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.