Series: Roads
Message: The Road to Emmaus
Preacher: Japhet De Oliveira
Daily Walk: Japhet De Oliveira
Refresh: Open with prayer. Read or listen to Psalm 81:11-16.
Read: Luke 24:13-35 (NLT). As you read the New Living Translation, note 1-3 insights/questions.
Reflect: Details matter. Maybe it's just down to my personality, but time after time the smallest details send shudders of joy down my spine. It is always the small things that help me appreciate the larger things.
I was having breakfast with some friends at a restaurant the other day when a new friend appeared. He stopped by our table and shook our hands. His intentionality in stopping to connect with all of us made a difference. There is nothing quite like a hug from a loved one, from a family member, or a close friend. It's a small act that creates a large impact. We may take connections like these for granted most of the time. We may even forget the power something simple like a hug can have over us. That is, we easily forget until we lose someone. Many people have said that one of the hardest things after a break-up, divorce, or death is the loneliness. They say, that they miss the sound of the person, they miss the embrace at night, they miss the hug or the kiss. Those small things make all the difference.
It is those small things in this story that make all the difference too. Luke, the historian, pays extra attention to these details. While our passage starts at verse 13, the story begins at verse one. Luke needs us to know that this whole story takes place on Sunday. Not Sunday evening nor any other day. Because Sunday is "the third day." It is a fulfillment of the promise that Jesus made several times. The couple walking down the road that day knew this: “…Yes and besides all this, it is now the third day” (verse 21). For this reason, Luke makes sure we know that on the third day they went to the tomb while it was early (24:1). It was the same day for this road trip (24:13), David E. Garland in his Exegetical Commentary on Luke discovered that the common reference “the sunset approaches” should not be understood as evening for us, but rather noon. The point in the day in which the sun begins its decline and moves towards sunset. This meal would have taken place around the the ninth hour—about 3:00 p.m. Garland writes:
It means that Jesus first appeared to these disciples at noonday, “the moment the sun is at its zenith," which would fit the biblical motif of God revealing His glory at this moment (cp. Gen 18; Acts 8, 26-40,22,1-21; 26,1-23; Jn 4,1-45) (p. 954).
Recalibrate:
Respond: Pray for the ability to see the significance of small things and to appreciate them.
Research: What else took place in the Bible at the ninth hour?