The last few weeks now have been taking me back to Emmaus, that is, not just back to my own Emmaus congregation in South Bend, where I had the privilege and pleasure of celebrating the Triduum and the first few days of Easter – including “Emmaus Name Day” on Easter Monday – but to the story of that first Emmaus in the Holy Gospel According to St. Luke (appointed for the Third Sunday of Easter in Series A of the three-year lectionary), and, best of all, to the Breaking of the Bread at the Lord’s Altar in the Liturgy. By a happy coincidence and in a timely fashion, I also discovered this past week a brand new book by one of my fathers in Christ, the Reverend Dr. Arthur Just, who certainly contributed to my love for the Emmaus Gospel (and who preached for my ordination at Emmaus, South Bend, thirty years ago this month). In the aptly-titled, Ever to Emmaus: A Theological Memoir (Wipf and Stock, March 2026), Dr. Just winsomely recalls and ruminates on his spiritual and theological journey, retold along the contours of that road to Emmaus in St. Luke 24, even as that same account has been so pivotal to his academic life.
As I mentioned some time ago, there aren’t that many “Emmaus” congregations in the Synod, only sixteen open and active so far as I can tell. The Northwest District has two of those, and eleven other districts have one each, but I’m quite pleased that our own Indiana District has three of the sixteen: one in Fort Wayne, one in Indianapolis, and my own congregation in South Bend. I’m biased, of course, but I’ve always felt that “Emmaus” is an ideal name for a congregation of the Lord’s Church on earth, simply because the Gospel account of the little village by this name, some seven-miles walk from Jerusalem, is a beautiful paradigm of the Christian faith and life – and of the life of the Church in the preaching of the Word of Christ and the administration of His Supper in remembrance of Him. It’s all right there, laid out for us in the last chapter of St. Luke, establishing the path and pattern of that holy catechesis that brings us to the faithful recognition and reception of the risen Lord Jesus in the Holy Communion of His Body and His Blood. This is not only “how it works,” it is indeed “where it’s at” and what the Church on earth is all about.
It’s not hard to understand how Dr. Just was able to write his doctoral thesis on the Emmaus account, subsequently published as The Ongoing Feast: Table Fellowship and Eschatology at Emmaus (Liturgical Press, 1993). It is the culmination of everything else in St. Luke’s Gospel, from the Incarnation and Holy Nativity of our Lord, to His preaching and miracles on the way, to His Cross and Passion, to His bodily Resurrection from the dead, to the preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of sins in His Name, and to the ongoing catechesis of His Word and work in the Ministry of the Gospel, always to and from His Breaking of the Bread with His disciples. It’s echoed in the preaching of St. Peter on Pentecost and the subsequent life of the Church from the very beginning (Acts 2:36-47, as heard on the Third and Fourth Sundays of Easter in Series A), and again in the story of the conversion of St. Paul (Acts 9:1-22).
To begin with, the two disciples on the road to Emmaus are disheartened and downcast, despite knowing all the facts – including the report of the empty tomb and the word of the angels to the women. Everyone is still at a loss, looking for the body of Jesus and wondering where He is. It is notably in the discussion of these “things concerning Jesus” that He comes alongside them and begins to journey with them on the way. Likewise for all of us, even when we’re suffering from our own doubts and fears (indeed, especially then), we should not isolate ourselves from others but be going on with talking with one another about Jesus. He is present in and with His Word, even when we’re perplexed and sad and unable to understand what’s going on. The risen Lord gently chides them for the foolishness and slowness of heart to believe the Holy Scriptures, and then He opens those very Scriptures to them, as well as their ears, their, hearts, and their heads. All of which prepares them – as it also prepares us – to recognize Him and receive Him as He takes the bread, blesses, breaks, and gives it to His disciples at the Table. Thus do we become His guests, and He our Host, our Waiter, and our Feast of Meat and Drink indeed. And thus are we prompted and propelled to abide in the fellowship of the Church and confess the Lord Jesus.