And as they led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian, coming out of the country, and on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus. So this man who had come to Jerusalem for the feast, (may have been at that time a disciple of Jesus), and there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented Him. But Jesus turning unto them said, daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and your children. For behold, the days are coming in which they shall say, blessed are the barren, and the paps which never gave suck. Then they shall begin to say to the mountains,fall on us; and to the hills, cover us. For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in a dry? (Matt 27,31-34).
In accordance with the decision of Pilate, Jesus was led away from the Praetorium, out to a spot with out the walls, where the malefactors were crucified. Later on,
however, Peter ran to the tomb to look. Stooping, he peered in and saw the empty linen wrappings; and then he went back home again, wondering what had happen. That same day, Sunday, two of Jesus followers were walking to the village of Emmaus, seven miles out of Jerusalem. As they walked along they were talking of Jesus death, when suddenly Jesus himself came along and joined them and began walking beside them. But they didn't recognize him, for God kept them from it. Jesus said you seem to be in deep discussion about something. " What are you so concerned about?" They stopped short, sadness written across their faces. And one of them, Cleopas, replied, " You must be the only person in Jerusalem who hasn't heard about the terrible things that happened there last week."
" What things?" Jesus asked.
" The things that happened to Jesus, the "Man from Nazareth," they said. " He was a Prophet, a
prophet who did incredible miracles and was a mighty teacher, highly regarded by both God and man.
But, the chief priests and our religious leaders arrested him and handed him over to the Roman Government to be condemned to death, and they crucified him. We had thought He was the glorified "Messiah" and that he had come to rescue Israel.
And now, besides all this- which happened three days ago- some women from our group of his followers were at his tomb early this morning and came back with an amazing report that his body was missing, and that they had seen some angels there who told them Jesus was alive! Some of our men ran out to see, and sure enough, Jesus body was Gone, just as the women said.
Then Jesus said to them, " You are such foolish, foolish people!"
You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the scriptures! Wasn't it properly predicted by the prophets that the "Messiah" would have to suffer all these things before entering His time in glory.
Then Jesus quoted them passage after passage from the writings of the prophets, beginning with the book of "GENESIS," and going right on through "Scriptures," explaining what the passages meant and what they said about himself.
By this time they were nearing "Emmaus" and the end of their journey. Jesus would have gone on, but they begged him to stay the night with them as it was getting late. So he went home with them.
As they sat down to eat, He asked God's blessing on the food and then took a small loaf of bread and broke it and was passing it over to them, when suddenly- it was as though their eyes were opened- they recognized him! And at that moment he disappeared.
They began telling each other how there hearts had felt strangely warm as he talked with them and explained the Scriptures during the walk down the road. Within the hour they were on their way back to Jerusalem, where the eleven disciples and the other followers of Jesus greeted them with these words, " The Lord has really risen! He appeared to Peter!" The two from Emmaus told their story of how Jesus had appeared to them as they were walking along the road, and how they had recognized as He was breaking the bread (Euchrist), And Just as they were telling about it, Jesus himself was suddenly standing there among them, but the whole group was terribly frightened, thinking they were seeing a ghost! Why are you frightened? he asked. " Why do you doubt that it is really I. Look at my hands! Look at my feet! You can see that it is I. Touch me, and make sure that I am not a ghost. It was written long ago that the Messiah must suffer and die and rise again from the dead on the third day.
They had not properly attended to the description of the "Messiah" as given by the Prophets, and they had not looked upon His own teaching and miracles with enlightened eyes. It was a necessity for Christ, the master in whose company they had been all these long months. Jesus now repeated the sermon of the afternoon, telling them, while He was with them, not once but repeatedly, He had pointed to the nearness of His passion. Happy Advent!
The resurrection of Jesus, testified by the open grave and by the word of Angels, was not believed by the apostles, But Jesus appears to the Emmaus disciples and then to the eleven apostles, convincing them of His having risen from the dead, commissioning them to be His ministers for the preaching of the Gospel, and finally ascending before them from the Mount of Olives.
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