Luke 24:28Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Among them was Cleopas, a relative of the Lord (Mary, Cleopas' wife, is referred to as the sister of the Mother of God in John 19:25), while the identity of the other remains unknown. Both were making their way from Jerusalem to Emmaus, a village located about 60 stadia away. They had left before learning of the Lord’s appearance to Mary Magdalene. During their journey, they discussed the recent events in Jerusalem. The disgraceful death of Jesus had shattered their expectations of Him as the one to restore Israel. The Lord approached them, partially altering His appearance (Mark 16:12) and keeping their eyes from recognizing Him (Luke 24:16), and engaged them in conversation. He illustrated that it was essential for the Messiah, the Restorer of Israel, to suffer according to the Scriptures, for this was the path to His glory. This reasoning led them to understand that if they accepted Jesus as the Messiah, His death should not be perceived as the end of His mission; rather, they should anticipate the glory foretold in His resurrection. Jesus spoke at length (as the journey was considerable), explaining the significance of the prophetic scriptures about the Messiah, His suffering, and His rising. The Evangelist does not specify which references the Lord mentioned; undoubtedly, they were those later quoted by the disciples, as well as by apostles Peter and Paul in their declarations and letters. The disciples found great joy in His words, their hearts ablaze. When they reached their destination, they urged Him to stay with them for the evening meal. At that moment, He revealed Himself to them in the breaking of the bread; they may have seen the wounds on His hands, but then He vanished from their sight. This solidified their realization that they had indeed encountered someone far beyond an ordinary living being, prompting them to return immediately to Jerusalem to share the news with the Apostles.

In this encounter of the resurrected Christ with the two disciples, and in His later appearances, three aspects stand out: first, the journey to Emmaus and the return to Jerusalem undertaken by Jesus, who had died two days earlier from severe wounds in His hands, feet, and lungs, along with significant blood loss and immense suffering; second, His eating of food; and third, if Christ had risen with the same afflicted, weakened, and malnourished body that had been laid in the tomb following His crucifixion, He would not have been able to traverse the distance to Emmaus and back, nor even to move. If He did manage to make that journey, it affirms that He rose with a body restored to its former state, save for the wounds inflicted upon Him during the Crucifixion.

It is essential to remember that during His earthly ministry, up until His death on the Cross, Christ refrained from using His divine authority to mitigate His human frailties. He abstained from doing so to uphold the model of perfection that He calls us to emulate. However, He proclaimed, "I lay down My life that I may take it again... I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again" (John 10:17-18). Consequently, since Christ possessed the authority to take up His life again, meaning He rose by His own power rather than being resurrected by another, and since, with His Resurrection, there was no longer any need to limit the use of His divine might, it is clear that He did not rise in a frail, wounded, or emaciated form, but rather in a body that was restored or, as is often described, glorified. Having the ability not only to perform tremendous miracles and raise the dead but also to rise Himself from the dead, the Lord surely had the divine power to rejuvenate His weary body. After rising with a renewed body, Christ could indeed partake of food, though He did not require it for sustenance during the forty days from His Resurrection until His Ascension. He became invisible and appeared as He chose because of His inherent Divine nature, which faced no limitations.