The account of the encounter with Jesus on the road to Emmaus, found in the Gospel Reading for this Sunday, is one of the most famous and beloved passages from the New Testament. Emmaus was a town about seven miles northwest of Jerusalem. Today, pilgrims can visit the ruins of a Byzantine era church that, according to one tradition, was built at the site where Jesus ate with the two disciples.
In the passage, we see that the two disciples walking toward Emmaus still do not understand what has truly happened. They do not know who Jesus really is and do not understand what he has actually accomplished. Jesus uses the Old Testament to instruct them, starting with Moses and the Prophets. Our contemporary nomenclature with regard to the Books of the Bible is different from what the books were called at the time of Jesus. "Moses" referred to the first five books of the Bible, known as the Five Books of Moses. "The Prophets" meant what we now call the historical and the prophetic books.
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Photo Credit: Ruins of the Byzantine era church at Emmaus by Zoltan Abraham (c) 2016.