Him. Hole finds the reason in another meeting that same day.
But why did He withdraw from their sight just as they had recognized Him? For the same reason, no doubt, that He had told Mary not to touch Him earlier that same day (see John 20:17). He wanted to show them from the start that resurrection had brought Him into new conditions. So their dealings with Him had to rest on a new basis.
Seeing Him with their own eyes had not made them know Him. Losing sight of Him did.
Under His teaching they had just seen that He Himself was the theme of all Scripture. Yet even while they listened, and their hearts burned as they did, they only saw Him with their natural eyes. They did not know Him. Now He vanishes from sight, and they do know Him by faith. What an exchange!
Before He revealed Himself, He had spent the road turning them back to the Scriptures. Stuart notes what He did not do.
The written Word was enough to have taught them all that had happened. He first rebuked them for being slow of heart to believe it, and then turned them to it. He would settle their faith on what God had already given. He gave them no fresh revelation. They had to stand on the written word of God. That done, He made Himself known as risen from the dead. His work with them was finished. He vanished from their sight.
Hamilton Smith reads the shortness of the visit as purpose, not loss.
So at last the Lord does come into their circumstances for a brief moment. But He comes only to lead them out of their circumstances into His own. Having made Himself known, He vanishes from their sight… But how did they know Him? Not as in the days before the cross, in their circumstances, but as the One who was dead but is alive for evermore.
The effect was immediate. Despite the miles already walked and the coming night, they turned around.
They at once retrace their steps in their earnest desire to join the little company of the Lord's people gathered together at Jerusalem. And having reached their own company they find, to their great delight, that they are in the company of the Risen Lord, and in His company there is no room for dissatisfied or disappointed hearts.
- Word first. He gave them no new revelation on the road. He settled their faith on what God had already written, and then made Himself known.
- Sign second. Their eyes open over broken bread, the sign of His death. This was not the Lord's Supper, but the act carried the same meaning.
- Place third. The invited guest takes the first place at the table. They know Him once He is supreme in the room.
- Sight withdrawn. He disappears to teach them the new ground of resurrection. From now on they hold Him by faith, not by sight.
- Circle exchanged. He steps into their world for one moment, only to lead them out of it into His.
And they said to one another, Was not our heart burning in us as he spoke to us on the way, [and] as he opened the scriptures to us?
Two disciples left Jerusalem in disappointment, and a stranger walked with them, opened the Scriptures, then vanished the moment they knew Him. Only afterwards did they name what had been happening inside them, and their question still asks what makes a heart burn.
The verse names two things: His talking, and His opening of the Scriptures. One writer looks behind both, to the Person doing them.
Now, I do not think we ought to play down that burning heart. I am always afraid of that. We ought not to make little of it, and yet we ought not to make everything of it. What was it that made their heart burn while He talked with them and while He opened the Scriptures to them? Was it not Himself? Do not tell me that anything He does is small or trifling. It was He who did it. It was He who lit that fire, He who kindled that flame. It was His love that struck, as it were, the match in their souls.
Earlier on the road He had called them slow of heart. The change between that word and this one is the measure of what He did.
He does not stop there. Discovering what is in our hearts matters greatly in the work of restoration, but it is not enough to restore us. We do need true thoughts about our own hearts, so we can learn how we wander into a wrong path. But only true thoughts of His heart will bring our feet back to a right path. This is the way the Lord takes with the two disciples. Having exposed everything that was in their hearts, He reveals everything that is in His heart. And revealing what is in His heart turns their "slow hearts" into "burning hearts" (25, 32). He sets their hearts ablaze with love to Himself by revealing the love that is in His heart.
What He opened was not a selection. It was all of it, and He was its subject.
They had their favourite texts and had dwelt on them. They had not taken in all the Scriptures, and had not realised that He was the theme of the Scriptures. If we realise that, we shall pay greater attention to them. We shall read them more often and not live on our favourite texts. As He talked with them, His words gladdened and warmed them, although they did not know who He was. He was talking about the right Person, and they loved Him. Their hearts were moved as He opened the Scriptures to them. So although they did not know Him, He took His right place in their thoughts.
Later in the same chapter He opens something else. Only He can give that second opening.
We shall make little progress in divine understanding unless we take time to meditate. The apostle can set certain truths before us, but he cannot give us understanding. This the Lord alone can do. So we read that the Lord did not only open the Scriptures to the disciples. He also opened their minds to understand the Scriptures (Luke 24:27, 32, 45).
One writer turns the disciples' question into a question for the reader, and does not soften it.
It is a wonderful thing when God opens up the Scriptures, because ministry that presents Christ this way always makes the heart burn. If the Spirit of God comes and ministers Christ in His love, grace, beauty, and glory to your soul, you may depend on it, your heart will respond. And if it does not respond, you may well question whether you are a child of God at all… Do you say, "You will set many of our hearts shaking"? Well, if they shake first and burn after, it will be all right. And if they never burn, there is something wrong somewhere.
They had finished their day's journey. Their burning hearts sent them straight back out.
They had enjoyed sweet conversation with Him, their hearts burning within them while He talked with them on the road, and while He opened up the Scriptures to them. They must return at once, and let those at Jerusalem who had been mourning and weeping (Mark 16:10) know what they had to tell. Spiritual joy is unselfish. There is the desire that others should share in it. Those sixty furlongs — about eight miles — no doubt seemed like nothing as they walked, intent on rejoining the company in the upper room.
- Kindled — no subject and no conversation lit that fire. Christ Himself did, and His love struck the match.
- Melted — He exposed their slow hearts, then revealed His own. His heart is what turned slow into burning.
- Opened — He gave them all the Scriptures with Himself as the theme, curing them of living on a few favourite texts.
- Understood — He opens the Scriptures, and He opens the mind. Teaching can set truth before us; only He makes us see it.
- Sent — a burning heart cannot sit still or keep the joy; it walks the eight miles back to tell the others.
And rising up the same hour, they returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven, and those with them, gathered together,
The two travellers had just recognised their guest in the breaking of bread, and He had vanished. They turn around, walk the same road back, and find a company already gathered in Jerusalem.
They had told Him the day was nearly over. Now, tired as they are, they take the same seven-mile road again.
They realised they should be back with the other disciples. They spoke to each other of how their hearts burned within them while He had spoken to them, opening up the Scriptures. Though they had said the day was far spent when they arrived home, they had no hesitation about returning that seven miles or more back to Jerusalem. What a change in their attitude! They likely walked back faster than they had walked home, however tired they had felt before. The reality of Christ's resurrection makes the company of His saints attractive indeed, and their strength came back.
Their first thought is not their own rest. It is the people in Jerusalem who were still mourning.
They had enjoyed sweet conversation with Him. Their hearts burned within them while He talked with them on the road, and while He opened up the Scriptures to them. They must return at once, and let those at Jerusalem who had been mourning and weeping know what they had to tell them. Spiritual joy is unselfish. There is the desire that others should share in it. Those miles no doubt seemed as nothing as they went along, intent on rejoining the company in the upper room. When they reached it, they found the eleven gathered together — Thomas was not there (John 20:24) — and others with them.
One writer takes their walk to Emmaus as a picture of believers today: part of the company at Jerusalem, yet walking away from it.
Let us remember they were of the company at Jerusalem, but not in their place. They were walking away, as if all were over and lost. Things turned out very differently from what they had expected. They were sadly disappointed… But what a change when their eyes were opened and they knew Him! They rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. What a picture! While our souls are in that condition, not knowing the Lord among the gathered believers, our backs are sure to be turned to Jerusalem. And the moment we truly know Him, our face turns at once toward the gathered company.
Another writer draws out why the Lord walked all that way with them only to disappear at the table.
He goes with them to the end, and then He shows them that He has no business at Emmaus… Was it the Spirit that was leading these two toward Emmaus? No, for the Spirit had been leading others to gather together in Jerusalem… So they return to Jerusalem, despite the distance and their tiredness. There they find the disciples gathered together! Was it a matter of indifference to Him whether or not these two were going to Emmaus? Was He concerned only about the number gathered in the little room? Oh, no. He does not reveal Himself among them until these two are brought back to Jerusalem, to those already gathered there.
Luke names who was in the room. That detail shapes who heard what the Lord said next.
It was not only the eleven who were there when the Lord came into their midst; so it was not an apostolic company. It is good to remember this, and Scripture is very clear about it. "And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together." The apostles were there. But the brothers were there too, and the sisters as well, I judge. The two from Emmaus joined them, and then the Lord comes to the assembled company and tells them His mind.
They arrive carrying a story to tell. Before they can tell it, the room tells them the same thing about Simon.
They go to tell their news. As they get in at the door, their own faith gets a beautiful confirmation, because someone at once exclaims, "The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!" God always confirms the soul that receives and answers to the truth.
Two sets of full hearts meet — and the next thing recorded is that He stands among them.
They had come with overflowing hearts, longing to tell what they had heard and seen, but they found those gathered together with overflowing hearts also, testifying to the resurrection of their Lord. So we are not surprised to read that, as they were speaking, Jesus Himself stood among them and said, "Peace to you." We say we are not surprised, because hearts filled to overflowing with Himself will always command His presence… Whenever we speak to one another of Christ, He will always be one of the company.
- Recognition. Knowing the risen Christ did not keep them at the table. The same hour they got up and walked the whole road back.
- Restoration. They belonged to the company but were out of their place. The moment they knew Him, they turned back toward the gathered disciples.
- Unselfish joy. They set out again at once because others in Jerusalem were still weeping and had not yet heard.
- Wider company. "Those who were with them" means the company that evening was not made up of apostles only.
- News confirmed. Before they could speak, the room told them the Lord had risen indeed and had appeared to Simon.
saying, The Lord is indeed risen and has appeared to Simon.
The two disciples back from Emmaus burst in with news they could hardly hold in — and found the same news already on the lips of the group inside. Their greeting holds two things: death defeated, and a name no one expected to hear.
One writer notices what happens to the messengers at that door:
They go to tell their news. As they get in at the door, they find their own faith confirmed in the most beautiful way. Someone at once exclaims, "The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!" God always confirms the soul that receives and answers to the truth.
Those two words carry far more than a report that a body moved:
"The Lord has risen indeed" (Luke 24:34). But how much that means! It is God's seal on every word He had spoken and everything He had done during His life. It was also the complete reversal of the world's judgment, both civil and religious. That world had rejected Him and thrown Him out as a criminal and a blasphemer. More than that, it was God declaring that He accepted the sacrifice for sin our Lord had offered on the cross. It also declared that death had no power over Him. It declared that Satan's power was crushed forever, and that God's Holy One could not see corruption (Acts 2:27, 31). "Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again" (Rom. 6:9).
Simon Peter had denied knowing Jesus. The risen Lord goes to him first:
The servant who denied the Lord will have a private meeting with the Lord he denied. For we read, "The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!" How wonderful this grace is. We would have thought He would appear to the disciple Jesus loved, or to the devoted woman who anointed His feet. But grace takes a more wonderful way and appears first to the disciple who had denied Him.
The news was not only Peter's comfort. Every man in that room had run away too:
They were faithless men; they had abandoned Him and fled at the first blast of the storm. Might He not cast them off and choose others who would not fail Him? That would have been their natural thought, but He had appeared to Simon. Simon who had denied Him three times, and who had cursed and sworn about it. The man whose sin was the worst was the first to be sought out by the Lord. "The Lord has risen indeed" declared that He was greater than the greatest enemy outside them; "and has appeared to Simon" declared that His grace was more than equal to the greatest failure within them.
Scripture reports the meeting but says nothing of what was said there:
What was personally between Himself and Peter, He dealt with personally on the day of His resurrection. On that day we are told, "The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!" (Luke 24:34). No one else heard a word of this meeting. Yet the Lord also spoke to Peter in front of the disciples. They were involved in the matter to some degree, and His words were meant to re-establish confidence among them (John 21:15-22).
One writer notes what that meeting did for Peter:
We are not told what took place at that meeting; it probably could not be told. It is enough for us to know that the Lord appeared to Simon. At that meeting He restored and strengthened his faith, and set his heart completely at rest. So he was able to join his brothers that evening, when the Lord stood among them.
Another writer weighs the order of the appearances — one man first, then the group of twelve disciples:
The risen Lord appeared to Cephas — that is, Simon Peter — before He stood among "the twelve." No one could matter more than Simon at that moment, when his soul needed reassurance so deeply. But no single man could carry the weight of the whole company who knew him best. So the twelve are named next.
One writer looks at how the group actually received the news:
During that day the Lord appeared to Simon Peter, and also to the disciples travelling to Emmaus. When these two got back that night, they found the disciples occupied with the Lord's appearing to Peter. But there was much unbelief in their minds, though such a testimony seems to have had a strong influence on them.
- Risen — the resurrection is God's seal on everything Jesus said and did. It overturns the world's verdict against Him.
- Indeed — this is not a rumour. God confirms the truth to those who receive it and act on it.
- Simon — the first man the risen Lord sought out was the one who denied Him. The worst failure got the first visit.
- Privately — no one recorded what was said at that meeting. The Lord's public words to Peter came later, in front of the others.
- Then the twelve — Peter first, then the whole group. Personal grace and public evidence both stand.
And they related what [had happened] on the way, and how he was made known to them in the breaking of bread.
Two disciples had walked eight miles from Jerusalem in sorrow. They met a Stranger who turned out to be the risen Lord, and they walked straight back. This verse is their report. It raises two questions. Why tell about the road at all? And what did the breaking of the bread show them?
They had barely started the meal at Emmaus when they got up and left. One writer notices what that cost them.
Would they sit quietly at Emmaus and go on with their supper? They had walked nearly eight miles out. They must cover the same distance again if they were to sleep at Jerusalem... They must return at once, and let those at Jerusalem who had been mourning and weeping know what they had to tell. Spiritual joy is unselfish. There is the desire that others should share in it.
What made them speak was not stronger conviction about doctrine but a sight of Him:
They are witnesses. They are not merely people who hold the right beliefs about Scripture — they have seen the Lord themselves. Such a view unseals the lips. They must speak; they cannot do otherwise.
They came to give a report and received one first — the Lord had already appeared to Simon Peter.
They go to tell their news. As they get in at the door, their own faith is confirmed in the most beautiful way: someone at once exclaims, "The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!" God always confirms the soul that receives and answers to the truth.
Two reports were arriving from different directions. The Lord meant it that way.
Filled with the one great event that began a new world, they hurried back to Jerusalem... Then the two told the story of their wonderful journey. More wonderful still was their recognition of Jesus in the breaking of bread. The Lord was proving that there should be independent witnesses.
Half their report was about the walk, where He opened the Scriptures to them. That was deliberate teaching.
The written Word was enough to have taught them about all that had gone on. Reproving them first for slowness of heart in believing it, He turned them to it. He would settle their faith on what God had already granted. He gave them no fresh revelation. They must stand on the written word of God. That done, He made Himself known as risen from the dead... What He sought for those two, He seeks for still: that souls should take God at His word, and rest on what has been revealed.
The second half of their report names one action. Commentators note it echoed the upper room, and that it identified Him as a Man who had died.
How touching also is the way by which He makes Himself known. "He took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them." Would it not at once recall that other scene in the upper room? There He took bread, and gave thanks, and broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is My body, which is given for you." The whole act proclaimed who He was, and recalled His dying love.
Was this meal the Lord's Supper? Commentators draw a careful line:
This was not celebrating the Lord's Supper with them. Yet it took up that part of it — the act of breaking the bread — which was the sign of His death.
He disappeared at the moment they knew Him. Writers treat that as the pattern for every believer since.
They had indeed lost their Messiah as they once knew Him in flesh and blood. Now they had their first glimpse of Him in the new resurrection conditions He had entered, and that first glimpse completely changed them. Under His teaching they had just seen that He Himself was the theme of all Scripture. But even while they listened, and their hearts burned as a result, they only saw Him with their natural eyes and did not know Him. Now He vanishes from sight, and they do know Him by faith. What an exchange!
He is only rightly seen by the Christian when unseen... For the present, new things have come in. The Redeemer has gone to heaven, not come to Zion. On earth His own disciples know Him in the breaking of bread. Faith alone knows His presence.
- Word first. He gave them no new revelation on the road. He turned them back to the Scriptures already written, so their faith would rest there.
- Sign second. The broken bread proclaimed who He was and recalled His dying love. It was the sign of His death, though this meal was not the Lord's Supper.
- Sight withdrawn. The instant they recognised Him, He was gone. They exchanged seeing Him with natural eyes for knowing Him by faith.
- Lips unsealed. People who have seen the Lord cannot stay quiet. Joy in Him is unselfish, and it walks eight miles at night to share the news.
- Witness confirmed. They arrived and heard that He had appeared to Simon. Two witnesses met from different directions, and each confirmed the other.
And as they were saying these things, he himself stood in their midst, and says to them, Peace [be] unto you.
The two disciples back from Emmaus were still telling their story when the risen Lord stood among them. He greeted them with an everyday word, peace — yet they first had to be sure this was the same Jesus who had died.
This was not a triumphant welcome. He came to a group hiding behind shut doors, and He used words any Jew would use at a door.
John, who was there, tells us the doors were shut for fear of the Jews. Yet the Lord stood among them and greeted them with words everyone knew: "Peace be to you." It was the usual Jewish greeting (Luke 10:5). They were terrified and frightened at what they saw, for they thought it was a spirit.
The same familiar phrase now carried more than it ever had. Earlier in Luke, Jesus sent seventy messengers out to say "Peace be to this house" — a wish. Here the risen Christ is not wishing.
"Peace be to you," the risen Saviour said to His disciples when He came back to them. He let them read their title to peace. Peace was now not merely wished for. He pronounced it with authority and handed it to them on the strength of the Cross. Jesus now gave peace to them, because He had already made it for them… We do not just say, like the seventy He sent out, "Peace be to this house," as a greeting or a good wish. We proclaim the sure, settled, purchased peace, which sinners have a title to in the blood of the Cross.
Christ made peace at one point in history and announced it at another. How does it become yours?
He rises from the dead, and the very first word He says to the company is, "Peace to you."… How do you get it? "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5:1). Christ is it. On the cross He made it. Risen, He proclaims it. In faith you receive it, and in the power of the Holy Spirit you enjoy it.
He announced peace, yet the room filled with terror. What He did next shows where troubled hearts are meant to look.
When the Lord appeared among His disciples on the day of the resurrection, He found them troubled by thoughts arising in their hearts. At once He dispels their fears by directing their gaze to Himself. He says, "See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself" (Luke 24:36-39). Looking within filled them with doubts and fears. Looking outward at their risen Lord, they saw at once in His hands and feet the proofs that He had died for them and that He was risen. This brought peace and joy into their hearts.
He would not leave them guessing about who He was.
The end of the Gospel of Luke is the basis of every record in the Acts. It is remarkable how Jesus, in perfect grace, takes pains to make the disciples certain that He was the same Jesus whom they had known. Luke tells us there that He ate and drank to show it (Luke 24:36, etc.).
The body He showed them had flesh and bones. One thing it did not have.
"A spirit," He said, "does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." He was clothed in His body raised from the dead. Flesh and bones marked it out, for He was, and is, a Man. It should be noted that there is no mention of blood. Blood, which is the life of the flesh (Lev. 17:14), was poured out when He died (Luke 22:20). That life given up was never taken back.
The little group in that room was the start of something that has not ended.
"As they were talking about these things, Jesus Himself stood among them." Around Him stood the company of disciples who were His own, whom He never ceased to love. There was the beginning of His kingdom, the start of His Church on earth over 1,900 years ago… That company began on the resurrection day. It continues to this day, and you, Christian, are part of it. If we have given the Lord His place in our hearts we will not assert ourselves in His circle.
- Made — The greeting did not create peace. Christ made it at the cross, then came from that finished work to announce it.
- Pronounced — An everyday greeting became a settled gift. He did not wish them peace; He gave what He had already purchased.
- Received — He made peace on the cross and proclaims it risen. You take it by faith and enjoy it in the power of the Spirit.
- Proved — Looking outward cured their fear, not looking inward. He showed them hands, feet, flesh and bones — the same Jesus, risen.
- Gathered — He stood in the middle of His own, and that circle has never closed. Every believer since belongs to the company He entered that evening.
But they, being confounded and being frightened, supposed they beheld a spirit.
The disciples had just been saying that the Lord had risen, when He Himself stood among them. Why did people who had just spoken of resurrection take Him for a ghost, and how did He calm them?
These were not strangers. They were the very people who had just announced the resurrection out loud. One writer sets the confession beside the collapse:
They too needed a risen Saviour's challenge to bring them to their senses — to calm their fears and lift their drooping spirits. They had just declared to their two brothers from Emmaus, "The Lord is risen indeed." Yet when their risen Lord appeared they did not know Him. He had to challenge their hearts with His stirring words: "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?"
Commentators differ on the cause. One says they knew whose face they were looking at. What shook them was the way He arrived:
Here it is plain they recognised the form of the Lord. In none of His appearances to them do we find anything ghostly that would make them think they saw a spirit. The two on the road to Emmaus had just before taken Him for an ordinary man… His sudden appearance, with the door shut, staggered them… So it was not a question of whether it was Jesus or someone else, but whether it was Jesus in the body or as a spirit only.
Another traces it to failed recognition, and sees in it something wider in us all:
They most likely failed to recognise Him. They were not expecting Him to come at that time or in that way. So they imagined they saw a phantom until the Master said, "It is I."… In general, the hidden unbelief of man's heart stops him from accepting divine power and love at work in ways beyond the ordinary.
He had already greeted them before the fear rose. Many still live in that gap between His word and their feelings:
At the start of that day the disciples did not enjoy peace. We read, "But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit." Many believers today, sad to say, are terrified and frightened. Why? They have not got Christ simply before them… Are you troubled in your mind? Have you any ground for it?… This is Christ's way with the troubled. We see others troubled and perhaps say, "Poor souls." Then we leave them in their misery and make no real effort to help. In all this we are not much like Christ. He always stoops to put a troubled person at peace.
Their guess was wrong in a way that mattered. The Lord answered it with evidence they could see:
There was His body; it was risen. Who could doubt any longer that it was really the same Jesus who died, and will yet come in glory? "See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself!"… The point here is the reality of the resurrection. The risen Jesus is the same one they had known as their Master — still man, not a spirit, but having flesh and bones, and able to eat with them.
Fear was not the only feeling in that room. Joy came next, and it hindered them just as much:
It may be worth noticing that our natural feelings often work against faith. It was so with the disciples at this moment. First they were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit. Afterwards they did not believe for joy. Both their fear and their joy — their natural emotions — were hindrances to faith. But it should be added that emotions produced by the Spirit of God are helps to faith, not hindrances.
Notice what the Lord did not tell them to examine. He turned their eyes outward:
At once He drives away their fears by directing their gaze to Himself… Looking within filled them with doubts and fears. Looking outside themselves at their risen Lord, they at once saw in His hands and feet the proofs that He had died for them and that He was risen. This brought peace and joy into their hearts.
- Confession — They had said "The Lord is risen indeed" and still did not know Him. Right words are not the same as a heart at rest.
- Cause — Some writers say the shut door and sudden arrival staggered them. Others say they failed to recognise Him, because they expected nothing of the sort. Either way, unbelief was underneath.
- Correction — He answered their word "spirit" with hands, feet, flesh and bones. It was the same Jesus who died — risen, and still a man.
- Caution — Fear blocked their faith, and so did joy. Feelings, whichever way they swing, do not measure what is true.
- Cure — Their fears rose from within. Their peace came from outside: He fixed their eyes on Himself, and He still stoops to put a troubled person at peace.
And he said to them, Why are ye troubled? and why are thoughts rising in your hearts?
The risen Lord has just spoken peace into the room, and the response is terror — the disciples take Him for a ghost. His answer is a question, not a rebuke. It points to where the fear began: in their own hearts.
The question is not cold. One writer traces the fear to its cause, then sets Christ's way with troubled people beside our own.
There are many believers today who are terrified and frightened. Why? They do not have Christ simply before them... Are you troubled in your mind? Listen to what He says. Have you any ground for it? Have you any occasion for it? "Why are you troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?" This is Christ's way with the troubled. We see others troubled. Perhaps we say, "Poor souls," but we leave them still in their misery, making no great effort to help them. In all this we are not much like Christ. No, He always stoops to put a troubled person at peace.
The ESV says "doubts." One commentator gives two other ways the word has been translated.
Luke 24:38. — "Reasonings." American Revisions: "questionings."
These questionings are not harmless. When our own thoughts take the place of God's, we pay for it.
You will find that the thoughts you have are not always God's thoughts. The thoughts of your heart are a frequent cause of loss of communion, trial, and discomfort to you. "Why do thoughts arise in your hearts?" was the question our risen Saviour asked His disciples. It was followed by, "Then He opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures." It brought Him before them instead of themselves.
The Lord does not send them searching inside themselves. He turns their eyes to Himself.
It is the outward look to Christ risen that gives the inward peace, and the word of God that gives assurance. The Lord appeared among His disciples on the day of the resurrection. He found them troubled by thoughts arising in their hearts. At once He dispels their fears by directing their gaze to Himself. He says, "Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself." Looking within filled them with doubts and fears. Looking outward at their risen Lord, they at once saw in His hands and feet the proofs that He had died for them, and that He was risen. This brought peace and joy into their hearts.
He answers the fear of a ghost with His own body. Even the words He picks carry meaning.
"Why do thoughts arise in your hearts?" He asked them. "Behold 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 Me have"! ... Why did our risen Lord say "flesh and bones," and not "flesh and blood"? His blood had been poured out for our eternal redemption.
Behind the question stands a wounded affection. The One asking it had died for the very people now unsure of Him.
He had said to them, "Peace be to you." It touched His tender heart that there should be trouble or a thought in their hearts! How could such deep, sincere love bear to be doubted? He had loved them to death... One had denied Him, and all had forsaken Him. But now God had raised Him from the dead, for their justification... how could He then bear a cloud of trouble, or one doubting thought, in the hearts of those He had so loved?
Christ does not lift them up into glory here. He comes down to where they are.
The whole scene in Luke 24 has this character. He meets men in their weakness. He does not take them up to the higher place in glory... "Why do thoughts arise in your hearts... handle Me and see... it is I Myself." How gracious!
- Peace spoken. He greets them with peace before He asks the question. The trouble was in the room, not in His heart toward them.
- Thoughts risen. The "doubts" are reasonings, or questionings. Our own thoughts take the place of God's, and cost us communion and comfort.
- Eyes outward. Looking within produced fear. Looking at the risen Lord produced peace, and His word gives assurance.
- Hands and feet. The proof is a real body: flesh and bones, not a spirit. He does not say "flesh and blood," because His blood had already been poured out for redemption.
- Grace stooping. He meets them in their weakness instead of lifting them to glory. His love cannot bear a doubt from those He died for.
A note on wording: where the ESV says "doubts," older translations say "thoughts arise in your hearts." Where the ESV says "See my hands and my feet," they say "Behold." Several quotes above use the older wording.
behold my hands and my feet, that it is *I* myself. Handle me and see, for a spirit has not flesh and bones as ye see me having.
The disciples had already heard that the Lord was risen. Yet when He stood among them, they thought they were seeing a ghost. His answer was not an argument but an invitation: look at the hands and feet, and put your own hands on Him.
He met their fear with the simplest proof of all. He gave them Himself, to see and to touch.
He presents Himself to His disciples. Their hopes are ruined and their future is scattered, and they are terrified and afraid. They had laid all their hopes in the grave of Jesus, never to rise again, as they thought... And how does He reassure their hearts? He presents HIMSELF, saying, "See my hands and my feet, that it is I MYSELF."
The words "I myself" answer what they feared. A visit from His departed spirit would not have been Him as they knew Him.
To those who had known Him as the living man among them, a mere visit from His departed spirit would not have been "Himself." It is not a question of exact definitions, but of the heart, and the Lord answers the heart. They saw Him. They did not believe that a living man could come among them in that mysterious way, so they thought they saw a spirit. He answers that by telling them to prove He had flesh and bones.
The proof went further than touch. He asked for food and ate in front of them.
It is the Lord Himself, risen from the dead. He is a real man, with hands and feet, able to be touched and seen — not a spirit, but a spiritual body. Of this He gave the fullest proof by going on to eat in their presence. As having a body He could eat; as having a spiritual body He did not need to eat. So the resurrection of the body had its glorious proof in His own person. Their faith needed that, and nothing could support it more strongly.
Blood belongs to a life that wears out and must be replaced.
The blood applies to the present life. It is the vehicle of change. It is what implies the need of continual sustenance and renewal. A body that needs no renewal cannot need blood to renew it. So the Lord speaks of Himself as risen from the dead, not as having flesh and blood, but as having flesh and bones... He has poured out His blood and left it with the earthly life He had lived. He has entered a new sphere, keeping all that makes Him truly man, but not the conditions of the old earthly life.
Some reduce the risen Christ to a spirit in an unseen world. The word He left out answers them.
Spiritists say that Christ is the supreme Spirit in the unseen world. But God says He is a Man, in a raised, glorified body at His right hand! Why did our risen Lord say "flesh and bones," and not "flesh and blood"? His blood had been poured out for our eternal redemption.
Some treat "spiritual" as the opposite of physical. This verse settles what the believer's raised body will be.
Scripture does not speak that way. The Spirit tells us that the body the saints will have in the resurrection will be incorruptible and immortal, and spiritual as well. When He rose from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ said to His disciples, "Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." His body was still "flesh and bones," yet it was spiritual. The body of the believer will be the same in resurrection.
He showed them the hands and the feet that had served them long before the nails went through.
What wonders those "hands" had worked in their sight! How those "feet" had walked the path ahead of them, never growing tired! Now each one shows, in the mark of the nails, man's cruel and murderous hatred of Him — and even more strongly, the Saviour's love for sinners.
Terror came first, then joy — and neither one produced belief.
Our natural feelings are often in conflict with faith. It was so with the disciples at this moment. At first they were terrified and afraid, and thought they had seen a spirit. Later, their joy kept them from believing. Both their fear and their joy — their natural emotions — were hindrances to faith. But it should be added that emotions produced by the Spirit of God are helps to faith and not hindrances.
- Himself. He did not argue them out of their fear; He gave them His own Person to look at and to touch.
- Bones. "Flesh and bones" says the body is real; the silence about blood says He never took back the life He poured out at the cross.
- Handled. He told them to touch Him, then ate in front of them. That proves a real body — one that could eat, but no longer needed to.
- Spiritual. His risen body was spiritual and still flesh and bones; the believer's raised body will be of the same kind.
- Faith. Fear kept them from believing, and so did joy. Only He Himself, seen and touched, settled their hearts.
And having said this he shewed them his hands and his feet.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
But while they yet did not believe for joy, and were wondering, he said to them, Have ye anything here to eat?
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And they gave him part of a broiled fish and of a honeycomb;
It is the evening of resurrection day. The disciples are standing in a room with a Man they had watched die. They are too glad and too startled to trust their own eyes. What they hand Him — a piece of broiled fish — settles the question that words alone had not. Some translations also add a honeycomb to the meal, which is why several writers name both.
Their problem was not coldness but confusion. Joy and wonder ran ahead of faith, and His question about food met them right there.
Wonder and joy were mingled in their minds, and I can understand the mixed state of their hearts. They were thrilled with joy, while hampered with unbelief and wonder. His words, "Have you anything here to eat?" made the reality of His presence absolute to them... All was now clear. Every mist of doubt rolled away as they saw Him eat.
His eating proves He has a body. It does not mean He was hungry. Commentators draw a careful line here between what the risen Lord was able to do and what He required.
It is the Lord Himself, risen from the dead. He is a real man, with hands and feet they could touch and see. He is not a spirit, but has a spiritual body. Of this He gave the fullest proof by proceeding to eat in their presence. As having a body He could eat; as having a spiritual body He did not need to eat. So His own person gave the resurrection of the body its glorious proof. Their faith needed this, and nothing could support it more strongly.
The same act says two things at once. It rules out a phantom, and it also shows a body that is no longer tied to earthly conditions.
Scripture also shows us that the resurrection body does not depend on earthly conditions. At the same time, it can enter into them. He ate the broiled fish and honeycomb to show them His body was truly material. Yet it was no longer a body for the earth.
Why does a meal matter so much? One writer answers: rescuing the spirit alone would have left the body as Satan's trophy.
Suppose God had said, "Satan has ruined your body, so I will take you to be with Me in spirit." That would have confirmed Satan's victory over the body. Did God come into the world to do that?... it is necessary to see that He has got a victory in this world; so to prove this, the Lord stoops down in a wonderful way. "He said to them, Have you anything here to eat?" Why was all that? Simply to verify that it was no mere spirit that stood before them. The Lord came to fight a battle for you — real flesh and blood you can touch. Manhood you can touch was destroyed, so manhood you can touch must be redeemed.
Risen and glorified, He does not hold Himself at a distance. He is still the same Man His friends knew.
The Lord presents Himself as the very same Man... Here also His hands, His feet, all that marked His manhood, His previous wounds are presented. He eats... The Lord shows it to them in a very ordinary, close-up way. He eats and drinks in front of them — how far He stoops! But this was reality and truth. It restored their souls and made them know Him as still a Man — risen indeed, but a Man, truly and really.
Notice whose meal this was. The fish came from their own supper. A later meal by the lake turns that around.
The Lord was about to give them the strongest proof that His Person was real. So He eats the broiled fish and honeycomb they had provided for themselves. This assures them it is really Himself. When you come to John 21, again there was broiled fish, but this time He provided it, to assure them that He cared for them. How rich and deep is the grace that ever provides that which will confirm our faith, and feed and sustain our souls.
The meal met a need, but not His own. Behind the evidence stands His love for His own.
The One they killed on a tree ate and drank with His own after He rose from the dead. He did not need the food. They needed the evidence that He was alive from the dead — a truly risen Man, Who loved His own who were in the world, and loved them to the fullest.
- Doubt — their unbelief came from joy, not hardness, and He answered it with a fact they could watch.
- Body — as a man He could eat; as risen He did not need to, so the meal proves reality without implying weakness.
- Victory — Satan ruined the manhood you can touch, so Christ redeemed the manhood you can touch. A rescued spirit alone would leave the body lost.
- Stooping — the risen Lord takes food His friends had kept for themselves. Later, by the lake, He provides the meal Himself.
- Witness — He did not need the fish. They needed the evidence that He was alive, and that evidence became the ground of their faith.
and he took it and ate before them.
Here the risen Jesus takes a piece of fish from His disciples' hands and eats it while they watch. Commentators ask two things: what this proves about His body, and why He would stoop to such a plain proof.
The disciples wondered whether they were seeing a spirit. Eating settles the question in a way no argument could. One writer draws a careful line between what the risen body could do and what it needed:
It is the Lord Himself, risen from the dead, but a real man, with hands and feet that they could touch and see — not a spirit, but a spiritual body. Of this He gave the fullest proof by proceeding to eat in their presence. As having a body He could eat; as having a spiritual body He did not need to eat. So the resurrection of the body was gloriously proved in His own person — the support their faith needed, and the weightiest it could have.
So why eat at all, if He had no need of food? One writer answers by describing the kind of body He now has:
Scripture also shows that the resurrection body does not depend on earthly conditions, and yet it can enter them. He ate the broiled fish and honeycomb to show them that His body was real matter. Yet it was no longer a body for the earth.
The marks on His hands and feet tie that new condition back to the cross:
His was a body of "flesh and bones." The conditions were new, yet it was to be recognized as the body of "flesh and blood" in which He had suffered. The marks of that suffering were there in both hands and feet. While the truth was dawning in their minds, He made it plainer still by eating in front of them, so that they might see He was not just "a spirit."
The point is not only that a man rose, but that this man rose. One writer shows how the apostles' testimony rested on meals like this one:
The apostles were witnesses of His resurrection. They had eaten and drunk with Him afterwards. That was the proof that He was still a true man, though He then had a spiritual body, and that He was the same Jesus whom they had known alive on the earth. The end of Luke's Gospel is the basis of every record in the Acts. There it is remarkable how Jesus, in perfect grace, takes pains to make the disciples sure that He was the same Jesus they had known.
Notice the order of what He offers them — words, then sight, then touch, and only then the meal:
But notice how kindly the Lord cleared away their doubts and fears. See what pains He took to convince them that His resurrection was real. He gently says to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?" Then with infinite grace He says, "See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself." He even said, "Touch Me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." And finally, to chase away the fears that still clouded their sight, He said, "Have you anything here to eat?" They gave Him a piece of broiled fish and a honeycomb. He took it and ate before them — the blessed Lord, as the Risen Man, stooping to share the food of His humble followers.
Rising from the dead changed the shape of His life with them, but not the nearness:
It is true that He no longer shared one home and table with His disciples, as He once had… But still there was full intimacy… He eats and drinks with them, as He once did. He calls them "brothers," as He had not done before His resurrection. He speaks of having one God and Father with them, as He had not done then.
- Doubt. The disciples thought they were seeing a spirit, and the meal met that exact fear.
- Proof. Eating showed a real body: as a man He could eat, though in a spiritual body He had no need to.
- Identity. The One eating was the same Jesus they had known, with the marks of His suffering still on His hands and feet.
- Grace. He took pains, step by step — word, sight, touch, food — stooping to share the plain food of His followers.
- Fellowship. The meal that proved His resurrection also kept the friendship: He eats with them as before, and now calls them brothers.
And he said to them, These [are] the words which I spoke to you while I was yet with you, that all that is written concerning me in the law of Moses and prophets and psalms must be fulfilled.
The risen Jesus stands among His disciples and points them back to His own earlier words — and behind those, to the Scriptures already written. Two questions follow: what did He mean by "the law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms," and what did the disciples still need before those writings made sense to them?
He does not start a new lesson. He picks up the thread He left with them before He died, and now He adds what was missing.
The risen Lord here recognises the very place where He had left His disciples in His earlier teaching. He reminds them of what He had already told them. Scripture was the great witness of the divine mind, and everything written there must certainly happen here. And now what does He do? "Then He opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures." His power now joins itself to His earlier instruction. He is making good in them what He had already given them.
He names three sections, not a handful of passages. That puts His seal on the whole collection — and He does it as the risen Christ.
The critics who pull those ancient writings apart miss their true spiritual connection. It is "Christ"… Here, too, the Lord points to the well-known threefold division of the books of the Hebrew canon: the law, the prophets, and the psalms. These together made up the "scriptures," as the next verse shows. So, as someone has said, "we may accept the Hebrew scriptures from the pierced hands of Christ Himself in resurrection."
"The Psalms" does not mean only the book of that name. Each of the three names covers a group of books.
By the law was meant the Pentateuch. The prophets covered the historical books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings, along with the writings of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the twelve minor prophets. The Psalms covered the rest of the books that make up the canon of Old Testament revelation. That section likely got its name because the book of Psalms stood first in the third great division of the Hebrew Scriptures.
The claim is not that a few verses happen to match. Writers separated by centuries all point to one person.
There are over three hundred prophecies in the Old Testament concerning Christ… These three hundred and more prophecies are like rays of light. The rays are not all the same length. Some are longer than others. Some come from as far back as Moses. Others come from a shorter distance, like Micah. Others come from Isaiah. These rays of light, shot across the centuries, meet on the Baby in Bethlehem's manger… He was the perfect answer to those prophecies. They spoke of Him, and He lit them up. No one could understand them properly until He came.
The word "fulfilled" also points ahead. The Pentateuch is the first five books of the Bible, the books of Moses.
The first coming of the Lord has already fulfilled much of what stands written in the Pentateuch. The rest will come true when He comes again to reign as King of kings and Lord of lords.
The verse names two things: His own spoken words and the written Scriptures. The next verse adds a third.
There are three things here. The first is the words of Jesus, which give faith its true basis. The second is the Scriptures. The third is their understanding, opened by the risen Lord. So they could say more than, We have heard these words, we have heard Him say it, we have listened to His own voice. They could say, It must be so, because God has said it. There is the real and true basis of faith. The words of the Lord Jesus, now in the Scriptures as God has given them, are the ground on which faith can always rest.
What He gives here is not yet the coming of the Spirit. Understanding and power are not the same thing, and they came in that order.
There you get the value of "He opened their understanding to understand the scriptures." That is one of the points we have to notice — the difference between intelligence and power. There was power when the Holy Spirit came down. But they received intelligence before they got power… He had now opened their understanding, and Peter could explain Psalm 109. But they still had no power.
- Spoken. The risen Christ points back to what He said before He died. He takes up His old teaching again instead of replacing it.
- Written. The three names cover the whole Old Testament: the five books of Moses, the prophetic and historical books, and the rest, headed by the Psalms.
- Fulfilled. Prophecies from many centuries meet in Him. Much came true at His first coming. The rest waits for the day He returns to reign.
- Understood. He opened their understanding first. Power came later, when the Holy Spirit came down.
- Grounded. Faith stands on three things: His words, the written Scriptures, and an understanding He Himself opens.
Then he opened their understanding to understand the scriptures,
The risen Jesus has just reminded the disciples that the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms all had to be fulfilled in Him. Then He does more than explain — He works on the hearers, and we are left asking why people who followed Him for years still needed their minds opened.
Earlier that day He had explained the Scriptures to two disciples on the road to Emmaus. But an open book cannot help a closed mind. One writer follows the order of what Jesus did:
He opened the Scriptures to them, and then their understanding, so that they might understand the Scriptures. Notice how these connect. He opened the Scriptures — all of them, mind you; Scripture carries weight from the very beginning. But that was not enough. Their understanding needed opening. The natural man has no spiritual discernment. He may have all the wisdom there is about this world and still be in the dark about any right understanding of the Scriptures.
Jesus added no new verses to their Bible that day. What changed was the shape they could now see in the old pages.
The opening of their understanding (v. 45) was not yet the gift of the Spirit of God. It did give them a true perspective on the Scriptures, which they had lacked. This opening connects with the next verse, which supplies a key. Without that key you cannot grasp the main message of the Old Testament. The Messiah must suffer first, be crucified and buried, then rise the third day. This knowledge would open their eyes to many passages that had been little more than dead letters to them before.
He had told them all of this before His death. What is new now is that His power goes with the words.
He reminds them of what He had already told them. Scripture was the great witness of the divine mind, and everything written there must surely happen here. And now what does He do? Simply the consistent follow-through of that earlier teaching. "Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures." His power now joins itself to His earlier instruction. He is making good in them what He had already given them.
The Holy Spirit had not yet come down when this happened. One writer separates understanding from power, and shows what the disciples did while they had only the first.
There you have the value of "He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures." That is what enabled Peter. This is one of the points we have to notice: the difference between understanding and power. There was power when the Holy Spirit came down, but they received understanding before they received power… He had now opened their understanding, and Peter could explain Psalm 109. But they had not yet received power, and so they carry on in the old way, casting lots.
Christ opened their minds for a purpose. Their witness could now stand on two grounds: what they had seen, and what God had said.
An important thing remained — the basis of true faith: the words of Christ and the testimony of Scripture. This He sets before them. But two things were still needed. First, they needed the capacity to understand the word. So He opens their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures, and establishes them as witnesses who could not only say, "This is how it is, for we have seen it," but "This is how it had to be, for God has said so in His word."
Jesus is no longer here to explain the Scriptures in person. Yet that work goes on, through Someone He sent.
Though Jesus has gone on high, He has sent His representative to carry on this very work of unfolding the meaning of the Scriptures… He carries on this work of unfolding the word of God, of which our Lord gave us samples. Remember too our Lord's words: "it is to your advantage that I go away." So we can say that this work of the Spirit, enlightening our minds and guiding us into all truth, is even more effective than if our Lord had stayed here as the teacher. The reason is simple. He was outside them and explained things to them, while the Spirit is within, and acts directly on the mind.
Dependence on God does not cancel effort; the two run together.
It is not enough to understand the Scriptures in a merely intellectual way. We need a further touch, as it were… Two sides go together. We make the effort — we read the Scriptures, we meditate, study, use a concordance — while at the same time a work of God takes place.
- Opened text. Christ opened the Scriptures first, showing that all of them — Law, Prophets and Psalms — speak of Him.
- Opened mind. An open Bible was not enough. Christ had to open the mind itself, since natural cleverness gives no spiritual discernment.
- Opened key. They gained perspective: the Messiah must suffer first, then rise — the key that turned dead letters into living pages.
- Opened mouth. With that understanding they could testify on two grounds: we saw it, and God had written it must be so.
- Opened still. The Spirit does from within what Christ did from outside that day, alongside our own reading and study.