LUKE 24:13-35

UNIVERSITY MISSION IN THE WAY OF JESUS

Luke 24:13-35

That very day two of them were going to avillage named Emmaus,
about seven miles from Jerusalem and they were talking with each
other about all these things that had happened. While they were
talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went
with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he
said to them, "What is this conversation that you are holding with
sad. Then
each other as you walk?" And they stood still, looking
only vis
one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, "Are you the
happened
itor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have
And then
there in these days? " And hesaid to them, What things?"
was a
they said to him, "Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who
and
prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people,
condemned
how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be
was the one
to death, and crucified him. But we had hoped that he
third day
to redeem Israel. Yes. and besides all this, it is now the
Since these things happened. Moreover, some women of our com
morning, and
pany amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the
When they did not find his body, they camne back saying that they
was alive. Some
had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he
found it just as the
J those who were with us went to the tomb and

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 God's Calling and the University
Women had said, but him they did not see. " And he said to them, "O
Le
foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe allthat the prophete
spoken! Was it not necessary th¡t the Christ should suffer these
things and enter into his glory?" And beginning with Moseg o
all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures tho
things concerning himself. So they drew near to the village to which
they were going. He acted as if he were going farther, but they urged
him strongly, saying, "Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the
day is now far spent." So he went in to stay with them. When he was
at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and
gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him.
And he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, Did not
our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he

opened to us the Scriptures? And they rose that same hour and re
turned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were
with them gathered together, saying, "The Lord has risen indeed, and
has appeared to Simon!" Then they told what had happened on the
road, and how he was known to themn in the breaking of the bread."

Preamble

The risen Christ first revealed himself to a woman, Mary Magdalene,

who was also commissioned to announce the good news of his res
urrection to the rest of the apostolic community. Considering tna ofa
Courts
woman's eye-witness testimony was discounted in Jewish
law, and that the particular woman concerned had a low social statuss
were fab-
this makes it very unlikelythat the resurrection narratives
subver-
rications of the Jerusalem church. But it is also typical of theSaviour,
sive,"upside-down nature the Gospel
of itself: a crucified
God's power revealed in weakness, God's reign expressedthrough

30
 Luke 24:13-35

suffering servanthood, the outcastes uplifted and the mighty hum

bled. This was indeed "a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness
to the Greeks. (1 Cor. 1:27)
Before his death, Jesus promised his disciples "the Spirit of truth
who would "bear witness to me; and you also are witnesses, because
you have been with me from the beginning" (John 15:26, 27). The
post-apostolic Church is built on the witness of the apostles to the
crucifed and risen Christ, the Lord of all creation. Our witness, in
other words, is secondary; theirs is the primary witness. We bear
witness not to ourselves and our religious experiences, but to the
Christ whose story is told in the fourfold Gospel narratives, fore
shadowed in the Old Testament, and expounded in the rest of the
New Testament.
Nevertheless, our own characters and stories are important. They

are what give credibility to our spoken testimony. In a law-court, a

witness who has a reputation for dishonesty, exaggeration, self-seek
or jury.
ing or inconsistency is hardly likely to be believed by judge
"witness" to describe the
This iswhy the New Testament language of
pro
Church's relation to the Good News of the Kingdom of God is
inseparability of word
foundly challenging. It draws attention to the
the world must come out
and life, speech and deed., What we say to
do.
of what we are and be embodied in all that we

The Companions on the Journey

of Jesus are on a journey.
On the first Easter evening two disciples
walking towards their home village
Iney are leaving Jerusalem and by
Emmaus, 7 miles downhill. Their state of mind is summed up
Or
they utter to the stranger who meets them on
uie poignant words
had hoped These are words of disillusionment, of
the road - "we
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 God's Calling and the University
asheer loss of hope. This is a couple who are grieving because all
their dreams have been shattered. Jerusalem holds bad memories for
them. They had left everything to followthis man, believing tht he
was the Messiah, Israel's longed-for Warrior Deliverer. But he proved
a failure, even an imposter. Instead of driving out the Romans and
establishing the kingdom of David in Jerusalem, he is crucified bw
the Roman state. Their wounds are so deep that they cry out for ex
pression and cannot be suppressed.
Our world is full of people with the words "we had hoped on
their lips. Well-established liberal democracies see freedoms and
tolerance being undermined by populist movements on the extreme
right and extreme left. There are those called postmodernists who
are disenchanted with reason, with science, even with economic
progress. Many people living in affluent societies are deeply unhap
py. They don't see any meaning or purpose to their lives. You only
need to read the novels, listen to the music and watch the movies
that come out of the West to sense this despair. But it's not only sec
ular postmodern youth who are disillusioned, but many Christians
too. My late wife, Karin, and I often met young people who have
made a profession of faith when they were in school or university
but have quickly lost that faith because the Christian life has not
turned out the way they expected. Karin was a counsellor and she
used to tell me that very often the emotional pain of the Christians
about
whom she counselled could be traced to some strange ideas
God that they picked up in their Christian family or their church.
They thought of God as either a vindictive tyrant, punishing
them
Claus
for every little sin or error they made, or else as a kind of Santa
from
who exists to answer their prayers and make their lives free

32
 Luke 24:13-35

jllness, failure and hardship. When this God doesn't answer their
shattered.
prayers,theirfaith
There are also many sensitive people who are turned off" by
whattthey see of popular evangelicalChristianity, especially the shal
lowness and social conformity. They perceive a mismatch between
andthe inauthentic lives of the messengers. Pastors who
the message
preach grace practice legalism; Christian politicians promote intol
erance and chauvinist attitudes.

The Conversation on the Journey

He
The grieving disciples are accosted by a stranger on the road.
simply joins the conversation that they are having with each other.
This is so typical of Jesus. If you read the Gospels, Jesus is always
which he
intruding into other people's conversations: conversations
invited. And he
himself has not started and to which he hasn't been
asks questionsmore often than he gives people answers.
still.
When he asks them, "What are you discussing?" they stand
compan
They are not only grieving, but astounded by their new
ignorance. This stranger didn't have the faintest idea of what
1ons
one living
has happened recently in Jerusalem. "Are you the only
happened there
in Jerusalem who does not know the things that
they know and
in these days"? (v.18)Notice the irony: they assume
about to be turned
their companion does not. That assumption is
narrate the events
Upside down.But the irony deepens. They go on to
how Luke has recorded them
todo with Jesus of Nazareth exactly as
life of Jesus. They have
Or us. They give an accurate account of the
understanding.
dlthe information at theirfingertips, but they lack
the right infor
And sothe question arises. "How can people have all
Jesus?" That's
Ination about Jesus and yet not see the significance of
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 God's Calling and the University

the crucial hermeneutical question which this passage raises: How

do we move from mere information to understanding and sbirit.-3
discernnent?

Jesus joins conversations which others have started in order ..

raise questions from within those conversations and takes them :
a new direction. This approach is very different from the model f
"evangelism that we are accustomed to. Students like to organize
an "evangelistic meeting" on their campuses to which they invite
their non-Christian friends- if they have any!- to come, sit and
listen. The speaker gives answers to the questions that they want the
non-Christians to be asking. (Typically, "Is God an illusion?" "Why
did Jesus die?, "What is theevidence for the resurrection?"). But the
vast majority are not asking such questions.
Well, what are the questions that most students in your univer
sity are asking? Perhaps all that some are asking is, "Am I going to
lose my job because of the economic recession?" Perhaps the wealthy
ones are asking, "Where should we go for our foreign holiday this
year?" or "Which restaurant should we go tonight?" Now, why are
topics such as shopping, eating and employment not things that have
todo with God? Surely if God is involved in all of life, then any topic
can be a bridge to God. If you really probe any topic, asking search
us" questions oflife,
ing questions, you get down to the deep "religious"
don't you?
A university is a place where conversations of many kinds are
taking place, whether in the classrooms, the research labs, thetuto-
rials, the Senior Common Room Club), the Student Union
or the host of student
(Faculty That iswhere
societies that sprout on campus.
those conversations
Christians should be, humbly yet boldly joining those

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 Luke 24:13-35

(which, forthe. most part, they have not initiated) and taking them in
a different direction, I believe it is possible to start with any subject,
from the most ridiculous to the sublime, and if we ask sufficiently
probing questions we descend to the bedrock issues that the Gospel
addresses.

Take, for example, so-called dirty jokes. What is the typical

Christian response when someone makes a joke about sex, or urinat
ing, defecating, and so on? Either we avoid such people, or we laugh
and then we feel shame because asChristians we have been told we
shouldn't. But why don't we just laugh because it is funny and then
ask those who tell such jokes a simple qustion: "Why do we find
those stories funny?" After all, sexual intercourse, urinating, flatu
lence and all that - these are animal functions; and we're animals,
aren't we? They are the biological side of us. And yet we seem to be
the only animals around on planet Earth who laugh at our animal
nature. I can take my clothes off, look at my body, and laugh. Isn't
that a cue that we are more than just biology or physiology, that
there is a transcendent, or spiritual, dimension to human life? We
are part of the animal kingdom and yet in our humour we reveal that
we know tacitly that we are more than just animals. Human bodies,
and sex among humans, carry meanings which transcend the mnerely
biological realm.
Now, we are called to raise such questions in the university world.
That is our mission in IFES. We don't face the university with neat,
casy answers or religious formulas; nor are we there to answer ques
tions that nobody is raising. Rather, we follow the risen Jesus who
leads us out there into the Student Union, the Buddhist Society or
the Environmental society in order to listen to what people are actu
ally talking about. Do you know what conversations are engagingthe
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 God'sCalling and the University
non-Christians in your canmpus? What are the issues and
on their hearts? What are their anxieties, desires and
fears?Concerns
When
you listen you also become part of those conversations. The
we often hesitate to do this is fear. It is reason
dangerous. are forced to
We
think "outside the box" in which we have been
are not in control, unlike when we organize an
brought up. Also, we
evangelistic Bible
study or an Alpha coursewhere we set the agenda and the
Christians
outnumber the visitors.
Mission in the way of Jesus reverses all that. We need to be
out
there, maybe the only Christian in a secular, Muslim or
Buddhist
gathering, seriously listening to what they are talking about and
taking an interest in the questions that they are raising. And then
we learn to raise questions from within
those conversations, trusting
God to take those conversations in a
direction that reflects the con
cerns of his kingdom. That's what Jesus wants to do
with us.
The same thing should be
happening in our classrooms. Say you
are science student. Ask questions within your
a
academic disci
pline such as: How is science possible? What kind of
world is this
that lends itself to rationalenguiry? Or, if you are
alaw student, you
should raise questions such as: Is law purely a human
social con
struction? Or are we, in making laws, also
to alaw that is not of our responding in some way
making, a moral order that undernes a
things? And where do we get the concept of
human
exist simply by accident - if the only story we tell of rights:
that we are accidental
humanbeings
on what
by-products of an impersonal universe
grounds can we say that a Downs Syndrome child is equal
in value, and thus
has the same rights, as an Einstein or a Beethoven?
As you learn to raise fundamental questions as a Christian within
your profession or academic field of study, you also respond tothe
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 Luke24:13-35

questions that people will fire back at you. "Well, if you have such
view of humanness- you believe that every human being is
a high
madein the image of God and that's why they have certain intrinsic
rights-then why are you and other Christians not involved in pro-
motingand defending human rights?"
NNow Ithink that's the reason we are scared to get involved. For
then we realize that we are not practicing the things we say we be
And it's our non-Christian friends who will help us to see that.
lieve.
But the way that we bear witness to Christ is by working alongside
people of other faiths. In areas of mutual interest and concern
whether protecting the natural environment or speaking up for
the
vulnerable members of society- it is as we work with people of other
faiths that we find ample opportunities to raiseprobing questions.
throw
And then we must be prepared to answer the questions they
at us.
faith-commitment to
Even if our efforts do not bring people to
all human
Christ, they still witness to God's intention to gather up
and thearts,
activities, whether in thesciences, business, government
into the university;
into Christ (cf. Col.1:20). We do not take Christ"
He is present, even
it ishe who goes ahead of us and leads us there.
laboratory, the music
though unacknowledged, in the biochemistry
radio astronomy centre, the Student Union debates about
Cass, the
warming or student funding, and all the conversations that
gObal
called to discern his presence and
ake up university life. We are
wisdom.
activity and articulate it with courage and
leads people to faith
Moreover, whether or not the conversations
the
we are still called to makea Christian contribution to
lrist,
university.
COnversations that make un the life of the secular

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 God's Calling and the University

Interrupting the Journey

Let's return to our text. Jesus not only joins their conversation .
the road and opens a space for theme to share their feelings of he
reavement, but he now openly contronts them. How foolish yOu avs
and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!
(v.25)" What they needed was not just therapy but conversion. The
reason they are in a state of despair is because their hopes were built
their ap
on a wrong view of the Messiah. They were selective to
proach to the Scriptures.They only picked out those triumphalistic
texts that spoke of the victory of the Messiah over the enemies of
Israel and they avoided other texts that spoke of God's suffering love
Over his wayward people and his intention to heal and reconcile not
only them but all the nations. They even had the women's testimony
that the tomb was empty, but they could not perceive the signiicance
of this because their eyes were closed"- they needed new theologi
cal spectacles.
Now I find it intriguing that Jesus doesn't say to them openly,
"Look, Iam your Master. Ihave come back from the dead. The cross
was not the end of the story" Why doesn't he say that outright? Why
the need for aBible study with them on the road? Isuggest that it
is because Jesus himself needs a context in which to be understooa.
And that context is the Hebrew Bible or what Christians later came
to call the Old Testament. Jesus seems to be implying that unless e
read the Old Testament, "beginning with Moses and allthe proph-
ets" (v. 27) we will not understand him, of his
We cannot make sense
life and his death. For this was where he drew his sense ofidentity
and mission.

38
 Luke 24:13-35

But where in the old Testament does it say that the Christ had to
sufferandlenter his glory" (v.26)? Is there any text that states this un-
ambiguously? There isn't a single verse in the entire Old Testament,
that says explicitly that the Christ, the Messiah, should suffer and
enter his glory. So where is Jesus getting this from? It's obvious that
the way Jesus read the Scriptures of his day is very different to the
way that most of us do.Jesus did not read it as a collection of isolated
verses or proof-texts". Hisknowledge of God and of his own voca
tion was built on the whole "story-line" of Scripture.
This is seen, for instance, in the way he responded to the tempter
in the Judaean wilderness at the very outset of his public ministry.
He quoted three times from the book of Deuteronomy which was
Israel's missionary charter. Israel was called to live as God's Son in
the land, revealing through its obedience to the Torah what God was
truly like; and so attracting the surrounding nations to the worship
of the true God. But we know from the subsequent tragic story that
Israelrefused tolive as God's Son and so be a light to the nations.
Israel wanted to be like other nations and so failed in its mission to
be alight to the nations. Jesus clearly sees himself as the true Israel,
who will show disobedient Israel what it means to be God's Son. He
willbear the rejection of Israe's God and the judgment that sin calls
forth, and thus bring about the redemption of Israel and the nations.
We need, like Jesus, to live in the biblical story and read our con
temporary world and our lives through that story. That is the purpose
OfBible study. Iwould encourage you to get into the habit of read
ing the whole Bible, if not once a year at least once every 2-3 years.
CSes are to be read in the context of the whole book in which they

appear;and every book has to be read in the context of the whole

story of Scripture.
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 God's Calling and the University
When the two disciples on the Emmaus road later looked bo
on this experience, they exclaimed, "Did not our hearts
burn within
us when he opened the Scriptures to us (v.32)?" And yet their eyes
remain closed. However deeply their hearts are moved, their
eyes
are still not opened. You can have a Bible study with Jesus and
yet
not recognize him. So we return to that important question, "what
more needs to happen before spiritual discernment dawns? What is
the hermeneutical key that unlocks the Scriptures for us so that we
see Jesus?"

The End of the Journey

As they approach the village of Emmaus, Jesus walks ahead (v.28).
He butted into their conversation but now he leaves them. Hes not
going to force them to faith. We read that they urged him (it is a
very strong verb in Greek), to come home and spend the night with
them. He accepts the invitation. And it's over the evening meal that
"their eyes were opened" and they recognized the risen Jesus (v.31).
Why is it that their eyes are opened now? I want to suggest that
it's because the breaking of bread isa particular kind of action, shar
ing the basic necessities of life; and Jesus is identified not only b÷
his teaching, but by his actions and particularly his action of shar
ing bread with outsiders. One of the characteristic marks of Jesus
ministry was having meals with people whom others (especially the
religious leaders) never invited to their homes: tax collectors, lepers
disreputable women,the outcasts and marginalized. In our Asian So
cieties, indeed in most traditional societies. we never eat meals alon
do we? Meals are social events, We eat meals with people who are like
us, people whom we identify with, our kith and kin, When we Sha
a meal with somebody, we are also saving, we
belong together .
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 Luke 24:13-35

is an expression of social solidarity. We know from the Gospel nar-

ratives that Jesus' habit of dining with people who are shunned as
unclean sinners by the religious establishment deeply angered the
latter. But it was Jesus' way of demonstrating, acting out the Good
News of grace- this is what the Kingdom of God is all about. This is
wuhat God is like- welcoming and embracing the outcast, the outsid
er, the lost

So who are the people whom you eat meals with on campus?
Only your fellow Christians? Those who came from the same school
or economic background to yours? What about those lonely interna
tional students- do you know any of them? Do you ever invite them
to your home for dinner? And what about the student who is known
to be a cheat, or a playboy or asubstance abuser? Would you be seen
having lunch with him?
Observe how these unknown disciples do for this stranger, this
outsider, what Jesus has been doing for them over three years. They
are imitating the action of Jesus in compelling him to come home
with them. It is at that point that the scales fall from their eyes and
recognition dawns. Perhaps what Luke is telling us here, in the way
he has narrated the story, that to those people who are willing to
obey Jesus- in breaking bread with outsiders, with strangers, with
the marginalized- to such people Jesus' way of reading Scripture
him
makes sense and they begin to see in the Scriptures what Jesus
The
Self saw. Here, then, is the answer to the hermeneutical question.
key to the Scripture is obedience, simply imitating
understanding reading, or col
eSus, walking in the way of Jesus. It is not mere Bible
leads to spiritual discernment and
lectingtheological degrees, that
nderstanding, but practicing the lifestyle of Jesus.

41
 God's Calling and the University

The Desert Fathers were Christian who, from the third

century
onwards, went out to the Syrian and Egyptian desert to seek God
more deeply. Many Christians would go after these fathers to os
guidance as to how to live within a pagan soCiety. The story is told of
some brothers who went to see Abba Felix, one of the Desert Fathers.
They begged him for a word of advice. "But the old man kept silence
After they had asked for a long time he said to them, You wish to
hear a word? They said, Yes, Abba. Then the old man said to them.
"There are no more words nowadays. When the brothers used to
consult the old men and when they did what was said to them, God
showed them how to speak. But now, since they ask without doing
that which they hear, God has withdrawn the grace of the word from
the old men and they do not find anything to say, since there are
no longer any who carry their words out' Hearing this, the brothers
groaned, saying, 'Pray for us, Abba"!
When did you last hear a pastor or Bible teacher tell you, I have
nothing more to teach you because unless you obey what you heard
last Sunday Ihave nothing more to say"? It's as we practice the litte
that we do know, walking in the way of Jesus in our campuses and
neighborhoods, that more understanding comes. That is discipleship.
So we come to the final scene. The couple forget their hunger
and tiredness, they leave their meal unfinished and walk back seven
miles uphill to tell their brethren what they have experienced.
That's how it is even today. All those who come to see the Lord now
begin to see the world and their lives differently. Their values and
ambitions change. They now have a passionate sense of missiona7
responsibility.
Benedicta Ward, trans. The Desert Christian (New York: Macmillan,
1975) p.242
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 Luke 24:13-35
Conclusions

1have suggested that this

well-known story gives a different para
1Hem of nmission for our
postcolonial, late modern world. What kind
f araduates would we like to
see emerging from our various
mOvements? Thehealth of our ministry will be evaluated by the IFES
kind
of graduates we "produce"
Iwould like to propose, on the basis of our study, four kinds of
graduates that we should we aiming to "produce for the
the world.
church and
1. Those who are able to meet
hurting and hopeless people where
they are and accompany them on their
them towards the
journey, while pointing
living Christ.
2. Those who are able to join the
public conversations that are
going on in society- in the worlds of business,
government and
policymaking,science and technology, themedia and the arts
and make a distinctive Christian
contribution, often by raising
questions that nobody else isasking. Dowe have graduates like
that from our movements?
3. Those- and this surely applies to all our
graduates-- who have
learned to read the whole Bible, not just isolated
proof-texts,
and then to read their contemporary world through the
Biblical
story.
t. Ihose- and again this should apply to all our
graduates
who have learnt while they were students to
imitate Jesus in
his lifestyle of hospitality and sacrificial service
towards the
"outsiders" and the forgotten people around them. They
are
distinguished from their peers in the way they use their
Possessions, their homes, their studies and their skills not to
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 God's Calling and the University

advance up the social ladder but for thesake of those less n

ileged than they are.
Let me end with an exhortation from George McCloud, leader of
the Iona Christian Community in Great Britain. He says, I simply
argue that the Cross be raised again at the centre of the market place
as well as on thesteeple of the church. I am recovering the claim that
Jesus was not crucified in a Cathedral between two candles, but on
a Cross between two thieves; on the town garbage heap; on a cross
roads so cosmopolitan that they had to write his title in Hebrew and
Latin and in Greek; at the kind of place where cynics talk smut, and
thieves curse, and soldiers gamble. Because that is where he died and
that is what He died about. And that is where Christians should be
and what Christians should be about."2

Messer,
2
George McCloud, Only One Way Left, quoted in DonaldE. Abingdon,
Contemporary Images of Christian Ministry (Nashville: I have
1989) p.170 (McCloud uses churchmen" instead of Christians;
amended his text.)
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