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Luke 24

Chapter Text

The Resurrection

On the Road to Emmaus

Jesus Appears to the Disciples

The Ascension

Summary

On the first day of the week, women come to the tomb with spices and find it empty. Two angels announce that Jesus is risen. The women tell the apostles, who do not believe them. Peter runs to the tomb and finds it empty.

Two disciples encounter the risen Jesus on the road to Emmaus, but do not recognize Him until He breaks bread. They rush back to Jerusalem to tell the others. Jesus appears to the gathered disciples, showing His hands and feet and eating fish to prove He is not a spirit. He opens their understanding of the Scriptures and commissions them as witnesses. He ascends into heaven from Bethany.

Meaning

The Emmaus road encounter reveals that understanding Scripture is the key to recognizing Christ. The two disciples' hearts burned within them as Jesus opened the Scriptures, yet they did not recognize Him until the breaking of bread. This teaches that Christ is known through His Word and through fellowship at His table.

Jesus' final instructions establish that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. The disciples are to be witnesses of these things, not creators of new teaching but testifiers to what they have seen and heard. The promise of power from on high looks forward to the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

Background

Emmaus was a village approximately seven miles from Jerusalem, though its exact location is debated. The two disciples may have been returning home after the Passover festival. Luke's emphasis on Jesus eating broiled fish demonstrates the physical reality of the resurrection body.

The ascension is described briefly here but is expanded in Luke's second volume, the book of Acts. The disciples returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God, ending Luke's Gospel on a note of worship.

Chapter Outline

  1. vv. 1-12The empty tomb and the women's witness
  2. vv. 13-27The road to Emmaus
  3. vv. 28-35Recognition in the breaking of bread
  4. vv. 36-43Jesus appears to the eleven
  5. vv. 44-49Opening their minds to the Scriptures
  6. vv. 50-53The ascension at Bethany

Key Verses

He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee,24:6

The angelic announcement of the resurrection is the cornerstone of Christian faith, frequently quoted at Easter and central to apostolic preaching.

And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.24:27

This verse establishes that the entire Old Testament testifies of Christ, foundational to Christian hermeneutics and typological reading of Scripture.

And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?24:32

A beloved description of Spirit-illumined Scripture reading, often invoked in devotional life as the experience of meeting Christ in the Word.

Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:24:46

Jesus himself summarizes the gospel and the divine necessity of his passion and resurrection as the fulfillment of Scripture.

People & Places

People

  • Mary MagdaleneA devoted follower of Jesus and among the first witnesses of the empty tomb.
  • JoannaA woman who followed Jesus from Galilee, present at the tomb on resurrection morning.
  • Mary the mother of JamesAnother of the women who came to anoint Jesus' body and discovered the resurrection.
  • PeterThe chief apostle who runs to inspect the empty tomb and to whom the risen Lord appears.
  • CleopasOne of the two disciples who encounters the risen Jesus on the road to Emmaus.
  • JesusThe risen Christ, who appears to disciples, expounds Scripture, and ascends to heaven.
  • SimonAnother name for Peter, identified as having received a personal resurrection appearance.

Places

  • SepulchreThe tomb where Jesus was laid, found empty on the first day of the week.
  • GalileeThe northern region where Jesus had earlier prophesied his death and resurrection.
  • JerusalemThe city where the resurrection appearances begin and from which the gospel will spread to all nations.
  • EmmausA village about seven miles from Jerusalem where Jesus revealed himself in the breaking of bread.
  • BethanyThe village near Jerusalem from which Jesus ascended into heaven.

Prophecy & Fulfillment

This chapter is saturated with fulfillment language. Jesus reminds the disciples in verses 6-7 of his own prior prophecy that the Son of man must be crucified and rise the third day. On the Emmaus road (v. 27) and again in the upper room (vv. 44-46), he expounds Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms as bearing witness to his suffering and resurrection. The promise of the Father in verse 49 anticipates Pentecost in Acts 2, fulfilling Joel 2 and Jesus' own pledge of the Spirit.

Devotional

The Emmaus road is every disciple's road. We walk in confusion, grieving losses we did not expect, and Christ draws near unrecognized. He meets us in the Scriptures and at the table, and suddenly the heart that was cold begins to burn.

Notice that the women's witness was first dismissed as idle tales, yet they were right. Faith often begins with the testimony of others before it becomes our own sight. When fear and doubt rise, Jesus still says, Peace be unto you—and sends us out as witnesses with power from on high.

Literary Style

Resurrection narrative combining concise reportage, extended dialogue, and a recognition scene of striking literary craft. Luke employs dramatic irony (the disciples' eyes are holden), eucharistic symbolism in the breaking of bread, and a closing doxological frame that returns the gospel to the temple where it began.