Today's Gospel of the Journey to Emmaus is one of the most charming of the Easter Gospels. You know, the two disheartened disciples, leaving Jerusalem the very day Jesus had himself left the tomb behind empty, and then the encounter on the road where Jesus (still unrecognized) explains the Scriptures, then goes in "to stay" with them, breaks the bread and vanishes.
That word "stay" piqued my interest. It is really a Johannine word, and rather rare in Luke. I even checked in a Greek on-line reference: Luke uses the word "stay" (also translated "abide" or "remain") only four times (and three of those are in the infancy narratives), while John uses it eighteen times.
Luke says that Jesus "went in to stay with them." He never says he "left." He went in to stay and to remain with the disciples, to be recognized in the breaking of the bread.
3 comments:
The Emmaus Story is one of my favorite/special Scriptures. (Another is the Transfiguration, and now it occurs to me to contemplate them together...)
At our Fall retreat, Sister presented us with an icon image of Emmaus and also mentioned that, based on historical studies, there is strong reason to believe that one of the two journeying was a woman, in fact they may have been a husband and wife.
I've heard it said that the two disciples were a couple, but I've also heard that rebutted with this, "Nowhere in the Gospels does Jesus ever scold a woman for lack of faith."
Hmmm, interesting rebuttal.
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