Who Did Jesus Go Walking With to Emmaus?

            Our passage this Sunday is the walk to Emmaus.  It is in Luke, Luke 24:13-35.  Two guys walking…but the Scripture is more ambiguous than that, ‘two of them’…  So who are they?  We know one, named in the text, Cleopas.  He seems to do most of the talking with Jesus in the unfolding tale.

            So here are a couple of other details to add to the Bible stew today.

 Cleopas is not in the 12 named disciples, but his name does seem to appear elsewhere.  Specifically, in the gospel of John (John 19:25), some of the women who were gathered at the site of the crucifixion are named.  One name pops, Mary, wife of Clopas.  Cleopas versus Clopas…maybe like Ann versus Anne?  Same person?  Married to Mary? Toss it in the stew.

            Now, there were two of them.  One is named, one is not.  It is the not-named person that might attract attention.  Women are often left out of the naming in the Bible.  Sexist, but “things were different back then”, so we work with what we have.   But what if the second person, not named, follows this tradition?  Not named because of a self-identity of ‘she’?  And a man and woman, walking together, unchaperoned…Mary, the wife of Cl(e)opas?  Toss that into the stew.

            Then consider the discussion.  Cleopas reviews what ‘is known’ to date.  “…some women of our group astounded us…they did not find the body there…told us they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive…some of us went...found it as the women had said…but did not see him…”

            So what if May was one of ‘some women of our group astounded us’?  What if Cleopas was seeking to protect her/distance himself from visions of angels?  Again, something to stew on.  The two of them were ‘talking and discussing’ on this walk to Emmaus, this might bring a different edge to their tones and discussion.  She got a vision, he did not.  Perhaps we have in miniature, husband and wife, reflecting the tension and hope and fear of the whole community of Jesus' believers.  Tomb-side angelic visions but no reports (to this point) of the resurrected Jesus.  And while we know it, Jesus is using his Jesus-powers so that ‘their eyes were kept from recognizing him’. 

            If this were a situation comedy called "The Disciples", the punchline of the episode might be one of the biggest "I Told You So's" in the Bible, Mary looking sharply at Cleopas after Jesus used more Jesus-powers to disappear from their sight.

            But the true 'punchline' is in verse 32.  “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?”  God’s heart touching their hearts?  Hearts on fire.  How incredible it is what Jesus has done for us.

Peace,

Pastor pete