The document explores the concept of Jesus making a pretense of leaving in Luke 24:28-29 to prompt his disciples to desire his presence. It discusses the necessity of actively seeking and maintaining a relationship with Christ, emphasizing that spiritual experiences can fade if not nurtured. Ultimately, it highlights that human desire can influence divine interaction, encouraging believers to express genuine longing for Christ's companionship.

1. JESUS WAS PRETENDINGAND TESTING
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Luke 24:28 28As they approachedthe villageto which
they were going, Jesus continuedon as if he were
going farther.
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
Detaining Christ
Alexander Maclaren
Luke 24:28
And they drew near to the village, where they went: and he made as though he
would have gone further.
'And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they
went: and He made as though He would have gone further.29. But they
constrainedHim, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day
is far spent. And He went in to tarry with them.' -- LUKE xxiv.28, 29.
Of course, a chance companion, pickedup on the road, is dropped when the
journey's end is reached. When these two disciples had come to Emmaus,

2. perhaps arriving at some humble inn or caravanserai, orperhaps at the home
of one of them, it would have been an unmannerly intrusion for the Stranger
who had met them on the road, and could accompanythem there without
rudely forcing Himself on them, to have inflicted His company further on
them unless they had wished it. And so 'He made as though He would have
gone further,' not pretending what He did not mean, but doing what was but
natural and proper in the circumstances. ButJesus had a further motive for
showing His intention of parting company at the door of t he house in
Emmaus. He desired to evoke the expressionof the desire of His two fellow-
walkers that He should tarry with them. Having evokedit, then with infinite
willingness omnipotence lets itself be controlled by feebleness, andJesus
suffers Himself to be constrainedby those whom, unknown to themselves, He
was gently and mightily constraining. 'He made as though,' unfortunately
suggeststo an English readerthe idea of acting a part, and of seeming to
intend what was not really intended. But there is no such thought in Luke's
mind.
The first suggestionthat strikes one from this incident is just this: Jesus
Christ will certainly leave us if we do not detain Him.
It is no more certainthat that walk to Emmaus had its end, and that that first
day of the week, dayof Resurrectionthough it was, was destined to close in
sunsetand evening darkness, than that all seasonsofquickened intercourse
with Jesus Christ, all times when duty and grace and privilege seemto be very
greatand real, all times when we awakemore than ordinarily to the
recognitionof the Presenceofthe Lord with us and of the glories that lie
beyond, tend to end and to leave us bare and deprived of the vision, unless
there be on our parts a distinct and resolute effort to make perpetual that
which in its nature is transient and comes to a close, unless we avert its
cessation. All motion tends to rest, and Christian feeling falls under the same
law. Nay, the more thrilling the moment's experience the more exhausting is
it, and the more certain to be followed by depressionand collapse.'Action and

3. reactionare equal and contrary.' The height of the wave determines the depth
of the trough. Therefore Christian people have to be speciallycareful towards
the end of a time of specialvitality and earnestness;because, unless they by
desire and by discipline of their minds interpose, the natural result will be
deadness in proportion to the previous excitement. 'He made as though He
would have gone further,' and He certainly will unless His retreating skirts be
graspedat by the outstretchedhands of faith and desire, and the prayer go
after Him, 'Abide with us for it is toward evening.'
That is quite true, too, in another application of the incident. Convictions,
spiritual experiences ofa rudimentary sort, certainly die awayand leave
people harder and worse than they were before, unless they be fosteredand
cherishedand brought to maturity and invested with permanence by the
honest efforts of the subjects of the same. The grace of God, in the preaching
of His Gospel, is like a flying summer shower. It falls upon one land and then
passes onwith its treasures and pours them out somewhere else. The religious
history of many countries and of long centuries is a commentary written out
in greatand tragic characters on the profound truth that lies in the simple
incident of my text. Look at Palestine, look atAsia Minor, at the places where
the Gospelfirst won its triumphs; look at EasternEurope. What is the present
condition of these once fair lands but an illustration of this principle, that
Christ who comes to men in His grace is kept only by the earnestnessand
faithfulness and desire of the men to whom He comes?
And you and I, dear brethren, both as members of a Christian community
and in our individual capacity, have our religious blessings on the same
conditions as Ephesus and Constantinople had theirs, and may fling them
awayby the same negligence as has ruined large tracts of the world through
long ages oftime. Christ will certainly go unless you keepHim.

4. Then further, notice from my text this other thought, that Christ seeks by His
actionto stimulate our desires for Him.
'He made as though He would have gone further.' But while His feet were
directed to the road His heart remained with His two fellow-travellers whom
He was apparently leaving, and His wish was that the sight of His retiring
figure might kindle in their hearts greatoutgoings of desire to which He
would so gladly yield. It is the same actionon His part, only under a slightly
different form, but actuatedby the same motive and the same in substance, as
we find over and over againin the gospels. Youremember the instances. I
need only refer to them in a word.
Here is one: the dark lake, the rising moon behind the Easternhills, a figure
coming out of the gloom acrossthe stormy sea, and when He reachedthe
tossing fishing cobble it seemedas if He would have passedby; and He would,
but that the cry flung out over the dark waterstopped Him.
Here are two blind men sitting by the roadside crying 'Thou Son of David,
have mercy upon us.' Not a word, not even a glance overHis shoulder, no
stopping of His resolvedstride; onwards towards Jerusalem, Pilate, and
Calvary. BecauseHe did not heed their cry? Because He did not infinitely
long to help them? No. The purpose of His apparent indifference was attained
when 'they cried the more earnestly, Thou Son of David, have mercy upon us.'
Here is another. A woman half mad with anguish for her demon-ridden
daughter, calling after Him with the shrill shriek of Easternsorrow and
disturbing the fine nerves of the disciples, but causing no movements nor any
sign that He even heard, or if He heard, heeded, the ear-piercing and heart-
moving cries. Why was that ear which was always open to the call of misery
closednow? BecauseHe wished to bring her to such an agonyof desire as

5. might open her heart very wide for an amplitude of blessing;and so He let her
cry, knowing that the longershe calledthe more she would wish, and that the
more she wishedthe more He would bestow.
And that is what He does with us all sometimes:seeming to leave our wishes
and our yearnings all unnoticed. Then the devil says to us, 'What's the use of
crying to Him? He does not hear you.' But faith hears the promise: 'Open thy
mouth wide and I will fill it,' though to sense there seems to be 'no voice nor
any that answered.'
Christ has no other reason in any of the delays and trying prolongations of
His answers than to make us capable of largerblessing, because delaydeepens
our longing. He is infinitely wishful to-day, as He was on that Resurrection
evening, to draw near to every heart and pour upon it the whole sunlit
cataractofthe mighty fact that He lives to bless. But He cannotcome to us
unless we desire Him, and He cannot give to us more of Himself than we wish;
and therefore He is obliged, as the first thing, to make our desires largerand
fuller, and then He will answerthem. 'He could there do no mighty works
because oftheir unbelief.'
Our faithlessnesslimits His power; our faith is the measure of our capacity.
Lastly, the text reminds us that Jesus Christis glad to be forced.
'They constrained': a very strong word, kindred to the other one which our
Lord Himself employs when He speaks aboutthe 'kingdom of heaven
suffering violence, and the violent taking it by force.'That bold expression
gives emphatic utterance to the truth that there is a real powerlodged in the
desires of humble hearts that desire Him, so as that they can prescribe to Him

6. what He shall do for them and how much of Himself He shall give them. Our
feebleness canin a measure setin motion and regulate the energy of
Omnipotence. 'They constrainedHim.'
Do you remember who it was that was called 'a prince with God' and how he
won the title and was able to prevail? We, too, have the charter given to us
that we can -- I speak it reverently -- guide God's hand and compel
Omnipotence to bless us. We master Nature by yielding to it and utilising its
energies. We have power with God by yielding to Him and conforming our
desires to the longings of His heart and asking the things that are according to
His will. 'Concerning the work of My hands command ye Me.' And what we,
leaning on His promise and in unison with His mighty purpose of love, desire,
that will as certainly come down to us as every stream must pour into the
lowestlevels and fill the depressions in its course.
You can make sure of Christ if two things are yours. He will always remain
with us if, on the one hand, we wish for Him honestly and really to be with us
all the day long, which would be extremely inconvenient for some of us; and if,
on the other hand, we take care not to do the acts nor cultivate the tempers
which drive Him away. For'How can two walk togetherexceptthey be
agreed?'And how can we ask Him to come in and sit down in a house which is
all full of filth and worldliness? Turn the demons out and open the door, and
anything is more likely than that the door will stand gaping and the doorway
be unfilled by the meek presence of the Christ that enters in.
The old prayer is susceptible of application to our community and to our
individual hearts. When Israelprayed, 'Arise, O Lord, into Thy rest; Thou
and the Ark of Thy strength,' the answerwas prompt and certain. 'This is My
rest for ever; here will I dwell, for I have desired it.' But the divine desire was
not accomplishedtill the human desire opened the Temple gates for the
entrance of the Ark.

7. 'He made as though He would have gone further'; but they constrainedHim,
and then He entered in.
COMMENTARIES
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
(28) He made as though he would have gone further.—This was, it is obvious,
the crucialtest of the effectof the Lord’s previous teaching. Did they feela
new light flowing in upon their souls, bringing new meanings into what had
before been obscure and hard sayings? Were they contentto let the unknown
Teacherpass on, and see no more of Him? Their answershowed, in words
that meet us afterwards, that their “hearts” already“burnt within them.”
Here, also, we note the method of the Divine Teacheras an example for other
teachers. We oftenimpress truth more effectively, and ‘stimulate the desire
for further knowledge, by suspending for a time the continued inculcationof
it.
MacLaren's Expositions
Luke
THE RISEN LORD’S SELF-REVELATION TO WAVERING DISCIPLES
DETAINING CHRIST
Luke 24:28 - Luke 24:29.

8. Of course, a chance companion, pickedup on the road, is dropped when the
journey’s end is reached. When these two disciples had come to Emmaus,
perhaps arriving at some humble inn or caravanserai, orperhaps at the home
of one of them, it would have been an unmannerly intrusion for the Stranger
who had met them on the road, and could accompanythem there without
rudely forcing Himself on them, to have inflicted His company further on
them unless they had wished it. And so ‘He made as though He would have
gone further,’ not pretending what He did not mean, but doing what was but
natural and proper in the circumstances. ButJesus had a further motive for
showing His intention of parting company at the door of t he house in
Emmaus. He desired to evoke the expressionof the desire of His two fellow-
walkers that He should tarry with them. Having evokedit, then with infinite
willingness omnipotence lets itself be controlled by feebleness, andJesus
suffers Himself to be constrainedby those whom, unknown to themselves, He
was gently and mightily constraining. ‘He made as though,’ unfortunately
suggeststo an English readerthe idea of acting a part, and of seeming to
intend what was not really intended. But there is no such thought in Luke’s
mind.
The first suggestionthat strikes one from this incident is just this: Jesus
Christ will certainly leave us if we do not detain Him.
It is no more certainthat that walk to Emmaus had its end, and that that first
day of the week, dayof Resurrectionthough it was, was destined to close in
sunsetand evening darkness, than that all seasonsofquickened intercourse
with Jesus Christ, all times when duty and grace and privilege seemto be very
greatand real, all times when we awakemore than ordinarily to the
recognitionof the Presenceofthe Lord with us and of the glories that lie
beyond, tend to end and to leave us bare and deprived of the vision, unless
there be on our parts a distinct and resolute effort to make perpetual that
which in its nature is transient and comes to a close, unless we avert its

9. cessation. All motion tends to rest, and Christian feeling falls under the same
law. Nay, the more thrilling the moment’s experience the more exhausting is
it, and the more certain to be followed by depressionand collapse.‘Action and
reactionare equal and contrary.’ The height of the wave determines the depth
of the trough. Therefore Christian people have to be speciallycareful towards
the end of a time of specialvitality and earnestness;because, unless they by
desire and by discipline of their minds interpose, the natural result will be
deadness in proportion to the previous excitement. ‘He made as though He
would have gone further,’ and He certainly will unless His retreating skirts be
graspedat by the outstretchedhands of faith and desire, and the prayer go
after Him, ‘Abide with us for it is toward evening.’
That is quite true, too, in another application of the incident. Convictions,
spiritual experiences ofa rudimentary sort, certainly die awayand leave
people harder and worse than they were before, unless they be fosteredand
cherishedand brought to maturity and invested with permanence by the
honest efforts of the subjects of the same. The grace of God, in the preaching
of His Gospel, is like a flying summer shower. It falls upon one land and then
passes onwith its treasures and pours them out somewhere else. The religious
history of many countries and of long centuries is a commentary written out
in greatand tragic characters on the profound truth that lies in the simple
incident of my text. Look at Palestine, look atAsia Minor, at the places where
the Gospelfirst won its triumphs; look at EasternEurope. What is the present
condition of these once fair lands but an illustration of this principle, that
Christ who comes to men in His grace is kept only by the earnestnessand
faithfulness and desire of the men to whom He comes?
And you and I, dear brethren, both as members of a Christian community
and in our individual capacity, have our religious blessings on the same
conditions as Ephesus and Constantinople had theirs, and may fling them
awayby the same negligence as has ruined large tracts of the world through
long ages oftime. Christ will certainly go unless you keepHim.

10. Then further, notice from my text this other thought, that Christ seeks by His
actionto stimulate our desires for Him.
‘He made as though He would have gone further.’ But while His feet were
directed to the road His heart remained with His two fellow-travellers whom
He was apparently leaving, and His wish was that the sight of His retiring
figure might kindle in their hearts greatoutgoings of desire to which He
would so gladly yield. It is the same actionon His part, only under a slightly
different form, but actuatedby the same motive and the same in substance, as
we find over and over againin the gospels. Youremember the instances. I
need only refer to them in a word.
Here is one: the dark lake, the rising moon behind the Easternhills, a figure
coming out of the gloom acrossthe stormy sea, and when He reachedthe
tossing fishing cobble it seemedas if He would have passedby; and He would,
but that the cry flung out over the dark waterstopped Him.
Here are two blind men sitting by the roadside crying ‘Thou Son of David,
have mercy upon us.’ Not a word, not even a glance overHis shoulder, no
stopping of His resolvedstride; onwards towards Jerusalem, Pilate, and
Calvary. BecauseHe did not heed their cry? Because He did not infinitely
long to help them? No. The purpose of His apparent indifference was attained
when ‘they cried the more earnestly, Thou Son of David, have mercy upon
us.’
Here is another. A woman half mad with anguish for her demon-ridden
daughter, calling after Him with the shrill shriek of Easternsorrow and
disturbing the fine nerves of the disciples, but causing no movements nor any
sign that He even heard, or if He heard, heeded, the ear-piercing and heart-

11. moving cries. Why was that ear which was always open to the call of misery
closednow? BecauseHe wished to bring her to such an agonyof desire as
might open her heart very wide for an amplitude of blessing;and so He let her
cry, knowing that the longershe calledthe more she would wish, and that the
more she wishedthe more He would bestow.
And that is what He does with us all sometimes:seeming to leave our wishes
and our yearnings all unnoticed. Then the devil says to us, ‘What’s the use of
crying to Him? He does not hear you.’ But faith hears the promise: ‘Open thy
mouth wide and I will fill it,’ though to sense there seems to be ‘no voice nor
any that answered.’
Christ has no other reasonin any of the delays and trying prolongations of
His answers than to make us capable of largerblessing, because delaydeepens
our longing. He is infinitely wishful to-day, as He was on that Resurrection
evening, to draw near to every heart and pour upon it the whole sunlit
cataractofthe mighty fact that He lives to bless. But He cannot come to us
unless we desire Him, and He cannot give to us more of Himself than we wish;
and therefore He is obliged, as the first thing, to make our desires largerand
fuller, and then He will answerthem. ‘He could there do no mighty works
because oftheir unbelief.’
Our faithlessnesslimits His power; our faith is the measure of our capacity.
Lastly, the text reminds us that Jesus Christis glad to be forced.
‘They constrained’: a very strong word, kindred to the other one which our
Lord Himself employs when He speaks aboutthe ‘kingdom of heaven
suffering violence, and the violent taking it by force.’That bold expression

12. gives emphatic utterance to the truth that there is a real powerlodged in the
desires of humble hearts that desire Him, so as that they can prescribe to Him
what He shall do for them and how much of Himself He shall give them. Our
feebleness canin a measure setin motion and regulate the energy of
Omnipotence. ‘They constrainedHim.’
Do you remember who it was that was called ‘a prince with God’ and how he
won the title and was able to prevail? We, too, have the charter given to us
that we can-I speak it reverently-guide God’s hand and compelOmnipotence
to bless us. We master Nature by yielding to it and utilising its energies. We
have powerwith God by yielding to Him and conforming our desires to the
longings of His heart and asking the things that are according to His will.
‘Concerning the work of My hands command ye Me.’ And what we, leaning
on His promise and in unison with His mighty purpose of love, desire, that will
as certainly come down to us as every stream must pour into the lowestlevels
and fill the depressions in its course.
You can make sure of Christ if two things are yours. He will always remain
with us if, on the one hand, we wish for Him honestly and really to be with us
all the day long, which would be extremely inconvenient for some of us; and if,
on the other hand, we take care not to do the acts nor cultivate the tempers
which drive Him away. For‘How can two walk togetherexceptthey be
agreed?’And how can we ask Him to come in and sit down in a house which is
all full of filth and worldliness? Turn the demons out and open the door, and
anything is more likely than that the door will stand gaping and the doorway
be unfilled by the meek presence of the Christ that enters in.
The old prayer is susceptible of application to our community and to our
individual hearts. When Israelprayed, ‘Arise, O Lord, into Thy rest; Thou
and the Ark of Thy strength,’ the answer was prompt and certain. ‘This is My
rest for ever; here will I dwell, for I have desired it.’ But the divine desire was

13. not accomplishedtill the human desire opened the Temple gates for the
entrance of the Ark.
‘He made as though He would have gone further’; but they constrainedHim,
and then He entered in.
BensonCommentary
Luke 24:28-31. And they drew near unto the village, &c. — His discourse
made so deep an impression upon them, and engrossedtheir attention to such
a degree, that they neither thought of the length of the journey, nor
consideredthe countenance of him who spake to them, so that, ere they were
aware, they arrived at the village whither they went. And he made as though
he would have gone farther — When the disciples turned aside from the road
to go to their lodging in the village, Jesus walkedforwardas if he were going
on, as he would have done, had they not pressedhim to stay. But they
constrainedhim — Being loath to part with a personwhose conversationhad
charmed them so much, they beggedhim to go no farther, but to abide with
them; for, they said, it is toward evening — Namely, the first evening of the
Jewishday, which began at three o’clock. See onMatthew 14:15;and the day
is far spent — Greek, κεκλικενη ημερα, the day has declined. That this is the
meaning of the expressionis evident, for, on any other supposition, the two
disciples could not have returned to Jerusalemafter dining at Emmaus, so as
to have been present, (as it appears from Luke 24:33 they were,)when Jesus
showedhimself to his disciples the same day, which ended at sun-setting. And
he went in to tarry with them — By their pressing invitations the disciples
prevailed with their fellow-travellerto turn in with them. And their humanity
met with an abundant recompense. As he sat at meat with them he took
bread, &c. — Some have inferred from this, that he gave these two disciples
the sacramenton this occasion, adding it to the ordinary meal they were
eating, as at the first institution of the rite. But in the Greek there is no
foundation for the conjecture, the words signifying properly, And it came to
pass, when he sat down at the table with them, taking bread he blessedit, &c.
— Among the Jews, the giving of thanks at table for their food, and the

14. distributing of it to the guests, was the office of the head of the family. This
office Jesus now assumed, though he only appeared as a guestat this table,
and, looking up to heaven, blessed, or gave thanks over it, just in the manner
he had formerly done: And their eyes were opened— The supernatural cloud,
or the miraculous influence which before prevented their knowing him, was
removed, partly, perhaps, through the action just mentioned, of his taking,
blessing, and breaking the bread in the manner they had known him
frequently to do, a manner probably peculiar to him. And they knew him —
To their unutterable astonishment, plainly seeing that it was Jesus their
Master;and, as they were preparing to acknowledgehim as such, he vanished
out of their sight — Rather, suddenly became invisible, or ceasedto be seenby
them, as the original words, αφαντος εγενετο απ’ αυτων, literally signify. For
certainly he did not vanish as a mere spectre.
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
24:28-35 If we would have Christ dwell with us, we must be earnestwith him.
Those that have experiencedthe pleasure and profit of communion with him,
cannot but desire more of his company. He took bread, and blessedit, and
brake, and gave to them. This he did with his usual authority and affection,
with the same manner, perhaps with the same words. He here teaches us to
crave a blessing on every meal. See how Christ by his Spirit and grace makes
himself knownto the souls of his people. He opens the Scriptures to them. He
meets them at his table, in the ordinance of the Lord's supper; is knownto
them in breaking of bread. But the work is completed by the opening of the
eyes of their mind; yet it is but short views we have of Christ in this world, but
when we enter heaven, we shall see him for ever. They had found the
preaching powerful, even when they knew not the preacher. Those Scriptures
which speak of Christ, will warm the hearts of his true disciples. That is likely
to do most good, which affects us with the love of Jesus in dying for us. It is
the duty of those to whom he has shownhimself, to let others know what he
has done for their souls. It is of greatuse for the disciples of Christ to compare
their experiences, andtell them to eachother.
Barnes'Notes on the Bible

15. He made as though he would have gone further - He did not "say" he would
go farther, but he kept on as if it was not his intention to stop, and doubtless
he "would" have gone on if they had not constrainedhim to tarry.
Jamieson-Fausset-BrownBible Commentary
28-31. made as though, &c.—(Compare Mr6:48; Ge 18:3, 5; 32:24-26).
Matthew Poole's Commentary
Ver. 28,29. I do not understand how some conclude from hence the lawfulness
of dissembling, or telling a lie, in some cases,becausethe evangelistsaith our
Saviour
made as though he would have gone further, and did not; for without doubt
our Saviour had gone further if the disciples had not been urgent with him to
have staid: nor did he stay long there, as we shall hear by and by.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
And they drew nigh unto the village,.... Of Emmaus, before they were aware;
their conversationwas so very agreeable, thatthe way did not seemtedious,
nor the time long:
whither they went: where they intended to go, when they setout; this was the
end of their journey; wherefore this village was not some intermediate place
betweenJerusalemand Emmaus:
and he made as though he would have gone further; when they were come to
Emmaus, and to the house where the two disciples intended to make their
abode that night: whether it was a public house, or an house of one of their
friends, or one of their own, it matters not; Christ stopped not, nor attempted
to go in with them, but stepped a few steps onward, taking his leave of them.
The Ethiopic version renders it, "he beganto pass by them": which carried in
it an appearance as if he intended to have travelled further; and in it there
was no fraud, dissimulation, or collusion:he would have gone some little way

16. further, doubtless, had they not detained him; and he intended to staywith
them, provided they should ask him, as he did, though not all night, which he
never designed: the whole of it is nothing else but a piece of modesty, civility,
and prudence; for guile was never found in his mouth.
Geneva Study Bible
And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and he made as
though he would have gone further.
EXEGETICAL(ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
Meyer's NT Commentary
Luke 24:28-29. Ἐσχηματίζετοποῤῥωτέρω πορεύεσθαι ὡς ἁπλῶς
συνοδοιπόρος, Euthymius Zigabenus. He desired to prompt the invitation,
which was a matter of decorum, but knew that it would follow. Comp. Mark
6:48. The imperfect προσεποιεῖτο (He feigned, gave Himself the air) and then
the aoristπαρεβιάσαντο:a lively representation.
πορεύεσθαι]not: that He is constrained or wishes to go farther, but we must
conceive that for appearance’sake He actually beganto move forward.
Luke 24:29. On παρεβιάσ., they constrained, to wit, by means of urgent
entreaty, comp. Acts 16:15;Genesis 19:3;also ἀναγκάζειν, Luke 14:23;
Matthew 14:22. They felt their holiestinterests engagedto this stranger(Luke
24:32). That these two disciples dwelt in Emmaus is possible, but follows just
as little from μεῖνον μεθʼ ἡμῶν(comp. τοῦ μεῖναι σὺν αὐτοῖς)as from εἰσῆλθε.
For to the latter expressionis not to be supplied εἰς τὴν οἰκίαναὐτῶν, but
from Luke 24:28 : εἰς τὴν κώμην;that invitation, however, does not of
necessitymean: stayin our lodging, but may just as wellsignify: stay in our
company, pass the night with us in the house of our host. Comp. John 1:39 f.
Expositor's Greek Testament

17. Luke 24:28. προσεποιήσατο, He assumedthe air of one going farther. The
verb in the active means to bring about that something shall be acquired by
another, in middle, by oneself= “meum aliquid facio” (Alberti, Observ. Phil.,
ad loc.). Jesus wishedto be invited to stay.
Cambridge Bible for Schools andColleges
28. he made as though he would have gone further] Rather, would go. It is of
course implied that He would have gone further, but for the strong pressure
of their entreaty. Comp. Mark 6:48. We learn from these passageshow
needful it is to win Christ’s Presenceby praying for it.
Bengel's Gnomen
Luke 24:28. Προσεποιεῖτο)He made (acted)as though He was about to go
farther; and He had been about to go farther, had not they besoughtHim, and
perhaps had been about to appear to them in another way.
Pulpit Commentary
Verse 28. - And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and he
made as though he would have gone further. This was no feint or deception.
The Lord would have left them then to themselves had they not prayed him
with real earnestnessto abide with them. "How many are there," says Stier,
"to whom he has drawn near, but with whom he has not tarried, because they
have suffered him to 'go awayagain,'in his living and heart-moving words!
How comparatively rare is it for men to reachthe full blessing they might
receive (see, for example, the striking historicalinstance, 2 Kings 13:14, 19)!"
But these were not content to let the unknown Teacherpass on, and see no
more of him, and hear no more of his strange powerful teaching. It is the
words of, and the thought containedin, this verse which suggestedthe idea of
the well-knownhymn -
"Abide with me; fast falls the eventide."
Vincent's Word Studies

18. They went (ἐπορεύοντο)
Imperfect, were going. So Rev,
Made as though (προσεποιήσατο)
The verb means originally to add or attachto; hence to take to one's selfwhat
does not belong to him; and so, to pretend; though pretending as implying
anything false, does not attach to this actof Jesus. He was going on, and would
have gone on but for their invitation. Only here in New Testament.
STUDYLIGHTRESOURCES
Adam Clarke Commentary
He made as though he would have gone farther - That is, he was going on, as
though he intended to go farther; and so he doubtless would had they not
earnestlypressedhim to lodge with them. His preaching had made a deep
impression upon their hearts, Luke 24:32, and now they feelit their greatest
privilege to entertain the preacher.
This is a constanteffectof the doctrine of Christ: wherever it is felt, the
Author of it, the ever-blessedJesus, is earnestlyentreatedto dwell in the
heart; and he who preaches it, is amply provided with the necessariesoflife
by those who have receivedhis testimony.

19. Copyright Statement
These files are public domain.
Bibliography
Clarke, Adam. "Commentary on Luke 24:28". "The Adam Clarke
Commentary". https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/acc/luke-
24.html. 1832.
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Albert Barnes'Notes onthe Whole Bible
He made as though he would have gone further - He did not “say” he would
go farther, but he kept on as if it was not his intention to stop, and doubtless
he “would” have gone on if they had not constrainedhim to tarry.
Copyright Statement
These files are public domain.
Bibliography
Barnes, Albert. "Commentaryon Luke 24:28". "Barnes'Notesonthe Whole
Bible". https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/bnb/luke-24.html.
1870.
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Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

20. And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they were going:and he made as
though he would go further. And they constrainedhim, saying, Abide with us;
for it is towardevening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to abide with
them.
As though he would go further ... There was no deceit in this, because Christ
would have gone further had they not invited him to be their guest. See
comments in my Commentary on Mark, under Mark 6:48, where the Lord
would have passedby even the Twelve themselves if they had not invited him
to come aboard. The Lord's blessings are always to be askedfor and sought
after by the men who would receive them.
Copyright Statement
James Burton Coffman Commentaries reproduced by permission of Abilene
Christian University Press, Abilene, Texas, USA. All other rights reserved.
Bibliography
Coffman, James Burton. "Commentary on Luke 24:28". "Coffman
Commentaries on the Old and New Testament".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/bcc/luke-24.html. Abilene
Christian University Press, Abilene, Texas, USA. 1983-1999.
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John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible
And they drew nigh unto the village,.... Of Emmaus, before they were aware;
their conversationwas so very agreeable, thatthe way did not seemtedious,
nor the time long:

21. whither they went: where they intended to go, when they setout; this was the
end of their journey; wherefore this village was not some intermediate place
betweenJerusalemand Emmaus:
and he made as though he would have gone further; when they were come to
Emmaus, and to the house where the two disciples intended to make their
abode that night: whether it was a public house, or an house of one of their
friends, or one of their own, it matters not; Christ stopped not, nor attempted
to go in with them, but stepped a few steps onward, taking his leave of them.
The Ethiopic version renders it, "he beganto pass by them": which carried in
it an appearance as if he intended to have travelled further; and in it there
was no fraud, dissimulation, or collusion:he would have gone some little way
further, doubtless, had they not detained him; and he intended to staywith
them, provided they should ask him, as he did, though not all night, which he
never designed: the whole of it is nothing else but a piece of modesty, civility,
and prudence; for guile was never found in his mouth.
Copyright Statement
The New John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible Modernisedand adapted
for the computer by Larry Pierce of Online Bible. All Rightes Reserved,
Larry Pierce, Winterbourne, Ontario.
A printed copy of this work can be ordered from: The Baptist Standard
Bearer, 1 Iron Oaks Dr, Paris, AR, 72855
Bibliography
Gill, John. "Commentary on Luke 24:28". "The New JohnGill Exposition of
the Entire Bible". https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/geb/luke-
24.html. 1999.

22. Return to Jump List return to 'Jump List'
Robertson's WordPictures in the New Testament
Made as though (προσεποιησατο — prosepoiēsato). Firstaoristactive middle
(Some MSS. have προσεποιειτο — prosepoieito imperfect) indicative of
προσποιεω — prospoieō old verb to conform oneselfto, to pretend. Only here
in the N.T. Of course he would have gone on if the disciples had not urged him
to stay.
Copyright Statement
The Robertson's WordPictures of the New Testament. Copyright �
Broadman Press 1932,33,Renewal1960. All rights reserved. Used by
permission of Broadman Press (Southern BaptistSunday SchoolBoard)
Bibliography
Robertson, A.T. "Commentary on Luke 24:28". "Robertson's WordPictures
of the New Testament".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/rwp/luke-24.html. Broadman
Press 1932,33. Renewal1960.
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Vincent's Word Studies
They went ( ἐπορεύοντο )
Imperfect, were going. So Rev,
Made as though ( προσεποιήσατο )

23. The verb means originally to add or attachto; hence to take to one's selfwhat
does not belong to him; and so, to pretend; though pretending as implying
anything false, does not attach to this actof Jesus. He was going on, and would
have gone on but for their invitation. Only here in New Testament.
Copyright Statement
The text of this work is public domain.
Bibliography
Vincent, Marvin R. DD. "Commentaryon Luke 24:28". "Vincent's Word
Studies in the New Testament".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/vnt/luke-24.html. Charles
Schribner's Sons. New York, USA. 1887.
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Wesley's ExplanatoryNotes
And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and he made as
though he would have gone further.
He made as though he would go farther — Walking forward, as if he was
going on; and he would have done it, had they not pressedhim to stay.
Copyright Statement
These files are public domain and are a derivative of an electronic edition that
is available on the Christian ClassicsEtherealLibrary Website.

24. Bibliography
Wesley, John. "Commentary on Luke 24:28". "JohnWesley's Explanatory
Notes on the Whole Bible".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/wen/luke-24.html. 1765.
Return to Jump List return to 'Jump List'
The Fourfold Gospel
And beginning from Mosesand from all the prophets1, he interpreted to them
in all the scriptures the things concerning himself2.
And beginning from Mosesand from all the prophets. The counselof the
Father revealedin the Scriptures shows that Jesus should enter into his glory
through suffering. The books ofMoses foretellChrist largely in types, such, as
the passover, the rock in the wilderness, Abraham's sacrifice ofIsaac, the day
of atonement, etc. The prophets show him forth in clear-cutpredictions and
descriptions.
He interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
Jesus evidently applied both these divisions of Scripture to himself, making it
plain to these two who were both thoughtless in mind and slow in heart. Those
lacking in a knowledge ofthe Christologyof the Old Testamentare slow to
believe in it. Those who know that Christology, and yet doubt the Old
Testament, do so because they lack faith in the Christ therein portrayed.
Copyright Statement
These files are public domain and are a derivative of an electronic edition that
is available on the Christian ClassicsEtherealLibrary Website. These files
were made available by Mr. Ernie Stefanik. First published online in 1996 at
The RestorationMovementPages.

25. Bibliography
J. W. McGarveyand Philip Y. Pendleton. "Commentaryon Luke 24:28".
"The Fourfold Gospel".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/tfg/luke-24.html. Standard
Publishing Company, Cincinnati, Ohio. 1914.
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Calvin's Commentary on the Bible
28.And they drew near to the village. There is no reasonfor supposing, as
some commentators have done, that this was a different place from Emmaus;
for the journey was not so long as to make it necessaryforthem to take rest
for the night at a nearer lodging. We know that seven thousand paces—even
though a personwere to walk slowlyfor his own gratification—wouldbe
accomplishedin four hours at the utmost; and, therefore, I have no doubt that
Christ had now reachedEmmaus.
And he seemedas if he would go farther. Now as to the question, Can
insincerity apply to him who is the eternaltruth of God? I answer, that the
Son of God was under no obligation to make all his designs known. Still, as
insincerity of any kind is a sort of falsehood, the difficulty is not yet removed;
more especiallyas this example is adduced by many to prove that they are at
liberty to tell lies. But I reply, that Christ might without falsehoodhave
pretended what is here mentioned, in the same manner that he gave himself
out to be a strangerpassing along the road; for there was the same reasonfor
both. A somewhatmore ingenious solution is given by Augustine, (in his work
addressedTo Consentius, Book II., chap. 13, and in the book of Questions on
the Gospels,chap. 51,)for he choosesto enumerate this kind of feigning
among tropes and figures, and afterwards among parables and fables. For my
own part, I am satisfiedwith this single consideration, that as Christ for the
time threw a veil over the eyes of those with whom he was conversing, so that
he had assumeda different character, and was regardedby them as all

26. ordinary stranger, so, when he appeared for the time to intend to go farther, it
was not through pretending any thing else than what he had resolvedto do,
but because he wished to concealthe manner of his departure; for none will
deny that he did go farther, since he had then withdrawn from human society.
So then by this feigning he did not deceive his disciples, but held them for a
little in suspense, till the proper time should arrive for making himself known.
It is, therefore, highly improper to attempt to make Christ an advocate of
falsehood;and we are no more at liberty to plead his example for feigning any
thing, than to endeavorto equal his divine powerin shutting the eyes of men.
Our safestcourse is to adhere to the rule which has been laid down to us, to
speak with truth and simplicity; not that our Lord himself ever departed from
the law of his Father, but because, withoutconfining himself to the letter of
the commandments, he kept by the true meaning of the law;but we, on
accountof the weaknessofour senses,needto be restrainedin a different
manner.
Copyright Statement
These files are public domain.
Bibliography
Calvin, John. "Commentary on Luke 24:28". "Calvin's Commentary on the
Bible". https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/cal/luke-24.html.
1840-57.
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John Trapp Complete Commentary
28 And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and he made as
though he would have gone further.

27. Ver. 28. And he made as though he would, &c.] So did the angels to Lot,
Genesis 19:2. See the like, Joshua 8:5-6, 1 Kings 3:24. If Solomonmight make
as though he would do an actthat was unlawful, we may surely do the like in
things indifferent. Yet this was never done, as is well observed, but, 1. By
those that had authority over others; 2. For some singular goodto them with
whom they thus dealt.
Copyright Statement
These files are public domain.
Text Courtesyof BibleSupport.com. Used by Permission.
Bibliography
Trapp, John. "Commentary on Luke 24:28". John Trapp Complete
Commentary. https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/jtc/luke-
24.html. 1865-1868.
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Johann Albrecht Bengel's Gnomonof the New Testament
Luke 24:28. προσεποιεῖτο)He made (acted) as though He was about to go
farther; and He had been about to go farther, had not they besoughtHim, and
perhaps had been about to appear to them in another way.
Copyright Statement
These files are public domain.
Text Courtesyof BibleSupport.com. Used by Permission.

28. Bibliography
Bengel, JohannAlbrecht. "Commentary on Luke 24:28". Johann Albrecht
Bengel's Gnomonof the New Testament.
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/jab/luke-24.html. 1897.
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Matthew Poole's EnglishAnnotations on the Holy Bible
Ver. 28,29. I do not understand how some conclude from hence the lawfulness
of dissembling, or telling a lie, in some cases,becausethe evangelistsaith our
Saviour
made as though he would have gone further, and did not; for without doubt
our Saviour had gone further if the disciples had not been urgent with him to
have staid: nor did he stay long there, as we shall hear by and by.
Copyright Statement
These files are public domain.
Text Courtesyof BibleSupport.com. Used by Permission.
Bibliography
Poole, Matthew, "Commentaryon Luke 24:28". Matthew Poole's English
Annotations on the Holy Bible.
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/mpc/luke-24.html. 1685.

29. Return to Jump List return to 'Jump List'
Justin Edwards' Family Bible New Testament
Made as though he would have gone further; he kept on, giving no intimation
that he would stop, till they entreatedhim to do so.
Copyright Statement
These files are public domain.
Text Courtesyof BibleSupport.com. Used by Permission.
Bibliography
Edwards, Justin. "Commentary on Luke 24:28". "Family Bible New
Testament". https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/fam/luke-
24.html. American TractSociety. 1851.
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Cambridge Greek Testamentfor Schools andColleges
28. προσεποιήσατο. It is of course implied that He would have gone further,
but for the strong pressure of their entreaty. Comp. Mark 6:48. We learn
from these passages how needful it is to win Christ’s Presence by praying for
it.
Copyright Statement
These files are public domain.
Text Courtesyof BibleSupport.com. Used by Permission.

30. Bibliography
"Commentary on Luke 24:28". "Cambridge Greek Testamentfor Schools
and Colleges".https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/cgt/luke-
24.html. 1896.
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Whedon's Commentary on the Bible
28. Made as though—Ratheractedas though. Moved on his course, not in
dissimulation, for he would have gone on his waysorrowfully and justly if
they had not detained him with loving violence.
Copyright Statement
These files are public domain.
Text Courtesyof BibleSupport.com. Used by Permission.
Bibliography
Whedon, Daniel. "Commentary on Luke 24:28". "Whedon's Commentary on
the Bible". https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/whe/luke-24.html.
1874-1909.
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PeterPett's Commentary on the Bible
‘And they drew nigh to the village, to which they were going, and he made as
though he would go further.”

31. We canimagine the fascinationwith which they listened to Him and
recognisedhow little knowledge ofthe Scriptures they really had, and may
well have regrettedreaching their village so quickly. They no doubt saw Him
as one of those people that the Masterhad regularly met and talkedwith, like
for example Nicodemus (John 3:1-7). And on their arrival the Stranger made
as though to take His leave of them. He would not presume on their
hospitality.
Jesus rarely forces Himself on us. Had they not issuedan invitation to Him to
stay with them that would have been the lastthat they saw of Him, and they
would not have experiencedwhat was to come. And they would have deserved
it. Jesus behavedperfectly correctlyin view of the fact that He did not yet
want to reveal Himself, but wanted them to see Him as a Stranger.
‘Made as though.’ This a goodtranslation. It is not the same thing as
pretending (which the word can mean) but makes clearthat He expectedto be
invited in. It would in fact have been gross discourtesyin the light in which He
was depicting Himself had He not been so. It would have been bad manners to
indicate that He expectedhospitality.
Copyright Statement
These files are public domain.
Text Courtesyof BibleSupport.com. Used by Permission.
Bibliography
Pett, Peter. "Commentary on Luke 24:28". "PeterPett's Commentaryon the
Bible ". https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/pet/luke-24.html.
2013.

32. Return to Jump List return to 'Jump List'
Schaff's Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Luke 24:28. He made as though, etc. It is not implied that He said He would
go further, but was about to pass on. As a matter of decorum He must thus do,
until they should invite Him to stop. This calledforth their desire and request.
It was still concealing to revealmore fully.
Copyright Statement
These files are public domain.
Text Courtesyof BibleSupport.com. Used by Permission.
Bibliography
Schaff, Philip. "Commentary on Luke 24:28". "Schaff's Popular
Commentary on the New Testament".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/scn/luke-24.html. 1879-90.
Return to Jump List return to 'Jump List'
The Expositor's Greek Testament
Luke 24:28. προσεποιήσατο, He assumedthe air of one going farther. The
verb in the active means to bring about that something shall be acquired by
another, in middle, by oneself= “meum aliquid facio” (Alberti, Observ. Phil.,
ad loc.). Jesus wishedto be invited to stay.
Copyright Statement

33. These files are public domain.
Text Courtesyof BibleSupport.com. Used by Permission.
Bibliography
Nicol, W. Robertson, M.A., L.L.D. "Commentary on Luke 24:28". The
Expositor's Greek Testament.
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/egt/luke-24.html. 1897-1910.
Return to Jump List return to 'Jump List'
E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes
unto. Greek. eis. App-104. went = were going. made, &c. i.e. was going farther
(but for their constraint). There was no deception. Literally, added to go.
Greek. prospoieoniai. Onlyhere.
Copyright Statement
These files are public domain.
Text Courtesyof BibleSupport.com. Used by Permission.
Bibliography
Bullinger, Ethelbert William. "Commentary on Luke 24:28". "E.W.
Bullinger's Companion bible Notes".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/bul/luke-24.html. 1909-1922.
Return to Jump List return to 'Jump List'
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Unabridged

34. And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and he made as
though he would have gone further.
And they drew nigh unto the village where they went - or 'were going'[
eporeuonto (Greek #4198)].
And he made as though he would have gone further - but only "as though;"
for He had no intention of going further. So when He walkedtoward them on
the sea ofGalilee, "He would have passedby them" - but never meant to do it.
So Genesis 32:26. (Compare Genesis 18:3;Genesis 18:5;Genesis 42:7.)
Copyright Statement
These files are public domain.
Text Courtesyof BibleSupport.com. Used by Permission.
Bibliography
Jamieson, Robert, D.D.;Fausset,A. R.; Brown, David. "Commentary on
Luke 24:28". "CommentaryCritical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible -
Unabridged". https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/jfu/luke-
24.html. 1871-8.
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Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
(28) He made as though he would have gone further.—This was, it is obvious,
the crucialtest of the effectof the Lord’s previous teaching. Did they feela
new light flowing in upon their souls, bringing new meanings into what had
before been obscure and hard sayings? Were they contentto let the unknown

35. Teacherpass on, and see no more of Him? Their answershowed, in words
that meet us afterwards, that their “hearts” already“burnt within them.”
Here, also, we note the method of the Divine Teacheras an example for other
teachers. We oftenimpress truth more effectively, and ‘stimulate the desire
for further knowledge, by suspending for a time the continued inculcationof
it.
PRECEPTAUSTIN RESOURCES
BRUCE HURT MD
Luke 24:28 And they approachedthe village where they were going, and He
actedas though He were going farther.
Ge. 19:2; 32:26; 42:7. Mark 6:48.
Luke 24:13-32 Christ: The Living Expositor, Part1 - John MacArthur
Luke 24:13-32 Christ: The Living Expositor, Part2 - John MacArthur
Luke 24:13-35 Disappointment and Hope - StevenCole
Luke 24:28, 29 The BlessedGuestDetained - C H Spurgeon
Luke 24 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries
DISCIPLES NEARING
HOME
He acted as though He were going farther - In other words, Jesus did not say
He would not go further, but simply kept on as if it were not His intention to

36. stop. Had they not sought Him to stay, doubtless He would have kept on.
While Jesus is omnipresence today, He will not force Himself on us. If we
desire His fellowship daily, all through the day, we must beseechHim to walk
with us and stay with us. Then we are abiding in the Vine and He in us. We
are communing with Him via His Spirit. Jesus desires to abide. The hindrance
is us. We are too often like the church at Laodicea which Jesus describes in
the Revelation
Behold, I stand at the door and knock;if anyone hears My voice and opens
the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. (Rev
3:20+).
MacArthur proposes "He did so for the same reasonHe had questioned them,
to elicit a response that would demonstrate the effectof the Scriptures on their
hearts. And it did. They wantedmore instruction and did not want the
thrilling teaching to end."
Spurgeon- No doubt he would have done so if they had been indifferent to his
company: Jesus neverforces his societyupon us.
Ray Pritchard - The word “acted” means “pretended.” What a thought that
is. Was Jesus trying to deceive his own disciples? No, that can’t be right. Was
Jesus planning on leaving his disciples alone on the road of doubt? No, but he
makes them think he is going to leave them behind so that they will invite him
to stay. Think about that for a moment. Our Lord sometimes seems to leave
us so that we will ask him to stay. He seems to leave us behind so that we will
seek him all the more. Those days when we feelalone and confusedare part of
God’s plan to weanus awayfrom the things of the world and bring us to a
place where we say, “O Lord, it is you and you alone that I seek.”

37. Acted (4364)(prospoiéomaifrom prós = to, besides + poiéō = to make. To
make, acquire, claim or appropriate for oneself, to make pretension. In the
NT, only in the middle voice meaning to make a show of being or doing
something, to feign, pretend (Used only in Luke 24:28). To act or appear as if
having certainqualities or a particular state of mind. Used twice in the
Septuagint - 1 Sam. 21:13; Job 19:14
Spurgeon- And sorry, I have no doubt, they were to do so. One would like to
walk on to all eternity with Christ thus talking by the way. Neverhad they
had a shorter walk in their lives; his holy talk had made the journey seemas
nothing, and sorry they were to see the village, and especiallywhenthey
found, that their companion had an idea of going further.
Spurgeon- For Christ never forces his company upon anyone; and if we are
willing to let him go, he will go, nor will he return until we are heartily sick of
having treatedhim coldly. When we can no longer bear the absence ofChrist,
then he will speedily return to us. There is an instance of this in the life of
Christmas Evans, which impressed me very much when I read it.
Sandemanianism had spread very much through Wales, and he had been very
busy attacking it; but it seemedas if, in doing so, his sermons had lost all their
former powerand unction, and his own soulalso grew very dry and barren,
and he had little or no fellowshipwith Christ. He said that, at last, his soul
grew utterly wearyof being absentfrom his Lord and he could not endure it
any longer, but felt that he must once again enjoy communion with his Lord,
and experience the power of the Holy Spirit in his preaching. So he stopped at
the footof CaderIdris and spent some three hours in an intense agonyof
prayer; and the result was that, when he next preached, he did so with all the
unction and powerwhich had formerly rested upon him. He had grownweary
of the absence ofChrist and therefore Christ returned to him. O brethren, if
Christ makes as though he would go further, do not let him go, but hold him
fast!

38. Spurgeon- They were sorry to be nearing their destination. They would have
liked to walk to the ends of the earth in such company, and listening to such
conversation. Christ intended to go further unless the two disciples
constrainedhim to tarry with them.
F Whitfield - Is not God always acting thus? He comes to us by His Holy
Spirit as He did to these two disciples. He speaks to us through the preaching
of the gospel, through the Word of God, through the various means of grace,
and the providential circumstances oflife; and having thus spoken, He makes
as though He would go further. If the ear be opened to His voice and the heart
to His Spirit, the prayer will go up “Lord, abide with me.” But if that voice
makes no impression, then He passes on, as He has done thousands of times,
leaving the heart at eachtime harder than before, and the earmore closedto
His Spirit’s call. (Moody - One Thousand and One Thoughts from My
Library)
Luke 24:29 But they urged Him, saying, "Staywith us, for it is getting toward
evening, and the day is now nearly over." So He went in to stay with them.
Luke 14:23. Ge. 19:3. 2 Ki. 4:8. Acts 16:15.
Luke 24:13-32 Christ: The Living Expositor, Part1 - John MacArthur
Luke 24:13-32 Christ: The Living Expositor, Part2 - John MacArthur
Luke 24:13-35 Disappointment and Hope - StevenCole
Luke 24:28, 29 The BlessedGuestDetained - C H Spurgeon
Luke 24:29 Communion Preserved - C H Spurgeon
Luke 24 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries
ABIDE WITH US

39. DEAR JESUS!
Hendriksen explains that "When the three neared Emmaus Jesus actedas
though he would go farther. And he would have done so, had they not
prevailed upon him to staywith them. The plan of God for our lives does not
canceldecision-making onour part....But by now, for a very understandable
reason, they could not think of letting Him go. So, He allowedHimself to be
persuaded. And having entered their home, the two even honored their
unknown but very remarkable guestby asking Him to perform the duties of a
host." (Ibid)
Jamieson, Faussett, Brownon they urged - But for this, the whole designof
the interview had been lost; but it was not to be lost, for He who only wished
to be constrainedhad kindled a longing in the hearts of His travelling
companions which was not to be so easilyput off. And does not this still repeat
itself in the interviews of the Saviour with His loving, longing disciples? Else
why do they say,
Abide with me from morn to eve,
Forwithout Thee I cannot live;
Abide with me when night is nigh,
Forwithout Thee I cannot die.
——Keble
But they urged (3849)(parabiazomaifrom para - beside, unto, implying
movement towarda point + biazo = to force, impel) literally means to use
force against, to press and figuratively to urge strongly, to constrain one by
entreaties, to compel, to coerce,to persuade, "to speak in such a way as to
encourage a particular type of behavior or action." (L-N) They "pressingly
invited him." (Barnes)

40. Spurgeonon parabiazomai - It is a very strong word that, ‘they constrained
him’; it is akin to the one which Jesus used when he said, ‘The kingdom of
heaven suffereth violence.’They not only invited him, but they held him, they
graspedhis hand, they tugged at his skirts, they said he should not go.”
The only other NT use is Acts 16:15-note - And when she (Lydia) and her
household had been baptized, she urged us, saying, "If you have judged me to
be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay." And she prevailed
upon us.
Spurgeon- Love can always find a plea to which her Lord will yield, for he is
always most willing to commune with his people
Ryle on stay with us - Let it be noted that we have severalinstances of
expressions like this in Scripture used upon similar occasions.Abraham said,
“Pass notaway, I pray thee, from thy servant.” (Gen. 32:26.) Gideonsaid,
“Departnot hence, I pray thee, until I come unto thee.” (Judges 6:18.)
Manoahand his wife said, “I pray thee, let us detain thee.” (Judges 13:15.)All
show that God loves to be entreatedof His people, and that those who would
have much must ask much, and even use a holy violence.
Yes, life is like the Emmaus road, and we tread it not alone
For beside us walks the Son of God, to uphold and keepHis own.
And our hearts within us thrill with joy at His words of love and grace,
And the glorious hope that when day is done we shall see His blessedface.
—Avis Christiansen
Stay (aoristimperative)(3306)(meno)is a plea to abide or remain (as the
branch abides in the Vine - Jn 15:5, 7), even as Jesus saidto Zaccheus "I must

41. stay in your house." (Lk 19:5+). Their earnestrequestwas granted. Do you
feel close to Jesus today? Perhaps you need to request Him to "stay," making
sure of course that you have no unconfessedsins. You may not experience any
feelings, but you can be confident that He is there, walking through your day
with you. O that the prayerful song of our heart eachday would be the words
of this greatold hymn (take a moment and Play and pray this beautiful hymn
to Him...He will answer!)...
Abide with me from morn till eve,
For without Thee I cannotlive;
Abide with me when night is nigh,
For without Thee I dare not die.”
THOUGHT - HERE IS BACKGROUND FOR THIS GREAT HYMN
WRITTEN IN 1847:In 1818 minister Henry Francis Lyte found himself in a
curious position: he was giving comfortto a dying clergyman and found, to his
shock, that the clergyman was unsure of his own salvation. Lyte was painfully
aware that he himself was in the same position. Both men beganto searchthe
Bible, and both underwent a conversion. Lyte from that time on beganto take
his duties as a pastor more seriously. The typical Church of England pastor of
that time was contentto baptize, marry, bury, and preacha brief Sunday
sermon for which he had little enthusiasm. Lyte could not be satisfiedwith
this: he became a devoted spiritual counselorto his parish in a coastaltownin
southwestEngland. He wore himself out for this church, composedof
fishermen and their families, counseling with them, organizing Sunday
schools, training teachers, and writing hymns, many of which are still
popular. The most famous of his hymns was written just a few weeksbefore
he died. On September4, 1847, Lyte took a walk along the seashore and
contemplated the sunset. Returning home, he quickly wrote down “Abide with
Me” with its memorable first lines: “Abide with me! Fastfalls the eventide; /
The darkness deepens;Lord, with me abide.” The hymn was basedon the

42. scripture he had preached on earlier that day, Luke 24, the story of the risen
Jesus encountering two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Luke 24:29 reads,
“Theyconstrained him, saying, ‘Abide with us, for it is toward evening; the
day is far spent.’ And he went in to tarry with them” (KJV). Lyte’s health had
been failing for severalyears, and it is possible that when he wrote “Abide
with Me,” he knew it would be his last hymn and that he would soonbe
abiding with the Lord forever. He died on November20 that same year.
HERE IS ANOTHER VERSION BY KENNETHOSBECKFROM
"AMAZING GRACE - 366 HYMN STORIES"- The author of this text,
Henry F. Lyte, was an Anglican pastor. Though he battled tuberculosis all of
his life, Lyte was knownas a man strong in spirit and faith. It was he who
coined the phrase “it is better to wearout than to rust out.” During his later
years, Lyte’s health progressivelyworsenedso that he was forcedto seek a
warmer climate in Italy. Forthe last sermonwith his parishioners at Lower
Brixham, England, on September 4, 1847, itis recorded that he nearly had to
crawlto the pulpit. His final words made a deep impact upon his people when
he proclaimed, “It is my desire to induce you to prepare for the solemn hour
which must come to all, by a timely appreciationand dependence on the death
of Christ.” (WHAT GREAT LAST WORDS!)
Barnes - They did not yet perceive that it was Jesus, but they had been
charmed and delighted with his discourse, and they wishedto hear him
farther. Christians are delighted with communion with the Saviour. They seek
it as the chief objectof their desire, and they find their chief pleasure in
fellowship with him.
Spurgeon- O wise disciple, when thou hast thy Masterto hold him. “I held
him,” says the spouse;“I held him, and I would not let him go.” So may it be
with us.

43. Spurgeon- That is our prayer to the Lord Jesus tonight, “Abide with us, dear
Master;we had thy blessedcompany this morning; and now the sun is almost
down, abide with us!” Let eachone of us pray the prayer that we often sing,
for, morning, noon, and night, this is a suitable supplication:-“
Now The Day is Over
Now the day is over, Night is drawing nigh, Shadows of the evening Steal
across the sky.
Jesus, give the weary Calm and sweetrepose;With thy tend'rest blessing May
our eyelids close.
Grant to little children Visions bright of thee; Guard the sailors, tossing On
the deep blue sea.
Comfort ev'ry sufferer Watching late in pain; Those who plan some evil From
their sin restrain.
Through the long night watches Maythine angels spreadTheir white wings
above me, Watching round my bed.
Glory to the Father, Glory to the Son, And to thee, blest Spirit, Whilst all ages
run.

44. Thomas Goodwinon their callto stay - Whereas otherwise he would have
gone further, and certainly would. When the keys are laid aside that should
unlock the cupboard, whence the children should have bread, they are like to
lose their suppers. Now these keys are prayers. If Paul be given them, it must
be by prayer, Philemon 1: 22.
Richard Sibbes - Beg of Christ likewise that he would staywith us; as they in
the gospel, whenhe made as if he would have gone forward from them, Luke
24:29, constrainedhim to stay, saying, ‘Abide with us: for it is towards
evening, and the day is far spent;’ and he went in to tarry with them. So, lay
we hold on Christ, by the means of salvation;stay him with us by prayer and
importunity, especiallywhenthe night of death, and error, and superstition
comes. Say, ‘Lord, night is near, stay with us, depart not from us.’ Lay an
holy violence upon God, as Jacobdid: ‘Thou shall not go hence.’Lay hold on
him by prayer, and do not leave him till we have drawn virtue and gotsome
blessing from him; he must be kept by entreaty.
Charles Erdman - No story tells us more impressively the truth that a divine
Saviour walks beside us all the way of our earthly journey. It is pathetic that
our eyes are so often dimmed by unbelief that we fail to realize his presence.
We walk and are sad while we might be rejoicing in his companionship. It
may be as the Scriptures are opened to us, or as we meet to break bread in his
name, that our blindness will be removed; and surely when the journey ends
and we enter the home toward which we are moving, we shall see him face to
face, and the vision will not fade in deepening twilight, but grow more glorious
through the eternalday. (Gospelof Luke)
J C Ryle - Let us mark, finally, in these verses, how much Christ loves to be
entreatedby His people. We are told, that when the disciples drew nigh to
Emmaus, our Lord “made as though he would have gone further.” He desired
to see if they were wearyof His conversation. But it was not so. “They

45. constrainedHim, saying, abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is
far spent. And He went in to tarry with them.”
Cases like this are not uncommon in Scripture. Our Lord sees it goodfor us to
prove our love, by withholding mercies till we ask for them. He does not
always force His gifts upon us, unsought and unsolicited. He loves to draw out
our desires, and to compel us to exercise our spiritual affections, by waiting
for our prayers. He dealt so with JacobatPeniel. “Let me go,” He said, “for
the day breaketh.” And then came the noble declarationfrom Jacob’s lips, “I
will not let thee go exceptthou bless me.” (Gen. 32:26.)The story of the
Canaanitishmother, the story of the healing of two blind men at Jericho, the
story of the nobleman at Capernaum, the parables of the unjust judge and
friend at midnight, are all meant to teachthe same lesson. All show that our
Lord loves to be entreated, and likes importunity.
Let us acton this principle in all our prayers, if we know anything of praying.
Let us ask much, and ask often, and lose nothing for want of asking. Let us
not be like the Jewishking who smote three times on the ground, and then
stayed his hand. (2 Kings 13:18.) Let us rather remember the words of
David’s Psalm, “Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it.” (Psal. 81:10)It is the
man who puts a holy constrainton Christ in prayer, who enjoys much of
Christ’s manifested presence.
Abide with us! - James Smith, "Foodfor the Soul" 1867
So said the disciples when Jesus was aboutto leave them — and so shall we
say, if we know the sweetnessofHis presence. WhenJesus comes and
manifests Himself, when He draws out our souls into sweetcommunion with
Himself — then . . .
we enjoy a Heaven on earth,
our hearts glow with gratitude and burn with love,
we are filled with joy, and

46. dread nothing so much as His leaving us!
Then we cry, "Abide with us!"
Precious Lord Jesus . . .
come and visit my soul,
reveal Your glory,
shed abroad Your love in my heart, and
draw me into the closest, sweetestcommunion with Yourself!
It was getting towardevening - Vance Havner alluded to the Roadto Emmaus
in his devotional - Home Before Dark - I have been intrigued by the title of a
fine book about the hereafter. It reads, Home Before Dark. When I was a little
boy, it was an unwritten law of the Medes and Persians that I should always
be home before dark. No exceptions, no argument. Father and I didn't
dialogue much in those days!
Now I'm at the other end of my life span and I still want to gethome before
dark in more ways than one. For one thing, I pray it will be before dark comes
in the loss of my faculties so that I become a helpless vegetable like the sad
sights I see in some homes for the aged—poorhunks of flesh keptgoing by
machines that prolong death instead of life. I have no control over such a
possibility, but I'd like to go home before that dark sets in.
I want to go home before the dark when I can no longer preach. "I must work
the works ofhim that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man

47. can work" (John 9:4). Samuel Johnsoncarried a watchwith an inscription
inside that read THE NIGHT COMETH.
DoctorWilliam Culbertson of MoodyBible Institute cherisheda poem by
John Oxenham which ran like this:
Lord, when Thou seestthat my work is done,
Let me not linger on,
With failing powers,
Adown the weary hours,—
A workless workerin a world of work.
But, with a word,
Just bid me home,
And I will come
Right gladly,—
Yea, right gladly
Will I come.
I want to go home before dark, before some big blunder on the home stretch,
some tragic mistake in old age, whether within or beyond my control, which
everyone, forgetful of all the goodthings of the years before, would remember.
There is no fool like an old fool. I remember the prayer of one dear saint,
"Lord, keepme from becoming a wickedold man!" Christians are saved but
never safe so far as witness and example are concerned, never until we reach
heaven. The bark can perish in the haven's mouth!

48. I want to go home before darkness settles onthis world. The lights are going
out everywhere these days. It is the darkness that precedes the dawn.
Abide with me, fastfalls the eventide;
The darkness deepens;Lord, with me abide.
HENRY F. LYTE
Like the wearydisciples on the road to Emmaus, I would say, "Lord, it is
toward evening and the day is far spent" (see Luke 24:29), not only the day of
my life but the day of this age. Be not only Guest but Host at my table and
make Thyself known in the breaking of the bread.
O. Henry, the famed short-story writer, uttered as his lastwords, "I don't
want to go home in the dark." Neither do you nor I! I want to make it to that
better land of which I read, "... there shall be no night there" (Revelation
21:25).
Whateveryou do, make sure that you get home before it is dark, while the day
of grace is still yours. When that day passes, itwill be too late. "Judas went
out... and it was night" (John 13:30). The soul that departs from Jesus Christ
always walks into the night. Get home before dark. (from Chapter 28 - Hope
Thou in God)
Vance Havner - The Christ of the Emmaus Road
Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent (Luke 24:29)

49. Jesus had been crucified and buried, and now, three days later, two lonely
disciples were trudging home to Emmaus, sevenmiles out of Jerusalem. They
should have been singing, but instead they were sad. They had a heartache
instead of a hallelujah. What was meant to be the ground of their hope had
become the cause of their doubt, and what should have been a reasonfor
delight had become their despair. They said, "Todayis the third day," and
because it was, they should have been hilarious. Both the written Word and
the living Word had said He would rise on that day. But they were half-
believing and half-doubting: "... we trusted that it had been he which should
have redeemedIsrael..."—there wastheir faith; "... to day is the third day
since these things were done" (Luke 24:21)—there lay their doubt.
They were right in their facts but wrong in their conclusion. It was the third
day, and exactly because it was, they should not have been sad. The womanat
Jacob's wellwas right in her facts: "... thou hast nothing to draw with, and the
well is deep...," but wrong in her conclusion:"... whence then hast thou that
living water?" (John 4:11). These disciples had their chronologyright and
their theologyright, but they had no doxology!
All overAmerica I meet modern disciples of the Emmaus Road. Some admit
their condition; they come forward in meetings with wet eyes or write letters
full of doubt and despondency. Others are too proud or afraid to admit the
truth that they are disappointed, not in the Lord, but in their experience of
Him. "Theytrusted," like the Emmaus disciples, but delight has become
despair. They wouldn't have anyone in the world know that their experience is
not real, so they keepgoing through the motions of religious activity in a form
without force. They saythe words and sing the songs, but they are like
fountains in public squares where water gushes out of lips that never taste it.
These disciples would be awfully embarrassed, afterall these years, to confess
that they are Emmaus Christians. Yet, when they are alone with their souls
and absolutelyhonest, they know that they live in the bitterness of Romans 7,
not in the blessedness ofRomans 8. It is not that they don't believe the

50. doctrines; a fundamentalist canbe as dry as a modernist. Some are not
burdened any more about it. They are resignedto live at a poor dying rate,
their love so faint, so cold to Christ, and His love for them so great. At least
the Emmaus disciples were troubled over the situation!
Some of the Emmaus disciples are ministers. Some are just out of school, half-
believing, half-doubting, having been taught to doubt the Bible instead of
believing it. Others are older and have grown disillusioned, disappointed in
men they once trusted, cynical over the inconsistencies andhypocrisies of
church life. They started out with starry eyes but their golden dreams have
lost their glow in the rat-race of religious politics. Too many have tended the
vineyards of others to the neglectof their own; they work harder than ever
trying to pump waterout of a dry well. My heart goes out to them. They do
not want to be this way. I do not believe a man would enter the ministry at all
unless he had some sortof heavenly vision. But there are more ministers than
we realize who secretlyhunger for a deeper experience of Jesus Christ, and
whose jaded spirits need quickening because they have left their first love and
lost the joy of their salvation. Some of them show up in strange meetings and
sample queer doctrines and fall in with odd sects, allin desperation, like a
drowning man clutching at a straw.
I am convincedthat our greatesttrouble is not false doctrine or worldliness
but an inadequate experience of Jesus Christ. A handful of men and women
who loved Jesus and were filled with the Spirit shook the world one time. It
could be done again, but never by Emmaus disciples like those who were
living on the memory of a dead Christ instead of in communion with the living
Lord. And yet, within an hour or two, the same disciples became radiant
witnesses.It was said of Thomas Chalmers that he had "an original
experience of Jesus Christ." It was his own, not somebody else's. Some ofus
live on a mosaic of other people's experiences, getting our spiritual thrills by
proxy. We read of John Wesley's heartwarming and Hudson Taylor's crisis

51. and Dwight L. Moody's enduement, but if we get no further, these men
become not our inspiration but our despair.
The living Christ walks beside us, ready to change us from weaklings to
witnesses,to give us the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. He may
not meet us in a blinding vision or in thrilling ecstasy, but if we have trusted
him, and yet our faith has grown dim and dry and disappointing, we have a
right to a brand-new experience of the living Christ which will turn us around
on the Emmaus Road, straighten our drooping shoulders, and start us out in
another direction to bless others even as we have been blessed.
Lord Jesus, make thyself to me
A living, bright reality,
More pleasantto faith's vision keen
Than any outward objectseen;
More dear, more intimately nigh
Than e'en the sweetestearthlytie.
When it comes to a deeper experience of Christ, too many only deplore the
lack of it; some discuss theories about it, a few describe how to have it, but too
few demonstrate it. Actually, however, we should not talk so much about "it."
Too many are seeking "it" and when they find "it" they think they have
arrived. What we need is not merely "it," an experience, but "Him." Some
make much of experiences ofthe Holy Spirit, but F. B. Meyersaid long ago
that we should beware of making the Holy Spirit the figurehead of any
movement. The Holy Spirit testifies of our Lord, not of Himself. The Spirit
was not yet given because Jesus wasnot yet glorified (John 7:39). That speaks
of Pentecost, ofcourse, but it is also true that the Holy Spirit never comes in

52. blessing until Jesus is glorified, whether in individual blessing or in church
revival. We would do well to study these two not yets.
The Emmaus experience had four characteristics thatmark every genuine
meeting with the Lord. First, it was true to the Scriptures. The risen Lord
reproved those disciples for being slow of heart to believe the prophets, and
"beginning at Moses andall the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the
scriptures the things concerning himself" (Luke 24:27). Not only does the
Spirit testify of our Lord, but so do the Scriptures. Our Lord openedthe
Scriptures, opened the disciples'eyes, and opened their understanding—and
He began by opening the Scriptures. We err because we know not the
Scriptures. Our eyes are holden if we do not searchthe Scriptures that testify
of Him. Betterto be slow of head to understand than slow of heart to believe!
The Scriptures are like a railroad track;some dear souls are like a locomotive
off the track, stuck in the mud, with only the whistle blowing.
Let it be noted that our Lord beganwith Moses. If men will not believe Moses
and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though One rose from the
dead. Men who doubt or deny the inspiration of the Old Testamentpart
company with Jesus Christ. A genuine experience of Him begins with an open
Bible: "... faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans
10:17). I do not agree with those who think we should not begin with the Bible
but should relate our experience when dealing with an unsaved man. Philip
beganat an Old Testamentverse and preached Jesus to the Ethiopian eunuch.
Our Lord defeatedthe devil with three verses from Deuteronomy. Our
weaponis the Word of God.
The living Word manifests Himself in line with the written Word. Any
spiritual experience that is not Bible-basedis not of God but of the devil. It
may be spiritual, but it is the wrong spirit!

53. In the secondplace, the experience of the Emmaus disciples stirred their
hearts. They said one to another, "Did not our heart burn within us, while he
talkedwith us by the way, and while he openedto us the scriptures?" (Luke
24:32). He gave them holy heartburn. A genuine experience of the Lord is
basedon Scripture, not our feelings, but that does not mean that our feelings
are unaffected. We are so afraid of feeling these days that it has become
almost the unpardonable sin to say"Amen" at prayer meeting. We are not
savedbecause we feelsaved, but being savedought to make us happy. There
never was a real revival that did not produce heartburn and hallelujahs. For
some years now we have been having "revivals" speciallydesignednot to
arouse anybody, and they are certainly working out as planned. Plenty of
church members are shakyabout what they believe, while not many are
shakenby what they believe. The church militant has become the church
complacent. We are so afraid of too much feeling that we are almost past
feeling. Afraid of too much, we make out with too little. Deadmen do not sing
or cry; one has to be alive to have feeling, which is true of churches as well.
We have moved from burning hearts to itching ears.
John WesleysetEngland on fire after his heart was strangelywarmed. In that
drab period betweenthe death of the Puritans and the birth of the Methodists
it was an Emmaus heartburn that changedthe course ofhistory.
Thy soul must overflow if thou
Another's soulwouldst reach;
It takes the overflow of heart
To give the lips full speech.
Furthermore, the Emmaus experience showedup at home. "Abide with us,"
the wearydisciples besoughttheir Lord, "for it is toward evening, and the day
is far spent" (Luke 24:29). It is toward evening in the lives of many of us; it is

54. toward the end of the age with all of us. It is later than we think. The time is
short and we need to pray:
Abide with me from morn till eve,
For without Thee I cannotlive;
Abide with me when night is nigh,
For without Thee I cannotdie.
Neverwas the old hymn more timely:
Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day;
Earth's joys growndim, its glories pass away;
Change and decayis all around I see;
O Thou, who changestnot, abide with me."
It is not enough to see the Lord in the Scriptures. It is not enough that He stirs
our hearts. Feelings will rise and fall, and zeal will flag. We need His abiding
presence all the time. Mind you, He did not manifest Himself at Emmaus in a
greatsermon or a dazzling performance, but in the breaking of bread, the
simplest and plainest of things. That was not a miraculous meal like the
feeding of the multitude, nor a specialmeal like the Lord's Supper. It was a
common household meal, and yet it was miraculous and specialbecause His
presence made it so.

55. If ever our homes needed the Lord, it is now. The domestic life of America is
one vast disasterarea. Our homes have gone to pieces, andunless Christ gets
into more of them we face worse evils here than any abroad.
Christians need a fresh revelationof the Lord in their homes. Too often we lay
aside our Christian professionwith our Sunday clothes, behaving worstbefore
those who love us most. He is a poor saint who smiles at everybody else's table
and sits at his own like such a sonof Belialthat one cannot speak to him.
Some have Sunday-morning grace and Bible-conference grace, but no kitchen
or living-room grace. If the Saviour cannotmanifest Himself at your
breakfasttable He will not shine through you at any other table. If it takes
two cups of coffee to make you fit to live with of a morning, you need the
Emmaus experience.
Finally, this experience of the lonely disciples sent them out to witness:"...
they told what things were done in the way..." (Luke 24:35). They did not sit
with folded hands and congratulate eachother. It was a day of goodtidings
and they did not hold their peace. One thinks of the spiritual with the constant
refrain, "I couldn't keepit to myself." The disciples hurried back to
Jerusalemto tell others, and as they witnessed, the Lord appeared again!He
said to them, "... ye are witnessesofthese things" (Luke 24:48).
We are awfully short on the kind of Christian experience that makes us tell
about Him. Some want to be His lawyers, arguing His case,but while He
sometimes needs apologists,He needs apostles more. We do not have a secret
to be hidden but a story to be heralded. Sometimes it is easierto give a check
for the telling of the story in Africa than to tell it around the corner. A fresh
experience of the Lord gives witnessing its dynamic. Some have the desire and
know the directions, but they don't do it because they lack dynamic. When the
Lord takes overHe cures us of believing the heresy that only a few special
people are missionaries.

56. How does one come into the Emmaus experience? What did those disciples
do? Forone thing, they were concerned. At leastthey were discussing it; it
was on their minds and lay heavy on their hearts. Too many of us do not care.
Then they constrainedHim when "he made as though he would have gone
further" (Luke 24:28). Our Lord does not force Himself upon us—He will go
on if we do not constrainHim—yet He longs to abide with us. Have you not, in
the company of someone you loved, moved as though you would be going, yet
inwardly you hoped you would be askedto remain? He is the Guestwho
would go on. The deeperthings of God pass on if we do not lay hold upon
them. But He is also the Guest who will come in: "Behold, I stand at the door,
and knock:if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in..."
(Revelation3:20). Moreover, He is the Guestwho becomes the Host: "I... will
sup with him, and he with me" (Revelation3:20). He comes in as the Guest;
He abides as the Host. It was that way at Cana and Emmaus. It will be so with
you.
For most of us the top item on the agenda of life is a new experience of the
living Christ, one that is true to the Scriptures, stirs our hearts, shows up at
home, and sends us forth to witness until, in the glow of that testimony, He
appears again!
HYMNS RELATED TO LUKE 24:29
Abide with Me (Lyte)
Abide with Me, ’Tis Eventide
Abide with Us, Our Savior
Abide with Us, the Day Is Waning
As Now the Sun’s Declining Rays
Come In and Abide

57. Day, O Lord, Is Spent, The
Day Is Gently Sinking to a Close, The
Hail, Tranquil Hour of Closing Day
Jesus, Savior, HearMy Call
PentecostalPower, The
Since Without You We Do No Good
Tarry with Me (Scott)
Tarry with Me (Smith)
WILLIAM BARCLAY
This is another of the immortal short stories of the world.
(i) It tells of two men who were walking towards the sunset. It has been
suggestedthat that is the very reasonwhy they did not recognize Jesus.
Emmaus was westof Jerusalem. The sun was sinking, and the setting sun so
dazzled them that they did not know their Lord. Howeverthat may be, it is
true that the Christian is a man who walks not towards the sunset but towards
the sunrise. Long ago it was said to the children of Israelthat they journeyed
in the wilderness towards the sunrising. (Numbers 21:11.)The Christian goes
onwards, not to a night which falls, but to a dawn which breaks--and that is
what, in their sorrow and their disappointment, the two on the Emmaus road
had not realized.

58. (ii) It tells us of the ability of Jesus to make sense ofthings. The whole
situation seemedto these two men to have no explanation. Their hopes and
dreams were shattered. There is all the poignant, wistful, bewilderedregret in
the world in their sorrowing words, "We were hoping that he was the one who
was going to rescue Israel." Theywere the words of men whose hopes were
dead and buried. Then Jesus came and talked with them, and the meaning of
life became clearand the darkness became light. A story-tellermakes one of
his characters sayto the one with whom he has fallen in love, "I never knew
what life meant until I saw it in your eyes." It is only in Jesus that, even in the
bewildering times, we learn what life means.
(iii) It tells us of the courtesyof Jesus. He made as if he would have gone on.
He would not force himself upon them; he awaitedtheir invitation to come in.
God gave to men the greatestandthe most perilous gift in the world, the gift
of free-will; we can use it to invite Christ to enter our lives or to allow him to
pass on.
(iv) It tells how he was knownto them in the breaking of bread. This always
sounds a little as if it meant the sacrament;but it does not. It was at an
ordinary meal in an ordinary house, when an ordinary loaf was being divided,
that these men recognizedJesus. It has been beautifully suggestedthat
perhaps they were present at the feeding of the five thousand, and, as he
broke the bread in their cottage home, they recognizedhis hands again. It is
not only at the communion table we can be with Christ; we can be with him at
the dinner table too. He is not only the host in his Church; he is the guestin
every home. Fay Inchfawn wrote,
Sometimes, when everything goes wrong;
When days are short and nights are long;

59. When wash-day brings so dull a sky
That not a single thing will dry.
And when the kitchen chimney smokes,
And when there's naught so 'queer' as folks!
When friends deplore my faded youth,
And when the baby cuts a tooth.
While John, the baby last but one,
Clings round my skirts till day is done;
And fat, good-temperedJane is glum,
And butcher's man forgets to come.
Sometimes I sayon days like these,

60. I geta sudden gleam of bliss.
Not on some sunny day of ease,
He'll come ... but on a day like this!
The Christian lives always and everywhere in a Christ-filled world.
BRIAN BELL
FROM MOURNERS TO MISSIONARIES!(28-25)
2.1. WELCOMING HIM! (28,29)
2.2. Indicated he would have gone further – Christ testing them to see if they
really
desired to abide with Him.
2.2.1. He awaitedtheir invitation to come in.
2.3. What a blessing for them that they were given to hospitality!
2.3.1. Whatthey would have missed had they not been!
2.4. Abide with us –
2.4.1. Didyou know that the word religion implies a bond.
2.4.2. The 2nd ½ of the word comes from the Latin root ligare “to bind”.

61. 2.4.3. Like our word ligament (the bond of fibrous tissue that holds the bones
together)
2.4.4. The Christian religion then implies our link/bond w/Christ (that which
bonds us togetherw/Him in a love-relationship).
2.4.4.1. Now, thatlove-relationship canhardly be maintained w/a dead
person who lived 2000 yrs ago, & now has passedentirely
beyond human contact???
2.5. Abide Illustration: Dr. Howard Hendricks tells of a small town in Texas
where
one year the schoolburned to the ground with the loss ofmore than 200 lives,
because they didn’t have a sprinkler system. They beganto rebuild after the
initial
shock had passedand calledin the foremostcompany in fire prevention
equipment
to install a sprinkler system. When the new schoolwas openedfor public
inspection, guides pointed out the new sprinklers in eachroom, to alleviate
fears of
another disaster. The school operatedwithout incident for a number of years,
then
they needed to add on to the existing structure. As work progressed, they
made a
startling discovery. The new fire extinguishing equipment had never been
connectedto the water supply! They had the latestin technologyand
equipment,
yet it was entirely useless!

62. 2
2.5.1. Jn.15:5 I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me,
and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
2.5.2. Or, using the analogyabove, “I am the water supply, you are the
piping system. He who is connectedto the watersupply, and I
connectedto him, their sprinkler heads work properly; for without
Me you can do nothing.”
2.6. DISCERNING HIM! (30,31)
2.7. They offered Him hospitality, & He acceptedit; & then He gave them
hospitality!
2.7.1. A common meal turned into a communion meal.
An ordinary meal turns into a sacramentalmeal.
2.8. Took, blessed, broke, & gave – a familiar act.
2.9. Jesus came & talked to them, when their hopes were dead & buried.
2.9.1. Butnow the meaning of life became clear& the darkness became light.
2.10. Some ordinary disciples, on an ordinary road, to an ordinary town, in an
ordinary
home, eating an ordinary meal, but who invited an extraordinary guest…in!
2.10.1.And He vanished from their sight!
2.11. Here were 2 people in a very distressedstate, unable to think straight.
2.11.1.1stof all Jesus askedquestions:He gotthem to talk, establisheda
relationship, and so made them receptive to what He had to say.
2.11.2.2nd He explained the Scripture - showing them that what had been

63. puzzling them.
2.11.3.Finally, He revealedhis presence. “Staywith us” they had said to
him on reaching Emmaus. In the deepestsense He did, even after
they ceasedto see Him.
2.12. REJOICING IN HIM! (32)
2.13. Heartburn within us….the goodkind!
2.13.1.Didn’t you feel something different when we spoke with Him?
2.13.2.This is experiential – I guess Experience canbe legit!
2.13.2.1.Weusually hear of it in the negative.
2.14. While other teachers only touch the ear, He penetrates & touches the
heart.
HENRY BURTON
They had now reachedEmmaus, the limit of their journey, but the two
disciples cannot lose the company of One whose words have opened to them a
new and a bright world; and though He was evidently going on farther, they
constrainedHim to abide with them, as it was towards evening and the day
was far spent. And He went in to tarry with them, though not for long. Sitting
down to meat, the StrangerGuest, without any apology, takes the place of the
host, and blessing the bread, He breaks and gives to them. Was it the uplifted
face threw them back on the old, familiar days? Or did they read the nail-
mark in His hand? We do not know; but in an instant the veil in which He had
enfolded Himself was withdrawn, and they knew Him; it was the Lord
Himself, the risen Jesus!In a moment the hush of a greatawe fell upon them,
and before they had time to embrace Him whom they had loved so

64. passionately, indeedbefore their lips could frame an exclamationof surprise,
He had vanished; He "became invisible" to them, as it reads, passing out of
their sight like a dissolving cloud. And when they did recoverthemselves it
was not to speak His name-there was no need of that-but to say one to
another, "Was not our heart burning within us while He spake to us in the
way, while He opened to us the Scriptures?" It was to them a bright
Apocalypse, "the Revelationof Jesus Christ," who was dead, and is alive for
evermore; and all forgetful of their errand, and though it is evening, they
leave Emmans at once, their winged feet not heeding the sixty furlongs now, as
they haste to Jerusalemto announce to the eleven, and to the rest, that Jesus
has indeed risen, and has appeared unto them.
THOMAS CONSTABLE
Verse 28-29
Jesus did not force these disciples to believe or to entertain Him. He whetted
their spiritual appetites and then left those decisions up to them. However,
God"s Spirit had been at work in their hearts, and they did not resist His
working. Consequentlythey wanted to hear more. They urged Him to stay
with them for further fellowship and illumination. This was obviously more
than just a gracious offerreflecting easternhospitality. Jesus naturally
acceptedtheir invitation. He always gives more to those who receive and
believe His words (cf. Revelation3:20).
HOW CLOSE IS GOD TO MAN

65. Dr. W. A. Criswell
Luke 24:28-31
2-28-65 10:50 a.m.
I am preaching today on How Close Godis to Man, and how close in Him we
can be to eachother; and all of us, all the time, when we have got the love of
the Lord in our souls, happy and triumphant, glad and glorious, singing and
praising; it is that kind of a sermon. And if God will help me, I hope out of
the Word of the Lord you cansee it; if the Lord will bless me as I preach.
Now turn in your Bible to the twenty-fourth chapter of the Gospelof Luke;
Luke 24. I am going to read a passagethat will be the backgroundof the
message;Luke 24, verses 28 through 31 [Luke 24:28-31], and then verses 36
through 43 [Luke 24:36-43]. Now the first part, Luke 24:28;what I am
reading here is the Lord Jesus, raisedfrom the dead, resurrected[Luke 24:1-
7]—not in the days of His flesh—immortalized, glorified, He is eating. Watch
Him eat:
And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went—
the two disciples going home to Emmaus—

66. And He, the unknown Christ, raised from the dead [Luke 24:13-161]:
made as though He would have gone further.
But they constrainedHim, saying, Abide with us: it is towardevening, and the
day is far spent. And He went in to tarry with them.
And it came to pass, as He satat meat with them—
as He ate supper with them—
He took bread, and blessedit, and brake, and gave to them.
And their eyes were opened, and they knew Him; and He vanished out of their
sight.
[Luke 24:28-31]
Resurrected, raisedfrom the dead at supper table!
Now againat verse 36;the elevendisciples are in the upper room:
And as they talked to one another, Jesus Himself stoodin the midst of them,
and said Shalom, Peace be unto you.

67. But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed they had seena spirit.
And He said unto them, Why are you troubled? And why do thoughts arise in
your hearts?
Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself:handle Me, and see;for a
spirit hath not flesh and bones, as you see Me have.
And when He had thus spoken, He showedthem His hands and His feet.
And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, He said unto them,
Have you here any thing to eat, have you here any meat? And they gave Him
a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. And He took it, and did eat
before them.
[Luke 24:36-43]
Jesus, raisedfrom the dead, glorified, immortalized, breaking bread with His
disciples;eating broiled fish and the sweetnessofthe honeycomb [Luke 24:41-
42].
In the twenty-sixth chapter of the First Gospel, the Lord said to His disciples
when He instituted the holy supper, He said, “Verily I sayunto you, I will
drink no more henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink
it new with you in My Father’s kingdom” [Matthew 26:29]. And in keeping
with that promise that even in glory we should rejoice togetherat the table of

68. the Lord; in the nineteenth chapter of the Revelation, which presents the
secondand final coming of our Lord in triumph and in glory [Revelation
19:6], the story begins with the marriage supper of the Lamb. “And blessed
are they who are calledto the marriage supper of the Lamb for the church
[Revelation19:9], the bride, hath made herself ready” [Revelation19:7], and
we are rejoicing in the Savior, world without end. Think of that, and the kind
of drink that is, is the kind the Lord saidis “new, new,” the kind God makes
[Matthew 26:29]. And the food we share is manna from heaven, angels’food
[Revelation2:17].
What an idea, and to a supercilious spiritualist, how gross and how material.
But I am just an echo. I don’t invent this message. Idon’t think it up. I just
read the Bible and tell you what God says. And I am telling you that the idea
and the picture of the fellowshipof God’s children in this world, and in the
world to come, is one of joy, and gladness, and anticipation, and happiness,
and breaking bread, and drinking in glory together. That’s it! And if the
Lord will help me this morning, I am going to show you there never has been
anything but that, all the way through.
So we are going to start in the beginning. We are going to talk about ancient
sacrifice, ancientsacrifice. Forsacrifice was universally, universally the
whole substance and essence ofancientreligion. That was it, sacrifice. From
a thousand innumerable hilltops and temples in ancient Egypt, and Babylonia,
and Chaldea, and Samara, and Syria, and Assyria, whereverancient people
lived, all over their civilized world the smoke of their sacrificesarose toward
heaven.
Now what is the meaning of sacrifice? Whydid they do it? Where did it come
from? What does it refer to? Back there in the beginning, you have the story
of Cain and Abel. Abel is a herdsman, and out of the firstlings of his flock he
brought a lamb and offered it as a sacrifice to God. Cain was a tiller of the

69. soil. He was a farmer, and out of the firstfruits of his increase he brought an
offering, a sacrifice to God [Genesis 4:2-4].
Now what did that mean? And why did they do it? We haven’t time this
morning even to walk into the library to look at the books that discuss the
meaning of sacrifice. Butas I read and as I study, it seems to me that
practically everything that a scholarly theologianwill say, why men sacrificed,
and what it refers to, practically everything they will say can be consigned
under four topics, summarized under four headings.
One: there are many scholars who think that sacrifice means a gift to God.
And certainly the words translated sacrifice meangift. Many of them do.
Minchah, the word for sacrifice literally means “gift.” Korban, a word for
sacrifice in the ancient Hebrew Bible, means “gift.” So they are certainly
correct, those who believe that a sacrifice was a gift to God. Out of the
firstlings of his flock, Abel brought a gift to the Lord, and out of the fruit of
his field, Cain brought a gift to the Lord [Genesis 4:3-4]. All right, that is one
theory.
A secondtheory of the meaning of sacrifice was one of propitiation; seeking to
get the god propitious toward the man, to send him rain or to bless him with
health or with increase, to make the Lord Godor their gods propitious,
favorably disposed. All right, that is a secondtheory.
A third theory of the meaning of sacrifice is one summed up in the word
expiation, the washing awayof our sins. A sinner man full of guilt would
come before his God and offer a sacrifice as expiation of his sins. And
certainly that is true. For over the head of the sacrificialanimal the sinner
confessedhis sins, and when the sacrificialanimal died it was as though
atonement had been made for the sinner [Leviticus 4:26-31].

70. And the fourth theory is one of a communal meal. The offerer, the sacrificer,
was sharing a common meal with his God. And the Lord consumed His part
by fire [Leviticus 3:3-5], and the worshipper consumedhis part by eating with
his family, and his friends, and with the Lord [Leviticus 7:15-16, Numbers
28:2]. .
One common denominator in all of those four theories of sacrifice, it is this:
no matter what your theory, or what your explanation—and I think all four of
them are true. I think the sacrifice was a gift to God, I think it was a
propitiation, I think it was an expiation, I think it was a communal meal. But
out of all four of those theories, this is the common denominator of all
sacrifice and of all explanations: namely, that sacrifice was a shared meal.
That’s what it was. Isn’t that strange? Well, I am not going to saythat is
strange. It was a shared meal.
Now may I come to the outline of the sacrificialsystemin the Old Testament
in Israel? Let’s start with Moses, becausehe originated the Mosaic
legislation. Moses goes up to Pharaoh, and he says to King Pharaoh, he says,
“The Lord God of the Hebrews has commanded us to go out into the
wilderness three days’ journey, and there to sacrifice” [Exodus 5:1-3]. Then
the next time he said it, “There to make a feastto our God” [Exodus 10:9].
And you remember the rest of the story: and Pharaoh finally said, “Well, you
just go out there into the wilderness three days journey and there you worship
your God, but you leave your flocks and you leave your herds back home here
in Egypt” [Exodus 10:24]. And Moses repliedand said, “Notso, not so! For
when we go out three days journey into the wilderness to sacrifice for our
God, we must have our herds and our flocks forofferings, for it is a feast, and
we are going to eattogetherout there in the wilderness with our Lord”
[Exodus 10:25-26]. That’s whatMoses saidto Pharaoh. And when you come
to the sacrificialsystemitself under the Mosaic legislation, from the beginning
that is what it was, a sharedmeal [Numbers 28:2]. .

71. Well, let’s start with the Passover. And the Lord said,
On the tenth day of Nisan, choose a firstling of the flock, a lamb without spot
or blemish, and keepit four days until it is identified with the family. And on
the fourteenth of Nisan, at evening, slay it; sprinkle the blood on the lintels
and on the door posts in the form of a cross.
[Exodus 12:3-7]
And then, what do you do with the lamb? “You roastit in fire and eatit; and
no part of it is to remain until the morning. And if any part cannot be eaten it
is to be burned by fire” [Exodus 12:8-10]. The Passoverwas a meal. It was a
shared evening’s roast. It was something that the people ate together by
family groups [Deuteronomy 16:5-7].
Then all of the Mosaic sacrificialsystemthat followedafter was the same
thing. Forexample, in the eighth chapter of the Book of1 Kings you have the
story of the greatsacrifices by which they dedicatedSolomon’s temple [1
Kings 8:62]. “And on that day, they sacrificedto the Lord twenty-two
thousand oxen, and one hundred twenty thousand sheep” [1 Kings 8:63].
What did they do with those twenty-two thousand oxen? What did they do
with those hundred and twenty thousand sheep? [1 Kings 8:63]. They had
the most glorious time in barbeque, and in eating, and in sharing the meal
that the nation of Israelhad ever seenor known before. It was an enormous,
glorious convocationofGod’s people as they sang, and prayed, and praised,
and ate twenty-two thousand oxen and one hundred twenty thousand sheep[1
Kings 8:64-65].

72. There is only one exception to all of this in the entire sacrificialsystemand
that was the whole burnt offering [Leviticus 1:3-17, 6:8-13]. But the whole
burnt offering was infinitesimally small compared to the vast offerings that
were made to the Lord God. The family ate them with their friends and
invited guests, and the Lord shared that meal by consuming His by fire
[Leviticus 1:13, 6:12-13]. That‘s what it was. Thatwas sacrifice. And when
we turn to the whole religious systemof the ancient Hebrews, it has in it a note
of glory, and happiness, and gladness without exception.
All of the greatconvocations ofIsraelwere feastdays, all of them. Passoverin
the spring was a feastday [Exodus 12:1-28, 43-49;Leviticus 23:5;
Deuteronomy 16:1-8]. The Feastof Unleavened Breadthat followedit for
sevendays was a feastweek [Exodus 12:5-2, 13:3-10, Leviticus 23:6, Numbers
28:17]. Pentecostfifty days later was a feast, the first of the summer, the
firstfruits [Leviticus 23:15-22;Deuteronomy 16:9-12]. The Tabernacles,the
FeastofTabernacles was a feast, the fall ingathering [Leviticus 23:33-43;
Deuteronomy 16:13-17]. New Year’s was a feastin the fall [Leviticus 23:24-
25]. Dedicationwas a feastin December[John 10:22]. Purim was a feastin
March [Ester9:26-32]. They all were feasts.
And then againyou had one exception. One day of the year was Yom Kippur,
the Dayof Atonement. That was a fastday, a day of affliction and confession
[Leviticus 16, 23:26-32;Numbers 29:7-11]. But outside of that whole burnt
offering [Leviticus 1:3-17, 6:8-10]., outside of that one fast day, a day of
atonement [Leviticus 16:1-34, 23:26-32, Numbers 29:7-11], everything that
Israeldid was a matter of singing, and rejoicing, and breaking bread, and
eating, and barbequing, and having the most glorious time in the world. And
they were sharing all of it before God. Thatwas sacrifice and that was the
religion of the ancientHebrew.

73. Now when we come to the pages ofthe New Testament, it is the same and
identical pattern. It is one of glory, and gladness, and hallelujah, and singing,
and praising God––everybodybeing happy in the Lord, and eating all the
time, all the time, all the time—eating all the time.
For example, in the twelfth verse of the Book ofJude, Jude, the Lord’s half
brother—the brother of James, the pastor of the church at Jerusalem—Jude
says that “these folks there who feastwith you are,” and he describes them,
“in your agapais,” thatis plural for agape;the singular word agape in Greek
is the beautiful word for “godlylove, spiritual love, love” [Jude 12] Jerome
did his best to translate that Greek word into the Vulgate, and the English
translators did their best to translate that word in the King James Version.
And they came up with the word “charity” [1 Corinthians 13:13, KJV], which
to us means being kind to the poor but in that day meant “refined, highly
celestial, heavenlyaffection, love, charity, charitas [1 Corinthians 13:13].
Well, agape, they took that word “love” and they made it mean “a feast.”
When God’s children all came togetherthey shared an agape, a feast. They
loved one another, and they loved the Lord, and they ate together. That’s
what the Lord did with them in the days of His flesh. That’s what the Lord
did with them after He was raisedfrom the dead, and they continued that in
the church. Every community of Christ, every assemblyof the Lord met
togetherconstantly in those agapais love feasts [1 Corinthians 11:33, Jude
1:12].
Now they started off like that. Here is the waythe chapter on Pentecostends,
and I read it: “And they, continuing daily with one accordin the temple, and
breaking bread from house to house, did eattheir meat with gladness and
singleness ofheart, praising God and having favor with all the people” [Acts
2: 46-47]. Isn’t that a beautiful picture? And they, all of them continuing

74. togetherwith one heart, and one soul, and one love, and one devotion, and one
commitment, and one affection.
“Theydid break bread from house to house and they did eat their meat with
gladness and singleness ofheart, praising God” [Acts 2:46]. And everybody
saw it and said, “Neversaw such a people like that, never saw sucha
community like that.” They are happy all the time. They are happy when
they don’t know anything. They are happy as if they did know something.
They are happy when they are poor. Theyare happy when they are sick.
They are happy when they are dying. They are even happy believing in the
Lord after death. “Forto me to live is Christ, and to die is a gain, a gain”
[Philippians 1:21]. Nobody eversaid that but a Christian. “Oh, preacher!
You don’t listen.” You just find me something like that in any ancient
literature of the whole creation. Why, it was marvelous, just looking at those
Christian people. I don’t know what they would think if they lookedat us
with all the murmuring, and griping, and complaining, and on and on. But it
wasn’t that group. Oh, they just marveled the whole world!
Now that leads me to a little exegesis here. It leads me to a little exposition
here. In the eleventh chapter of the Book ofCorinthians, and if you want to
turn to it, why, let’s look at it. The eleventh chapter of the Book of
Corinthians; 1 Corinthians, chapter 11, and we are going to begin at verse 20;
verse 20 of the eleventh chapter of 1 Corinthians [1 Corinthians 11:20].
Now remember the backgroundof the church; when they met togetherthey
ate together. Thatis what they did, they ate together[Acts 2:42, 46]. So in the
church at Corinth, they are falling into all kinds of things. Heresies, and
divisions, and oh! There is hardly anything you could mention that the
church at Corinth didn’t fall into. Well, one of the things they fell into was a
gross misuse of the agape. Now Idon’t have time to go into a whole lot of this,
so I am going to read it now and then sum it up, what he is talking about. We

75. are going to begin in verse 20:“When ye come together, this is not to eatthe
kuriakos deipnon, the Lord’s Supper” [1 Corinthians 11:20], it is translated
here kuriakos deipnon
For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is
hungry, and another is drunken.
What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? or despise ye the church of
God, and shame them that have not? What shall I sayto you? shallI praise
you in this? I praise you not.
[1 Corinthian 11:21-22]
Then he recounts the institution of the Lord’s Supper [1 Corinthians 11:23-
30]. Now, the last two verses in that chapter, “Wherefore, my brethren,”
verse 33:
Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another.
And if any man hunger, let him eat at home; that ye come not togetherunto
condemnation.
[1 Corinthians 11:33-34]
Now what is the trouble there with that church in Corinth and what are they
doing? Well, it is very plain when you study it carefully. It is very plain to see
what they were doing. Foryou see in the church in Corinth, and I suppose
this was true everywhere––whenthe people came togethereverybody brought

76. was he was able to bring. Same thing as if we had preaching all day long and
dinner on the ground.
And I remarkedthis morning that I hoped that there were some people old
enough in my congregationto know what I was talking about; preaching all
day long and dinner on the ground. And if you’ve never been to one you don’t
know what real living is like, you just don’t. You’ve been confined in these
canyon walls of some city, and you don’t know what living is; preaching all
day long, all day long; marvelous, marvelous.
“Oh, I wish that guy would stop!” nothing like that, just egging him on, sick
‘em, sick ‘em, amen! Hallelujah! God bless you, that is preaching man. Oh,
brother! Man, you just preach yourself to death, and then dinner on the
ground. Well, sometimes I noticed here at our church we have covereddish
luncheons. There in Corinth, dinner on the ground or covereddish
luncheons, all of it was the same way. Everybody brought something.
Everybody brought something.
There are some people, whenever they came, bring deviled eggs. Theynever
in their life brought anything but deviled eggs. And I am thinking of
somebody that did that; they bring deviled eggs. Somebodywouldalways
bring a marvelous, luscious pie; some a cake;some beef; some sausage,
country sausage;some bring chicken, all kinds of things.
And I’ll tell you something that I don’t know how Godworks it out, but you
would think if you just let everybody bring what he wants to bring, why you’d
have all deviled eggs oryou’d have all sausageorsomething. Did you know
that was never true in the history of the world? You just announce, “We are
going to have dinner on the ground and preaching all day long. You are going

77. to have a covered-dish luncheon,” and you will have the best balanceddinner
you ever saw in your life.
I don’t know how that works out but it does. There will be just the right
amount of desserts, justthe right amounts of things to eat from the meat, just
the right amount of potatoes and everything else. Now that is what they were
doing here at the church in Corinth.
But, but, I don’t know why Corinth fell in to so many things that were wrong,
and difficult, and down right blasphemous. All right, now here is one of the
things that they did at Corinth. One of those meals they dedicatedto the
Lord, they calledit the kuriakondeipnon. But at the end of that meal, they
observedthe Lord’s Supper. That was the habit in all of the churches in the
ancient day; they all ate a meal together, and at one of those meals, the
kuriakondeipnon, they had the Lord’s Supper at the end of it; and all of you
who have studied the Bible carefully know that.
Now here is what they were doing at Corinth. This rich man would bring his
covereddish or out of the affluence he’d bring his meal. And that poor fellow
over here, and they’d nearly starved to death sometimes in those ancientdays
they were so poor, he’d bring out of his necessityand out of his poverty. And
instead of waiting for one another, and instead of sharing their meal together,
why, at a certainsignal, they would just dive in.
And this fellow that had brought so much would eat, and eat, and eat, until he
was surfeited like a glutton. And he’d drink, and drink, and drink until he’d
get drunk. And this poor fellow over here who didn’t have anything, and that
one over there had less than that. He didn’t have anything to eat, and he
didn’t have anything to drink.

78. And so some of them went awaydrunk and gluttonized, surfeited; and some
of them went away hungry and unwelcome. Paulsays, “Now you quit that,
you quit that, you stop that. And when you have your dinner there, when you
have your agape, whenyou have your love feast, you spread everything the
rich man according to affluence, the poor man according to his need, spread it
all out, and wait on one another, and wait on one another. Then when the
time comes, everybody shares everything that is brought. And if you are so
ravenous, and so hungry, and so voraciouslyinclined that you can’t wait for
the restof them, well you eatat home, and you blunt your appetite with
something. And then when you come you canact nice, and you can be
respectable, andgentle, in the house of the Lord” [1 Corinthians 11:33-34].
You know why I’ve gone in to all this? I am just emphasizing the factthat in
the first Christian communities, as it was in all of the ages before, God’s
people had a glorious time. And one of the evidences of that time was their
being together, eating together, praising God together, singing together, just
being happy in the Lord. Now that’s the Bible.
Now I want to speak of us today. What have we done to the church today?
And what have we done to the worship of our Lord today? I’ll tell you what
we’ve done to it. By and large, looking over the whole mass of it, by and large
it is killed dead like a corpse, and rote, dry like a potsherd. And by and large
the greatpopulus goes to church as though they were enduring an iron
sentence. And the benediction sounds like an amnesty to them, and they beat
it out. Then they are free of it until the next seven days comes around. “Now
we got to go to that church again.” And we endure it. And we sit there for
duty’s sake, orrespectability’s sake. And after it is over, off we are gone
againand forgetit until sevendays comes around.
They go to church on Sunday. They’ll be all right on Monday. It is just a
little habit that they have formed. But there is no wild gladness in it. There is

79. no celestialhappiness in it. There is no triumphant glory in it. Oh, there is no
abounding hallelujah! There is no anticipation in it. It is just something that
we’ve got to do. “My grandfather did it and my father did it. And for
respectability’s sake, here I am doing it.”
But our real joy, and our real interest, and our realanticipation lies out there
somewhere in the amusement world, or in the entertainment world, in the
recreationalworld. Man is betweenworshipping God, being with the Lord’s
people, “and that boat I’ve got. I’d a thousand times rather have the boat, for
certainly,” they say. “And as betweengoing to church and putting my life
down there with the people of the Lord, I’d a thousand times rather be out
here in some kind of an amusement or recreationalworld.” Thatis the
modern church.
Consequently, it gets more cold, and more formal, and more sterile, and more
empty all the time until it finally is just something that you kind of put up
with––the church. I am just saying to our souls by the Word of the Lord, that
the worship of God and the religion of the Bible were a thousand miles
different from that; no melancholy, no lugubrious sentences, no more dread
and foreboding, no coercive necessity.
But when it came to being with God’s people and worshipping the Lord, it
was the highest, heavenliestanticipation. It was the most glorious, hallelujah
fellowship. It was the most marvelous thing of all life. That is the wayit was
here in the Bible.
I want to illustrate that to you. In the Book ofPsalms, in the Book of Psalms,
that was the hymnbook of the ancientHebrew. In the Book ofPsalms, after
the one hundred and nineteenth––whichis the longestone in the Bible––after
the one hundred and nineteenth [Psalm 119:1-7], there are fifteen Psalms that

80. are labeledin their ancient, ancient––nobodyknows how ancient, far back as
these have ever been known––theywere called, and we have it translated in
the King James Versionhere, Songs ofDegrees [Psalms 120-134]. The Latin
Vulgate and the Septuagint would translate that Songs ofSteps of Ascent.
The literal Hebrew word is they are “songs ofgoings up.”
Well, what “goings up”? Now there are two things that a scholarwill say
about it. Some scholars saythere were fifteen steps going up from the outer
court into the inner court. And as they went up into the sanctuary, they sang
one of these steps on the lower, the next step, the next step, until they sang
those fifteen songs going up. There are other scholars who say––andit is this
one that appeals to me––there are other scholars who say that those fifteen
psalms of degrees, ofascents,ofsteps, literally of goings up; that those fifteen
psalms were pilgrim songs. And as the Hebrew pilgrim made his way up––
and you always go up to Jerusalem;from Samaria north, you go up to
Jerusalem;from Hebron south, you go up to Jerusalem;from Jaffa west, you
go up to Jerusalem;from Jericho east, you go up––always you go up to
Jerusalem. So these scholars saythat these fifteen songs are pilgrim hymns
that the worshipper of God sang as he went up to Jerusalemand to the house
of the Lord.
Now catchtheir spirit, listen to them. First one, “I will lift up mine eyes unto
the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord,
which made heavenand earth” [Psalm121:1-2]. The next one:
I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.
Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem.

81. Jerusalemis a city compact. Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord,
unto the Testimonyof Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord.
For there are set thrones of judgment…
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:they shall prosper that love thee. Peace be
within thy walls, prosperity within thy palaces.
For my brethren and companions’ sakes, Iwill now say, Peace be within thee.
Becauseofthe house of the Lord our God I will seek thy good.
[Psalm 122:1-9]
Singing as they went up to Jerusalem.
The next one, “Unto Thee lift I up mine eyes, O Thou that dwellestin the
heavens” [Psalm123:1]. The next one, “Theythat trust in the Lord,” sing
that often for me:
They that trust in the Lord, shall be as Mount Zion, which abideth for ever.
As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His
people from henceforthand for ever.
[Psalm 125:1-2]

82. The next one:
When the Lord turned the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.
Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing; then
said they among the heathen, The Lord hath done greatthings for them.
The Lord hath done greatthings for us; whereofwe are glad.
[Psalm 126:1-3]
Turn the page, the next one; “Exceptthe Lord build the house, they labor in
vain that build it: except the Lord keepthe city; the watchmanwakethbut in
vain” [Psalm 127:1]. The next one, “Blessedis every one that feareththe
Lord; that walkethin His ways. Forthou shalt eat the labor of thine hands:
happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee” [Psalm128:1].
And I’ve gotto close. Let’s take the next to the last one:
Behold, behold how goodand how pleasantit is for brethren to dwell together
in unity!

83. It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard,
even Aaron’s beard: that ran down to the hem of his garments.
[Psalm 133:1-2]
Listen man, don’t you catchthe exaltation, and the triumph, and the glory,
and the victory, and the gladness, in those songs as they went up to the house
of the Lord? Can’t you as that psalm said. My neighbor saidto me “Let us
go up to the house of the Lord” [Psalm 122:1]. And I said, “I’d rather take a
beating.” And I said, “But I gota boat down there on the DeadSea.” ButI
said, “I gota journey to make up there to Galilee. We are shooting pheasants
up there, and they tell me that they are in season.”
Isn’t this great, isn’t this great? “Our feetshall stand within thy gates, O
Jerusalem” [Psalm122:2]. “I was gladwhen they said unto me, Let us go up
to the house of the Lord” [Psalm 122:1]. How beautiful and how heavenly,
when brethren gather togetherin unity. It is like the ointment of the Lord
God on the head that runs down on the beard, so abundant [Psalm133:1-2].
God sent forth His Holy Spirit of gladness and glory. It even reaches downto
the hem of the garment. Wonderful, happy, glad; rather be here than any
place in the world. Ratherdo what I do for nothing than what anybody else
does for pay. Justdon’t take me too seriouslyon that, you good deacons.
Well, our time is gone, and I want to say one other thing about that. Do you
remember my telling you when I came back from India? Do you remember
my telling you about that missionary? I tell you, that was the most dramatic
missionary I ever listened to in my life. There was a fierce tribe in India, and
no foreigner had ever lived who had visited them. To go there meant death
but God had called him. And in that dramatic way that he described it, he
said, “And I was seatedonthe brow of the hill, and I saw before me three

84. thousand of those savage tribesmancoming towardme. But,” he said, “I was
perfectly unafraid. Forback of me, was our Baptist church, and before me
ran the course of the river; and those three thousand were dressedin white
baptismal robes, coming up that hill from the banks of the river. And as they
ascended, and I thought, we’ve gotus a song of degrees too, we’ve gotus a
song of ascenttoo.”
And as they ascended, that missionary said, they were singing a song. And
this was the song:
Happy day, happy day
When Jesus washedmy sins away
He taught me how to watchand pray,
And live rejoicing everyday
Happy day, happy day,
When Jesus washedmy sins away.
[“O Happy Day, That Fixed My Choice”;Philip Doddridge]

85. That’s what it is to be a Christian; it is singing in the night, it is singing in the
day, it is singing in goodhealth, it is singing in sickness, it is singing in youth,
it is singing in old age. It is rejoicing in God while we live; it is rejoicing in
Jesus whenwe die.
Whenever you see me down, pray for me. Wheneveryou see me blue or
discouraged, pray for me, because Iam not reflecting the light of the
knowledge ofthe glory of God that shined in the face of Jesus [2 Corinthians
4:6] when I am that way. Forto be a Christian is to be triumphant and
victorious. God love us for ever, amen.
Well, the Lord grant that the pastor has somewhatsucceededin presenting
the scriptural messagethat to love God and to worship Jesus is a happy thing,
a marvelous thing, and to be togetherin the house of the Lord is something of
glory, and grandeur, and greatness, andgladness.
Now while we sing our appeal; in the balcony, round on the lowerfloor,
somebody you, give himself to Jesus [Romans 10:8-13]. Somebodyyou, put
his heart in the fellowshipof the church [Hebrews 10:24-25]. While we sing
the hymn, come and stand by me. “Pastor, todayI take the Lord as my
Savior, and here I am. I let the Lord Jesus in His saving grace come into my
heart and life, and here I am” [Ephesians 2:8]. Or a family you, a couple you,
one somebodyyou, coming into the fellowshipof the church, “Pastor, my wife,
my children,” howeverthe Lord shall make the appeal and speak the word,
make it now, make it today, while we stand and while we sing.

86. THE UNKNOWN GUEST
Dr. W. A. Criswell
Luke 24:13-35
5-5-74 7:30 p.m.
On the radio, KRLD of the city of Dallas, you are sharing with us the services
of the First Baptist Church. We, in our First Baptist Church here in Dallas,
are observing the Lord’s Supper tonight. And the messageofthe pastor is in
a way a preparation for our hearts as we come to observe this most significant
and meaningful memorial.
We have a habit here of reading the Bible together. If you brought your
Bible, share it with a neighbor. If you do not have a Bible, there is one in the
pew rack in front of you. And all of us turn to the last chapter of Luke, the
Third Gospel, Matthew, Mark, Luke, the Third Gospel. We shall begin
reading at verse 30 in chapter 24, the last chapter in the Gospelof Luke,
reading verse 30 to verse 35. Luke 24:30-35, allof us sharing our Bibles,
reading out loud together. Now together:
And it came to pass, as He satat meat with them, He took bread, and blessed
it, and brake, and gave to them.

87. And their eyes were opened, and they knew Him; and He vanished out of their
sight.
And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while He
talkedwith us by the way, and while He openedto us the Scriptures?
And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the
elevengathered together, and them that were with them,
Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appearedto Simon.
And they told what things were done in the way, and how He was knownof
them in breaking of bread.
[Luke 24:30-35]
And you caneasily see why it is that the passageit chosentonight in
preparation for our memorial of the breaking of bread; “knownto them in
the breaking of bread” [Luke 24:35].
There was a greatFrench literary critic by the name of Renan. And Renan
said, though in so many areas ofhis life he was a bitter skeptic of the
Christian faith, Renan said that the most beautiful story in literature and in
language is the story here in the twenty-fourth chapter of the Gospelof Luke.

88. It goes like this. Towardthe evening there are two disciples of the Lord.
After the Lord’s crucifixion and on Sunday, the third day after the Lord’s
death, they are walking along from Jerusalemto their home in Emmaus
[Luke 24:13-14]. Emmaus is northwest of Jerusalem, about sevento eight
miles. It is sixty furlongs away. Going by the way of the tomb and past the
ancient city of Mizpah, just before the road turns down into the valley of
Ajlalon, there was the little town of Emmaus.
And the two walk along and are sad [Luke 24:17]. The reasonfor their
sadness is the crucifixion of their Lord [Luke 24:19-20]. Theyhad been with
Christ in the days of His flesh, had seenHis incredible miracles, had listened
to His wonderful words, had found in Him every holy promise that God had
made for the kingdom of Israel. And their hopes had risen higher and higher
and higher until they reachedthe very arch of the sky.
Then they were dashed into the dust of the ground. They not only had seen
the marvelous works of the Lord and heard His glorious words, but they had
watchedthe Romansoldiers nail Him to a cross and they had seenHim die
[Luke 23:26-46]. As they walk along from Jerusalemto their home in
Emmaus, they are sad [Luke 24:17].
There is no sadness like spiritual sadness. There is a sadness ofan exile far
awayfrom home. There is a sadness ofold age, seeing the sands of life run
out. There is a sadness of an open grave, seeing someone youlove lowered
beneath the sodand the clod. But there is no sadness like a spiritual sadness.
When the heavens are turned to brass and when the earth is turned to iron,
when God doesn’t seemto live and He doesn’t hear and answerprayer, when
the Bible has lost its promise and its freshness and when the services of the

89. church are a weariness and when heavenseems shut up to our hearts and our
petitions and our cries, there is no sadness like spiritual sadness.
And in hopeless, helpless bereavementthese two disciples walk along and are
sad. And while they walk, communing in those hushed and gloomy tones,
suddenly there is a third who comes and walks with them. It is Jesus, and
they don’t know it for their eyes were holden of God that they didn’t
recognize Him [Luke 24:15-16]. So as they walk along and are sad, this
strangerwho joins them in the road asks them, “Why are you so sad?” [Luke
24:17].
And one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answeredand said, “Are You the
only one in Jerusalemwho does not know what things have come to pass?”
And He said, “What things, what things?” [Luke 24:18-19].
And they said, as though it were just an opportunity to pour out their hearts,
pent up with indescribable, unfathomable, immeasurable grief, they poured
out to Him the story of the despair that had seizedtheir hearts when they
watchedthe Saviordie [Luke 24:19-24].
Who are these two who are so signally blessedthat the Lord raised from the
dead that Sunday should walk along by their sides? We don’t know. One of
them is named Cleopas [Luke 24:18]. Who is Cleopas? Nobodyknows. He’s
never mentioned exceptjust there. And the other one is nameless.
Do you see the heart of our Lord in this? Had our Lord revealedHimself,
walkedalong, appearedto one of the eleven, I would not have been surprised.

90. Had it been He was talking with James and John as they walkedalong, I
would not have been surprised. But the Lord reveals Himself and walks along
with these two unnamed, unknown ones [Luke 24:13-17, 35].
A humble disciple of the Lord, of whom we know nothing at all. Isn’t that the
spirit of our Savior? He was that way in the days of His flesh. How
consistentlyand how faithfully did the Lord minister to and reveal Himself to
nameless people.
For example, in the fourth chapter of the Book of John, who is that Samaritan
woman to whom He revealedHis heart as the Saviorof the world and to
whom He preachedthe greatestsermonon spiritual worship the earth has
ever heard? [John 4:7-26]. Who is that woman? We don’t know. She was
just a despisedoutcastof a harlot [John 4:16-18]. And yet the Lord took time
to reveal to her the unfathomable glory of the spiritual worship of God [John
4:21-23].
Turn to the fifth chapter of the Book ofJohn. Who is that impotent man at
the poolof Bethesda who thirty-eight years was bound down with an
infirmity? Who is he? What is his name? Nobody knows. He was just an
outcast, a part of the flotsam and jetsamof life. Yet the Lord healedhim
[John 5:1-9].
Who is that blind man in the ninth chapter of the Book ofJohn whose eyes the
Lord opened [John 9:1-7], and who came to Him wanting to know who it was
that savedhim and the Lord spoke to him and forgave his sins, all blotted out
and gave him new life? [John 9:35-38]. Who is that blind man? Nobody
knows, nobody knows.

91. That is the spirit of our Savior; raisedfrom the dead [John 20:1-16]. He is still
just the same. Ministering to nameless ones, just to people because He loves
them, for their own sakes;not because they are great, not because they are
rich, not because they are famous, not because theyare anything, but just
somebody who needs God.
When John saw our Lord raised, resurrected, immortalized, glorified, he
describes Him; the splendor of our iridescent and immortalized Savior
[Revelation1:9-18]. And when I think of Him, you know, it is hard for me to
believe that He still is just as He was in the days of His flesh. But this passage
says so. The hands that hold the sevenstars [Revelation1:16], are the same
hands that bless little children [Mark 10:16]. And the face that shined above
the radiance of the sun [Revelation1:16] is the same face that drew sinners to
His loving feet [Luke 5:8, 17:16]. And the breastgirt about with the golden
girdle [Revelation1:13], is the same breastupon which the sainted John
leaned at the memorial supper [John 13:23, 21:20]. It is the same Christ, and
here He is doing the same thing.
Resurrected, glorified, raisedfrom the dead, He is walking along, talking to
two nameless disciples [Luke 24:13-15]. Have no idea who they are. But oh,
how signally blessed! Isn’t it a wonderful thing to think I don’t have to be
rich for God to love me, and I don’t have to be famous, and sought out and
sought after, for Jesus to speak to my heart and to walk by my side, just as He
did on the wayto Emmaus?
And He said to them, “You seem so sad and in despairand downcast. Why?”
[Luke 24:17].
And they said, “Don’t You know what has happened in Jerusalemthese last
days?” [Luke 24:18].

92. And He said, “What things?” [Luke 24:19].
And then they just poured out their hearts to Him. In one word they are up in
the highestskies in hope, and in the next word they are down in the deepest
valley.
Look at it. “And they said to Him, concerning Jesus, a Prophetmighty in
deed and in word before God and all the people” [Luke 24:19]. Up and up,
and then down: “And how the chief priests and rulers delivered Him to be
condemned to death, and they crucified Him” [Luke 24:20]. And then up:
“We trusted that it had been He which should have redeemedIsrael: all our
hopes were in Him.” Then down again:“Beside, this was the third day since
He was crucified” [Luke 24:21]. Then up again:“Oh, there were certain
women of our company who were early at the sepulcher;and they found not
His body, and they came running to us saying, ‘We have seena vision of
angels. He is alive!’” [Luke 24:22-23]. And then down again: “We went to the
sepulchre and we could not find Him: we saw Him not” [Luke 24:24].
Isn’t that our human nature? One day we are up and the next day we are
down. One day we are just as though we could hear the angels sing like this
choir, and then the next day we are so discouragedand blue we can’t hear
nobody pray. We just have to look up to look down; just so blue and
discouraged.
And then the Lord, “Beginning at Moses and the Prophets, He expounded”—
diermēneuō, diermēneuō. Always in the Bible that word means one thing:
translation, translation, translation. “And beginning at Moses andall the
Prophets,” beginning at Genesis and going clearthrough the Scriptures, “He

93. expounded to them the things concerning Himself [Luke 24:27], how Christ
ought to suffer and to enter into His glory” [Luke 24:26].
You know, we are kind of like that. We leave out the cross. We love the
chromatic lens of the glory, but we leave out the crimson lens of the blood, and
the suffering, and the tears, and the agony, and the hurt, and the sorrow, and
the distress, and the grief, and the pain.
These men read the Book and never saw the cross, neversaw the sufferings.
They had placedin a goldencenserall of the hopes of Israel, and when they
saw Christ die, it burst, it broke and was dashedto the ground [Luke 24:21].
They never saw, as they read the Scriptures that innocent animal slain in the
garden of Eden [Genesis 3:1-6, 21]; they never saw it. They never saw the
paschallamb [Exodus 12:3-7, 12-13, 22-23]. Theyneversaw the daily
sacrifice [Exodus 29:38-42]. Theynever saw the Suffering Servant [Isaiah
53:1-12]. Theynever saw the smitten Shepherd of Zechariah[Zechariah
13:7]. Isn’t that a remarkable thing, how we canread the Bible and never see,
never understand?
They read the Scriptures. They were devout men. They had become disciples
of the Lord, and yet they never saw the necessityfor the suffering, the
crucifixion, the atonement [Luke 24:19-21]. Isn’t that a remarkable thing?
And if we are not carefulwe will be exactlylike it, exactly like them. We will
think of the Christian life in terms of the glory and of the blessing and of the
honor, and forget, it also has in it a crownof thorns and a crucified life and
tears and agonyand sobs [Matthew 27:29-50].
“Beginning at the Scriptures He showedthem how Christ should suffer”
[Luke 24:25-27]. These menhad come to look at the cross as though it were
somehow a mistake in heaven. It was an irreparable agonyand an abysmal

94. tragedy. No. As He expounded to them the Word of God, the cross was in the
plan of the Lord [Luke 24:25-27]. It was a part of our redemption [1 Peter
1:18-19;Revelation5:9]. It was a necessity. Jesus hadto die if we were to be
saved[Matthew 26:28;Hebrews 9:22]. Atonement had to be made for our
sins [Romans 5:10-11].
As the Lord expounded to them the Word of God, how it was necessaryfor
Jesus to suffer and to die before He enters into glory [Luke 24:25-27], why,
the evening came on, and the sun beganto set, and they turned to go home,
and the strangeras though He would continue on down the road alone, and
they said to Him, “Come, abide with us. It is toward evening and the day is
far spent. Come” [Luke 24:28-29].
And He turned and walkedwith them, and it came to pass that as they sat at
the evening meal, He took bread, and He blessedit. And for the first time
they saw the nail prints in His hands. When He took the bread, and blessedit,
and broke it, they saw His hands. And when they heard Him say the blessing,
they recognizedHim [Luke 24:30-31, 35]. Evidently the Lord had a wayof
saying a blessing that was uniquely His. Like John recognizedHim when he
ran into the tomb and saw the napkin folded up by itself, Jesus had a way of
folding up a napkin and John recognizedit [John 20:4-8].
He had a way of saying a name, and Mary recognizedHim, when she thought
Him to be the gardener, by the way He pronounced her name, “Mary” [John
20:15-16]. And they recognizedHim in the way that He said the blessing and
when they saw the nail prints in His hands. And He vanished out of their
sight [Luke 24:30-31, 35].
It was sixty long furlongs back to Jerusalemand the evening tide had come.
But they couldn’t stay. They couldn’t stay. Their hearts were too glad. Their

95. spirits were overflowing. And turning, they rushed back the eight miles to
Jerusalemand found the disciples and said, “We have seenthe Lord. He is
alive, He is alive, and He was known to us in the breaking of bread” [Luke
24:32-35].
Oh, how the world changes whenwe realize that Jesus is alive. He is alive. He
is alive [Acts 2:24; 1 Corinthians 15:20]. The road that is so long and lonely;
when Jesus is with you it becomes a glory road to heaven. And the buildings
that seeminglyfrown upon us become literal cathedrals that point up in glory
to the sky. And the whole earth is changedwhen we come to see that Jesus
lives. He is alive [John 14:19].
And is that not what Paul wrote in our salvation? “If thou shalt confess with
thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in thine heart that God raised Him from
the dead,” that He lives, “thou shalt be saved” [Romans 10:9].
He was known to us in the breaking of bread [Luke 24:35]. “And they
returned to Jerusalemwith greatjoy: and were continually in the temple,
praising and blessing God. Amen” [Luke 24:52-53].
MATTHEW HENRY
They courted his staywith them: He made as though he would have gone
further he did not say that he would, but he seemedto them to be going
further, and did not readily turn into their friend's house, which it would not
be decent for a strangerto do unless he were invited. He would have gone
further if they had not courted his stay so that here was nothing like
dissimulation in the case. If a strangerbe shy, every one knows the meaning of

96. it he will not thrust himself rudely upon your house or company but, if you
make it appear that you are freely desirous of him for your guestor
companion, he knows not but he may acceptyour invitation, and this was all
that Christ did when he made as though he would have gone further. Note,
Those that would have Christ dwell with them must invite him, and be
importunate with him though he is often found of those that seek him not, yet
those only that seek canbe sure to find and, if he seemto draw off from us, it
is but to draw out our importunity as here, they constrainedhim both of them
laid hold on him, with a kind and friendly violence, saying, Abide with us.
Note, Those that have experiencedthe pleasure and profit of communion with
Christ cannotbut covetmore of his company, and beg of him, not only to walk
with them all day, but to abide with them at night. When the day is far spent,
and it is towards evening, we begin to think of retiring for our repose, and
then it is proper to have our eye to Christ, and to beg of him to abide with us,
to manifest himself to us and to fill our minds with goodthoughts of him and
goodaffections to him. Christ yielded to their importunity: He went in, to
tarry with them. Thus ready is Christ to give further instructions and
comforts to those who improve what they have received. He has promised that
if any man open the door, to bid him welcome, he will come in to him,
Revelation3:20.
Dr. S. Lewis Johnson
Now, the third movement follows, and the third movement is a movement
from faith to knowledge. It’s a lovely picture, incidentally, of Jesus’longing
for us. As he finished his expositionit was near sundown. They drew near to
the village of Emmaus, and the Lord Jesus fainted as if he were going to leave
them at this point. “He made as though he would have gone farther.” It was
really no mere faint. It was a kind of invitation. He longs to be loved freely. He
longs for us to love him freely. Now we know of course that all love for the
Lord Jesus is love implanted in our hearts by him. We love him because he
first loved us. But he loves the expressionof response. And so he gave these

97. two disciples the opportunity to respond. “He made as though he would have
gone farther. They constrainedhim. They said, Abide with us.” “O come to
my heart, Lord Jesus there is room in my heart for Thee,” we should pray.
ALEXANDER MACLAREN
DETAINING CHRIST
‘And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and He made as
though He would have gone further. 29. But they constrainedHim, saying,
Abide with us: for it is towardevening, and the day is far spent. And He went
in to tarry with them.’—LUKE xxiv. 28, 29.
Of course, a chance companion, pickedup on the road, is dropped when the
journey’s end is reached. When these two disciples had come to Emmaus,
perhaps arriving at some humble inn or caravanserai, orperhaps at the home
of one of them, it would have been an unmannerly intrusion for the Stranger
who had met them on the road, and could accompanythem there without
rudely forcing Himself on them, to have inflicted His company further on
them unless they had wished it. And so ‘He made as though He would have
gone further,’ not pretending what He did not mean, but doing what was but
natural and proper in the circumstances. ButJesus had a further motive for
showing His intention of parting company at the door of t he house in
Emmaus. He desired to evoke the expressionof the desire of His two fellow-
walkers that He should tarry with them. Having evokedit, then with infinite
willingness omnipotence lets itself be controlled by feebleness, andJesus
suffers Himself to be constrainedby those whom, unknown to themselves, He
was gently and mightily constraining. ‘He made as though,’ unfortunately
suggeststo an English readerthe idea of acting a part, and of seeming to

98. intend what was not really intended. But there is no such thought in Luke’s
mind.
The first suggestionthat strikes one from this incident is just this: Jesus
Christ will certainly leave us if we do not detain Him.
It is no more certainthat that walk to Emmaus had its end, and that that first
day of the week, dayof Resurrectionthough it was, was destined to close in
sunsetand evening darkness, than that all seasonsofquickened intercourse
with Jesus Christ, all times when duty and grace and privilege seemto be very
greatand real, all times when we awakemore than ordinarily to the
recognitionof the Presenceofthe Lord with us and of the glories that lie
beyond, tend to end and to leave us bare and deprived of the vision, unless
there be on our parts a distinct and resolute effort to make perpetual that
which in its nature is transient and comes to a close, unless we avert its
cessation. All motion tends to rest, and Christian feeling falls under the same
law. Nay, the more thrilling the moment’s experience the more exhausting is
it, and the more certain to be followed by depressionand collapse.‘Action and
reactionare equal and contrary.’ The height of the wave determines the depth
of the trough. Therefore Christian people have to be speciallycareful towards
the end of a time of specialvitality and earnestness;because, unless they by
desire and by discipline of their minds interpose, the natural result will be
deadness in proportion to the previous excitement. ‘He made as though He
would have gone further,’ and He certainly will unless His retreating skirts be
graspedat by the outstretchedhands of faith and desire, and the prayer go
after Him, ‘Abide with us for it is toward evening.’
That is quite true, too, in another application of the incident. Convictions,
spiritual experiences ofa rudimentary sort, certainly die awayand leave
people harder and worse than they were before, unless they be fosteredand
cherishedand brought to maturity and invested with permanence by the

99. honest efforts of the subjects of the same. The grace of God, in the preaching
of His Gospel, is like a flying summer shower. It falls upon one land and then
passes onwith its treasures and pours them out somewhere else. The religious
history of many countries and of long centuries is a commentary written out
in greatand tragic characters on the profound truth that lies in the simple
incident of my text. Look at Palestine, look atAsia Minor, at the places where
the Gospelfirst won its triumphs; look at EasternEurope. What is the present
condition of these once fair lands but an illustration of this principle, that
Christ who comes to men in His grace is kept only by the earnestnessand
faithfulness and desire of the men to whom He comes?
And you and I, dear brethren, both as members of a Christian community
and in our individual capacity, have our religious blessings on the same
conditions as Ephesus and Constantinople had theirs, and may fling them
awayby the same negligence as has ruined large tracts of the world through
long ages oftime. Christ will certainly go unless you keepHim.
Then further, notice from my text this other thought, that Christ seeks by His
actionto stimulate our desires for Him.
‘He made as though He would have gone further.’ But while His feet were
directed to the road His heart remained with His two fellow-travellers whom
He was apparently leaving, and His wish was that the sight of His retiring
figure might kindle in their hearts greatoutgoings of desire to which He
would so gladly yield. It is the same actionon His part, only under a slightly
different form, but actuatedby the same motive and the same in substance, as
we find over and over againin the gospels. Youremember the instances. I
need only refer to them in a word.

100. Here is one: the dark lake, the rising moon behind the Easternhills, a figure
coming out of the gloom acrossthe stormy sea, and when He reachedthe
tossing fishing cobble it seemedas if He would have passedby; and He would,
but that the cry flung out over the dark waterstopped Him.
Here are two blind men sitting by the roadside crying ‘Thou Son of David,
have mercy upon us.’ Not a word, not even a glance overHis shoulder, no
stopping of His resolvedstride; onwards towards Jerusalem, Pilate, and
Calvary. BecauseHe did not heed their cry? Because He did not infinitely
long to help them? No. The purpose of His apparent indifference was attained
when ‘they cried the more earnestly, Thou Son of David, have mercy upon
us.’
Here is another. A woman half mad with anguish for her demon-ridden
daughter, calling after Him with the shrill shriek of Eastern sorrow and
disturbing the fine nerves of the disciples, but causing no movements nor any
sign that He even heard, or if He heard, heeded, the ear-piercing and heart-
moving cries. Why was that ear which was always open to the call of misery
closednow? BecauseHe wished to bring her to such an agonyof desire as
might open her heart very wide for an amplitude of blessing;and so He let her
cry, knowing that the longershe calledthe more she would wish, and that the
more she wishedthe more He would bestow.
And that is what He does with us all sometimes:seeming to leave our wishes
and our yearnings all unnoticed. Then the devil says to us, ‘What’s the use of
crying to Him? He does not hear you.’ But faith hears the promise: ‘Open thy
mouth wide and I will fill it,’ though to sense there seems to be ‘no voice nor
any that answered.’

101. Christ has no other reasonin any of the delays and trying prolongations of
His answers than to make us capable of largerblessing, because delaydeepens
our longing. He is infinitely wishful to-day, as He was on that Resurrection
evening, to draw near to every heart and pour upon it the whole sunlit
cataractofthe mighty fact that He lives to bless. But He cannotcome to us
unless we desire Him, and He cannot give to us more of Himself than we wish;
and therefore He is obliged, as the first thing, to make our desires largerand
fuller, and then He will answerthem. ‘He could there do no mighty works
because oftheir unbelief.’
Our faithlessnesslimits His power; our faith is the measure of our capacity.
Lastly, the text reminds us that Jesus Christis glad to be forced.
‘They constrained’: a very strong word, kindred to the other one which our
Lord Himself employs when He speaks aboutthe ‘kingdom of heaven
suffering violence, and the violent taking it by force.’That bold expression
gives emphatic utterance to the truth that there is a real powerlodged in the
desires of humble hearts that desire Him, so as that they can prescribe to Him
what He shall do for them and how much of Himself He shall give them. Our
feebleness canin a measure setin motion and regulate the energy of
Omnipotence. ‘They constrainedHim.’
Do you remember who it was that was called ‘a prince with God’ and how he
won the title and was able to prevail? We, too, have the charter given to us
that we can—I speak it reverently—guide God’s hand and compel
Omnipotence to bless us. We master Nature by yielding to it and utilising its
energies. We have power with God by yielding to Him and conforming our
desires to the longings of His heart and asking the things that are according to
His will. ‘Concerning the work of My hands command ye Me.’ And what we,

102. leaning on His promise and in unison with His mighty purpose of love, desire,
that will as certainly come down to us as every stream must pour into the
lowestlevels and fill the depressions in its course.
You can make sure of Christ if two things are yours. He will always remain
with us if, on the one hand, we wish for Him honestly and really to be with us
all the day long, which would be extremely inconvenient for some of us; and if,
on the other hand, we take care not to do the acts nor cultivate the tempers
which drive Him away. For‘How can two walk togetherexceptthey be
agreed?’And how can we ask Him to come in and sit down in a house which is
all full of filth and worldliness? Turn the demons out and open the door, and
anything is more likely than that the door will stand gaping and the doorway
be unfilled by the meek presence of the Christ that enters in.
The old prayer is susceptible of application to our community and to our
individual hearts. When Israelprayed, ‘Arise, O Lord, into Thy rest; Thou
and the Ark of Thy strength,’ the answerwas prompt and certain. ‘This is My
rest for ever; here will I dwell, for I have desired it.’ But the divine desire was
not accomplishedtill the human desire opened the Temple gates for the
entrance of the Ark.
‘He made as though He would have gone further’; but they constrainedHim,
and then He entered in.
DAVID FELKER
Now I’m going to use a superlative but this one is accurate. Jesus, onthis
road with these two men, this is the best small-group Bible study ever! It says,

103. Jesus right there on the road says, “You don’t understand the Scriptures.”
And beginning with Moses, thatmeans in Genesis, andso He walks through
the Gardenof Eden, He walks through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, andJoseph,
and then Exodus and Leviticus, He goes there, He goes to the Prophets, He
goes to the Psalms, and He unpacks how all of it is about Him. And so He
explained to them what was said in the Scriptures, very important, verse 27,
what was said in the Scriptures concerning Himself. I mean this would be the
definitive explanation of what we call the Old Testament. This is the best
Bible study ever. I mean all the promises, all the stories, allthe images found
their fulfillment in Him. Everything is pointing to Him. And that means that
Jesus is the point of the Bible. If you’re in sales you have an elevatorspeech.
You’re supposedto make a sale in thirty seconds. “Whatis the Bible about?”
How would we answerthat? The Bible is about Jesus. It’s not a reference
book, it’s not a book of examples to live up to, it’s not a to-do list. It’s about
Jesus. It’s a single, true story with a plotline. The plotline is creation, fall,
redemption, consummation. It’s about grace. It’s about rescue. It’s about
how Jesus saves His people. J.R.R Tolkiencalls it the eucatastrophe – the
story behind the Gospel, he said. How the King has come back is the one
story behind all the stories that we’ve ever loved.
Seeing Christ in all the Old Testament
And so we don’t know what Jesus here on the road to Emmaus cited, we don’t
know what specific quotes, what specific passages in the Old TestamentHe
goes to, which exactones, we don’t know the examples that He used, we can’t
replicate His explanation. But I put in the prayer sheet, this is a quote, this is
written by Sinclair Ferguson. It’s in his book, Preaching Christ from the Old
Testamentand it’s very, very good. And bear with me, it’s long, but I think
it’s worth even walking through. This is Sinclair Ferguson. He says:

104. “-Jesus is the true and better Adam; Who passedthe test in the garden and
whose obedience is now imputed to us
-Jesus is the true and better Abel; Who though innocently slain has blood now
that cries out not for our acquittal, not for our condemnation but for our
justice
-Jesus is the true and better Abraham; Who answeredthe call of God to leave
all of the comfortable, familiar home; And go out into the void not knowing
where He went to create a new people of God
-Jesus is the true and better Isaac;Who is not just offered by His Fatherbut
sacrificedby His Father; And when God said to Abraham, ‘now I know you
love me because you did not withhold your only Son whom you love from me.’
Now we can say to God, ‘now we know you love us because you did not
withhold your only begottenSon from us.’
-Jesus is the true and better Jacob;Who wrestledand took the blow of justice
we deserved, so we, like Jacob, only receive the wounds of grace to wake us up
and discipline us
-Jesus is the true and better Joseph;Who at the right hand of the King
forgives those who betrayed and sold Him and uses His new powerto save
them

105. -Jesus is the true and better Moses;Who stands in the gap betweenthe people
and the Lord and who mediates a new covenant
-Jesus is the true and better Rock of Moses;Who, struck with the rod of
God’s justice, now gives us waterin the desert
-Jesus is the true and better Job; The truly innocent sufferer who then
intercedes for us and saves His stupid friends
-Jesus is the true and better David; Whose victory becomes His people’s
victory even though they never lifted a stone to accomplishit themselves
-Jesus is the true and better Esther; Who didn’t just risk losing an earthly
palace but lost the ultimate heavenly one; Who didn’t just risk losing life, but
it costHis life to save His people
-Jesus is the true and better Jonah; Who was castout in the storm and the
deep so that we could be brought in; Jesus is the RealPassoverLamb,
innocent, perfect, helpless, slain so the angelof death will pass over us
-Jesus is the true Prophet, the true Priest, the true King, the true Temple, the
true Sacrifice, the true Lamb, the true Light, and the true Bread.”

106. What’s the point? Jesus is the point of the Bible. That’s what this book is
about. That’s what Jesus is talking about on the road; something like this.
It’s a greatstory. It’s why it says that it “made their hearts burn within
them.” There was a rising melody in their hearts that it is true, the Gospelis
true, and little by little they were beginning to see it. John Calvin said, “This
is what we should, in short, seek in the whole of Scripture – truly to know
Jesus Christ and the infinite riches that are comprisedin Him and are offered
to us by Him from God the Father. If one were to sift thoroughly the Law and
the Prophets of the Old Testament, if one were to sift thoroughly the Law and
the Prophets, he would not find a single word mentioned which would not
draw and bring us to Jesus.”
And so if you’re sitting there and you’re thinking, “Okay, this little thing by
Sinclair Fergusonis great, this is really helpful, but I don’t have a seminary
degree. I don’t know how to look in an Old Testamentpassage,I don’t know
how to look for Jesus. Idon’t know how to unpack that.” Here would be two
just little questions to put in your toolbox to help think through, “How is the
Bible about God’s saving His people through Christ?” And a first question
would be, as you go to a text, whether it’s the Psalms, Leviticus, Genesis, ask
yourself the question, “What is this passageteaching me about God who does
the redeeming?” What’s it teach me about God who does the redeeming?
And then a secondquestion, “What does this passageteachme about me who
needs to be redeemed?” So, “What’s it teachme about God who does the
redeeming and me who needs to be redeemed?”
The God Who enters into Our Story

107. There was a British writer, I’ve never read any of her work, DorothySayers,
and she lived around the same time as C.S. Lewis. She was born late 1800’s;
she died late 1950’s. And she wrote a lot but what she was most knownfor
was detective fiction. And she was very, very smart. Like most of us, she
learned Latin when she was six. She was, I believe, the first woman to receive
the awardeddegree from Oxford University. And in her fiction the main
detective she wrote about was Lord PeterWimsey, and he was, I’m not an
expert on her writing, but most scholars that have studied her writing saythat
as she wrote about PeterWimsey that she fell in love with him. And so later
on in these detective fictions there was a new characterthat showedup by the
name of Harriet Vane. And Harriet Vane is one of the first women to be
awardeda degree from Oxford University and she also writes detective
fiction. And so you see whathappened. Dorothy Sayers falls in love with this
characterin her story and then she writes herself into the story and they get
married. They end up getting married. When PeterWimsey sees her he falls
in love with her and they get married. You understand what she did in a
writer’s way. She createdsomeone, she lovedhim so much that she wrote
herself into the story. Godloves sinners so much, He’s the greatAuthor of
our lives, but He loves sinners so much that He became one of us and He came
into our story. That’s what our God is like and that should make our hearts
burn within us. Thatshould make our hearts burn within us.
II. Jesus is the Friend at the Table

108. And that moves us to the secondpoint that we not only see in Luke 24 that
Jesus is the Messiahofthe Bible but we see that He is also the friend at the
table. And this will be a brief point. This is, again, one of the last sermons in
this series onmeals with Jesus but here in verse 28, “Theydrew near to the
village to which they were going. He actedas if he were going farther, but
they urged him strongly, saying, ‘Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the
day is now far spent.’ So he went in to stay with them.” And so just think
about this. Of all the places that Jesus could be after He’s resurrectedfrom
the dead, He’s in Emmaus, this nobody town, and He’s with these two
disciples, one of whom is not even named. And so of all the places Jesus could
have been He’s with these two nobodies. And they beg Him to stay and He
stays with them. And we read in verse 30 and 31, “When he was at table with
them, he took the bread and blessedand broke it and gave it to them. And
their eyes were opened, and they recognizedhim. And he vanished from their
sight.”
And so what is Jesus doing? He’s doing what He’s doing His entire ministry.
He is having meals with sinners. They’re doubting; they’re confusedsinners.
In fact, one of them, the ironic statement is when one of them looks at Jesus,
Cleopas looksatJesus and he says, “Whatare you talking about? Where
have you been?” It’s so ironic because if anything, if anyone knew what
happened in Jerusalemit was Jesus. And he says, “Don’tyou know what
happened?” And it’s almostidentical language towards the end of the passage
there. It’s almost identical language to Jesus feeding the five thousand, that
He took bread and He broke it and He hands it to them and immediately they
recognize Him. It’s interesting, it’s powerful. Theireyes were opened, God
opens their eyes but the moment that their eyes were opened is when they
were at the table with Jesus.

109. MARVIN VINCENT
They went ( ἐπορεύοντο )
Imperfect, were going. So Rev,
Made as though ( προσεποιήσατο )
The verb means originally to add or attachto; hence to take to one's selfwhat
does not belong to him; and so, to pretend; though pretending as implying
anything false, does not attach to this actof Jesus. He was going on, and would
have gone on but for their invitation. Only here in New Testament.
24:25-31 The Roadto Recovery
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Luke 24:25-31 “He said to them, ‘How foolish you are, and how slow of heart
to believe all that the prophets have spoken!Did not the Christ have to suffer
these things and then enter his glory?’ And beginning with Moses andall the
Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning
himself. As they approachedthe village to which they were going, Jesus acted
as if he were going further. 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. When
he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began

110. to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognisedhim, and
he disappeared from their sight.”
Every disciple of Christ has bouts of doubt and discouragement. How does
our living Lord deal with this? Surely we can gethelp in understanding this
from this famous and beautiful incident. Two people are leaving the scene of
the crucifixion of their friend and teacherJesus Christin bleak despair, and
as they walk the sevenmiles home the risen Jesus joins them, but incognito,
and he begins to help them. Firstly he makes inquiries as to what they were
talking about and why did they appear so sad, and at this time God prevents
either of them from recognizing him. So Jesus initially is dealing with them as
if he were just a Bible-believing Christian. In other words, he doesn’t simply
cry, “Look!It’s me!” and reveal himself to them as the Son of God and the
conqueror of death. He begins by asking questions and probing to see what
their problem is and listening sincerelyto all they say.
That is where we all are to start as friends and counselors andhelpers. But I
hope we don’t stop there. I hope we don’t let people unburden themselves,
their criticisms and unhappiness on us, and then saynothing. That was the
greatly favoured approachfifty years ago and I guess it is still popular. It is
called“non-directive counseling.” We are told by its practitioners not to
impose our values on others. We are urged to let people find their own truths
about themselves and the way ahead. Well, that is not what we learn here; the
Lord Jesus couldn’t have helped them that way. Certainly he askedthem
questions and he listenedat length but then he spoke to them.
HOW THE LORD JESUS MINISTEREDTO THEM.
i] He helped them by asserting his authority over them. “He said to them,
‘How foolish you are, and how slow of heart’” (v.25). If he is going to help us

111. for the rest of our lives it is by being our Lord. In him are hid all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge andhe is calledthe Wonderful Counsellor. We are
always his pupils and he teaches andinforms us. He assumes that position
here and that is how he wonderfully helps us. He is our kind and loving God,
and so we see he begins by rebuking both of them. They are there to listen to
him and to considerand apply his counsels to their lives. They’d not been
doing that. So he calls them foolishpeople “Oh fools!” It is a common term in
the Bible particularly in the book of Proverbs where there are four synonyms
translated by the word ‘fool.’ The issue is not a person’s IQ but rather that he
is morally and spiritually obtuse. He can look at the wealthof God’s wisdom
and see nothing in it, but he can getgirlishly excited over the so-calledwisdom
of the world. That is the fool. He is a dense man, and I have an awful feeling
that that is what our Lord is say-ing about us and to us today. Think of this,
that we went to church to worship God and there the Lord met with us, and
he actually said to us, “You fools!” He told us that we were dullards, that we
were simpletons, that we didn’t know how to evaluate, how to judge, how to
think aright and so we were depressed. We were allowing ourselves to be
governedby circumstances andaccidents and change, by the things that were
happening to us and the conditions in which we found ourselves. We were a
prisoner of them, instead of using our minds and our rea-sonand our
understanding and applying the truth that we’ve receivedfrom God to the
situation before us. No, we had allowedourselves to get into this state of
misery and dejection and discouragement. These two men were saying, “Woe,
woe, woe!What a terrible world this is!” I am asking you can’t we Christians
be just like them?
You come here on Sundays and I am constantlyasking you to think, to gird
up the loins of your minds and reasonaright. Dr. Lloyd-Jones says, “The
tragedy is that we constantly tend to fall back on other things in order
somehow or another to relieve ourselves and to keepthings going. We are
sentimental. Sentimentality is very largelythe trouble with the present
church. We are very nice people, we members of the Christian church, but we
are very foolish. And the first thing we must do is wake up and think and
understand the truth and begin to apply it to the situation in which we find

112. ourselves, insteadof giving way, instead of giving in, instead of just
commiserat-ing with one another. I am sometimes afraid that the church is
dying of niceness. We are really goodat praising one another, aren’t we, and
saying that we are doing well. We have become a mutual admiration society,
sympathizing and communing with one another, and thus being sentimental
with one another. And the whole time the condition of the church degenerates
from bad to worse. Fools!We must apply our understanding to the situation
with which we are confronted. That is our Lord’s first word to these disciples.
It is alarming. It is surprising. But, alas, it is true” (D.Martyn Lloyd-Jones,
Setting Our Affections Upon Glory,’ CrosswayBooks2013, p.76).
Then our Lord rebukes us by using a secondword: “How slow of heart”
(v.25). Here againis a most interesting condition, not so much con-nectedwith
the mind as with this other part of us. Again, Dr. Lloyd-Jones says, “Surely
we all know something about this. The word ‘heart’ does not refer to the
affec-tions alone. It means, in a sense, one’s generalcondition. And I know of
noth-ing that is more dangerous in the Christian life than this condition of
being slow of heart. What does it mean? You have experiencedit, haven’t
you? There you are, seatedin your home. You have been read-ing the
newspaperor watching TV; you are taking it in, and you are alive and alert.
Then perhaps you take up a book, maybe a novel or a biography, and you are
enjoying reading it. Then you suddenly feel an impulse to read the Scriptures.
You have not readyour Scriptures much lately, but this callarises within you.
So you put down your book and pick up your Bible. You open it and begin to
read a passageofScripture, but immediately you feeltired. You yawn and
realize that you have had a very heavy day. You think that really you are not
in a fit condition to concentrate. Your mind wanders, and you cannot keep
your attention on what you are reading. Then you try prayer. It is exactlythe
same. You can’t control your thoughts. You have nothing to say, or your
imagination travels all over the world. A deadness, a lethargy, creeps over
you. Have you not experiencedthis many times? That is what is meant by
slownessofheart.

113. “‘How foolishyou are, and how slow of heart!’ The devil afflicts us with this
spiritual lethargy. He seems to inject some kind of jaundice into us that
paralyzes us and makes us dull. And we cannot rouse ourselves. We canbe
ani-mated in conversationwith others, but we suddenly become speechless
when we are confronted by God. We canread other things, but not the
Scripture. This is slowness ofheart. The devil, as it were, is causing this poison
to circulate in our spiritual system. All our faculties are para-lyzed. That is
one of the troubles with depression. It affects the whole person. It affects the
muscles, and people become physically weak. Theycannot think clearly and
cannot do anything properly. Slowness ofheart. Now this is something we
must be conscious of. It is not enoughto say, ‘Well, I don’t feel like it now.’ I
should ask myself, ‘What is the reasonwhy I don’t feel like it now?’
“Slownessofheart is a condition that must be dealt with. We must stir
ourselves up. We must rouse ourselves:not only gird up the loins of our
minds, but ‘stir up the gift of God, which is in us’ (2 Tim. 1:6). Slownessof
heart was the greatdisease ofTimothy. The young man was always
complaining to the apostle Paul about his difficulties and his problems. And
that is what the apostle tells him: Stir up the gift of God, which is in you. Rake
the fire! [“Do not put out the Spirit’s fire” (IThess.5:19])Wake up! Get rid of
this dullness, this slowness,this lethargy. Shake it off. ‘Away, thou sloth and
melancholy,’ as Milton once put it” (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Setting Our
Affections upon Glory, Crossway, 2013, p.78)
So our Lord doesn’t upbraid them for leaving Jerusalemand walking back
home. That was understandable given the circumstances ofthe past days and
the fragmentary information they’d received. But first he diagnoses their
condition. It is this, that they were slow of heart and foolish. Then he begins to
treat this spiritual sickness.

114. ii] Jesus helped them by opening up the Scriptures to them. He told them they
should have knownand believed what God had said. That led to what
someone has called“the ultimate Bible conference.”Christ proceededto tell
them plainly that it was absolutelynecessaryfor the Messiahto suffer and die
on the cross. I receiveda magazine this week and there was a long testimony
in it by a womanin her late 60s calledWendy Underhill, and of course it was
the secondname that caught my eye as it was the same name as our beloved
Kenyan missionary Keith. Her daughter Jane Underhill had been converted
in her teens and the mother said, “Like so many of our generationI had
grown up going to church on a regularbasis. I knew the services offby heart
and many of the hymns, and had been confirmed when I was 14 years of age
in WinchesterCathedral. Yet I did not have a clue what it was all about,
especiallywhy Jesus had to die on the cross. Church felt familiar and
comfortable, something to cling onto during the bad times. But I kept God at
arm’s length, preferring instead to rely on fortune tellers and horoscopesfor
hope and security.”
This was very similar state spiritually as Cleopas and his friend. They didn’t
have a clue why Jesus had to die on the cross and then he himself began to
explain the necessityof the Messiahbecoming the Lamb of God and taking
awaythe sin of the world. What seemedlike the ultimate miscarriage of
justice turns out to be the Father’s plan to glorify his Son. Christ was no
victim being led againsthis will to the cross. No one wrestedhis life from him.
He laid it down. The cross was no accident. It was part of God’s plan from the
beginning. That’s why the prophets and the poets wrote about it. There’s a
trail of references to the suffering Messiahthroughout the Old Testament. He
must suffer and then enter his glory. Genesis 3, Genesis22, 2 Samuel 7, Psalm
16, Psalm22, Psalm 69, Psalm110, Psalm118, Isaiah7, Isaiah9, Isaiah53,
Zechariah 12, Zechariah13, Zechariah 14. The whole story from Genesis to
Malachipointed forward to a fulfillment which could only be seenwhen the
Lamb – whom God took from his own flock and from his own bosom – bore
our condemnationfor our sins in the sacrifice ofhimself on the cross.

115. Don’t miss Jesus’ point. The whole of the Bible, Christ claims, is testifying to
himself. And as the day of the first EasterSunday was advancing, and Jesus
was speaking to them from the Bible, the two disciples were listening with
rapt attention. This third man, the strangerthey did not recognize, explained
to them how the Scriptures were all pointing to God’s suffering servant. Do
you understand that we deserve eternal death because we are sinners but
Jesus Christ, because he loved us, died for us? Please don’t make the same
mistake that these two disciples made and fail to understand the heart of the
Bible. If you do you too will be foolish and slow of heart to believe. This
woman Wendy Underhill sather Christian daughter down one day and told
her that she and Dad were not happy and that her father was asking fora
divorce. She said, “WhatI want is to find someone who really loves me for
who I am and the personI need to become in order to be loved.” Her daughter
seizedthe opportunity and said to her, “There is such a person, the Lord
Jesus!”
How will our despair go away? Whenwe know that there is a Saviour, and the
Son of Man who loves us can help us. The Bible is full of him. In the Old
Testamenthe is found on every page. He is the true theme of the Old
Testament—bytype, by teaching, by sacrifice and by prophecy. He is the
prophet greaterthan Moses. He is the priest greaterthan Aaron. He is the
king greaterthan David. He is the captain greaterthan Joshua. He is the seed
of the woman, the fulfillment of the brass serpent, the goalof all the sacrifices,
and the true meaning of the tabernacle. He is the Kinsman Redeemer, the
Scapegoatandthe Lamb that takes awaythe sin of the world. He is the great
high priest who lives for everto intercede for us. He is the lion of the tribe of
Judah and the goodshepherd who lays down his life for his sheep. He is the
Judge who will pass judgment on all mankind in the latter day.
If you want to find Jesus, just open your Bible because the whole book is
about him. If you want to understand the Bible, look for Jesus. He’s there on
every page. The whole purpose of the Bible is to point us to Jesus. He’s the

116. theme of every book from Genesis to Revelation. If you want to find Jesus go
to a church which believes and preaches from all over the Bible. That’s the
greatencouragementthis story gives to us. Where is Jesus when we need him?
He is with us even when we are foolish and slow of heart to believe. What then
do we need? One thing we need is pastor-preachers who on the Lord’s Day
will do what Jesus did and take us through the Scriptures because that is why
God has given such gifts to them and us. They are not a nice bonus to our
daily living; they are essentialparts of the Christian pilgrimage
This was the way which from now on Jesus was going to make himself known
to his billions of disciples throughout history, through the Scriptures, not
through sudden physical appearancesona road, or in a house, or in a grotto,
or in the sky, or in a stadium, or on TV. None of that! We will all come to
know him as he, by the Spirit of Christ, and through a man he has called,
opens up the Bible and makes himself knownto us from the Scripture. After
the mount of Ascension(which would be in 40 days time) they were never
going to see him againuntil they saw him in heaven, but he would make
himself knownto them and speak to them and comfort and strengthenand
build them up in faith day by day as they read the Bible and every Sunday.
The climactic aspectof every service would be the Lord speaking to us
through the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.But it is very
personal. He deals with us as individuals. He delights to come and help us
every hour of every day. I can’t see the gods of the Hindus or Allah or Buddha
dealing with their followers in this way, tenderly and lovingly coming so close,
counseling them and lifting them up.
HOW THE LORD TESTED THEM.
We are told by Luke, “As they approachedthe village to which they were
going, Jesus actedas if he were going further” (v.28) At this time they hadn’t
put into words what they were feeling; “This strangerreally knows the Bible.

117. This man is so helpful and understanding. This man is able to touch us and lift
our spirits. I wonder who he is. What’s his name?” That is what they were
thinking, but all very vaguely. I am saying that it is important that we put into
words what we are feeling about Jesus. Forexample you know how the
apostle Paul describes saving faith to the Christians in Rome. He says, “That
if you confess withyour mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that
God raisedhim from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that
you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and
are saved” (Roms. 10:9&10). In a matter of priorities we might think that it is
more important to believe in our hearts in the resurrectionof Jesus than to
confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord, but Paul puts down as the first
essentialrequirement to confess withour mouths that Jesus is Lord.
So it was here on the road to Emmaus. Our Lord presented to them the
suffering Messiahof the Scriptures so that they could understand why it was
necessaryfor our Lord to die; “allwe like sheephave gone astray, we have
turned every one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of
us all” (Isa. 53:6). Jesus wants them to be aware ofthis and to confess their
need of the Messiah, the Son of the living God, as their sacrificialsubstitute.
And so this is what happened next. They arrived at their front door, and Jesus
said something like, “It’s been goodtalking with you. I have to go. Luke says
that he “actedas if he were going farther” (v.28). The word “acted” is not
referring to some elaborate act, but that Jesus “behavedas if . . .” Of course
Christ did have other places to go, and other people to see. We have a hint of
this in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians where he says, for example, that
Jesus had a specialmeeting with James his half brother, “Thenhe appeared
unto James” (I Cor. 15:7). The gospels have no record of that encounteror
conversation. SoonChrist would be returning to his Father, but before that
there was his pastoring work of these crestfallenmen and women. So it wasn’t
that he was trying to deceive his own disciples. No, there’s nothing of that. He
was aware that he now had to depart from them and walk back the seven
miles to Jerusalem, but there was no wayhe could leave his disciples still
unaware that he had risen from the dead. In fact he loved to hear them
protesting about his plans to leave them, saying how much they wanted him to

118. stay with them. He loves to hear us pray for his presence with us when we
gather in his name. “Keep your promise Lord; meet with us O Christ; we are
gathering in your name.” There are the words of the famous hymn basedon
this response oftheirs . . .
Abide with me fast falls the eventide,
The darkness deepens, Lord with me abide.
When other helpers fade and comforts flee
Help of the helpless, O abide with me. (Henry F. Lyte, 1793-1847).
Jesus made out that he could chooseto go on just then, and leave them behind,
so that that thought would cause them to realise just how dependent on him
they’d become. They’d arrived at their destination, Emmaus, and there was
their home, and then they could play the hospitality card. They’d invite him to
come in and stay with them. It would be churlish of him to refuse their offer of
a meal and warm bed for the night. So they use different arguments to that
effect, “Staywith us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almostover” (v.29). It
doesn’t mean it was twilight. It could have been that the sun had reachedits
zenith and was beginning to go down. It was a characteristic ofEastern
hospitality to ask guests to stay, “It is almost nightfall. We have a room and
bed ready for you, and you can go on tomorrow.” What was in mind would
have been a late midday meal, not a supper, because soonthese two people
were to walk back two hours to Jerusalemand find the gates still open – they
closedat nightfall – and that the elevendisciples were gatheredto have their
evening meal. But Cleopas usedvarious arguments to persuade Jesus to abide

119. with them, and Jesus says OK. He is persuaded, and he enters their home,
perhaps it was Luke’s ownhouse.
Think about that for a moment. Our Lord sometimes may seemto leave us in
order that we’ll cry to him, “Please stay!” I’ll have what I considerto be a bad
Sunday. I don’t think I had much help from heaven in my preaching. Jesus
didn’t seem to be there in the congregation, and the result of that is that I cry
to him, “Pleasebe present. Please stayand work and bless and speak to us.
Don’t leave me here without you.” he Lord Jesus canseemto move away from
us so that we’ll realise how much we depend on him and seek him all the
more. He loves to be sought by us, and welcomedinto our company, however
poor and few we are. In Emmaus there were only two! In the days when we
feel alone and confused, then that is part of God’s plan to weanus awayfrom
the things of the world and bring us to a place where we say, “O Lord, it’s you
and you alone who’ve become so important to me. Give me Christ or else I
die.” RememberWesley’s hymn;
Speak to us Lord, Thyself reveal, while here on earth we rove;
Speak to our hearts and let us feel the kindling of They love.
With Thee conversing we forget all time and toil and care;
Labour is rest and pain is sweet, if Thou, my Lord, art here (Charles Wesley
1707-88)
These two disciples had no idea what a glorious discovery they were going to
make when he agreedto staywith them a little longer. It would be this

120. discovery, that Jesus Christ had really risen from the dead, not as a ghostly
spirit but as a real living person who could pick up a piece of bread and break
it in his hands. No ghost could do that, and be the one answering questions by
them for an age, and he would have preachedto them for an hour or two as
they walkedtogetherdown the road. When he first came into the world there
was no one in crowdedBethlehem who would give his mother room for his
birth in an inn, but now that he was getting ready to leave the world people
were inviting him into their homes and hearts and confessing their longing for
him to stay with them.
I need Thy presence everypassing hour;
What but Thy grace canfoil the tempter’s power?
Who like Thyself my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, O abide with me! (Henry F. Lyte, 1793-1847).
HOW THE LORD CONFIRMEDTO THEM THAT HE HAD RISEN.
We are told, “So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with
them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and beganto give it to them. Then
their eyes were opened and they recognisedhim” (vv.29-31). God chose to end
the blindness he had imposed on them when the Lord took bread, gave thanks
and gave it to them. These two had not been in the Upper Roomon the
previous Thursday. All the information of what had happened there, his
preaching, his washing their feet, the first Lord’s Supper and his praying
could hardly have been talkedabout on the next day – the day Jesus was

121. crucified, and little about it on the Saturday. They were stunned men and
women. What had been done to Jesus wouldhave been quite obliteratedthe
memories of the Upper Room. So I don’t believe that his breaking the bread
was an associationwith the first communion service in the Upper Room. That
was not the connectionthat revealedto them that this companionthey had
invited into their home to receive their hospitality was the risen Lord Jesus.
Cleopas knew little or nothing about the Last Supper yet.
When you read Luke’s description of the Lord’s Supper in chapter 22 there
are significantdifferences from this breaking of bread. The tenses of the verbs
are different in the original, and here we are told that he blessedthe bread,
while in the Last Supper he gave thanks for the bread. You wouldn’t see those
differences in the NIV. They are in the Greek. If Luke wanted us to see a
sacramentalconnectionhe would have used identical words, and also he
would have brought in the wine, whereas there is no reference to any wine
here and are no words of institution to present it as the Lord’s Supper.
There is a difference betweenordinary meals which we Christians share
together– the students coming back and eating lunch with us on Sundays –
and on the other hand, holy communion. What a happy time we have eating at
the Manse, but that is not the Lord’s Supper and we don’t try to make it the
Lord’s Supper, and you can’t blend the Lord’s Supper with an ordinary meal.
We are going to have FellowshipLunch today and we do that eachmonth.
That is a goodtime for horizontal friendship and affection. But next week we
will have the Lord’s Supper and there we will show forth the Lord’s agony
and bloody sweatin his dying for us. You should not muddle up these two any
more than a young people’s meeting for a swim at the beachor in the
swimming pool should be blended into believers’ baptism, which is totally
different. We do all to the glory of God, eating and drinking, yes, but it is
unhelpful to make every commonplace actionsacredor a sacrament.
Marriage is a creation ordinance;it is not a sacrament. Paulwas facing a
problem concerning the abuse of the Lord’s Supper in the church in Corinth,

122. and he wrote to them “Don’tyou have homes to eatand drink in? Or do you
despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall
I say to you? Shall I praise you for this? Certainly not! . . . If anyone is
hungry, he should eat at home, so that when you meet togetherit may not
result in judgment.” (I Cor. 11:23&34). There are warnings in Scripture
about partaking wrongly in the Lord’s Supper. We can incur God’s judgment
in doing that.
So it was not the Lord’s Supper that Cleopas beganto think of as Jesus broke
bread. It was more like to be the feeding of the 5,000 as Luke records in
chapter nine. Listen to verse sixteen; “Taking the five loaves and the two fish
and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them
to the disciples to set before the people.” There were five thousand men and
our Lord showedhis power over creationby picking up loaves and fishes and
breaking them and putting them into baskets andsending the disciples out
into the crowd who were seatedin various companies with paths in between
for the disciples to serve them. Our Lord kept breaking the bread and filling
the baskets until all 5,000 menhad their fill and afterwards they gathered
twelve baskets of uneatenfood. That often repeatedgesture of his, breaking
the bread and giving it out lived on in their memories for the rest of their
lives.
So when he broke bread in their home (in an inimitable gesture of self-
revelation) then Cleopas knew, “This . . . is . . . Jesus himself.” It was not so
surprising then that the one who could feed 5,000 menwith a few loaves and
fishes could also rise from the dead. Christ earthed his resurrection in their
remembrance of all his miraculous power. In a few days this risen Lord would
also repeatthe catching of a huge haul of fish in their net. Then God ended
their blindness (because they weren’t the ones who openedtheir owneyes);
“their eyes were opened” (passive voice) “and they recognizedhim,” (active
voice), the latter was dependent on the former actof God, and then Jesus had
done everything neededto lift their downcasthearts, assuring them that he

123. was God incarnate and more powerful than death. This new friend was their
old friend and the best of friends, alive and caring for them. The women who
had been to the tomb, and found it empty, and had been spokento by angels,
were right all along, and Cleopas and his friend must return to confirm the
truthfulness of what they had seenwith what the Elevenand the womenhad
seenand heard.
Do you see what we have here? Jesus comes seeking for us. Jesus makes
himself knownto us through the Bible. Jesus comes in when he is invited.
Jesus fellowships with us. Then Jesus vanished as soonas he was recognized.
He left them because they no longer needed his personalpresence. Thatdoes
not mean that he was no longer there. He sends another Comforter to be with
them. It simply means that they were no longer permitted to see him visibly.
This is one greatpoint of the story. Just because youdon’t see Jesus doesn’t
mean he isn’t there. Just because you think you are alone doesn’tmean he’s
not by your side. He stayedwith Cleopas and his friend long enough for them
to be sure, but no longer, and when we say, “Lord it would be wonderful if
you would stay longer,” then Jesus says, “I am with you always, eventhough
at times you imagine I’m not.” Where is Jesus when we need him? He’s with
us still.
26th May 2013 GEOFFTHOMAS
THE BLESSED GUEST DETAINED
NO. 1655
A SERMON
DELIVERED ON LORD’S-DAY MORNING, APRIL 23, 1882,

124. BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE,NEWINGTON.
“And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went:
and he made as though he would have gone further.
But they constrainedhim, saying, Abide with us:
for it is towardevening, and the day is far spent.
And he went in to tarry with them.”
Luke 24:28-29.
WHAT a blessedwalk was that from Jerusalemto Emmaus! Were they not
highly favored men to
have such a companion as the Lord Jesus, to hear Him converse upon such a
subject, and to feel their
hearts burning within them with so divine a flame? Brethren, these are not
the only men who have
walkedwith the Lord Jesus. I trust I look into the eyes of full many who can
say, “We, too, have
communed with the Son of the Highest, the eyes of our faith have seenHim,
and our ears have heard His
voice.” We have knownthat Jesus Himself drew near, and we have heard the
words of Holy Scripture as
though they fell fresh from His lips, and thus they have, by the powerof the
Holy Spirit, burned in our
hearts, and made our hearts to burn like coals of juniper which have a most
vehement flame.
Thank God, our divine Masteris still the familiar friend of His disciples, and
our life-walk is with

125. Him. In one sense, “He is not here, for he is risen,” but in another sense He is
more peculiarly here
because He has risen, and whereas unrisenHe could only have been in one
place at a time, now that He
is risen He is by His Spirit present with thousands of His people at the same
moment, and He walks not
only from Jerusalemto Emmaus, but to many a village, through many a
garden, along many a street.
Jesus delights to manifest Himself to His people, He is not strange unto His
own flesh. We are bound to
bear witness to the factthat He is not ashamed to callus brethren, and to be
found walking with us.
Yea, even to those who are not His people Jesus comes verynear at times, and
though they know
Him not He walks at their side, and this not in silence, for He instructs them
by His word and makes
their hearts warm by His sacredinfluence. I pray that any remark this
morning which shall be made to
believers may also lay hold of those attentive hearers to whom the kingdom
has come very near, for
some of you have often been moved in this house of prayer as you have heard
Jesus speak, andspeak to
you, and if you have not been able to callHim friend, yet you have heartily
wished you could do so.
You have been more than half inclined to castin your lot with His disciples
because their Masterhas
warmed your hearts, if He has not made them burn, and if there has not been
the glow of life yet there

126. have been many flickering desires. I pray that Jesus may never leave you, but
that your intimacy with
Him may be growing, till at lastyou shall know Him and He shall know you,
and there shall be a union
formed betweenyou which never shall be broken.
To return to that walk to Emmaus. How short it must have seemed, by far too
short for hearts so sad,
who at every step found solace. I forgethow many miles it was just now. It
does not matter. I should
think it seemedas if it had scarce begunwhen it ended, with such light feet
they tripped over that
pathway, that they thought Emmaus had been attractednearerto the city. It
was so short because it was
so sweet, the conversationwas suchas goodmen prize more than dainties. The
intonations of that voice
must often have awakenedmemories within them which half compelled them
to recognize their Lord,
His sweetvoice must have charmed them, and the words He uttered, the
wondrous words of exposition
and consolation, how much they enriched them!
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Norwas that walk more sweetthan solemn, for it is no small thing to walk
with the risen Sonof
God. Kings might fling their crowns awayto enjoy five minutes of such honor,
it was nothing less than

127. sublime. Those brethren must often during the restof their lives have looked
at eachother and said, “We
walkedwith Jesus.”I should think wheneverthey met, their conversation
would have in it fresh
recollections ofthat walk, and eachone would say to his fellow, “Brother, I
have just remembered a
point whereonthe Lord spoke to us. Do you not recollectthe significant hint
which He gave us as to the
meaning of the prophet?”
If you and I had ever actually walkedwith Jesus, Iam half afraid we might
have grown proud of it,
at any rate, if we were helped not to be proud, yet it would always be a
sublime memory. How sublime a
thing to have kept pace with incarnate Deity, and marched footto footwith
Him who is God over all,
blessedforever! No angelhas ever walkedwith Jesus, theycasttheir crowns
before Him, and fly upon
His errands, but He has not given unto angels the privilege of such familiar
intercourse. How solemnto
those who all unwittingly had enjoyed it!
I think when they knew Him they must have been overwhelmed with the
thought that they had been
so near, and they must have fearedin the silence of their souls that possibly
they had been rashly
familiar. Surely they said eachone to himself, “Did we sayanything
improper? Was it this which made

128. Him call us fools? When we were expressing our doubts, did we not grieve
Him? Alas, that we should
have so misbehaved ourselves!” They must have lookedback upon that high
honor with greatawe, even
as Jacobdid after he had communed with God at Bethel, and said, “Surely the
Lord was in this place;
and I knew it not. How dreadful is this place! this is none other than the house
of God, and the very gate
of heaven.”
Brethren, it is a greatthing to come nearto Christ, and you who have not yet
believed in Him, I
should like you to feel in what a solemn position you have sometimes been
placed when “He has been
evidently set forth, crucified among you!” and you have felt somewhatof that
presence. Jesusdoes not
draw nigh to a man for nothing, He has an influence upon all whom He visits.
Your sense of His
presence has left upon you a deep responsibility, especiallyif you have
remained chill under the
influence of His holy love and have refused to believe in Him. Oh, that you
would think of this! Ere our
Lord passes onand leaves you to your own devices, I would have you know
that the King of heavenhas
been very nigh to you. Oh that you would cry out to Him, nor ceasethe cry till
He comes and abides
with you!

129. I. This must suffice for an introduction. Oh that the Spirit of God may give
the sermon. My subject
runs thus, first, observe in the text, COMPANIONS LIKELY TO PART.
The walk had come to an end, for they had reachedEmmaus whither they
went, and now the Master
made as if He would have gone further, and so the holy talk was likely to end.
Jesus is going on, and
they may never see Him again. The choicestofall conversations now draws to
a close unless the speaker
can be induced to stop with the two favored travelers. We are told that our
Lord Jesus would have gone
further. He did not pretend that He would have gone, but He was actually
going. It is the way of Him not
to stay anywhere exceptHe is invited and pressed. I know not whither He
would have gone, but with
that glorified body of His He was under no necessityoffinding shelter, He
could have gone further and
lodged elsewhere, orHe could have suddenly returned to Jerusalemand in a
moment have entered into
the apostles’meeting room though the doors were shut. It would not have
been the first night that—
“Coldmountains and the midnight air
Witnessedthe fervor of His prayer.”
Certainly He would have gone further, He says not whither, but He knew
right well. Under the
circumstances, He and His companions seemedlikely to part.

130. Now, observe the reasonof parting. They were not about to separate because
of any ill-will on the
part of those who had walkedwith Him. No angerhad broken out, nothing
that He had said had aroused
Sermon #1655 The BlessedGuest Detained3
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any animosity—very, very far from it, they felt an intense reverence for the
unknown stranger, and
sincere gratitude to Him for the charming words which He had addressed
them. He was likely to have
gone further, but not because ofany rupture between them. Nor would they
have divided because ofany
weariness ofHim on their part, He had not prosedawayand tired them out so
that they would be gladto
see the back of Him.
The rest of the narrative shows that they were in a very different condition of
heart from that. If
Jesus had gone further they would have lost His delightful societysheerly
through forgetfulness.
Turning into his house—forI suppose one of them lived there, and there does
not appearto have been
anybody else in the house—one ofthem spread the simple repastfor his
friend, and what if in his care
about the evening meal he had forgottento invite the wonderful stranger? If
Jesus had gone further, it
would have been entirely because they forgot to invite Him, or failed to urge
Him to stay. They could

131. not have felt an utter indifference to Him, but they might have forgottento
press their hospitality upon
Him.
Many have short memories when hospitality is concerned. Sometimes we
have failed to invite a
friend when he needed our kindness, and we have felt sorry for it afterwards.
They might have supposed
that if He went further, so important a personwas too greatto tarry with
them, and perhaps so wise a
person had an errand further on which required immediate dispatch, and
therefore He could not remain
with them. Thus they might have let Him go. Had they lost Him it would have
been simply through
forgetfulness and inadvertence.
Brothers and sisters, I hope there are very few of us who love the Lord, who
are likely ever to lose
communion with Him through any weariness ofHim, or distaste of Him. Oh
no, the happiest moments
we have ever had have been spent in Jesus’company, and we are never so
blessedas when He opens the
Scriptures to us, and opens our hearts to receive them. But we are in danger
lest in the press of worldly
cares, lestin our frequent conversationswith our fellow men, lesteven in our
attendances upon the
domestic concerns of our own little home, we may forget to invite Jesus to
abide with us.

132. Communion with the Lord is oftenerbroken by want of thought than by
want of heart, though, alas,
when the want of thought has let Him “go further,” then it has cooleddown
into that rock of ice which
we have called a want of heart. Therefore brothers and sisters, let us charge
our hearts that we do never
forgetto entertain the Savior. Let this be our first thought—that we give Jesus
lodging in our souls. Be
this our morning prayer, “Abide with us,” be this our evening petition, “Abide
with us,” be this the
prayer of all the day long, “Abide with us.”
May we resolve that under no circumstances will we permit our souls to be at
rest unless we restin
Him, or to be happy exceptHe shall be our joy. You see, if the two disciples
had lostour Lord’s
company it would have been simply through neglect, and if you and I lose Him
it may be through a
neglectwhich we think excusable becausewe were so very busy, and so
intensely occupied, but this will
not alter the fact, nor bring back our Lord. Oh do not let us treat Him so ill.
Are there other objects beneaththe sun or above the sun, on earth or in
heaven that are worthy to
come betweenus and Christ even for a single moment? Will a wife treat her
loving husband with
coldness, and then excuse herself that she had other matters on her hands? It
may be so, but never, never

133. let the Lord’s redeemedtreat their Redeemeras though He might be left in
any hole or cornertill a more
convenient time.
The point at which they were at all likely to part company with Christ is
worth noting, for it may
give us timely warning.
It was, first, a point of change. They had been walking with Him, and the
journey was over. They
had been out of doors, but now they have come to their house and are about to
enter. Always there is a
danger to us of missing fellowship with Christ at points of change, and
especiallyat seasons ofgreatly
altered circumstances.I do not wish, brethren, that you and I should be often
transplanted, trees do not
flourish well when this happens to them.
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I knew a friend who appeared to be wedded to the Gospel, and was zealous in
promoting it when he
was persecutedvery severelyby his father. His father died, and he inherited
the old man’s property, and
from that hour he was not seenin his former place, nor did he manifest any
love to the Lord. This is sad.
I would hardly dare to pray for some men that they might have a change from
persecutionto prosperity,
plants that flourish amid ice and snow are burned up when placedbeneath a
tropical sun. I have known

134. those who appearedto love their Masterright heartily when they were poor
who have become rich, and
now where is their ardor? I hope they have not altogethercastoffaffection for
the sacredname, but
certainly the people with whom they once associatedknow nothing of them
now, and they are not
engagedin those holy works in which they formerly delighted. How dare I
pray for the temporal
prosperity of those who would degenerate beneathits influence?
On the other hand, I have knownmany who once were in comfortable
circumstances, andwhen
prosperous they appearedto walk with God, as far as we could judge they
were patterns of godliness,
but they fell upon hard times, and they grew poorer and poorer, till they
tastedthe bitterness of want,
and now they saythey do not like to be seenby those who knew them, and
therefore, they stay away
from the house of God. They have lost the comforts of religionwhen they most
need them, lostworldly
substance, and alas, lostfellowship with Christ as well.
This is equally sad, for whether Jesus leaves us at the golden gate, or at the
broken-down door of
poverty, His departure is equally a calamity. I am mentioning facts. I give no
names, but I have seen
these things many times, and therefore I have drawn this deduction, that at
points of change there is

135. danger. I suppose there is upon the railway a measure of peril at the switches
where the train is turned
upon another line, and it is certainly so on the main line to glory. At all times
it is well to watch, but
especiallywhen we are entering upon new duties, new trials, and new
temptations. Lord, let not the
novelty of our position fascinate us even for a moment, but evermore do You
abide with us.
It was a point too, where something had been accomplished. Theyhad
finished their journey and
reachedtheir homes. Oh, we are such poor things that we can hardly complete
anything without being
self-satisfied. As little a thing as a finished walk will exalt little minds, but if it
is some greaterwork, the
peril is increased. When Christ said, “It is finished,” He openeda river of
comfort, but when we
exclaim, “I have finished it,” we too often setour minds on fire with pride.
Certain men have undertaken a work for Jesus and they have done it by the
Holy Spirit’s blessing,
and now they feelso pleasedwith themselves and so satisfiedthat they are
likely to spoil all, and give
their Lord occasionfor grief. The lowly Jesus does not seek self-exalting
companions. I have known
Him go many a mile to speak with the contrite, and it is His delight to dwell
with the broken-hearted, but
with those who have done something, and therefore feel that they do not
further need His presence, He

136. soonparts company. Nothing drives Christ and holy angels out of a room like
the foul odor of pride.
Then, dearfriends, they were now about to rest for a time. They had reached
home, and they looked
for repose afterthe excitements of the week. Theyhad been detained at
Jerusalemby grand yet terrible
events, and one of them was glad that day to lodge in his own house, as for the
other, he was glad to get
out of the city and retire with his friend for a little till goodnews should come
from the apostles. They
both hoped for a little peace. Justthen the Mastermade as though He would
have gone further, and
when you and I are promising ourselves repose, suchas we have known little
of upon earth, it is well at
such times to specially ask the Masterto abide with us.
When we are in the battle we are sure to beg Him to abide with us, because
He covers our head, and
we cannot live without Him, and when we are proceeding in a weary walk we
are likely to pray Him to
remain with us, for we are then leaning on our Beloved, but when we sit down
upon the seatof ease,
sleeptoo often creeps overus. Having put off our traveling sandals, and
stretchedourselves at ease, ah,
then there is the possibility, the sadpossibility, of the Master’s going further
while we take our rest.
He is always going further, and when we resolve to go no further, but to
considerourselves to have

137. attained, then our Lord will soonbe gone. We must not take the motto of the
famous statesmanwho has
been so often laughed at for his finality, we must not say, “Restand be
thankful,” or we shall sooncome
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to grief. If we fall into that vein, it is well to remember that just at such a point
Jesus and the disciple are
apt to break fellowship. I mention this that we may be wise in the hour of
trial.
Now, had they parted company, the act would have been most blameworthy
on their part. To have
lost the societyof such a friend, how foolish! Here was one who had instructed
them with tenderness
and skill—one who spoke as never man spoke, would they let Him go? Here
was one who evidently
could explain their mysterious sorrows, andtake the sting out of their griefs,
and would they let Him
pass on? They had been fools indeed if they had done so. It would have shown
that they did not
appreciate His teaching, nor feelgrateful for His opening to them the
Scriptures. It would have been
gross folly.
And yet there is another thought. It was toward evening, and night was
lowering, and therefore they
said, “Abide with us: for the day is far spent.” It would have been very cruel
to have allowedHim to

138. journey on in the dark and the dews. Would we thus treat any friend of ours?
Could we allow a beloved
one to abide abroad all night? Was not that His own argument in the Golden
Canticle, when He knocked
and said, “Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my
head is filled with dew, and
my locks with the drops of the night”?
It would have been inhospitable on their part, inhuman for them to leave Him
to prosecute His
journey in the darkness ofthe gathering night when they had a home in which
they could entertain Him.
And so I charge it upon my ownsoul never to let Jesus be left unhoused, a
strangerwho has not where
to lay His head.
All hearts are cold in every place towards the Well-beloved, it is a coldworld
for Jesus todayeven as
at the time of His life below. Then, “He came unto his ownand his own
receivedhim not.” Let not that
be said over again, and said of us who are in a more specialsense His own
than were His brethren
according to the flesh. “Be you not forgetful to entertain strangers” is a
Gospelcommand, but be you
especiallyeagerto entertain your Lord. Shall your Lord ever say to any of you
who are called
Christians, “I was a stranger, and you took me not in”? Oh, no, let us invite
Him, beg Him, entreat Him,

139. constrainHim to abide with us for His own dear sake, andlet us give Him in
our warm hearts the best
entertainment that we can. Surely we never receivedsuch a guestbefore, and
another such we shall
never see again.
Men are willing to give up their estates and houses for a time to entertain
royalty, and they reckon
them to be increasedin value when once a monarch has sojournedin them,
and shall not we be more
than willing to open wide our hearts, and minds, and homes, that Jesus may
enter and be entertained by
us as the King of kings? There is something, then, to be learned from
companions likely to part. May the
Holy Spirit sweetlyteachus!
II. Now I change the scene, and notice next THE GUEST NEEDING TO BE
PRESSED.
The guest is Jesus, andHe is about to go further, and He will go further
unless they invite Him, ay,
unless, according to the twenty-ninth verse they constrainHim. It is a very
strong word that, “they
constrainedHim,” it is akin to the one which Jesus usedwhen He said, “The
kingdom of heaven suffers
violence.” Theynot only invited Him, but they held Him, they graspedHis
hand, they tuggedat His
skirts, they said He should not go, they would not have it, the cold night
should not accuse them of being

140. churls: he should not go another yard along that dangerous road, they must
have Him for a guest, and
they would not take a denial.
Let us recollectwhy this guestneeds constraining, and the first thought is, He
could not very well
have tarried otherwise. If I were a strangerand walkedalong the road with
two persons who did not
know me, if I were able to talk to them ever so instructively, I should not think
of intruding into their
house when the conversationwas over. You never see anything in Jesus
approaching roughness or want
of delicacy, he exhibits the manners of the noblestman that ever lived. He
does not force His
acquaintance upon any, He goes where He is constrained.
Besides,whatpleasure could it have been to Him or for them for Him to have
lodged in their house
if He had not been wanted? Without a welcome, few of us would care to
acceptlodging. Jesus therefore
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naturally, because the other thing was scarcelyfeasible, waitedtill He was
asked, and even pressed, and
had they not constrainedHim, He would have gone further.
Remark that this is a characteristic ofthe Son of God at all times. I have not
time this morning,
otherwise I could show you that all through the Old Testamentas well as the
New, when the Lord

141. reveals Himself in any visible form He has to be pressedere He will abide with
any. The Lord came to
Abraham, and Abraham said, “My Lord, if now I have found favor in your
sight, pass not away, I pray
you, from your servant: let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash
your feet, and rest yourselves
under the tree: and I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort your hearts;
after that you shall pass on:
for therefore are you come to your servant” (Gen. 18:3-5). Abraham
constrains these wondrous guests,
or otherwise they will pass on.
Look at chapter nineteen, and see whatLot did when two angels came to him.
Even supposing these
were nothing more than angels, they show the manners of the court of heaven,
so that it is an equally
goodillustration for me. He said, “Beholdnow, my lords, turn in, I pray you,
into your servant’s house,
and tarry all night, and washyour feet, and you shall rise up early, and go on
your ways. And they said,
Nay; but we will abide in the streetall night. And he pressedupon them
greatly; and they turned in unto
him, and entered into his house:” (verses 2-3).
Josephwas in this a type of Jesus, for you know how slow he seemedto reveal
himself to his
brethren, though all the while he was full of love to them. To Moses the Lord
said, “Letme alone,” and

142. only by mighty pleading could the man of God prevail. When an angelcame
to Manoahand his wife, to
tell them about Samson, we find that He had to be detained, or else He would
have departed speedily.
“And Manoahsaid unto the angelof the LORD, I pray you, let us detain you,
until we shall have made
ready a kid for you.” (Judges 13:15-16). You see, the heavenly messenger
needed to be detained, or He
would have gone at once. And then comes in that instance of which you have
already thought, when the
angelsaid to Jacob, “Letme go, for the day breaks. And he said, I will not let
you go, exceptyou bless
me.” It is clearthat the Lord will be entreated of by the house of Israelto do
goodthings for them. We
shall have to cry—
“In vain Thou strugglestto getfree,
I never will unloose my hold!
Are Thou the Man that died for me?
The secretofThy love unfold:
Wrestling, I will not let Thee go,
Till I Thy name, Thy nature know.
I know Thee, Savior, who Thou art,
Jesus, the feeble sinner’s Friend;
Nor will Thou with the night depart,
But stay and love me to the end;

143. Thy mercies never shall remove;
Thy nature and Thy name is love.”
We know that our Lord had a shy habit, He often withdrew Himself, and the
multitude sought after
Him, He walkedupon the sea, and they in the vesselsaw Him and He would
have gone by them, but
they cried out to Him. The Syro-Phoenicianwoman, who sought for the
healing of her daughter, found
Him at first very cold to her, and only by the greatestfaith did she win her
desire. He neededearnest
pressure ere He yielded to her request. The blind men cried unto Him for
sight, but He passedon, till
louder and louder yet went up their piteous cries, and they held Him, for
Jesus stoodstill. The nobleman,
when he came about his sonpleaded with tears till he cried, “Lord, come
down before my child die.”
It has been often so with our gracious Lord, He would not come until He saw
that the desire for Him
was intense. He gives us two parables—one tells us of the man in bed who
must be roused with many a
knock and many a callere he would rise to give bread to his friend who
sought it, and the other parable
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Volume 28 7
is that of the unjust judge who must be weariedby the woman’s importunate
entreaties before he will

144. vindicate her cause. Fromall this you see it is the Master’s habit to hold back
till He is pressedand
constrained.
If we must give a reasonfor this I would remind you of the jealousyof His
character. He is jealous
of our love, He says, “Give me your heart,” and so He pauses awhile that He
may see that we love His
person and prize His benefits. Of old the Father said, “The LORD your God is
a jealous God,” and
Jesus, the incarnation of the divine love, has told us that “love is strong as
death; jealousyis cruel as the
grave,” and hence it is that He will not give His company to those who have no
heart for it. You shall
not have His smiles if the smiles of the world will do as well. If communion
with worldlings will please
you as much as communion with Him, you shall have none of His company. It
is only when you
languish for Him, sigh for Him, and cry for Him that He will abide with you.
He has another reason, and that is, His anxiety to do us good!He wisely
wishes that we should value
the mercy which He gives by being led to considerwhat a case we should be in
if He did not give it. He
stirs up our prayers and then answers them, and so we geta double blessing,
the prayers themselves
being of much service to us, and then the answerbeing all the more a blessing.
It was goodto these two

145. disciples to be allowedto be hospitable, it was goodfor them to rouse
themselves to entreat Him. They
valued the company of Jesus allthe more when they had hardly persuaded
Him to sit at their table and
partake of their simple meal. Now, beloved, let us look at Jesus in this light,
and saywithin ourselves, “I
am fearful lest I should do anything to excite His jealousy, and I am anxious to
show my eagerlonging
for His presence lestHe should think me unkind. I would not make Him ‘go
further’ and leave me, but I
would hold Him fast, constraining Him to abide with me.”
III. I have said that here was a guest who neededpressing, there will be no
necessityto enlarge upon
the remark that here was A GUEST WORTHPRESSING.
He was indeed worth pressing when we considerwhat He had done for them.
He had given them
comfort and instruction, and He was worth detaining if only for that. Had
they known Him they would
have felt still more that they could not let Him go. Would they not have borne
Him on their shoulders
into the house, and said, “GoodMaster, we cannotthink of letting You go, for
You are He whom our
souls love, our Masterand our Lord, over whom we have been mourning as
one dead, and lo, You are
alive”? So much were they indebted to Him that they could not fail to make
Him their guest.

146. They must press Him again, for how comfortless the house would have been
without Him! I think I
see those two disciples sitting down to their meal, supposing the Masterhad
gone on. Suddenly one
would have recollected, and said, “My heart feels heavy now that He is gone,”
and the other would have
said, “How came it that we let Him go? Why did we not entreat Him to stay
the night with us?” Their
meal would have half chokedthem, they would have gone to their beds and
tossedabout throughout a
sleeplessnight if they had failed in hospitality to Him.
This is what has happened to some of us when we have carelesslyletour Lord
slip away, we have
been like widows who have newly lost their husbands, sore in heart and
desolate. “Shouldthe children
of the bridegroom fast?” Notwhile the bridegroom is with them, but if he be
takenfrom them, then shall
they fast. Better to have been outside in the open air, or to have gone further
with the unknown traveler,
than to have been comfortably housed, and to have treated Him ill. He was a
guestworth constraining to
remain when we think of the vacuum there would have been if He had gone
further.
Besides,we know what they did not then know, that this unknown One would
make Himself known
to them, as He has done to us. Now knowing Him, as they knew Him
afterwards in the breaking of the

147. bread, we ought to feel, we must feel, we do feel, that we cannot, will not let
Him go, but will detain
Him, for He is Christ our Lord.
I spoke atthe beginning to some here who have never knownour Lord, and
yet He has been very
close to them frequently, in hearing sermons, and the like. Dearfriends, I
earnestlybeseechyou to
receive Christ as a stranger, and you shall soonknow Him as a friend. You
only know of my Lord, that
He makes you have the heartburn every now and then, and when we talk
about Him you go home very
8 The BlessedGuestDetainedSermon#1655
8 Volume 28
uncomfortable. How I wish that you knew Him better! Oh, that you would
entertain Him, for then you
would know His excellence!Bid Him come into your heart, and He will be
infinitely more to you than
He is now. You have no idea what He is, He seems a well-spokenfriend, but
He will prove to be a
brother, He promises now to instruct you, but He will love you, enrich you,
and glorify you.
Oh dear child of God, not well-instructed yet, your eyes holden and you see
not Jesus as you shall
see Him, still I pray you heartily entertain the Savior, even if your eyes be
holden. Take Him in, and let
Him still lodge with you, and you will know more and yet more of Him. You
will know most of Him as

148. you break your bread to the hungry, and so break it to Him, you will know
more as you break the bread
at the communion table, and so commune with Him. Only remember He is a
guestworth pressing, and
be sure you do your best humbly but earnestlyto detain Him.
IV. I close by telling you of AN ARGUMENT WITH WHICH TO HOLD
HIM.
Here it is in the text. “They constrainedhim, saying, Abide with us, for it is
toward evening, and the
day is far spent.”
My first way of using this text does not commend itself to my judgment, but
yet it is necessary. All
the commentators and preachers I have evermet with suppose that these
disciples meant by this
argument that it was dreary for themselves to be alone, and therefore for their
own comfort and
protection they beggedthe strangerto remain. I do not believe it for a
moment, still, that would have
been a goodargument with the tender-hearted Savior, and if you and I cannot
attain to anything else, let
us use that plea. It is towardevening with many of you. You are in affliction,
and the shadows thicken,
your light has departed, and you are afraid, sorrows come onlike the
darkness of night, you know not
what approaches, youare heavy of heart. Ah, then that is a blessedprayer—
“Fastfalls the eventide!
The darkness thickens:

149. Lord, with me abide.”
You canbear any trouble with Christ. No adversities shall hurt you, no
afflictions shall grieve your
spirit if He be with you. Pray, therefore, this prayer, and no longer fear as you
enter into the cloud.
Or it may be that some of you are falling into depressionof spirit through the
loss of the light of
God’s countenance, you are not as joyful a Christian as you used to be, the
high felicities of your spirit
have burned down, and all is dim. Now is the time to say, “Lord, abide with
me. If I have no joy, still let
me have Yourself.” It is a blessedthing when a believer does not sethis
affectionso much upon the joy
of the Lord as upon the Lord of his joy, when he says not only, “Lord, I will
rejoice in You while You
smile,” but cries with Job, “Thoughhe slay me, yet will I trust in him.” Better
to have to do with a
killing Godthan to have God away. So, cry, “Lord, if I never get a smile from
You, if I am never again
cheeredand comfortedby You, if I never sing a hymn of gladness, yetstill
abide with me. Be near, even
if I know it not.”
It was a beautiful expressionof David, who often askedthe Lord to shine
upon him, when he said,
“In the shadow of your wings will I rejoice.” As much as to say—if I have no
light from God’s face, I

150. will be glad to be hidden beneath His wings. Abide with me, then, even if my
reasonalmostfails me,
and my darkened soul dreads a yet more tremendous night. Abide with me, O
Lord, even should my
sorrow sealmy eyes in death.
“Abide with me” is a blessedprayer for those believers who are getting aged.
With them it is toward
evening, and the day is far spent. Now should they cry, “Abide with me.”
Then will you sweetlygo to
your chamber and fall into your last, most blessedsleep, and obtain the
fulfillment of your prayer that
you may be forever with the Lord.
I have used the text in this way because everybodyhas used it so, but I believe
that these disciples
meant it in quite another sense. Theyused the argument to detain Christ
because it was evening, for His
sake, becausethe night was coming on, and they could not think of His being
out in it. They knew how
Sermon #1655 The BlessedGuestDetained9
Volume 28 9
heavy the Easterndews are, and so they pressedHim with this, “Abide with
us: for it is toward evening,
and the day is far spent.”
Let eachone use that argument with our Lord even now—Lord, the world
has no entertainment for
You, unbelieving hearts give You no shelter, the self-righteous repel You from
their doors, the worldly

151. see no beauty in You, carnal hearts refuse You, every house is lockedagainst
You, therefore come in
and abide with me. Here is lodging for You, come in, You blessedone, and
stay with me. If You lack
shelter in king’s palaces, abide with me, if there is no room for You in the inn,
yet come in hither and
find Yourself at home, for I shall count myself greatly honored by receiving
You. Therefore, dear
Master, abide with me.
How we ought to long to cheerthe BlessedOne with our love, because He is
still so despisedand
rejectedeverywhere else. Everywhere else they treat Him ill. O do not let Him
be wounded in the house
of His friends. If He had fifty houses to go to I might say, “Lord, they cangive
You better entertainment
than lies in my power,” but when it is “towardevening” and no other door is
open, Lord come into my
poor cot. I will setall that I have before You and be myself Your willing
servant. That is the plea.
Another form of the plea is this. “The ages are growing old and dark. What a
plea that is for the
church to put up now, for the coming of her Lord. O Lord, it is toward
evening, the world’s sun is
setting, it is nearly nineteen hundred years ago since you ascended, and still
the world lies in the wicked
one, Lord, come to Your church, come and abide with her, for as the world
grows old, goodMaster, a

152. chill night comes on, and the love of many waxes cold, and there are some that
turn aside who once ran
well. Dire evils walk abroad in the dark, and blasphemy and rebuke are rife.
GoodMaster, come unto
Your church, and dwell in her, and find there Your home.
“And the night of all nights is coming on, even the end of the world. We know
not when, but we
know we are getting nearerto it every day. Earth’s day is far spent, her day of
mercy comes toward its
eventide, and the night draws on, therefore, Master, come and abide with us,
that we may win the world
for you. Come;come that we may convert the heathen to Your cross, andthat
You may have them for
Your inheritance. It is with Your church that You will do this, come, then,
and abide with her ministers
and her missionaries, and all her living membership, that yet the prophecies
may be accomplishedand
the purpose of the Lord may be fulfilled, and Your reward may be the
salvationof Your own.”
Is not that a goodmissionary text after all, a blessedprayer with which to
begin this missionary
week—“Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent”? In
the Romishchurch there is
a chant which they use from Easterto the day of Ascension, and though I care
nothing for liturgies or
anything of the sort, yet it is certainly a suggestive canticle. The first line of
the chant is,

153. “Abide with us: Hallelujah.”
And the next is—
“Forit is toward evening, and the day is far spent. Hallelujah.”
With that I close. Maywe use that argument well, until our Lord shall in very
deed abide with us.
PORTION OF SCRIPTUREREAD BEFORESERMON—PSALM 31
HYMNS FROM “OUR OWN HYMN BOOK”—34(VERSION 2), 808, 669,
1028
P. S.—This sermonwas preachedon behalf of the Baptist MissionarySociety.
To the greatregret of the
preacher, the weatherkept many awayat eachof the Sabbath services, and
the collectionwas lessened
some £50. The Societyis just now in much need. It would be very grateful to
the preacher’s mind if
certain of his readers would help that noble mission to that extent. Directto C.
H. Spurgeon, Upper
Norwood, London.
10 The BlessedGuestDetainedSermon#1655
10 Volume 28
Takenfrom The C. H. Spurgeon Collection, Version1.0, Ages Software. Only
necessarychanges have beenmade, such as
correcting spelling errors, some punctuation usage, capitalizationof deity
pronouns, and minimal updating of a few archaic
words. The content is unabridged. Additional Bible-basedresources are
available at www.spurgeongems.org.

154. RON RITCHIE
Opened eyes and burning hearts
And they approachedthe village where they were going, and He actedas
though He would go
farther. And they urged Him, saying, "Stay with us, for it is getting toward
evening, and the
day is now nearly over." And He went in to stay with them. And it came about
that when He
had reclined at the table with them, He took the bread and blessedit, and
breaking it, He
begangiving it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognizedHim;
and He
vanished from their sight. And they said to one another, "Were not our hearts
burning within
us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the
Scriptures to us?"
(Luke 24:28-32)
Upon reaching the village of Emmaus the two disciples askedthis stranger to
stay with them, for the sun was
setting and it was time for dinner and a night of rest. After dinner was served,
he reachedout, took the bread,
blessedit, and then handed it to them. It was at that moment that "their eyes
were opened and they recognized
Him," for here he was serving them again but this time with nail-pierced
hands. And then he just disappeared,

155. leaving them to ponder this revelation.
The disciples saw their road of despair begin to turn into a highway of living
hope as they said to one another,
"Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the
road, while He was explaining the
Scriptures to us?" Finally, we understand what the Scriptures mean because
the risen Christ has explained them to
us. The Spirit of God entered our hearts, and they were seton fire because we
knew what he was saying was true.
At present, the Bible is the most published book of all time. Bibles are freely
available in the westernworld and
are hungered for in the easternblock of nations. We canfind them in hotel
rooms, libraries, airports, and bus
stops. But to read the Bible is not to understand it. The Bible can only be
understood by spiritually hungry men
and women who are willing to depend on our risen Lord Jesus to explain the
spiritual truth contained within its
pages. The Bible is not a magic book. We need the Spirit of God to open our
eyes and show us who Jesus Christ
is. Then our hearts too will start to burn within us, and we will desire to learn
more about this wonderful Lord
Jesus and the life he desires for all of us to live to his glory and our joy
PULPIT COMMENTARY

156. Luke 24:28
And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and he made as
though he would have gone further. This was no feint or deception. The Lord
would have left them then to themselves had they not prayed him with real
earnestnessto abide with them. "How many are there," says Stier, "to whom
he has drawn near, but with whom he has not tarried, because they have
suffered him to 'go awayagain,'in his living and heart-moving words! How
comparatively rare is it for men to reach the full blessing they might receive
(see, for example, the striking historical instance, 2 Kings 13:14, 2 Kings
13:19)!" But these were not contentto let the unknown Teacherpass on, and
see no more of him, and hearno more of his strange powerful teaching. It is
the words of, and the thought contained in, this verse which suggestedthe idea
of the well-knownhymn—
"Abide with me; fast falls the eventide."
ELLICOTT
Verse 28
(28) He made as though he would have gone further.—This was, it is obvious,
the crucialtest of the effectof the Lord’s previous teaching. Did they feela
new light flowing in upon their souls, bringing new meanings into what had
before been obscure and hard sayings? Were they contentto let the unknown
Teacherpass on, and see no more of Him? Their answershowed, in words
that meet us afterwards, that their “hearts” already“burnt within them.”
Here, also, we note the method of the Divine Teacheras an example for other
teachers. We oftenimpress truth more effectively, and ‘stimulate the desire

157. for further knowledge, by suspending for a time the continued inculcationof
it.
ALFRED PLUMMER
28. προσεποιήσατο. No unreal acting a part is implied. He beganto take leave
of them, and would have departed, had they not prayed Him to remain.
Comp. His treatment of the disciples on the lake (Mark 6:48), and of the
Syrophenician woman (Mark 7:27). Prayers are part of the chain of causation.
The Latin Versions suggestpretending what was not meant: finxit se (b c f
ff2), dixit se (1) fecit se (d). simulavit se (e), adfectabatse (a). But all of these.
excepting the last, support προσεποιηοιήσατο(‫א‬ A B D L) against
προσεποιεῖτο (P Ξ Γ Δ Λ Π). The προσποιεῖθαι did not continue, The verb
does not occurelsewhere in N.T. Comp. Job19:14.
In this verse οὖ for οἶ or εἰς ἥν is a genuine; not in 22:1O.
LANGE
Luke 24:28. He made as though, προσεποιεῖτο—ἅπαξλέγομενονin the New
Testament(exceptin the clause John 8:6). On a dissimulation which would
make a more or less setdefence of our Lord’s sincerity requisite, we have
here, of course, no right to think. He could not act otherwise if He would still
retain the characterhitherto assumed; He will not actotherwise, becauseHe
will not only enlighten their understanding, but also make trial of their heart;
He would actually have gone farther had they not held Him back with all the

158. might of love. Apparently He now shows Himself ready to say farewellto
them with the usual formula of benediction, but already they feel themselves
united to Him by such holy bonds that the thought of separationis entirely
unendurable. Entreating with the utmost urgency, they invite Him in
(παρεβιάσαντο, comp. Luke 14:23; Acts 16:15), and point Him to the sun
hurrying to its setting, in the living feeling that their spiritual light also will set
if He should leave their company. They wish to remind Him that He cannot
possibly continue His journey in the night (comp. Genesis 19:2-3;Judges
19:9), and desire that He should therefore turn in with them; since probably
one of them possesseda dwelling at Emmaus, where a simple supper was
awaiting them.
JOHN TRAPP
Verse 28
28 And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and he made as
though he would have gone further.
Ver. 28. And he made as though he would, &c.] So did the angels to Lot,
Genesis 19:2. See the like, Joshua 8:5-6, 1 Kings 3:24. If Solomonmight make
as though he would do an actthat was unlawful, we may surely do the like in
things indifferent. Yet this was never done, as is well observed, but, 1. By
those that had authority over others; 2. For some singular goodto them with
whom they thus dealt.

159. PETER PETT
Verse 28
‘And they drew nigh to the village, to which they were going, and he made as
though he would go further.”
We canimagine the fascinationwith which they listened to Him and
recognisedhow little knowledge ofthe Scriptures they really had, and may
well have regrettedreaching their village so quickly. They no doubt saw Him
as one of those people that the Masterhad regularly met and talkedwith, like
for example Nicodemus (John 3:1-7). And on their arrival the Stranger made
as though to take His leave of them. He would not presume on their
hospitality.
Jesus rarely forces Himself on us. Had they not issuedan invitation to Him to
stay with them that would have been the lastthat they saw of Him, and they
would not have experiencedwhat was to come. And they would have deserved
it. Jesus behavedperfectly correctlyin view of the fact that He did not yet
want to reveal Himself, but wanted them to see Him as a Stranger.
‘Made as though.’ This a goodtranslation. It is not the same thing as
pretending (which the word can mean) but makes clearthat He expectedto be
invited in. It would in fact have been gross discourtesyin the light in which He
was depicting Himself had He not been so. It would have been bad manners to
indicate that He expectedhospitality.
F. B. MEYER

160. “ABIDE WITH US―
Luke 24:28-35
Our Lord must be invited and constrained. He will not impose Himself on an
unwilling host; but how glad He is to enter where a welcome awaits!He turns
ordinary meals into sacraments;common rooms into royal chambers: and the
homeliestthings into symbols of the eternal. He sat with them, then vanished;
but He was no less truly with them when He ceasedto be seen-andall to teach
them that when He had passedpermanently from their sight He would be
nearer than ever.
When you have had a greatvision of the Lord, be sure to tell it. Do not wait in
the interior of your own chamber, hugging the joy and comfort of His
presence. Hastenback to your fellow-believers. Theyalso have much to tell.
This appearance to Simon Peteris referred to by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:5.
When men really love the Savior, they will love the ordinances of the Church,
the fellowshipof the brethren, and especiallythe holy supper, where He
makes Himself known.
IRONSIDE
As our Lord walkedon with these two, “they drew nigh unto the village
whither they went.” They dwelt at Emmaus, and as they turned to go into
their home “He made as though He would have gone further.” The Lord Jesus

161. never presses Himself upon anybody; He always waits for an invitation. He
will pass on if we allow Him to do so. If He is not invited to come in we will be
left without the spiritual help that we might have experienced. “They
constrainedHim, saying, Abide with us.” So interestedwere they in what this
heavenly Strangerhad unfolded that they urged Him to become their Guest
for the night. Thus pressed, He went in to tarry with them. Oh, how He
appreciatedtheir invitation! He loves to be welcomed;He never turns away
when He is invited. He went in to tarry with them. They soonprepared the
evening meal, and this wondrous Strangerwas askedto recline at the table
with them. It might have been a very simple meal; there might not have been
very much variety, but they were prepared to share what they had with Him.
He took His place at the table, but not simply as a guest;He took the place of
the Host. Instead of waiting for Cleopas orthe other disciples to ask the
blessing, He took one of the wafers ofbread and lookedup to heavenand gave
thanks. They thought they were inviting Him as their Guest, but they found
that they were His guests, and He was the Host. Suddenly, as they lookedupon
His hands when He was about to break the bread, a revelation came to them.
We read, “And their eyes were opened, and they knew Him; and He vanished
out of their sight.” How did they know Him? They told the disciples afterward
in Jerusalem, “He was known of us in breaking of bread.” These two were not
at the Lord’s Supper. At that time there were the eleven, the apostles of the
Lord Jesus Christ. These two were but disciples who, otherwise, were
unknown. So they did not recognize Him because ofsomething they had seen
Him do in the Upper Room. But as they gazedupon those hands, no doubt
they saw the print of the nails, as Thomas was shortly afterwardto see;and
they said, “Oh, this is He! Look at those hands! This is the One who was
nailed to that cross.”TheyrecognizedHim and they knew Him now to be the
Christ, the Redeemerof Israel. But when they lookedagain, He was gone;He
had vanished out of sight. His resurrection body was no longersubject to
earthly order. A little later we find Him entering a room with the doors shut.
He could manifest Himself and vanish from them at any time. “And they said
one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while He talked with us by
the way, and while He openedto us the Scriptures?” They had never heard
Scripture unfolded like that. Now as they lookedback they felt they might
have known who He was who had revealed the truth in such a heart-warming

162. manner. “And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and
found the elevengathered together, and them that were with them.” They
knew just where to find the eleven. As these two disciples came to the door
they heard someone say, “The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to
Simon.” Simon! the one who had denied Him, taken an oath that he did not
even know Jesus;yet somewhere onthat resurrectionday the Lord had
sought him out, and He had revealedHimself to him; and Simon knew that he
was forgiven. Peter must have felt, of all the apostles, the most forlorn and
wretched, as he recalledin bitterness of spirit his sad failure to stand the test
in the hour of trial. What a relief to his heart when Jesus appearedto him
alone, to restore his soul and console his spirit! It is but one sample of the
grace He ever manifests toward His erring followers. A little later we find the
Lord giving Peterthe commission, “FeedMy lambs… feed My sheep.”
“And they told what things were done in the way, and how He was knownof
them in breaking of bread.” And so the two disciples added their testimony.
What an experience they had and what joy must have been theirs as they
knew for certainthat He who had died was alive again. And, thank God, He
lives to die no more!
L. M. GRANT
AN OPENEDHOME AND OPENED EYES
(vs.28-31)
As they came to Emmaus He indicated His intention of continuing further,
which gave them the opportunity to urge Him to come in to stay with them

163. (vs.28-29). This shows us that the Lord will not force His presence onus, but
will gladly respond to the faith that desires His presence.
Sitting down to a meal with them, the Lord unexpectedly took the place of the
host, taking bread, blessing it by the giving of thanks, breaking it, and giving
it to these two disciples. Only the Sonof God would have the right to do this in
the home of another. Then their eyes were openedto recognize Him. This
breaking of the bread was not the Lord's supper, which is a service for the
Assembly of God unitedly, but it stimulated the two disciples to realize that,
rather than they having Him as a guestin their home, they should be
concernedabout His house, where He was fully recognizedas the host, that is,
the gathering of His loved ones to His own name. As soonas they knew Him,
He vanished out of their sight (v.31). In pure grace He had takentime for a
personalinterview with them, yet He would not remain even over night with
them. His greaterinterests are in His own house, that is, among His saints
collectively.
JOHN GILL
Verse 28
And they drew nigh unto the village,.... Of Emmaus, before they were aware;
their conversationwas so very agreeable, thatthe way did not seemtedious,
nor the time long:
whither they went: where they intended to go, when they setout; this was the
end of their journey; wherefore this village was not some intermediate place
betweenJerusalemand Emmaus:

164. and he made as though he would have gone further; when they were come to
Emmaus, and to the house where the two disciples intended to make their
abode that night: whether it was a public house, or an house of one of their
friends, or one of their own, it matters not; Christ stopped not, nor attempted
to go in with them, but stepped a few steps onward, taking his leave of them.
The Ethiopic version renders it, "he beganto pass by them": which carried in
it an appearance as if he intended to have travelled further; and in it there
was no fraud, dissimulation, or collusion:he would have gone some little way
further, doubtless, had they not detained him; and he intended to staywith
them, provided they should ask him, as he did, though not all night, which he
never designed: the whole of it is nothing else but a piece of modesty, civility,
and prudence; for guile was never found in his mouth.
Verse 29
But they constrainedhim,.... The Arabic version renders it, "they held him by
force":but the meaning is not, that they laid hands on him, and held him in a
forcible manner againsthis will; but they were very urgent and importunate
with him, that he would stay with them; they would take no denial. The sense
is better given in the Persic version, "the disciples with importunity saidunto
him"; they were so pressing with arguments, that he could not withstand
them:
saying, abide with us; his conversationwas so engaging, and his discourses
were so heavenly and instructive, so sweetand delightful, so powerful and
moving, that they could not bear to part with him, but were exceeding
desirous of his continuance with them, even though he was a strangerto them.
And as they had in view their own pleasure and profit, so they urge the
necessityand advantage of his stay, with respectto himself:
for it is towards evening, and the day is far spent; it might be four or five
o'clock in the afternoon:

165. and he went in to tarry with them; for a while, not all night. So earnest,
importunate, and resolute was the church, when she had found Christ, that he
would abide with her, Song of Solomon 3:4.
EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE COMMENTARY
They had now reachedEmmaus, the limit of their journey, but the two
disciples cannot lose the company of One whose words have opened to them a
new and a bright world; and though He was evidently going on farther, they
constrainedHim to abide with them, as it was towards evening and the day
was far spent. And He went in to tarry with them, though not for long. Sitting
down to meat, the StrangerGuest, without any apology, takes the place of the
host, and blessing the bread, He breaks and gives to them. Was it the uplifted
face threw them back on the old, familiar days? Or did they read the nail-
mark in His hand? We do not know; but in an instant the veil in which He had
enfolded Himself was withdrawn, and they knew Him; it was the Lord
Himself, the risen Jesus!In a moment the hush of a greatawe fell upon them,
and before they had time to embrace Him whom they had loved so
passionately, indeedbefore their lips could frame an exclamationof surprise,
He had vanished; He "became invisible" to them, as it reads, passing out of
their sight like a dissolving cloud. And when they did recoverthemselves it
was not to speak His name-there was no need of that-but to say one to
another, "Was not our heart burning within us while He spake to us in the
way, while He opened to us the Scriptures?" It was to them a bright
Apocalypse, "the Revelationof Jesus Christ," who was dead, and is alive for
evermore; and all forgetful of their errand, and though it is evening, they
leave Emmans at once, their winged feet not heeding the sixty furlongs now, as
they haste to Jerusalemto announce to the eleven, and to the rest, that Jesus
has indeed risen, and has appeared unto them.

166. END OF PRECEPT AUSTIN RESOURCES
'Pretended' in the Bible
Gen 42:7
Tools
When Josephsaw his brothers, he recognizedthem, but he pretended to be a
strangerto them and spoke to them harshly. He asked, "Where do you come
from?" They answered, "Fromthe land of Canaan, to buy grain for food."
NET, LEB
Verse Concepts
Josh8:15
Tools
Joshua and all Israelpretended to be beaten back by them and fled toward
the wilderness.
HCSB, ISV, NASB, NET, AM
Verse Concepts
Judg 20:36

167. Tools
Then the descendants ofBenjamin realized that they had been defeated. The
army of Israel pretended to retreatfrom the army of Benjamin, knowing that
they had setsome soldiers in ambush near Gibeah.
ISV
Verse Concepts
1 Sam 21:13
Tools
so he pretended to be insane in their presence. He actedlike a madman
around them, scribbling on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down
his beard.
HCSB, NET, AM, LEB, WEB
Verse Concepts
2 Sam 13:6
Tools
So Amnon lay down and pretended to be sick. When the king came to see him,
Amnon said to him, “Pleaselet my sisterTamar come and make a couple of
cakes inmy presence so I can eat from her hand.”
HCSB, ISV, NASB, NET, AM, LEB
Verse Concepts
1 Kgs 14:5
Tools

168. And the Lord saidto Ahijah, “Behold, the wife of Jeroboamis coming to
inquire of you about her son, because he is sick. You shall saysuch and such
to her, for when she arrives, she will pretend to be another woman.”
AM
Verse Concepts
Esth 8:17
Tools
Throughout every province and throughout every city where the king's edict
and his law arrived, the Jews experiencedhappiness and joy, banquets and
holidays. Many of the resident peoples pretended to be Jews, becausethe fear
of the Jews had overcome them.
NET
Verse Concepts
Psa 33:22
Tools
LORD, may your gracious love be upon us, even as we hope in you. By David,
when he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, who drove him away. So
David left.
ISV, WEB
Verse Concepts
Psa 34:1
Tools

169. Written by David, when he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, causing
the king to send him away. I will praise the Lord at all times; my mouth will
continually praise him.
NET
Verse Concepts
Isa 57:12
Tools
“I will declare your [hypocritical] righteousness and your deeds,Butthey will
not benefit you.
AM
Verse Concepts
Jer 3:10
Tools
In spite of all this, Israel's sister, unfaithful Judah, has not turned back to me
with any sincerity; she has only pretended to do so," says the Lord.
NET
Verse Concepts
Jer 14:14
Tools
Then the Lord said to me, “The [counterfeit] prophets are prophesying lies in
My Name. I have neither sent them nor authorized them nor spokento them.
They are prophesying to you made-up visions [pretending to call forth

170. responses from handmade gods], a worthless divination and the deceitof their
own mind.
AM
Verse Concepts
Ezek 7:23
Tools
‘Prepare the chain [for imprisonment], for the land is full of bloody crimes
[murders committed under the pretense of civil justice] and the city is full of
violence.
AM
Verse Concepts
Matt 26:49
Tools
Immediately Judas went to Jesus and said, “Greetings (rejoice), Rabbi!” And
he kissedHim [in a deliberate actof betrayal].
AM
Verse Concepts
Matt 27:63
Tools
"Sir," they said, "we recollectthat during his lifetime that impostor
pretended that after two days he was to rise to life again.

171. WNT
Verse Concepts
Luk 20:20
Tools
They watchedcloselyand sentspies who pretended to be righteous, so they
could catchHim in what He said, to hand Him over to the governor’s rule and
authority.
HCSB, ISV, NASB, NET, AM, LEB, WEB
Verse Concepts
Act 27:30
Tools
Meanwhile, the sailors had begun trying to escapefrom the ship. They
loweredthe lifeboatinto the sea and pretended that they were going to lay out
the anchors from the bow.
ISV
Verse Concepts
2 Thess 2:2
Tools
not to be quickly unsettled or alarmed either by a [so-calledprophetic
revelation of a] spirit or a message ora letter [allegedto be] from us, to the
effectthat the day of the Lord has [already] come.

172. AM, WNT
Verse Concepts
2 Thess 2:9
Tools
The coming of the [Antichrist, the lawless]one is through the activity of Satan,
[attended] with greatpower[all kinds of counterfeit miracles]and [deceptive]
signs and false wonders [all of them lies],
AM
Source:https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/words/Pretended
Pope says, Jesus 'pretends'
Jes·u·it·i·cal
adjective
of or pertaining to Jesuits or Jesuitism.
( often lowercase )practicing casuistryor equivocation; using subtle or
oversubtle reasoning;crafty; sly; intriguing.
Or as the say you cantake the Jesuitout of the Jesuits but not the Jesuitout of
the Jesuit.

173. On Saturday Radio Vatican said, Pope Francis had said,
“In the Gospel, Jesus does notbecome angry, but pretends to when the
disciples do not understand him,”
The ancient Fathers would baulk at such a suggestion, I can't think of one
who would be be comfortable with the idea that the Gospels did not reveal the
plain meaning of what Jesus saidand did, it is only the Jesuits of the 17th
century who would begin to suggestotherwise.
There is no suggestionin the Gospels that Jesus feigns, or pretends anything,
on the contrary he is the 'Truth', he says, "Letyou 'yes' mean 'yes' and you
'no' mean 'no'". His Kingdom stands in contradistinctionto that of the
kingdom of the Father of Lies.
If Jesus really does 'pretend' to be angry but isn't really what else does he
pretend? Is he really just 'acting' in other emotional responses, whenhe sighs,
when he weeps, whenhe rails againstthe Pharisees. Is he really grinning
broadly when he calls Simon Peter, 'Satan'?
I do not agree with Pope Francis on this, we do not need smiley or angry face
marks to interpret the Gospels.
Perhaps this says more about the Pope than it does about Jesus. Ratherthan
Jesus pretending, is Pope Francis 'pretending'? After all if one believes the
Son of God can and does 'pretend', why shouldn't the Pope? and if the Pope
can 'pretend', why not the Church?
I really do think this is a very big issue, the ramifications run very deep, the
implication is that the plain meaning of scripture is not readily available to the
ordinary reader or hearer, it also means that for ordinary Catholics it is
alright to 'pretend' for affector for some other reason. If Jesus did it, why is
shouldn't the Vatican Bank in its accounts ora Bishop defending his diocese
againstaccusationof sexualabuse of minors, or why not a divorced and
remarried Catholic 'pretend' and receive Communion anyhow. If 'pretending'
is alright, why not hypocrisy, or downright lying?

174. at December02, 2013
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55 comments:
Pelerin said...
I have just had a look at the French translation of this particular homily and I
think it is a case of 'don't panic!'
If I were to translate from the French to English I would put the following:
'In the GospelJesus is not angry but he does seemto be (il faisaitsemblant)
when His disciples are not understanding Him.'
This does not have the same implications as 'pretend'. Could not this just be
another case ofmistranslation?
2/12/13 12:56 pm
EuropeanCatholic said...
Is this also not a form of gnosticism?

175. ie. only the Pope and other enlightened thinkers know what Our Lord really
meant as opposedto the ordinary rest of the faithful?
Or am I talking nonsense?
2/12/13 1:02 pm
akp5401said...
Is it a correcttranslation of what he said? It's very strange.
2/12/13 1:25 pm
Jonathansaid...
Were Pope Honorius I's errors and omissions greaterthat those of Francis?
2/12/13 1:41 pm
Matthew Hazell said...
"There is no suggestionin the Gospels that Jesus feigns, orpretends
anything..."
There are a couple of instances in John's Gospelwhere I think it can be said
that Jesus feigns ignorance:
1) At the well, when Jesus asksthe Samaritanwoman to call her husband and
come back, though He obviously knows her marital situation (cf. 4:16-19)

176. 2) In the garden, just before His arrest, when Jesus asksthe guards who they
are looking for, though He obviously knows (cf. 18:4-8, esp. v. 4)
Jesus also knew long before the Last Supper that Judas would betray Him (cf.
Jn 6:64, 70-71), yet does nothing about it. A cynic might suggestthat there is a
certain pretence here - a keeping up of appearances,if only until the right
time.
To be clear, I think it's a poor choice of words on the Pope's part, and I don't
agree that Jesus feignedHis emotions, or somehow only pretended to be
angry. If He could weepand mourn (cf. Jn 11:33-37), it stands to reasonthat
He could also become angry (e.g. cleansing ofthe temple: cf. John's citation of
Ps. 68:10[69:9]in Jn 2:17). What we might label 'negative'emotions like
anger, jealousy, etc., are not of themselves sinful, after all.
It's a more complex question than it seems at first glance, though!
2/12/13 1:49 pm
Unknown said...
I couldn't agree with you more, Father! Godbless you.
2/12/13 2:13 pm
Genty said...
Where previous popes have become more cautious and guarded in their
public utterances as they assume the papacy, the presentincumbent seems to
believe that the office of pope has given him the greenlight to say anything

177. that comes into his head on any particular day on any particular subject.
Time for a pincer movement by the Cardinaliate, I think.
2/12/13 2:40 pm
Anil Wang said...
Given that there have been translation problems, I'd check to confirm those
were his exactwords and the complete context(they don't seemto be related
to Sunday's mass readings). The article uses "How foolish and slow of heart"
as an example of anger...I've never heard it referred to in that context.
Frustration yes, but not anger. I suspectthat "pretends" is a mistranslation of
"appears" andthat "angry" is a mistranslationof "frustrated". If it wasn'ta
mistranslation, I think it was a poor choice ofoff the cuff words and this was
what he intend to say.
That being said, it is possible to square a variation of this with the Early
Church Fathers. One thing they often saidthat the Bible was God speaking
baby language to us. On this side of death, we will never comprehend God, so
God condescends and talks to us in a way that we can understand. Early on
that talk was crude, since that was all we could handle, but as we matured as a
species, Godcouldadjust his message to speak more accurately. In the
fullness of time, he was able to give us the fullness of his revelation in Jesus
Christ.
A goodanalogymight be when children are first taught about atoms, they're
told that atoms are like hard balls. Severalyears later they are told they are
like mini solarsystems. Severalyears later, they are told about orbitals. If
they go further, they are told that orbitals don't quite capture it (e.g.
superconductors, etc).

178. It's important to know that *the student is never lied to* even though it
appears so. For severalproblems the "hard ball" model is a goodenough
approximation, but its all that the young mind can handle and to explain more
would be to confuse the child to the point that they won't even be able to grasp
the essentials.
2/12/13 3:13 pm
Liam Ronan said...
I was horrified by the suggestionofJesus 'pretending' anything. It opens up a
terrible canof worms both immediately and by extension.
The only thing I recallthat remotely suggestsJesus appearedto feign
anything (and here it is merely the observationof His outward behaviour) is
John 8:6:
"But Jesus stoopeddown, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though
he heard them not."
2/12/13 3:16 pm
Jonathansaid...
The Pope needs to look at God's Holy Book The Bible before he utters such
statements, his words betray him.
John 14:6 Jesus saithto him: I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No
man cometh to the Father, but by me. Romans 1:24-25, "…through the lusts
of their own hearts…Who changedthe truth of God into a lie,"
2/12/13 3:18 pm
Jonathansaid...

179. The Pope needs to look at God's Holy Book The Bible before he utters such
statements, his words betray him.
John 14:6 Jesus saithto him: I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No
man cometh to the Father, but by me. Romans 1:24-25, "…through the lusts
of their own hearts…Who changedthe truth of God into a lie,"
2/12/13 3:18 pm
Liam Ronan said...
@Matthew,
Posing a question, the answerof which is already known to the one posing the
question, is a valid teaching method, i.e. the Socratic Method.
'Pretending' goes to state of mind and need not mean the one posing the
question is pretending ignorance (though the one to whom the question is
directed may rashly suppose it so).
The Vatican Radio Website (see link) is the one which translatedthis word in
English as 'pretends'. If this is yet another supposedtranslational error then
how long before the error is correctedonline for the world to see?
http://en.radiovaticana.va/articolo.asp?c=751058
2/12/13 4:00 pm
ColonelMustard said...
This reminds me of those priests who say that the multiplication of the loaves
and fishes wasn't really a miracle, but Our BlessedLord only "encouragedhis
followers to share what they already had with one another". Nevermind what
the Holy Ghostinspired the evangelists to recordfor posterity!

180. And on the translation front: whereas it is important what the pope actually
said - although to what extent these little homilies form part of the papal
magisterium is another matter! - is it also important how the Pope's agents
transmit his words to the world. They are supposedto be working for him, not
working againsthim. If the Pope didn't actuallysay "pretend", then there is
still a very serious problem somewhere along the line! Recording every single
word the Pope says in public is a very dangerous thing to do, I think; these
words are addressedspecificallyto the assembly at the Mass which he
celebrated, and not necessarilyfor generaldigest.
2/12/13 4:33 pm
Pelerin said...
Another English phrase which comes to mind for 'il faisaitsemblant' is 'he
gave the impressionof (being angry)' which is also completely different from
saying 'he pretended.'
There must be a readerwho knows what the original Spanish phrase was and
if it was similar to the French then we canforget the word 'pretend'
completely in this context.
HoweverI have lookedup the French phrase on two of those translating
websites and see that there they have both given 'it pretended' so it does look
as though the translatorhas used one of these sites thus altering the true
meaning of the Pope's words. Translating one or two words out of contextcan
lead to so much misunderstanding of the original meaning.
On a lighter note I remember a schoolfriend sending a postcard to our
French teachersaying she had to 'attraper le poteau.'She had lookedup 'to

181. catch'in the dictionary and found 'attraper' as in trapping or snaring an
animal and 'poteau' as in a post you put in the ground!
Put togetherthis did not mean 'to catch the post' at all and this led to our
teachergiving us a lessonin how not to use a dictionary!
2/12/13 5:03 pm
Supertradmum said...
Well, God, the SecondPersonin the BlessedTrinity is the Way, the TRUTH
and the Life, as He told us and therefore, would never dissemble. I sincerely
hope this is yet another bad translation.
Yes, God does not gethumanly angry in the sense that He had some sort of
emotional weakness, but there is a virtue in just anger.
Christ overturning the tables of the money changers in the Temple was not
feigned. He was angry at the blasphemy.
If anyone undermines the justice of God, that personsimply does not
understand all Goodness and all Innocence.
The logicalconsequenceofthis thinking is universal salvation-and no
separationof goats and sheep.

182. 2/12/13 5:04 pm
Supertradmum said...
PS Jesus did not feign ignorance, Matthew. As a former teacherin the
Socratic Method, I askedquestions ofthe students to which I knew the
answer. Christ was using the old Rabbinic Tradition of asking the students
questions in order to make them think.
This is not lying, but bringing out the correctanswerwhich the student needs
to discoverfor himself.
To imply or state that God would feign anything is heresyagainstHis purity
2/12/13 5:06 pm
Mr Grumpy said...
I don't think we canblame the translator. He's quoted in the Italian report as
saying "fa finta", which definitely means "pretends".
Matthew, I'm not persuaded that asking a question to which one knows the
answeris necessarilypretence. I can usually tell how my wife's feeling without
asking - does that mean I shouldn't ask?
2/12/13 5:46 pm
Fr Paul said...
Nice try Pelerin, but "faire semblant" does not mean "to seem", and
"pretend" is an accurate translation("simulate" or "sham" would also be

183. fair renderings. I have not seenthe Spanish but in any case the homily was
presumably in Italian, so "far finta" is probably what the Pope actually said.
2/12/13 7:51 pm
Cosmos said...
Even if the translation was inaccurate and "pretending" isn't the best
translation, the Pope still seems to have said that Jesus wasn'treally angry. In
other words, he still contradicts the plain meaning of the text. That's a big
deal.
Correction:I should have said, that used to be a big deal.
2/12/13 8:07 pm
Jacobisaid...
Pretending is lying, is falsehood. Jesus did not and could not lie.
Vatican radio appears to have said that the Pope said this. Well, Vatican
Radio has been most unreliable recently.
I doubt if the Pope did saythis given all the confusion in reporting, translation
and so on we have seenrecently.
However, If the Pope did say this, then he, the Pope, is in error and gravely
so!

184. 2/12/13 8:19 pm
Adrian said...
A similar problem arises in Matt 15 26:Non est bonum sumere panem
filiorum et mittere canibus [It is not goodto take the children's bread and cast
it to the dogs]. If Jesus means this literally, he is both being extremely
discourteous to the Canaanite woman and also giving Dominicalauthority to
the idea that the Jews were 'the children' and Gentiles were 'the dogs'. The
woman's witty rejoinder, Nam et catelliedunt de micis quae cadunt de mensa
dominorum suorum [but the curs eat from the crumbs that fall from their
masters'tables] suggeststhat something in Our Lord's look or voice tells her
not to take is words too seriously. Dare we surmise that the Incarnate Word is
indulging in a little humour here?
2/12/13 8:25 pm
DeaconAugustine said...
I am sure that this is just a case ofa poor choice of words or bad reporting.
The offending sentence now reads in full:
"In the Gospel, Jesus does become angry, but pretends to when the disciples
do not understand him."
So now He DOES become angryAND pretends to as well? This is sheer
nonsense and doesn't even make sense in Humpty Dumpty land.
I know Italian is the Pope's secondlanguage, but perhaps he isn't entirely
fluent in it. Or perhaps the reporter just botched it big time.

185. 2/12/13 8:35 pm
Православный физик said...
I'm with you Father....ifthis is the case, where does it end? I'm with you as
well as these "daily homilies of the Pope" should not be available for to the
public.
Eventually the excuse of "translation" is going to wearthin, the Holy Father
needs to communicate better, or refrain from communicating as often..Yes,
lots of things do get"lostin translation" but at some point one either gets it or
one does not.
Let us pray more for the Holy Father.
2/12/13 9:10 pm
Pelerin said...
Fr Paul is of course correct - it is EvangeliiGaudium which was written in
Spanish (confirmed by Fr Lombardi on various sites) and presumably the
homily was written and spokenin Italian. Now with DeaconAugustine's
additional comment it gets curioserand curioser!
I see Zenit has changedits format - I have not lookedat it for some time but it
used to be interesting to compare the news in different languages.I notice in
English that it states that EG 'was 'translated'in Spanish and subsequently
translated in all other languages.'Surelythis should read 'was written in
Spanish?' An insignificent mistake perhaps but proof that they do exist even
in official reports from the Vatican.

186. 2/12/13 9:19 pm
Anonymous said...
I don't agree with the Holy Father, Jesus showedangerat what was plainly
wrong and anger is as much part of love as is gentleness. Nonethelessa few
thoughts occur:
I suspecthe means that Jesus does not lose his temper in an uncontrolled and
intemperate way that would sinful way, but does speak sternly to the disciples
to correctthem, much as a teachermight shout and frown at a class but
without flying into a rage. These daily homilies are spokenfor the benefit of
the domestic staff who attend, not for theologians and clerics, so I think he
may be preaching about the wrongness ofanger, then trying to explain that
although Jesus gets angry in the Gospelthis is not the same thing. This Pope
speaks withoutamazing imprecision, but I think he thinks he is being
pastoral.
The next thought that occurs is that BlessedJohnHenry Newman saidthat
the meaning of Scripture was not necessarilyall on the surface - that is a
Protestantview. It does not mean that we are gnostics, justthat the Word of
God is given in a contextand a relationship - the Church in its living
Tradition - and so it can only be interpreted fully understood and interpreted
form within that relationship. But I still think the Pope is just being imprecise
and muddled in his expressionon this one.
To equate all uses of the word "pretend" with "lying" is perhaps simplistic.
That way lies the puritanical banning of all literature, much poetry and art.
Again teachers and parents often 'put on an act' to some extent but without
deceiving or misleading - which is the test of what dishonesty. Again I don't
agree with what the Pope appears to have said, but we must be careful not to
over state things ourselves.

187. Finally I just don't think we should be hanging on every word the Holy Father
utters. Before modern communication no one knew what Pope's saidin daily
sermons but people got on with being good Catholics (and bad ones!) all the
same.
2/12/13 9:26 pm
Jacobisaid...
@ DeaconAugustus.
You touch on a very important point here. The language in Argentina is
Spanish-derived but the majority of Argentines are of Italian extract. This
often produces confusion in communication, certainly in business
transactions.
I have some experience here. I do not speak either language, and so was
frequently involved in 2-wayand who knows perhaps 3-waydiscussions.
Certainly there was a habit of, not so much careless,but rather “easy” talking
– and you had to be careful.
Add to that the factthat Argentines, wellremoved from the interreligious
clashes ofNorthern Europe, are far from pedantic and weartheir Catholicism
instinctively, but rather lightly?
2/12/13 10:09 pm
Anonymous said...

188. "But he hasn't changedany official doctrine!"
I spent nearly two months at my blog working through the utter
disorientation and desolationI felt at the content and impact of the pope's
early, "big" off-the-cuff remarks and interviews. It was a sort of consolation
to have the Scalfariinterview removed and to see the pope correcthimself,
sort of, on some other contentious points, but by now I'm simply exhausted.
This kind of thing is going to plague this papacy until it's over, and my faith,
much less my sanity, cannotendure trying to unpack and clarify gaffe after
gaffe. He's a coarse man, recklessin his words, and I'm perfectly happy
listening to him ONLY when he speaks authoritatively on clearmatters that
pertain to his magisterium. The rest is just a torrent of ecclesiologically
Peronistsoapboximprov, and my attention is better spent elsewhere.I have
zero interest in reading EvangeliiGaudium.
One other point: I'm bemused by some in this thread who seemto think this is
the first time that Pope Francis has mangled the patent teaching of Scripture
(albeit non-dogmatically, so it's all good, yo); I canthink of at leasttwo, or
three, other cases, ofhis exegeticalcasuistry:his sermon on the multiplication
of leaves and his claims about the relative value of the Marian vs. Marthan
chrisms (his claim that God never gets angry is a possible third case).
-- Codgitator
2/12/13 11:20 pm
John Nolan said...
When Fr John Gerard SJ was examined in the Toweron 13 May 1597 he used
the Jesuitdefence of equivocation"which was the practice of Our Lord and of
the saints and all sensible men". When his interrogators askedwhenJesus

189. used equivocation, he replied: "When He told His Apostles that no-one knew
the day of judgement, not even the Son of Man; and again, when He said He
was not going up to Jerusalemfor the feast[of Tabernacles]and then went.
He knew He was going when he said He was not."
Fr Gerard quotes Our Lord as saying "ego autemnon ascendam" (I,
however, shall not go up). The Clementine Vulgate, published in 1598, has the
present tense "non ascendo" whichcanmean "I am not going up yet".
2/12/13 11:43 pm
Anonymous said...
Yippee, another exegeticalepiphany from Pope Francis:
'[T]he first and the greatestofthe commandments, and the one that best
identifies us as Christ’s disciples:“This is my commandment, that you love
one another as I have loved you”'. -- EvangeliiGaudium §161
Compare this with:
'“Teacher, whichis the greatestcommandment in the Law?” Jesus replied:
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with
all your mind.’ -- Matthew 22:36-37
(HT to Jonathan)

190. I am aware ofJohn 13:34, but the pope's assertionis plain, and it manifestly
conflates our Lord's words in Matthew 22. But hey, maybe He was just
pretending.
All this will surely just confirm my cynicalhunch: IT DOES NOT MATTER
what this pope says, since it is always jesuiticalenoughto be defended by the
legions of soft ultramontanists with a keyboard. The irony is, Pope Francis
KNOWS that he can get awaywith these astounding imprecisions
(malapapalisms, as I call them), and so they will persist.
-- Codgitator
3/12/13 2:41 am
kiwiinamerica said...
Father, you've misquoted what the Vatican Radio site actually says:
Here's what it says:"In the Gospel, Jesus does become angry, but pretends to
when the disciples do not understand him.
Here's what you wrote:
“In the Gospel, Jesus does notbecome angry, but pretends to when the
disciples do not understand him,”
3/12/13 3:32 am

191. Our Lady of Good Success-prayforus. said...
Who's the pretender? rhetoricalquestion because Christdoesn't pretend - the
Truth can't pretend.
The need to 'appeal' to the world, and 'appear' to be this or that - EG is
drowning in this exhortation to simulate 'I'm ok you're ok.'As the old joke
goes, then Christ looks downfrom the cross atthese two people
congratulating themselves on their okayness andsays, then what am I doing
up here?
One gnostic writing has Christ say, 'I did not die in reality but in appearance
...' What is Pope Francis, who doesn'twant to wearthe red shoes representing
the blood of the martyrs, like?
St John Bosco 1862:There will be an ecumenicalcouncilin the next century,
after which there will be chaos in the Church.
PF - world youth day; "I want to tell you something. What is it that I expect
as a consequence ofWorld Youth Day? I want a mess. We knew that in Rio
there would be greatdisorder, but I want trouble in the dioceses!" he said,
speaking off the cuff in his native Spanish. "I want to see the church get closer
to the people [the people? I'm a people, are you a people? or is it self-absorbed
of anyone to recognise this?]. I want to getrid of clericalism, the mundane,
this closing ourselves offwithin ourselves, in our parishes, schoolsor
structures. Because these needto getout!"
Chaos. There is no closing off - the Church has been, like a slowlyboiling frog
reaching 'out there' 'the people' world temperature for 50 years. The only
closing off that's been going on is the closing off of the wider Church from the

192. fullness of what Mater Ecclesiae, born 2000 years ago, really, not in
appearance, but really Is.
It 'appears'that Pope Francis is a Pope who is a Jesuit first, Bishop of Rome
second, and Pope third.
So it appears.
3/12/13 3:39 am
Our Lady of Good Success-prayforus. said...
p.s. I suppose one upside to this Pontificate is more often than not if the Pope
does or says anything it's like, 'what'? And a person is forcedback to the
source - Church Tradition to find out whether the rock has mutated a bit or
alot or the Pope just made a boo boo. In the process Iget to learn more about
our authentic Faith.
3/12/13 3:56 am
Fr Ray Blake said...
kiwiinamerica
I 'cut and pasted' what was orinally on the Vatican Radio site, I have not
misquoted!!!
3/12/13 8:34 am
Our Lady of Good Success-prayforus. said...
On this site:

193. http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2013/11/29/pope:_intelligence_is_a_gift/en1-
751058
it still says:"In the Gospel, Jesus does notbecome angry, but pretends to
when the disciples do not understand him."
Cut and paste doesn'tlie but this is what's on the site now from your link, Fr:
'In the Gospel, Jesus does become angry, but pretends to when the disciples do
not understand him.'
How much sense does the that make? They must have nixed the 'not' just for
yucks and giggles and to make everyone more confused. Vatican publication is
becoming as shifting as the sands upon which Pope Francis'words sidewind
their way into the now shifting day by day papal-catholic-culture of 'making a
mess'.
3/12/13 9:01 am
Nicolas Bellordsaid...
Harrap's Standard Frenchand English Dictionary gives the translation of
"faire semblant" as "to feign, pretend, make believe, to be doing something;
to make a pretence of doing something." Translationis never easyand you
take your pick. Howeverif you were up on a charge of impersonating a police
officer I doubt that saying you were merely giving the impressionof being a
police officer would get you very far.

194. 3/12/13 10:11 am
Lynda said...
Let us support eachother in these times of trial and tribulation.
3/12/13 11:36 am
Mr Grumpy said...
Whateverhappened to the "not" in the English version, it's clearlythere in
the Italian - and the sentence would make little sense without it.
3/12/13 11:48 am
Fr Ray Blake said...
Alfred,
I think your comment is longerthan the initial post therefore I have not
published it!
IF this is what the Pope said, interesting Vatican Radio has subsequently
added a 'not', VR has a semi-official role in publishing the Pope's
Magisterium.
It is something new and therefore significantin our understanding of Biblical
interpretation, the ramifications are deep and worth discussing on the level of
Biblical interpretation alone.

195. Howeverit also has ramifications for personalmorality, if the Pope sees it
possible for Jesus to 'pretend' then we should expect him to considerit licit for
himself and others to do so, is that not valid matter for discussion?
3/12/13 12:20 pm
Pétrus said...
I clearly recallthe original text as "In the GospelJesus is not angry"
It would appearthe text on the website has been changed.
3/12/13 1:52 pm
kiwiinamerica said...
Father:
Then what was on the Vatican Radio site has now been changed. If you follow
your own link you will now see that the passagestates;
"In the Gospel, Jesus does become angry...."
The word "not" is clearly absent.
3/12/13 1:55 pm
Katalina said...

196. I too was troubled by the Pope's words yet I noticed that there was barely any
mention of it anyplace else evenin other Conservative Catholic Blogs.It may
be possible he did not say that but if he did well then we do have a Mess on
our hands. This man is NOT the greatspeakerthe last Pope was because
Benedictwas a Biblical Scholarso his whole theologywas Biblical.
3/12/13 2:33 pm
RJ said...
Sometimes, a teachercan raise his voice, allowing pupils to think he is angry,
though he is not. It helps in controlling the mob.
Further to what you said, Father('the implication is that the plain meaning of
scripture is not readily available to the ordinary reader or hearer'). I don't
think we have to assume that Scripture should always be easyto understand.
Clearly, it is not always so. Some passages are very unclear and/or have many
layers of meaning, and sometimes these require study.
3/12/13 3:29 pm
RJ said...
Is an (informal) sermon guaranteedto be free from error? I'm inclined to
think that it is not the highest exercise ofthe magisterium, and therefore may
not be. It is just possible that one might hearone's parish priest (or bishop?)
make a mistake occasionallyin that context (!).
3/12/13 3:47 pm
Elizabeth said...

197. And the hits just keepon coming. This one is a biggie. And I don't think this is
a translation problem, as I don't think translations have been the problem for
any of his doozies. He talks off the top of his head, whatevercomes to his
mind, and I have no doubt that he means what he says, unfortunately. Day by
day I wonder how outrageous it's going to get.
3/12/13 3:49 pm
Martina Katholik said...
With or without "not"? Welcome in Absurdistan:
with "not"
December03, 2013, 17:33:
“In the Gospel, Jesus does notbecome angry, but pretends to when the
disciples do not understand him. At Emmaus he says:‘How foolishand slow
of heart’. ‘How foolishand slow of heart’… He who does not understand the
things of God is such a person.
Text from page
http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2013/11/29/pope:_intelligence_is_a_gift/en1-
751058
of the Vatican Radio website
without "not"
December03, 2013, 17:38

198. The Pope said that, in order to understand the signs of the times, a Christian
must think not only with his head, but also with his heart and spirit.
Otherwise, he cannotunderstand the “wayof God in history”:“In the Gospel,
Jesus does become angry, but pretends to when the disciples do not
understand him. At Emmaus he says: ‘How foolishand slow of heart’. ‘How
foolish and slow of heart’… He who does not understand the things of God is
such a person.
http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-intelligence-is-a-gift
3/12/13 4:43 pm
Alan said...
According to the Vatican news site, the Holy Father said, " NelVangelo, Gesù
non si arrabbia, ma fa finta quando i discepoli non capivano le cose."My
translation: "In the Gospel, Jesus did not become angry, but pretended to (do
so)when the disciples did not inderstand things." The NOT is present in the
original Italian, and its removal from the web site translation makes a
nonsense of his text.
3/12/13 5:10 pm
azul condor said...
As I have always said before, the trouble starts when he opens his mouth.
If he were the catechesis teacherin a schoolwhere my children are enrolled, I
would pull them out of it and look for anotherschool.
This pope proves himself the best pope the atheists and non-Catholics ever
had.

199. 3/12/13 5:47 pm
Celia said...
Whateverthe Pope really said on this occasion, whatwearies me is the
constantneed to suggestthat he's been mistranslated, takenout of context, the
journalist he was speaking to dozed off and/or made it up, Italian's not his
first language,ohwell, he's speaking off the cuff..
Has there been a pope in modern times (indeed ever) so irritatingly inept at
communicating? Verbally at least.
3/12/13 6:32 pm
JosephShaw said...
Pelerin wrote:'In the GospelJesus is not angry but he does seemto be (il
faisaitsemblant) when His disciples are not understanding Him.'
This does not have the same implications as 'pretend'. Could not this just be
another case of mistranslation?"
This is wrong. The French phrase means 'pretend': synonyms feindre (feign)
and simuler (simulate) so says Le Petit Larousse.
But even the Italian version is not Pope Francis very words. It has been
summarised and tidied up
3/12/13 9:31 pm
RogerBuck said...

200. I pray this is botched reporting ...
There so many issues here, including Our Lord's humanity.
Pope Pius XII's last encyclicalon the SacredHeart Haurietas Aquas most
instructive here ...
Lord have mercy, let this be botched reporting ...
5/12/13 11:53 pm
RogerBuck said...
DearFather Blake,
I went to bed last night really disturbed by this.
I woke up feeling disturbed, fearing that some kind of latent Nestorianismwas
here.
My gut feeling is that if this is a true report, latent Nestorianismis just as
important as the issue of feigning.
But I wonder if I am over-reacting.

201. Some are claiming that the comment canbe restrictedsolelyto the Gospel
report of Emmaus and not the Gospelas a whole ...
That is a response I got when I posted this on Fisheaters lastnight, disturbed
as I say.
Link here if you are interested ...
http://catholicforum.fisheaters.com/index.php/topic,3462432.0.html
I don't easilyhave time right now to go through all this - questions like: What
is happening with the deletion of the word "not"?
Is this restrictedto Emmaus?
Am I leaping to conclusions with latent Nestorianism?
But I am both troubled and am grateful to you and would be very grateful if
you had time to either comment further or even do a new blog on your take on
this severaldays later.
I really can't tell if it's either a

202. a) a storm in a tea-cup
b) a real indication of a kind of New Agey - Nestorianismthat really rings
alarm bells for me.
So if you have time, I would be most grateful for your updated take on this.
6/12/13 10:15 am
Fr Ray Blake said...
Nestorianism?
Maybe, we all tend unconsciouslyto one particular heresy or other.
I think it is really a particularly Jesuitthing about seeing no difficulty with
'prevarication', mixed with a rather personalisedexegesisanda desire to say
something 'original' when possibly one should just shut up.
6/12/13 10:43 pm
Unknown said...
If the translation is correct, then this is at leastan erroneous assertiontending
towards heresy: the heresy which denies the absolute holiness of the human
soul of Christ - because of the hypostatic union with the Personof the Word -
as well as his freedom from ignorance and error, (pretending to be angry is
would be a type of "officious lie" on the part of Our Lord) which is at least
"theologicallycertain," as the Catholic theologians say. [saltemthelogicae
certa, quam dicuunt theologiciicatholicii...]
7/12/13 11:59 pm
Bill said...

203. Pelerin may be right. But the Holy Father's comment is still hard to interpret.
Does it mean that in the Gospels, OurLord never gets angry? If it does mean
that, it's hard to believe that Christ only pretended to be that way when he
overturned the tables in the temple.
8/12/13 8:58 pm
Disciple said...
Along the lines of what Pelerin has done, I keepthe English word to observe
it, and per the ensuing etymology(pre-, before; tend, tendere, to stretch) the
Pope isn't wrong.
Granted, the reality to this appearance is that he used its meaning in a
different way...but I recalla post cited recently in a certain blog, the memory
of which now makes me think - keeping all respect, Father - that you fear for
multivolent signification.
Yet ours should be the hope that the word choice ofthe Holy Father was made
according to the demand that "we must love and respectand serve all men
and women, even the lowestin society";and these, to return to my point, are
quite certainly unaware of what "pretending" really means.
I sympathise with all who took umbrage to this matter, but I say: if salt has
been acclaimedby the Lord, of all (people), a pinch of it would have served
well here.

204. David Pretended to be Insane
Before Abimelech
Psalm34: 1-22
Of David. When he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, who drove him
away. The title says Abimelech rather than Achish because Abimelech was the
traditional dynastic name for title for Philistine kings (see Genesis 20, 21:22-
34 and 26).
DIG: Who is Abimelek? What does it mean to taste ADONAI and see if He is
good? What promises do you see in this Psalm? Which one has your name on
it? What destroys the wicked? Why doesn’t the LORD intervene? How might
this be Yeshua’s testimony as well as David’s in verses 15 to 22?
REFLECT:Peteruses this Psalmto comfortthose who suffer for doing good
(verse 8 in First Peter2:3 and verses 12-16 in First Peter3:10-12). How do you
reconcile the “goodthings” God promises with the acute suffering
experiencedby some believers? Yochanansaw verse 20 fulfilled in Yeshua
(see John 19:36). In what way is this psalm also your testimony (Romans 8:1)?
What does it mean to seek peaceand go after it?
Psalm34 was David’s hymn of praise after God had delivered him from the
Philistines. The two basic themes of this Psalmare thanksgiving and wisdom.
I. Thanksgiving for God’s Goodness andJustice:In this Psalm David called
on the congregationto praise the LORD for their salvation. The first half of
the Psalmalternates betweenpersonaltestimony and a repeatedcall to join in
the praise and be stimulated in newness offaith (Psalm 34:1-7).

205. A. Individual and Communal Praise:David begins very personally, I will bless
ADONAI at all times; in joy and sorrow, His praise will always be in my
mouth. David calls attention to what God has done rather than boastfully
point to his own works and accomplishments. When I boast, it will be about
YHVH; the humble will hear of it and be glad. Others, like David, have been
victimized by the arrogant. When we learn of his experience, we can take
heart. Proclaimwith me the greatness ofADONAI; let us exalt his name
together(Psalm 34:1-3 CJB). Rabbi Sha’ul, in his great passageonboasting,
may have remembered this saying and this episode, and recalledhis own
humiliating escape from another foreignking (SecondCorinthians 11:30-33),
and the lessons he had learned as a result.
B. Individual and Communal Experiences:David taught from his own
experience. He knew what fears were. I soughtthe LORD, and He answered
me; He rescuedme from everything I feared. In addition to his personal
experience, he had witnessedhow the righteous of the TaNaKhradiate
confidence and joy. They lookedto Him and grew radiant; their faces will
never blush for shame. David may have actually pointed to someone in the
audience, saying: This poor man cried; YHVH heard and savedhim from all
his troubles. The author goes moves from the specific to the general. The
Angel of the LORD, who encamps around those who fear Him, delivers them
(Psalm 34:4-7 CJB). Whenever the phrase: the Angel of the LORD is seenin
the TaNaKh, it is always the SecondPersonofthe Trinity, Jesus Christ. It is
never a common, ordinary, run of the mill angel. He was with Hagar in the
wilderness (see the commentary on Genesis, to see link click Ej – Hagar and
the Angel of the LORD); He appeared to Moshe in the burning bush (see the
commentary on Exodus Aq – Flames of Fire from within a Burning Bush),
and He protected Yerushalayim in the days of Hezekiah (see the commentary
on Isaiah Gw – Then the Angel of the LORD Put To Death a Hundred and
Eighty Five Thousand Men in the Assyrian Camp).

206. II. In Praise and Wisdom: After affirming that God is goodto those who trust
Him, David then instructed the people how to live a long life. The lessons of
this part of the Psalm are chiefly that true goodnesscanonly be found in a
relationship with God. It is the answerto all life’s most pressing questions
(Psalm 34:8-22).87
A. Exhortation to Wisdom: Taste, andsee that ADONAI is good(Hebrews
6:5; First Peter2:3). How blessedare those who take refuge in Him! Fear
YHVH, you holy ones of His, for those who fear Him lack nothing (see the
commentary on The Life of Christ Dt – Do Not Worry about Your Life What
Your Will Eat or Drink, or What You Will Wear). Young lions can be needy,
they can go hungry, but those who see ADONAI lack nothing good. Come,
children, listen to me; I will teachyou the fear of the LORD. David writes in
the style of the wisdom instructor, as in Proverbs 1-9, with his fatherly tone
and his stress on the fearof the LORD as the beginning of wisdom.88 Which
of you takes pleasure in living? Who wants a long life (evidence of God’s
approval) to see goodthings? [If you do,] keep your tongue from evil and your
lips from deceiving talk. The sins of the tongue are severelydenounced in
Hebrew ethics. Lying and slander were deemed by the rabbis as especially
hateful to ADONAI. Turn from evil, and do good;seek peace,go afterit
(Psalm 34:8-14 CJB).
B. The Rewards ofWisdom: Historian Cassius Dio recordeda revealing event
from the life of Hadrian, the Roman Emperor 117-138AD. “Once, whena
woman made a request of [Hadrian] as he passedby on a journey, he first said
to her, ‘I haven’t time,’ but afterwards, when she cried out, ‘Then cease being
emperor,’ he turned around and grantedher a hearing.” How often we sayor
hear, “Notnow, I’m busy” or “I’m sorry, I just don’t have the time.” Yet, our
heavenly Father, the Masterand Creatorof the universe, always has the time
for us! David wrote: The eyes of ADONAI watch over the righteous, and His
ears are open to their cry. But the face of YHVH opposes those who do evil, to

207. cut off all memory of them from the earth. [The righteous] cried out, and
ADONAI heard, and He savedthem from all their troubles. God is not like
the emperor or a busy executive who tries to avoid interruption. Instead, the
Father’s joy is to listen and respond to His children.89
The LORD is near to those whose spirit is crushed. David is realistic in his
portrayal of life. The righteous suffers many evils, but ADONAI rescues them
out of them all. The Torahdoes not promise immunity to the righteous; just
the contrary, just because they love ADONAI they are liable to be victimized
by the unscrupulous. He protects all their bones; not one of them gets broken.
Evil will kill the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.
But they have their rewardin divine deliverance. ADONAI redeems His
servants;no one who takes refuge in Him will be condemned (Psalm 34:15-22
CJB). Evil will overcome the wicked. They will perish and receive their
sentence by the Judge of the world. The godly, however, will find YHVH to be
faithful. Those who trust in Him will never die.9
https://jaymack.net/ay-david-pretended-to-be-insane-before-abimelech-
psalm-34-1-22/
Religion
Did Jesus know who touched him or was pretending not to know? “And Jesus
said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him
said, Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayestthou, Who
touched me?”.
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208. Learn More
14 Answers
Henry Poetker
Answered April 26, 2018 · Author has 174 answers and 49.6Kanswerviews
Questions like this are typically askedby people who don’t understand that
the secretto Jesus supernatural works was not his “divinity” but his intimacy
with the third personof the trinity who is the Holy Spirit. Jesus did not play
games with people or alternate betweenaccessing his human nature and then
his divine nature. Instead, he did miracles and receiveddivine revelation in
preciselythe same way that Moses, Elijahand Elisha did—by listening very
intently to the voice of the Spirit of God. When he was “full of the Holy
Spirit,” which was virtually all of the time during his ministry, the Spirit of
God gave clarity to his thoughts, authority to his words and an overflowing
powerto his body. So, when he “perceivedthat power had gone out of him” he
experienceda literal sensationof something like electricity discharging . When
he asked, “Who touched me?”, he was trying to bring moral and socialclarity
to a physically supernatural experience. The woman may well have remained
healed without being identified publicly, but Jesus felt it was important that
her actof faith was publicly recognized. Becauseofthe size and press of the
crowd, he needed to ask. I am sure that if he had organized a police line up
and interrogatedeachperson individually, the spirit of God would have
enabled him to identify the particular woman. But, the way that Jesus was led
to work the situation out, she was not only delivered from her “unclean”
physical condition, she was promptly delivered from all of the public shame
associatedwith it. Plus, she was reminded that her act of faith in touching him
was a leap forward in accessing the same Spirit that Jesus accessed.
https://www.quora.com/Did-Jesus-know-who-touched-him-or-was-
pretending-not-to-know-And-Jesus-said-Who-touched-me-When-all-denied-
Peter-and-they-that-were-with-him

209. Mark 6:48 - Why was Jesus aboutto walk on waterpast the disciples?
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Mark 6:47-49 The Message(MSG):
Late at night, the boat was far out at sea;Jesus was still by himself on land.
He could see his men struggling with the oars, the wind having come up
againstthem. At about four o’clock in the morning, Jesus came toward them,
walking on the sea. He intended to go right by them. But when they saw him
walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghostand screamed, scaredout of
their wits.
I often muse that Jesus must have had a sense of humor. Mark 6:48 seems to
be an example of this. I understand that miracles were used by Jesus to
demonstrate that God was with him, but nonchalantly walking on water
passing the disciples? That projects a sense ofhumor to me. One could picture
him snacking onan apple or whistling as he went by. What other
interpretations have published commentaries offeredon this passage?

210. exegesislife-of-jesus gospel-of-mark
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edited Nov 4 '15 at 19:36
ThaddeusB
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askedNov4 '15 at 18:54
Don Quixote
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Not strictly speaking a duplicate since it is at BH.SE, but it is the same
question: Why was Jesus going to walk past the disciples as they were rowing
on the Sea of Galilee? – ThaddeusB Nov 4 '15 at 19:05
Thank you TaddeusB. This is a goodreference for the answerto my question.
Right on point. – DonQuixote Nov 6 '15 at 17:36
See also the reference to Elton Trueblood's "classic" ina related Q&A. –
Dɑvïd Nov 30 '15 at 12:12
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211. 5
The conundrum is summarized by William Lane:
Becausethe text stressesthat Jesus'coming to the disciples was the direct
result of his perceiving their distress, the explanation that "he meant to pass
by them" seems enigmatic, if not alien to the context.1
There have been three major approaches takenby commentators:
Jesus'stated"intention to pass by" the disciples is an explanation of how the
event seemedto the disciples. R.T. France2 takesthis view:
In the narrative context the clause is best seennot as a statementof what was
in Jesus’mind but of how his approach appearedfrom the disciples'point of
view
In support of this, he finds similar language in Luke 24:28, where Jesus
"actedas if he was going further" (see a question on Heremeneutics.SEif
interestedin that one), which is more clearlyabout the disciples' impression.
Jesus'statedintention was an expressionof his desire to reveal himself as
God. In this view, "pass by" means "pass in view of" rather than focusing on
ignoring them or "walking onby".1 This is one plausible sense of the verb
παρερχομαι, whichhas a broad semantic range. If so, verses 48b-49acouldbe
rendered:

212. ...he came to them, walking on the sea, for he intended to pass their way. They
saw him...
Here the clause "forhe intended..." is dependent on the preceding and
provides an explanation for it. This is not the most obvious meaning of the
Greek καὶ, but it is possible. The following verse then begins a new sentence,
where the "but" in most translations is not required by the Greek.3
The emphasis on theophany in this passagefinds support in verse 50 when
Jesus reassuresthe disciples using the emphatic ἐγώ εἰμι (egō eimi) that is
part of the "divine formula of self-revelation"6. This focus on the event as
revelation of divinity does not deny that there is a shift in Jesus's planas he
walks.
Yet, precisely at this most "divine" moment...he also displays his humanness,
for his will seems momentarily to be thwarted. He wishes to pass the disciples
by for their own good, to give them a full revelation of his identity, but...he is
calledback to earth by the necessityofministering to them.7
Regardlessofwhether they understand Mark 6:48 as expressing the disciples'
viewpoint (#1) or Jesus’intention (#2), commentators consistentlyidentify a
reference to severalOld Testamenttheophanies.4 The notion of God "passing
by" recalls Moses's experienceatSinai (Ex 33:19, 22)where this same verb –
παρέρχομαι – is used in both verses in the LXX. Also, in 1 Kings 19:11, God
"passesby" (παρέρχομαι)Elijah on Horeb (1 Kings 19:11). An even closer
parallel to Mark 6 is found in the Septuagint of Job 9:8,11:
[The Lord,] who alone stretchedout the sky
and walks on the sea as on dry ground

213. ...
If he passedoverme, I would certainly not see him,
and if he went by me, I would not even know. (NETS)
Here the transcendentLord is representedboth walking on waterand
"passing by" (again, παρέρχομαι)Job.
To summarize how Christian commentators have addressedthe OP’s
question:
Why was Jesus aboutto walk on waterpast the disciples?
Either "walk past" was just the disciples’ impression, or the term was chosen
to reflect Jesus'decisionto reveal himself as divine. Regardless, the OT
backgroundof passageswhere Godappears to men figures centrally into the
meaning of Mark’s accountof Jesus'nocturnal sea-stroll.
1. William L. Lane, The Gospelof Mark (NICNT), Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,
1974. This commentary I also credit with the framework for this overview of
exegeticalapproaches to this passage summarizedhere.
2. R. T. France, The Gospelof Mark: a Commentary on the Greek Text
(NIGTC), Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002. Apparently also Cranfield,
although I do not have accessto that commentary at the moment.

214. 3. An interlinear will show you that there is a word – δὲ – that corresponds to
"but". However, in contexts such as this (immediately following a personal
pronoun that changes the (grammaticaland topical) subjectfrom the
preceding clause), the δὲ likely functions primarily to change the subject
rather than to introduce a logicalcontrast. If so, it is appropriately left
untranslated or, as proposedhere, representedby the start of a new sentence.
Note that this shift of (topical) subject is againstthe proposalin #1 which
holds that the lastpart of verse 48 has the disciples primarily in view.
4. In addition to the two cited above, James A. Brooks, Mark (New American
Commentary), Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1991;Joel
Marcus, Mark 1-8 (The Anchor Yale Bible), New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1974.
5. Brooks,ibid.
6. Lane, ibid. This formula is known in the NT primarily in the Gospelof
John, and this is one of the few "absolute" (i.e. without complement) uses of
the phrase as a claim to divinity outside of that book. (The other two are also
in Mark: vv 13:6 and 14:62.)The Old Testamentbackgroundis frequently
tracedto Ex 3:14, although Deut 32:39 via the LXX, Isa 43:10, and 45:18 via
the LXX, have been consideredmore likely in recentscholarshipfocusedon
the issue.
Well, the Lord himself would be the right personto answerthis question. But
there is no harm in trying for a human explanation. Jesus just did not want to
be taken for granted-- evenby his own disciples. At Luke 8 we see him fast
asleepin the boat as it ran into the storm. At John 11 we see him stay put
while his dear friend Lazarus was being buried in Bethany. That calls for
some soul-searching:we callupon God only when we THINK we need him .

215. The disciples were no exception to this kind of attitude. In this case,Jesus had
clearly been `left alone at the shore' by his disciples who, for that reason,
would not expect to see him on the waters. But Jesus, by pretending to go
ahead, wanted to instill in them the transcending faith.