In this captivating discussion, Clint Loveall and Michael Gewecke delve into Luke 24:25-35, exploring the profound themes revealed in this passage. They reflect on the disciples’ encounter with the resurrected Jesus and the significance of recognizing Him through the breaking of bread. Join them as they unravel the theological implications of Jesus’ interpretation of the Scriptures and the disciples’ response. Discover how this story challenges our understanding of faith and the transformative power of encountering the risen Christ.
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Transcript
00:00:00:12 – 00:00:25:12
Clint Loveall
Hey, friend. Thanks for being with us today. Tuesday, we continue through the Gospel of Luke. An interesting passage today. Luke is the only one who gives us this insight or this glimpse the story we are after the resurrection. Remember that the women have gone. They’ve told the disciples that Jesus was not at the tomb. The disciples have had a mixed reaction to that.
00:00:25:12 – 00:00:47:24
Clint Loveall
And now we just totally shift scenes to some people we don’t know. This is a Luke drops this story and spends arguably as much time on this story as any other story of the resurrection. And so it’s clearly important. It’s really interesting. We’ll read I’ll let me read into it for a little while and then we’ll come back and have some conversation.
00:00:47:29 – 00:01:06:13
Clint Loveall
Now, on the same day, two of them were going to a village called a Mass, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all the things that had happened while they were talking and discussing Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, What are you discussing while you walk?
00:01:06:18 – 00:01:34:14
Clint Loveall
They stood up, looking sad. One of them, whose name was Cleopatra, answered him, Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who doesn’t know the things that have taken place in these days? He asked them what things they replied. The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet and mighty and deed and word before God and all the people and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified.
00:01:34:19 – 00:01:58:28
Clint Loveall
But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes. And besides this, it’s now the third day since these things took place. Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, and when they did not find the body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive.
00:01:58:33 – 00:02:24:37
Clint Loveall
Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it, just as the women had said, but they did not see him. Let’s stop there, Michael. I think so. Again, a scene that no one else gives us. We have these two disciples who we’ve not known of until now. They’re walking along and they have clearly they’ve been with the disciples.
00:02:24:38 – 00:02:51:20
Clint Loveall
They’ve been close enough to the circle that one gets the impression they were they were with the disciples that day. They say some of our women, our group, some of the women of our group. So they’re clearly people who are inside the circle, though, to my knowledge, this is this is about all we know about them. And I think only one of them even is named here.
00:02:51:25 – 00:03:25:32
Clint Loveall
And they are approached by Jesus and the resurrection. The resurrection. Jesus is an interesting study in the Gospels because some people recognize him, some people don’t. He he has wounds, but he often has to show himself in some way before people get him. It’s not at all clear what we’re dealing with, but in this case, Luke tells us specifically their eyes were kept from recognizing whether that means his identity is hidden or whether it means they just don’t get it.
00:03:25:37 – 00:03:46:55
Clint Loveall
I think you could you could maybe make a case either direction, but Jesus then walks with them, ask them a question, and they begin to fill in the details to the very one they’re talking about. So there’s a wonderful irony in this story as they try to explain to Jesus what Jesus has been through.
00:03:47:00 – 00:04:18:47
Michael Gewecke
What makes Luke’s telling year so interesting is that the first story in which the risen Christ is encountered is one in which that person being revealed to is not within the previously numbered chosen few. This clear purpose. And you’re right, Clint, as far as I’m aware, we’re not going to see the naming of this other individual. They’re appearing now in this story and that’s really significant.
00:04:18:48 – 00:04:40:24
Michael Gewecke
You would think that we would hear about Peter or John or we would jump right to one of Matthew. Right. We would hear of one of these disciples who has figured prominently in the story already. That’s not the case. Instead, what we have is these individuals who are taking a long journey, and Luke wants us to know that Luke doesn’t take for granted.
00:04:40:24 – 00:05:21:41
Michael Gewecke
We know the geography. So they’re going to a village called us. How far is that? That’s seven miles from Jerusalem. You’re walking seven miles. This is a long road, so there’s going to be a lot of time for conversation. There’s going to be a lot of opportunity to flesh out the details. So then when we come down here, I think this is what makes this story so compelling, is because on one hand, it’s very exhaustive for a story in Luke two to record the details of the conversation, we have this right in front of us that Jesus, they’re explaining he’s a mighty person.
00:05:21:41 – 00:05:44:42
Michael Gewecke
Indeed, Word before God, all people handed over by the chief priest. He was crucified. We hope he’s going to be the one to redeem Israel. This whole story is being laid out in such a simple, compelling narrative. We get to lean over the conversation as if we’re a camera kind of flying by with them along this road, and we get to hear them laying out the story that we already knows happened.
00:05:44:42 – 00:06:10:01
Michael Gewecke
Luke knows that. We know that he told us the story. So we get to hear this summarized version, knowing that the one that they’re talking to about it is the very one who lived it. And then, you know, as the story’s going to progress, we’re going to see how how well and I want to rush ahead here. It doesn’t just become a story about them talking to Jesus about what has happened.
00:06:10:15 – 00:06:43:15
Michael Gewecke
It actually turns into a teaching moment where Jesus teaches them, but that also will subvert our expectations. So this story, the people who you would expect to be first, aren’t to meet Jesus. The way that you would expect that to happen is most certainly not this one. And and it’s just I think, an amazing kind of way of letting us into that first encounter with the resurrected Christ in a way that Luke does, that the other gospel writers don’t.
00:06:43:15 – 00:06:48:18
Michael Gewecke
And it provides us some really interesting insights and just the sort of foundation level of it.
00:06:48:23 – 00:07:10:19
Clint Loveall
Yeah, there’s a couple of things I think are really interesting in this passage that are subtle. The first is the fact that these men are going presumably home. Jesus is going to enter a house with them later, but the idea that they don’t know what to do, that this is just hanging out there. There’s this story. The women went and found an empty tomb.
00:07:10:28 – 00:07:41:02
Clint Loveall
Some of the men went and checked it out and it was as they said. But then here are clear opens. And this other man just taking the long walk away from Jerusalem with their back toward the mystery or the whatever has happened and and we don’t again maybe they’re going home. Maybe. But the idea that it’s sort of behind them and there are two things in the text that bear this out.
00:07:41:02 – 00:08:04:56
Clint Loveall
I think the first is this line. Verse 21, we had hoped and if if you’ve ever if you think about those words, those are two of the saddest words that can be put together in English. We had hoped. Right. We we had hoped things would work out this way, but they didn’t. We had hoped the test would be positive or negative.
00:08:04:57 – 00:08:40:57
Clint Loveall
We had hoped that our child would get it figured out. We had hoped whatever it was. When hope is referred to as something, you no longer have something in the past. That is a sad moment for these to disciples we had hoped would not that we do hope. We used to hope. We used to have hope. And then the second thing is, is like that they right at the end, some of those went to the tomb and they found it, as the women said, but they did not see him.
00:08:41:02 – 00:09:08:53
Clint Loveall
And so these two subtle phrases, both framed in the negative really, I think, characterize Luke’s telling of this story. There’s still this question mark for those in the story. Now we know better because we’re the reader. But as Luke invites us into the story itself, it is still unfolding. Have they lost hope and will they be able to see?
00:09:08:58 – 00:09:22:18
Clint Loveall
And hope and sight are clearly themes that Luke has woven throughout this gospel. But really nice job here of suddenly bringing us into the experience of the characters.
00:09:22:22 – 00:09:42:34
Michael Gewecke
The the detail that we have repeated. And I’ll be brief on this because this was covered in our previous study, and so we’d love for you to go check that out. But I just want make note again, Clint, that we have in verse 24 the reference to that thing that we mentioned, that there was a checking up on the women here.
00:09:42:34 – 00:10:08:15
Michael Gewecke
There was a doubting of that initial story and we have that admitted to us again by Luke, the storyteller. The first people to go to the tomb and finding it empty. They were women. Women were not the the chief or the highest order of legal witnesses in this day. Luke tells us this again, and yet says that when they go to corroborate it, yes, indeed.
00:10:08:25 – 00:10:36:32
Michael Gewecke
The women were 100% right. He’s not there. It just goes so far as to say that Luke knows the way that Luke is, is telling the story. He’s carefully thought through these details and he wants us to know that the first people there were exactly right in their assessment of the situation. And then ultimately that that opens the question that that turns on a text like this.
00:10:36:32 – 00:11:04:57
Michael Gewecke
If if the tomb is empty, if you’re walking away from the city, if your hope is now in the past tense, then what will happen? Because remember what that hope was, right? The hope was ultimately that he would be the one to redeem Israel right here in verse 21 and ultimately, the redemption that they expected is not the redemption that they saw happen in front of them.
00:11:05:02 – 00:11:27:27
Michael Gewecke
But the irony is we know this Luke has already told us the Redeemer is walking with them. We don’t need to go further in the text to know that that’s true. We we have the irony that the one who they had hoped for is the one accompanying them on their way away from the place that they thought he would redeem.
00:11:27:32 – 00:11:55:58
Michael Gewecke
And I think that is at its core. Clint, that’s an invitation to not just these disciples, but all disciples to consider that Jesus might be walking with you to on your journey. These people aren’t walking towards Jerusalem. They’re walking away. There’s there’s a beautiful narrative historical element to this. How was Jesus revealed after the Resurrection? There’s also deep spiritual theological training happening in a story like this.
00:11:55:58 – 00:12:07:22
Michael Gewecke
And I think if you can see some of those interlacing details, you will see that there’s far more than meets the first reading or first glance of a text like this.
00:12:07:24 – 00:12:42:20
Clint Loveall
It’s a fun convention in the story, right? Jesus shows up and they don’t recognize him. And there’s an irony in that. And there is perhaps an example of their hard heartedness. Jesus is going to call them foolish here in the rest of the story. But underneath that there’s also a sermon that Jesus is often unrecognizable when we expect him to fit into our preconceptions that Jesus often shows up to surprise us.
00:12:42:25 – 00:13:08:04
Clint Loveall
Hopefully in those moments where we’ve lost some hope that we may feel like we’re alive. I mean, Luke Luke is telling us a story here, but Luke is good enough as a writer that he’s also preaching a sermon to us. And I, you know, maybe that’s what makes this story so important to him that he would devote so much space to it in one chapter.
00:13:08:09 – 00:13:40:13
Clint Loveall
But this is obviously an important moment. And I think part of what might be behind that is this idea that it is often the hidden Christ who shows up to comfort us when we are struggling, when we do not see him. Sometimes it’s because we don’t recognize him. It’s not because he’s not with us, it’s because our experience and our struggles don’t allow us to see the truth that is in front of us and with us.
00:13:40:13 – 00:13:48:18
Clint Loveall
And this is if you want to preach that or if you want to explore that devotional. This is a beautiful text for that.
00:13:48:23 – 00:14:14:36
Michael Gewecke
To be very brief on this, Jesus asked them, What are you talking about? And then Luke gives an exceptionally long selection of narrative text in which they’re almost preaching to Jesus. And I’ve always found that, yes, it’s ironic and we’ve said that, but I find that to be a bit of a spiritual wall warning Be careful when you start giving Jesus the sermon and not the other way around.
00:14:14:36 – 00:14:36:54
Michael Gewecke
I think that Jesus’s words, as we turn to this tomorrow, there is a little censure in it. I’m not going to say it’s strong, but there is a little bit of caution in the words to come from Jesus. And I think when you stand in the presence of the risen one and all of us do, we would do well to listen more than we speak.
00:14:36:54 – 00:14:51:29
Michael Gewecke
And I think that there’s an interesting maybe it’s a small lesson in those who heard the question whether you discussing who they go preach to, the one who is the sermon they’re preaching and they miss the opportunity to just see him.
00:14:51:34 – 00:15:19:57
Clint Loveall
Well, and not only that, Michael, but I think it at some level asks the question, what’s the difference between history and gospel? Right? Because without the resurrection, they don’t have the good news to tell this stranger. They can only tell him the history. They can only describe the gospel is unfinished without the resurrection, without recognizing the resurrected Christ.
00:15:20:02 – 00:15:47:09
Clint Loveall
All they have is He was this and he did this. And then they killed him. And now we don’t know what’s going on. We’re walking back to our homes. They’re confused. In Jerusalem, the tomb is empty, but nobody knows what that means. And again, I think Luke does a masterful job of setting us up with the idea of fulfilling the good news.
00:15:47:09 – 00:16:08:45
Clint Loveall
It’s not yet good news. It’s simply news. Are you the only one who doesn’t know what happened? No, actually, I’m the only one who doesn’t. But you are the ones who don’t yet know and such such a well-written piece that Luke gives us here. Hope you can join us tomorrow when we look at the conclusion, because it’s just as good.
00:16:08:45 – 00:16:14:26
Clint Loveall
And I think I’m just as helpful and there’s lots of great stuff for us to discuss.
00:16:14:31 – 00:16:46:42
Michael Gewecke
I grew up in the church my entire life, and I got to confess to you that I did not really come to read this text closely until I was in college. And I think maybe some of that is because it diverts a little bit from that thing that we expect. The Easter story coming to the tomb. It Luke is showing us a different vantage and I think that you will be very glad to have joined us for part two because I think there’s there’s not only ironies to come, but there’s some surprises that are particularly deep in the way that Luke tells the story.
00:16:46:42 – 00:16:55:26
Michael Gewecke
So I certainly hope you’ll join us tomorrow. Subscribe So you don’t miss that video like this. Helps others find their own study through? Luke It may be of help to them. We’d love to see you tomorrow.
00:16:55:30 – 00:16:56:13
Clint Loveall
Thanks everybody.