The Road Beyond Resurrection

Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen! Luke 24:5-6 (NKJV)

In Chapter 24, the Gospel of Luke records a stirring account of the early morning when Christ’s tomb was found empty. It was confirmed by women who witnessed it and by Peter.

Luke continues the narrative by describing two of Christ’s followers traveling the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus. They were trying to wrap their minds around the events that had just transpired and what to make of the women’s report.

A man who seemed to be a stranger joined them and asked why they were so sad. In their distress, they essentially asked the stranger, “Have you been hiding under a rock?” They could not imagine how the man was unaware of the story of Jesus’ empty tomb.

This stranger asked what they were speaking of, and they told Him of Jesus, whom they had followed and trusted – "a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people" (v. 19) and the one they had hoped would redeem Israel (v. 21).

They shared how their leader had been condemned to death and crucified (v. 20), and how certain women that morning had been to the tomb but found it empty. They spoke of the women’s account of angels telling them that their friend was risen, and how others in their group had gone to the grave and found it just as the women described – empty.

That was likely the last of their words for quite some time on their 7-mile journey.

It was the stranger’s turn to speak. And speak He did.

It was me

Jesus – the “stranger” – began with a rebuke (v. 25), but quickly went back to the beginning with “Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (v. 27).

The brevity of verse 27 may cause many to give it only a passing thought, but in doing so, they miss a wonderful blessing.

Believers would love to know the details of what Christ said to His followers that day, as one can only wonder how the stories must have unfolded over the miles they walked together.

In 2001 singer-songwriter Michael Combs released the song “It Was Me” that imagines what Jesus’ Emmaus monologue might have included. Consider these lyrics from the song:

Who do you think hung the stars in the sky?/ Who do you think made the day and the night?/ Who made the flowers?/ Who made the trees?/ Who made the sun and the moon and the seas?/ Who gives life to all who believe?/ Who do you think made the blind to see?/ Who made the very air that you breathe?/ Who defeated death and won the victory?/ It was Me.

It’s still Him

Come back to the present. Why do so many who have given their lives to Jesus go through each day in despair like the travelers on the Emmaus road, as though they have been defeated?

Resurrection Sunday should be a reminder to all who have trusted Jesus as Savior and Lord that He defeated death, hell, and the grave.

Jesus said, I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death (Revelation 1:18).

As a result, Christians can confidently say as Paul did: “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:55-57).