He who also ‘opened their understanding’, is the prophet of His people.
All His children are taught of Himself.”
The Emmaus Walk
"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 24:9
There are few things more impressive than the spiritual calm with which the Gospels end. Our Lord's sufferings are now over, The fearful scenes which marked His death on the Cross have come to an end. The "dogs" and the "bulls of Bashan" which, in the figurative words of the Psalm11 Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.
12 Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.
13 They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.
Psalm 22:11-13
For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and feet.
Psalm 22:16, compassed Him about have, for the time being, ceased to bark and roar. Unknown to themselves all His enemies on earth and in hell are forever overcome. Sin is destroyed and the grave is robbed of its prey.
During those forty days between His resurrection and ascension our Lord was not seen40 Him God raised up on the third day, and shewed him openly;
41 Not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead.
Acts 10: 40,41 by any carnal or unconverted eyes. But the recurring and sweet surprises of His manifestations to His own people all tell their own wonderful story. Among those who were privileged to see the Lord at that time were Cleopas and his friend, who, under a burden of sorrow, were on the way to the village of Emmaus. There are several things which we might relate to this event and on which I should like to dwell. Let me say a word, first, on:
1. How the Lord Came Into Their Company
He came when they were in a state of much anxiety and bewilderment. As their Lord afterwards told them, this sad state had its source in their unbelief and their ignorance of the Scriptures. Throughout all the years of His ministry our Lord had been telling His disciples all that would befall Him in the accomplishment of His great work. He must suffer and die. He was to be rejected of His nation and lifted up on a Cross of agony and shame. The sign of His Messiahship which He was to give the world was the sign of the prophet Jonah. For three days He was to lie in the grave, and then arise again in His own power and for the justification of all His people. All this was predicted of Him in the "volume of the Book". As we know the supreme witness of the Spirit in the Word has to do with the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow these. But Israel, generally speaking, followed another vision. They looked for a Messiah who would arrive on the scene in outward splendour, and who would exert His power in the temporal elevation and liberation of their nation. He would subdue all their political enemies. They looked for One who would conform to all their traditions. So deeply had these unscriptural expectations influenced their minds that when our Lord spoke of His rejection and death even His own intimate followers could not believe or grasp His Words. It was Peter who said, "Far be it from Thee, Lord; this shall not be unto Thee."
And here we have Cleopas and his friend in a state of utter dismay over the unexpected and shameful death of their Lord. A mist of confusion rested don their minds.
Now, I do not wish to dwell, exclusively, on this solemn and deeply impressive historical event relating to those two followers of Christ. What I do want to say now is that, for various reasons, the Lord's people are often anxious and sad on their pilgrimage journey in this lower vale. Although their sorrows have their source in entirely different circumstances to those mentioned in this chapter, all of them have sorrows peculiar to themselves. It would be unwise to try to enumerate these for each knows the plague of his own heart and his own frequent perplexities. Our crosses, burdens and temptations may differ in many ways. These bring us to the Lord for the needed and promised grace given in the words "As thy days so shall thy strength be". And like Cleopas and his friend we sometimes share our burdens with one another. This is one of Christ's laws - that we should "bear one another's burdens". Christian fellowship and conversation are often of great value.
We are told of those who, in other days, feared the Lord and who often spake the one to the other. And the Lord hearkened and heard them. Their prayers and conversation reached His ear. His promise is that where the two or three meet together in His name He is there also to sustain them by His all-sufficient grace and gracious presence. The burden under which these two men sighed was known to Christ. It was this that brought Him to their side. He came to relieve them by His Word and Presence. When, like them, we are given the support of God's Word accompanied by a consciousness of His nearness to us, we come to know what true comfort is.
But with His Word of comfort came also His word of rebuke. "O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken." God's people, who are all in His school, are sometimes poor scholars. He speaks to them both by His Word and in His providence, but they are often slow of understanding. The sin of unbelief may often bring them into the depths of depression. To these two, the awesome events relating to the death of Christ could not be reconciled with their own expectations, or with their own interpretation of the Scriptures. Within the context of our own life are we ourselves not often in similar straights? Although we know that God's Word is infallible, and that all which happens within the sphere of His providence has been decreed from all eternity, yet we sometimes fail to believe what the Lord tells us with respect to both. He assures us that all things shall work together for our good and that His Word, which is forever settled in the heavens, is changeless and can never pass away. But not only are we slow to believe, but we often anticipate that God is going to bring all to fulfilment according to our own expectations. But His ways are not our ways, neither are His thoughts our thoughts. Before His rebuke, these two men, like all His people, could only bow their heads. This humble acknowledgment of their ignorance was one evidence that they were truly His.
He came also into their company to enlighten them in the knowledge of himself. Christ, as we said, is the substance of God's written Word. There He is set before us both in His humiliation and glory. "My beloved, said the Church, "is white and ruddy; the chiefest among ten thousand." It was through the lattice of the promise that the Lord favoured them with a soul-warming glimpse of His glory which also revived their spirits. He who also "opened their understanding", is the prophet of His people. All His children are taught of Himself. Therefore they pray: "Open my eyes, that of Thy law the wonders I may see." And the greatest wonder they beheld in His Word is He whose name is Wonderful. The true knowledge of Christ in His mediatorial work, love and glory, is something which is eternally outwith the reach of the natural mind. It is also something which commands the supreme interest of His people. They say with Moses: "I shall now turn aside and see this great sight."
It is interesting to notice that while there was no natural recognition of Him as he walked by their side, their inner eyes, on the other hand, saw and recognised Him in the Word as the true Messiah of God. The Just, in other words, shall live by Faith and not by sight. "But we all; with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."
There was another reason why our Lord came into their company. It was to confirm the reality of His resurrection. The news of this had been conveyed to them from other friends, but now it was given to them to know personally that the Lord was risen indeed. The moment did indeed arrive when, at the end of their journey, they actually recognised Him, and when an infallible conviction possessed their spirit that it was the Lord. They then knew Him as the "One who liveth and was dead, and who is alive for evermore". They could say, "I know that my redeemer liveth."
Although, dear friends, we shall never like them see Him in this life with our natural eyes, is not our spiritual apprehension of His glory as real and sweet as if He literally stood by our side? It is with the eye of faith that we see "the King in His beauty".
Another characteristic of their experience was the suddenness and unexpectedness of his coming into their company. It was not by any gradual process of reasoning on their part that the clouds which hung over them were dispelled, but by their Lord's sudden appearance at their side. Many of the Lord's people could speak of those sweet "surprises" when the Lord blesses them with His presence. Has not this often occurred in your own life? You might have been reading the Word, or on your knees in prayer. You might have been in the public means of grace or walking prayerfully by yourself in the way. He just came. You knew who it was. "It is the Lord." You might have said with Thomas "My Lord and Mr God", or with Jacob "The Lord is in this place". If these surprises are sometimes brief, they are also memorable and precious beyond words.
2. How His Word and Presence Affected Them
"Did not our heart burn within us as He walked by the way. . ."
These words show that through His coming they were revived in their souls. God's people may go for many days as if they were in the grip of a spiritual winter. They become conscious of coldness and hardness within their spirits. But how soon this may change! Whenever the Church in the Song heard the voice of her beloved, and when that voice touched her heart in reviving power, her winter season came to an end. "For, lo, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing of birds is come and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land."
Once I sat at the bedside of an old Christian man. The sun of his life in this world was going down behind a calm sea. As a young man he was brought under the power of the truth. The season of his first love was like a morning without a cloud. Gradually, however, his time of consolation declined, and he was left to mourn over "the years which the locust hath eaten". He was like one who had been long dead. Now it was toward evening and the day was far spent. But one day as he sat in a church the Word preached began to affect his heart. He was given a new spiritual morning. The Lord passed by and breathed upon him with the warm breath of His mouth. His affections, under the dew of heaven and under the rays of the Sun of Righteousness, were revived. His heart burned within him. At eventide it was light. The sun arose on his soul to go down no more, for he passed, I believe, out of time on the lap of this wonderful spiritual enjoyment.
What these two were particularly conscious of at that hour was a deepening of their love to the Lord. The love of Christ in the heart is like a fire which many waters cannot quench. It was this that Job meant when he said, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him." How is this love born and sustained in the soul? Only by the knowledge of how He loved us. Christ, in opening to them the Scriptures, made them see how He loved them. They saw how, as their Substitute, He took their place on the accursed tree and drank that cup of woe which, otherwise, they would have to continue drinking for ever. It was this love that constrained Him to leave the mansions of glory, to inhabit a lost and fallen world where He had nowhere to lay His head. The "joy set before Him" was the joy that He would have in glorifying God by doing His will, and in having the subjects of His love with Him in heaven. "He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied." He shall rejoice over His redeemed people as a bridegroom rejoiceth over his bride.
It was this knowledge that set their hearts aflame. "We love Him because He first loved us." It was this that moved Paul to exclaim, "The Son of God who loved me, and gave Himself for me." Love is the true response of the revived heart. Whatever we do, whatever we are, or whatever we give, if we are without charity, or love, we are nothing and we have nothing. Love alone never fails nor passes away. "Thou knowest Lord that I love Thee", is a confession within the bosom of all who know the Lord. An old man was once asked how he felt on the threshold of eternity. "I know now," he answered, "that love is the element of heaven." This love, which is shed abroad in our hearts here, shall continue to deepen within us for ever, and we shall go on making fresh discoveries of its wonder in the ages to come. The true Christian, as Jonathan Edwards was never weary of saying, is "a matter of the affections". Knowledge in the mind, or religious formality in the life, can, without true love in our hearts, become a destructive snare. In the Christian life, love and joy go together. Those who love Christ rejoice in Him with "joy unspeakable and full of glory". They rejoice in possessing Him. They rejoice in the prospect of being with Him where He is. They rejoice in His great and precious promises which shall have their perfect fulfilment by and by. Whatever sorrows may touch their life here, the source of their joy shall remain. It was this fact that so deeply impressed the pagan communities in which the early Christians witnessed and laboured. No suffering or deprivation quenched their joy in the Lord. When the Psalmist was beset with many trials he addressed his own spirit in these words: "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me?" His one source of comfort was his coming to God his "exceeding joy" with all his cares. "In whom ye greatly rejoice, though now, for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations."
We believe, also, that their hearts burned within them with a desire to tell others what they themselves had seen and heard. "We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard", was the answer of the disciples to those who would suppress their witness and silence their voice. "If these were to hold their peace the very stones would cry out." When Paul was brought to see the glory of the Redeemer and the great wonder of the forgiveness of all his sins, he said: "Lord what wilt thou have me to do?" From that hour, the love of Christ constrained him to proclaim the Gospel.
This is the holy dynamic within the soul of the true Church. This is what moves her to labour and suffer for Christ in this world. She has "good news" to tell a perishing race. Those who taste of the love of Christ would have others to share their joy. "O, taste and see that God is good." These two, instead of going to rest after their long journey "arose up in the same hour" and went to Jerusalem to testify that they had seen the Lord. O, that this love, this joy and desire, might take possession of ourselves in our own day. We also have "good news from a far country." May the Lord give us the grace to value and proclaim it.
3. How He Tarried With Them
Their enjoyment of the One who walked by their side was so deep and real that when they came to the end of the way, and when "He made as though He would have gone further" they constrained Him saying, "Abide with us for it is toward evening and the day is far spent." God's presence was so enrapturing and real to them that they refused to let Him go.
It is this enjoyment of God that unites His people together in love. This is the essence and secret of the true communion of saints. This is a foretaste of Heaven on earth. The story was once told of two Christian friends who, along a quiet path, would accompany one another home. When the Lord would, through their Christian conversation, honour them with His presence, the way was all too short and they would continue "to see one another home" more than once. The Lord was their Companion.
In our text we see also the sensitiveness of their spirit, and the reality of their discernment and concern. When they felt that their Heavenly Friend might depart they constrained Him to tarry with them. God's people know when He is consciously with them. They can also tell, in the public means of grace, when and where His presence is vouchsafed or withheld. We once heard of a congregation which the Lord often honoured with His presence. It was the great concern of God's people there that He would not become a stranger in their midst. And whenever they felt that His power and presence were being withdrawn from the public means of grace they would gather together in secret and plead with Him not to leave them. "Abide with us" was their plea. They would also examine themselves lest, like Achan, any of them harboured some evil in their lives which might grieve the Spirit of the Lord. And in that corner of the vineyard He tarried while in other places He became a stranger.
With some of us here today it is, literally speaking, toward evening. Whether we are young or old in the faith we always need the Lord beside us. But old age brings its own infirmities and, perhaps, anxieties. It may also be associated with much loneliness. Some of our dear companions in the Lord who used to walk with us in the way are here no more. Their voices, their faces and smiles we shall neither see nor hear again in this world. But there is a never failing Friend. The Guide of our youth has promised to be the God of our old age. "Cast me not off in time of old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth." His promise is, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee."
4. How He Departed and Yet Remained
The inevitable moment did arrive when, in the breaking of bread, they recognised who their Companion was, "And their eyes were opened and they knew Him, and He vanished out of their sight." He vanished and yet He remained. He remained with them in His Word and promise. He remained with them in their own spiritual fellowship. His gracious presence would also stay with them to the end. The day will come in the life of all who love Him when He shall no longer vanish out of their sight. Here He often turns aside to tarry only for a night. Clouds sometimes take Him out of our sight, and we see but darkly through a glass. But the eternal day will soon break and all shadows shall for ever flee away. How sweet are the words: "Whom I shall see for myself and no other." This is what they often long for. "When shall I come and appear before God?" May God give us the heart and the walk of pilgrims and strangers in the earth. Each one of us should examine himself as to whether or not Christ is our Companion and whether or not we have the soul exercises and experiences of His people. Those who, like Enoch, walk with Him know that this great condescension on His part is a deep indisputable reality. "Nevertheless I am continually with thee." "His tabernacle is with men." He is not a stranger to His people, and for that reason He shall know and acknowledge them as His own in that day when He shall make up His jewels. Unless we know Christ as our Redeemer and Portion in this world of time we shall remain strangers to Him throughout eternity.
My dear Christless friends, are you walking on the solemn and brief journey to Eternity with your back to God, and it may be without any concern as to whether or not you shall ever savingly come to know Him? Listen to His words, "Look unto me and be ye saved." "Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near." He is a God who "will abundantly pardon" all who return unto Him.
You may also constrain Christ to come into your heart and stay with you for ever. Then you will come to know Him in the wonder of His love and mercy. You will come to know Him as the altogether lovely one. Then you will never want to be separated from Him. "Abide with me." And this He will do. He will abide with us for ever. He is the Friend that sticketh closer than a brother. He is easily entreated. And when, in answer to your prayer, He enters you heart to tarry with you for ever you shall come to know what true happiness is. "Happy art thou O Israel, O people saved by the Lord" O who can describe the joy of ending life's journey resting in the bosom of Christ the Lover of our soul!
“The Emmaus Walk” is from Rev Murdoch Campbell’s No Night There, published by the Religious Bookshop, Stornoway, Isle of Lewis (no date), pp 48-54.
ANOTHER ARTICLE BY REV MURDOCH CAMPBELL
