Easter

The lectionary readings for the Third Sunday in Easter ignore the particular gospel for the year, and instead cycle round Luke 24 and John 21: in Year B we have the second half of Luke 24, Jesus meeting the group of frightened disciples; in Year C, the miraculous catch of fish in John 21; and in this Year A the story in the first half of Luke 24 of the disciples meeting Jesus on the road to Emmaus. The narrative is long and detailed, and (like the long detailed narratives at the start of Luke) contributes to this being the longest of the four gospels, a good 1,000 words longer than Matthew (even though it has fewer chapters).

But it is also wonderfully engaging, not only beautifully structured, but full of irony and humour as well.

The story of the road to Emmaus is one of the most powerful stories in the Bible and certainly one of Luke’s greatest achievements as a storyteller (Mikeal Parsons, Paideia commentary, p 349).

The story has a clear sense of movement, which we can see by noting how many times travelling, walking, stopping and journeying on is mentioned; the idea of the disciples being on a journey fits with a large theme of Luke’s gospel, in which he has organised the whole central section of Jesus’ teaching and ministry as part of a journey to Jerusalem from Luke 9.51 to 19.48. But there is an implied ironic reversal: in the main part of the gospel, Jesus is on a journey, and the question is whether the (potential and actual) disciples will join with him; here, the disciples are on a journey, in many sense in the wrong direction, and it is Jesus who joins them, the result of which is a change in their direction of travel.