They are going the wrong way, and the passage says so without comment.
Luke 24:13 has two of them walking to a village called Emmaus, about seven and a half miles from Jerusalem, on the same day the women found the tomb empty. They have heard the report. Verse twenty two says so: certain women also of our company made us astonished. They know. And they are leaving anyway.
That is not stupidity. That is what happens when a hope has died on somebody. The report of a rumor at a tomb does not undo three days of a body in a grave, and these two are doing the sane thing, which is going home.
And then this.
And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them. But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.Luke 24:15-16, King James Version
Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.
He walks in their direction. Away from Jerusalem. Seven miles the wrong way, in the company of two men who have given up and are talking about it, and He does not correct the direction for the whole journey.
He asked them what they were talking about
Now the first thing He says, and it is a question He did not need answered.
What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?Luke 24:17, King James Version
And they stop walking. Luke includes that: And they stood still, being sad. The question stops them in the road.
Then one of them, Cleopas, says a sentence that has an edge on it: Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days?
He is being short with a stranger. And Jesus, who knows all of it because it happened to Him, says: What things?
He asks them to tell Him.
You are not walking this road on your own. Luke 24:15 has Him drawing near and going with them in the direction they had already chosen, and it is the Holy Spirit who keeps that from being read as approval or as correction, because it is neither.
And then they tell Him, and their account is worth reading slowly, because it is the most honest description of disappointment in the Gospels.
But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel.Luke 24:21, King James Version
We trusted. Past tense. That is the sentence of somebody describing a hope they used to hold, out loud, to a stranger, on a road out of town.
And they add the detail that makes it worse: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done. They are counting. They know what day it is. Something had been said about a third day and the third day is now, and it is late in the afternoon, and nothing has happened that they can see.
You have been counting days out loud to somebody who already knew the answer and let you count them. Luke 24:21 records the arithmetic without interrupting it, and the same Spirit who kept it in the account is the reason nobody has to be talked out of their own timeline mid-sentence.
Then He opens the Scriptures to them, all the way from Moses and the prophets, for the rest of the walk. And they still do not know Him.
And they get to the village.
And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and he made as though he would have gone further.Luke 24:28, King James Version
He made as though he would have gone further.
He does not invite Himself in. He gets to the door and keeps walking, and they have to ask.
But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them.Luke 24:29, King James Version
You have been left with the asking, and He does not force a door in this passage. Luke 24:28-29 has Him going further until He is constrained, and it is His Spirit who makes that a dignity rather than a game.
And then the recognition, and it does not come from the seven miles of Scripture. It comes from a table.
And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him.Luke 24:30-31, King James Version
He was the guest. They constrained Him into their house. And at their table He takes the bread and does what a host does, and that is the moment.
You have been recognized at a table rather than at the end of an argument. Luke 24:31 puts the opening of their eyes at the breaking of bread and not at the end of the exposition, and the same Spirit who kept that order is the reason the ordinary evening is where this landed.
So stop waiting to be facing the right way.
You have been assuming that the conversation begins when you turn round, and in Luke 24 it begins seven miles in the wrong direction with a question about what you have been talking about.
You are being asked to tell it rather than being told it, and He said what things to two men describing His own death. Luke 24:19 has Him inviting the account, and it is the Holy Spirit who is the reason that reaches a truck on a Tuesday rather than staying on a road to Emmaus.
You have a hope that is being spoken about in the past tense and a companion who did not correct the tense. The written word keeps we trusted exactly as they said it, and the same Spirit who preserved that wording is the reason honesty on a bad road is not a betrayal.
And I will not lay one gram on you: they are never rebuked for leaving. Not on the road, not at the table, not when they run back to Jerusalem that night. The word fools in verse twenty five is about being slow to believe the prophets, and it is said by somebody who then walks another few miles with them and comes in for supper. What God says walking beside you, nobody may quote standing over you, and He has never once required a person to be facing the right way before He would fall into step.
Declare this over yourself
- Road out of the city I am already on, you are not a road I walk alone. Luke 24:15 has Him drawing near and going with them in the direction they had chosen, and His Spirit is doing that here. I am not walking this road on my own.
- Rule that I must turn round first, get out, in the name of Jesus. You have kept me off the road for three years waiting to be facing the right way, and the written word starts the conversation seven miles the wrong direction, which ends you, and his Spirit is reading that back to me and it settles it. Where He falls into step, I do not have to arrive first.
- Lord, You are the God who made as though You would go further and waited to be asked, and You are doing that here. Scripture opens their eyes at a table and not at the end of the argument, and Your Spirit chose the bread over the exposition. I am walking without saying anything, and I am asking You in when I get to the door.
Luke 24:15
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