Come with me this evening as we tread that road from Jerusalem to Emmaus with Cleopas and his companion – the unidentified disciple. We don’t know for certain who the second person was but we can guess. Cleopas shared a house with this person so they were probably related. John 19:25 gives us a clue when it lists the women who stood near the cross of Jesus and includes Mary, a relative of someone called Clopas, probably his wife. IF Clopas is Cleopas, then the second unnamed dsicisiple could well be his wife, Mary. But perhaps the second disciple is not specified so that we may put ourselves into his or her shoes on that road to Emmaus.
It is probably late in the day as the couple leave Jerusalem for the three-hour walk back home to their village. They are deep in thought and conversation as they walk towards the setting sun along the dusty track. They are preoccupied with all the event that have been taking place. Jesus’s arrest and crucifixion. The empty tomb. And the crazy reports of the women and the apostles. As they walk they are suddenly aware of a stranger, a lone traveller drawing near them for company and conversation and fort safety on the hazardous journey. Luke tells us immediately that this was no ordinary traveller.
15 As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16 but they were kept from recognizing him.
This is surely one of the most remarkable events in the New Testament. Two people who knew Jesus well, who had heard him and met him and followed him, then spent some hours with Jesus walking along that road but did not recognise that it was indeed Jesus with them. How can this have been?
Luke records: but they were kept from recognizing him. Literally, “their eyes were restrained from recognizing him.” They did not recognize the person as Jesus. They didn’t recognize the Risen Lord in His resurrection body as anything other than a fellow traveller on the road.
This wasn’t just the poor light of dusk. They had heard Jesus speak – but they didn’t recognize His voice either. Some would say this was a supernatural restraint. That God was holding back the identity of the risen Christ until He had first taught Cleopas and his companion from the Old Testament. Maybe God was waiting for the couple to show true Christian love and hospitality by inviting a complete stranger into their home at night. But maybe there were other reasons why these two disciples did not recognize Jesus there on the Emmaus road.
17 He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?” They stood still, their faces downcast.
Cleopas and his companion were deep in grief. They were confused and distressed. They may not have even looked up into the face of the stranger on the road. They were too overcome with emotion. But I am not convinced that is the explanation. There were other factors at work here too. Some people today have never met the risen Jesus Christ, have never recognised Jesus at work in their lives. Perhaps for reasons which we see here in this couple on the road. As they explained their grief to Jesus, this is what he said to them.
25… “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!
Perhaps here was a first reason why Cleopas and his companion did not recognise it was Jesus on the road. How foolish you are. How lacking in understanding. The translation “foolish” is too strong. It really means obtuse, or dull-witted, or thick. How thick you are!
Cleopas and his companion had some understanding of Jesus and his mission.
“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people.
But the couple were still trapped in a basic misunderstanding.
. 20 The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; 21 but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.
“We had hoped …” But those were false hopes, nationalistic expectations of a Messiah who would come to rescue Israel from the occupying Roman oppression. “We had hoped …” But they had not understood that Christ was to be the redeemer of all humanity, the suffering servant paying the penalty for sin on the cross so that human beings could be set free from sin.
Many people today are still trapped in that basic misunderstanding. They think of Jesus just as “a prophet, powerful in word and deed.” A great teacher, maybe even a miracle worker. But many today still fail to recognise Jesus as the Son of God, God the Son, the Saviour of the world, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
How foolish you are, said Jesus, but then he points to a second reason why this couple failed to recognise the Risen Christ walking with them. How foolish you are, and how slow to believe. How lacking in understanding, and how lacking in faith.
Cleopas and his companion had plenty of reason to believe that Jesus was no longer dead but alive again!
22 In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning 23 but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. 24 Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.”
There was all this evidence that Jesus was alive again. The testimony of the women about the visions of angels. The testimony of the angels. “Why are you looking among the dead for one who is alive?” The reports of the empty tomb. By then both Mary Magdalene and Peter had met with the Risen Christ. Yet still Cleopas and his companion did not believe. “How slow you are to believe,” Jesus said.
So there on the Emmaus Road, Jesus helps them to believe.
25 He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
Wouldn’t you have loved to be there? What an amazing Bible study that must have been! The greatest ever exposition of the Old Testament. The Word of God, explained by God the Word Himself. Beginning with Moses and then all the prophets, ending I am sure with Isaiah 53 the suffering servant. Some people have suggested that Jesus never thought of himself as the suffering servant of Isaiah 53, that that idea came from the early church much later. But those people are mistaken. Hear what Jesus said at the Last Supper.
It is written: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors’; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment.
“He was numbered with the transgressors”. A quote from Isaiah 53:12, and Jesus says that was written about himself. Jesus had clearly understood all along that the path to glory for the Messiah would be through the suffering which Isaiah had foretold.
4Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. 5But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. 6We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
And Isaiah had foretold not only the suffering of the cross but also the glory of the resurrection!

10 Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
11After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,and he will divide the spoils with the strong,because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Yet even after Jesus had explained the Scriptures to them, even after He had helped them through their lack of understanding and their lack of believe, still Cleopas and his companion did not recognise that it was Jesus with them!
With all the understanding in the world, and with all the belief in the truths of Scripture we can have, it is still possible to fail to recognise Jesus Christ when he is right there, right at hand, even in the same room! There can be times when we fail to recognise Christ when He comes up and walks with us!
I serve a risen saviour, He’s in the world today.
I know that He is living, whatever men may say.
I see His hand of mercy, I hear his voice of cheer.
And just the time I need Him, He’s always near.
He lives! He lives! Christ Jesus lives today!
He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way!
Is that just theory, just a nice song to sing? Or is that our genuine Christian experience? We say we believe Christ is with us. But are we aware of his presence? Do we really expect Him to act and to speak in our lives? Christ is indeed with us, working in healing power, with us in our daily work and recreation and family life and Christian service. But do we always recognise Jesus when he walks with us along the road? As much in the good times when we feel close to Him as in the bad times when everything is going wrong and we feel that God has deserted us?
Some people today may be finding it hard to enter into the joy of Easter. It is hard to sing joyful hymns if we have sad hearts, grieving hearts, worried hearts, scared hearts. But the resurrection is not only good news when things are going well in life, when we are feeling strong and successful. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is even more good news when we are feeling weak and powerless. Those are the times when it is good to discover that Jesus is alive and risen for us!
We claim to understand the Bible. We claim to believe what it says. Yet so often people fail to recognise that Jesus is alive and with them. So maybe there was a third reason why Cleopas and his companion did not recognise Jesus. Perhaps they were simply lacking in expectation.
They may have understood and believed. But they still had this basic blind spot. Dead people stay dead! Dead people just don’t come back to life, do they? They just didn’t expect to see Jesus alive again.
If the second disciple was indeed the Mary who had stood at the foot of the cross, she certainly knew that Jesus was dead. She had seen him die with her own eyes only a few yards away. And dead men don’t come back to life. At least, they never did until Jesus came along. So the resurrection went against all their experiences and their expectations. Perhaps it was lack of expectation which blinded the eyes of those two disciples to recognising Jesus. And the same is true of so many people today. We live in a materialistic world where people think there are no realities beyond what they can see and touch. We live in a mechanistic world where everything is determined by cause and effect and nothing can surprise us. Many people fail to recognise that Jesus is alive simply because it goes against all their expectations. But lack of expectation will not stop Jesus from revealing Himself!
28 As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther. 29 But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.
How like Jesus. He didn’t force himself upon them but waited for their hospitality. If they had not invited a stranger into their home, these two disciples would have missed out on the wonderful blessing of recognising the Risen Christ with them. So many people DO miss out on an encounter with Jesus because they never invite Him in.
30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight.
We mustn’t read too much into this event. This was not a “communion service.” It is unlikely that Cleopas and his companion had been present at the Last Supper, although they could well have been there when Jesus broke five loaves and two fishes and fed five thousand people. Perhaps it was in the light of the room, as they were looking at the bread, maybe it was then they saw the scars of the holes in Jesus’s hands and so they recognised Jesus.
And in that one instant, all their lack of understanding and lack of belief and lack of expectation were swept aside. They didn’t just understand that the Christ had to rise from the dead. They didn’t just believe reports that Jesus was alive. Those two disciples knew for certain that Jesus was alive!
33 They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together 34 and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” 35 Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.
We may be lacking in understanding. We may be lacking in faith. We may be lacking in expectation. But meeting the Risen Jesus Christ changes everything! The testimony of Cleopas and his unknown companion are added to the other witnesses from that first Easter Day. We have seen the Lord! Jesus is alive! Praise the Lord!