The Significance of the Emmaus Episode in the Gospel of Luke
Abstract
In this paper, I will examine the account of the Emmaus episode in Luke 24:13-35 in order to present the significance of this episode for Luke's Gospel. I will argue that Luke intentionally included the Emmaus story in the resur rection narrative in order to provide the reader with an overview of the main themes of the Lukan narrative. I will conclude that this story provided an overview of the main themes of the Lukan narrative in three important ways.
First, the Emmaus episode reminded the audience of the misconceptions that the disciples had about Jesus.In this episode, the two disciples, who conversed with Jesus, could be viewed as representatives of all disciples. According to their conversation, these two disciples misunderstood Jesus since they expected that Jesus would come as a powerful prophet to redeem Israel from the Romans. Second, the Emmaus episode discloses the revelation of Jesus' death and resurrection as the fulfillment of the Jewish Scriptures. In this episode, Jesus' interpretation of the Scriptures helped two disciples discover that it was necessary for Christ to suffer and to enter into his glory. Thus, this episode would remind the audience to pay attention to the significant event of Jesus' death and resurrection as the fulfillment of the Scriptures. Third, the Emmaus episode also reminded the audience of the theme of hospitality in the scene of the fellowship table. This episode showed that the two disciples displayed hospitality to the stranger upon learning about the new understanding of the Scriptures from the stranger.
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