RESURRECTION – Sunday Afternoon
AN OVERLOOKED APPEARANCE
You might think that the next event on Resurrection Sunday was Jesus appearing to the 2 disciples on the road to Emmaus. But it isn’t. When those 2 disciples get back to Jerusalem to tell “the eleven” that they saw Jesus, “the eleven” had news for them.
Peter has already seen Him!
There are only 2 verses about this in the whole NT so it’s easily overlooked.
“And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!””
Luke 24:33-34 ESV
The other reference isn’t in the Gospels at all. It’s something Paul shared.
“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.”
1 Corinthians 15:3-5 ESV
We aren’t told what Jesus said to Peter or how long the encounter was, but I suspect it wasn’t long as none of the other Resurrection Day appearances were very long. But I think it was enough to assure Peter that he was forgiven and still loved.
I think it might be handy to have a Resurrected Jesus Encounter Tracker…
1️⃣ – Mary Magdelene
2️⃣ – The Women (Jesus’ Mother, Joanna, Mary the wife of Clopas, Jesus’ Aunt, and Mrs. Zebedee)
3️⃣ – Peter
Now we’re ready for…
4️⃣ THE ROAD TO EMMAUS
Archeologists cannot say with 100% certainty where Emmaus was. One ancient manuscript of Luke has 60 stadia (just under 7mi, 11km) from Jerusalem, but another ancient manuscript has 160 stadia (about 19mi, 30km).
The name Emmaus means warm bath or hot spring. And Emmaus-Nicopolis seems to have had a warm or hot spring. The Romans later built a bathhouse there.
Here is some more information I found supporting the more distant location for Emmaus:
If you go to the Holy Land and you enjoy hiking, you can now walk a 12.5 mile path from Abu Ghosh to Emmaus-Nicopolis.
One of the disciples leaving Jerusalem on Sunday was Cleopas.
SIDE NOTE…
Scholars are unsure if Cleopas and Clopas were the same person. “Mary the wife of Clopas” (Jn 19:25) was at the crucifixion. Cleopas was a disciple and among the first to see the risen Jesus.
Church tradition takes them to be the same man. But the names are spelled differently.
We don’t know. But, if Clopas and Cleopas are one and the same, then Clopas & Mary are the first husband-wife disciple team we have names for. And if so, then this text just hits different because Clopas would probably be talking about his wife…
“Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive.”
Luke 24:22-23 ESV
None of the disciples understood that the Messiah would have to die and be raised. All along that walk, Jesus went back through the entire OT and explained the many, many texts that prophesied of Messiah’s suffering.
They did not recognize Jesus this whole time because…
“But their eyes were kept from recognizing him.”
Luke 24:16 ESV
Jesus wasn’t in disguise and there was nothing wrong with their eyesight. They were just somehow, supernaturally not permitted to recognize Him.
Perhaps this inability to perceive Jesus with their physical eyes is an extension of their inability to perceive what the scriptures had been saying about Messiah all along.
They couldn’t “see” the suffering Messiah in the scriptures. And now they can’t “see” who it is talking with them… until He breaks the bread. That’s when they see the Messiah they know and suddenly they have the biggest “Ah-ha” moment of their lives.
So they hop up and immediately trek all the way back to Jerusalem…
5️⃣ SUNDAY NIGHT with THE TEN
Cleopas and the other anonymous disciple probably show up out of breath and start telling the group what just happened. They’re barely into their story when Jesus Himself just appears inside the locked room.
“On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.””
John 20:19-23 ESV
Jesus invites them to touch Him and gives them instructions to stay in Jerusalem until they are invested or clothed with heavenly power. Between what Jesus says in Luke about waiting to be clothed with power (at Pentecost) and what He says in John about receiving the Holy Spirit when He breathed on them, I conclude that there were two separate and distinct experiences with the Holy Spirit for them.
Perhaps it was unique to those who believed on Jesus before the giving of the Holy Spirit that they had two different experiences. But as we get into the book of Acts we will see a couple of instances where there are separate and distinct experiences for believing (and being baptized) and being “filled with the Holy Spirit” in such a way as to prophesy and speak in other tongues. Stay tuned…
Back to Luke 24…
I love that Luke records this little detail:
“And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, ‘Have ye here any meat?’ And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. And he took it, and did eat before them.”
Luke 24:41-43 KJV
I use the KJV here because it includes the “honeycomb” that more recent translations leave out because the phrase “and of an honeycomb” is not in most of the early manuscripts dated to the 3rd-5th centuries. BUT Justin Martyr and Tertullian – both in the 2nd century – make pointed references to this moment in the text and they speak of Jesus eating fish AND honeycomb.
This detail about Jesus eating is more important than you might think. This is eye-witness proof that Jesus is NOT an apparition, a spirit, or a vision. The risen Jesus is corporeal. That means having a tangible, physical body. He doesn’t require “ghost food” because He isn’t a ghost. He can eat real physical, normal food. But… He can also pass through linen and solid walls and teleport so He clearly doesn’t have the same limitations as normal (unglorified) humans.
And here’s the thing we need to realize:
Jesus did not stop being human when He rose from the dead.
He is still and forevermore will always be 100% fully human and 100% fully Divine.
There is a MAN sitting on the throne of the Universe right now. A man who can eat broiled fish and honeycomb.
