WEDNESDAY IN EASTER WEEK

 April 8, 2026

All Saints, Ashmont, Boston

Luke 24:13-35

 

One question that’s occurred to me over the years about the two disciples on the road to Emmaus is this: Why does the risen Christ conceal his identity until the end of the story? Why doesn’t he just reveal himself in all his glory at the outset?

 

The answer, I think, is that something crucially important is happening as they walk along the road. Namely, he’s explaining the Scriptures to them:

 

“And he said to them, ‘O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.”

 

These words hark back to what Jesus said earlier in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone should rise from the dead.” 

 

In other words, to understand the Lord’s Resurrection, we need first to listen to Moses and the Prophets. As the Nicene Creed puts it, “And the third day he rose again, according to the scriptures.” That is, the Lord’s death and Resurrection were not only foretold, but are also integral to the story God has been telling all along. Only in the context of Moses and the Prophets can the two disciples even begin to understand the full meaning of what's happening now.

 

At the Easter Vigil on Saturday, we listened to a service of Old Testament readings. How many Old Testament readings did you have here? (Five.) At my church, we had three. But if we’d done it the traditional way, according to the old rite, there would’ve been twelve. And, in the old rite, these readings—like Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac in Genesis, the Hebrews crossing the Red Sea in Exodus, the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel, and the three young men in the burning fiery furnace in Daniel—were known as the Prophecies, because the Church understood them as allegorically anticipating and foreshadowing Christ’s own death and Resurrection. 

 

The point is that before we can truly and fully receive the good news of Easter, we need to know the story of which it is the culmination. We need to understand how it fulfills God’s purpose of redeeming the world and inaugurating his kingdom. Otherwise, we lack the only narrative context in which Christ’s death and resurrection make sense. Without that context, a dead man rising to new and glorious life would be a wondrous feat, but we wouldn’t know what it meant. “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone should rise from the dead.”

 

Now, it’s true that in his Resurrection appearances, the risen Christ doesn’t usually follow this sequence of first appearing incognito, then explaining the Scriptures, and finally revealing himself. But what is clear is that during the forty days between his Resurrection and Ascension, he takes great care to interpret the Scriptures to his disciples. In this way, he prepares them to proclaim the Good News of his death and Resurrection as the fulfillment of all that God has been doing for his people all along. 

 

Notice how the Christian liturgy follows the structural sequence of the Road to Emmaus story. At Mass, we first listen to readings from the Scriptures. We preachers then do our best to interpret their meaning in reference to Christ. Finally, we come to the Liturgy of the Eucharist, where the risen Lord gives himself to us under the forms of bread and wine.

 

Word and Sacrament go together. Close attention to the scriptural witness is essential preparation for recognizing and receiving Christ in the Sacrament. As the two disciples exclaim, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures?” With that preparation, we’re able to join the two disciples in testifying that the Risen Christ has made himself known to us in the breaking of the bread.