Jacob of Emmaus

190:5.1At Em­maus, about seven miles west of Je­ru­sa­lem, there lived two broth­ers, shep­herds, who had spent the Pass­over week in Je­ru­sa­lem at­tend­ing upon the sac­ri­fices, cer­e­mo­ni­als, and feasts. Cleopas, the el­der, was a par­tial be­liever in Je­sus; at least he had been cast out of the syn­a­gogue. His brother, Ja­cob, was not a be­liever, al­though he was much in­trigued by what he had heard about the Mas­ter’s teach­ings and works.

190:5.2On this Sun­day af­ter­noon, about three miles out of Je­ru­sa­lem and a few min­utes be­fore five o’clock, as these two broth­ers trudged along the road to Em­maus, they talked in great earnest­ness about Je­sus, his teach­ings, work, and more es­pe­cially con­cern­ing the ru­mors that his tomb was empty, and that cer­tain of the women had talked with him. Cleopas was half a mind to be­lieve these re­ports, but Ja­cob was in­sis­tent that the whole af­fair was prob­a­bly a fraud. While they thus ar­gued and de­bated as they made their way to­ward home, the mor­ontia man­i­fes­ta­tion of Je­sus, his sev­enth ap­pear­ance, came along­side them as they jour­neyed on. Cleopas had of­ten heard Je­sus teach and had eaten with him at the homes of Je­ru­sa­lem be­liev­ers on sev­eral oc­ca­sions. But he did not rec­og­nize the Mas­ter even when he spoke freely with them.

190:5.3Af­ter walk­ing a short way with them, Je­sus said: “What were the words you ex­changed so earnestly as I came upon you?” And when Je­sus had spo­ken, they stood still and viewed him with sad sur­prise. Said Cleopas: “Can it be that you so­journ in Je­ru­sa­lem and know not the things which have re­cently hap­pened?” Then asked the Mas­ter, “What things?” Cleopas replied: “If you do not know about these mat­ters, you are the only one in Je­ru­sa­lem who has not heard these ru­mors con­cern­ing Je­sus of Naz­a­reth, who was a prophet mighty in word and in deed be­fore God and all the peo­ple. The chief priests and our rulers de­liv­ered him up to the Ro­mans and de­manded that they cru­cify him. Now many of us had hoped that it was he who would de­liver Is­rael from the yoke of the gen­tiles. But that is not all. It is now the third day since he was cru­ci­fied, and cer­tain women have this day amazed us by declar­ing that very early this morn­ing they went to his tomb and found it empty. And these same women in­sist that they talked with this man; they main­tain that he has risen from the dead. And when the women re­ported this to the men, two of his apos­tles ran to the tomb and like­wise found it empty”—and here Ja­cob in­ter­rupted his brother to say, “but they did not see Je­sus.”

190:5.4As they walked along, Je­sus said to them: “How slow you are to com­pre­hend the truth! When you tell me that it is about the teach­ings and work of this man that you have your dis­cus­sions, then may I en­lighten you since I am more than fa­mil­iar with these teach­ings. Do you not re­mem­ber that this Je­sus al­ways taught that his king­dom was not of this world, and that all men, be­ing the sons of God, should find lib­erty and free­dom in the spir­i­tual joy of the fel­low­ship of the broth­er­hood of lov­ing ser­vice in this new king­dom of the truth of the heav­enly Fa­ther’s love? Do you not re­call how this Son of Man pro­claimed the sal­va­tion of God for all men, min­is­ter­ing to the sick and af­flicted and set­ting free those who were bound by fear and en­slaved by evil? Do you not know that this man of Naz­a­reth told his dis­ci­ples that he must go to Je­ru­sa­lem, be de­liv­ered up to his en­e­mies, who would put him to death, and that he would arise on the third day? Have you not been told all this? And have you never read in the Scrip­tures con­cern­ing this day of sal­va­tion for Jew and gen­tile, where it says that in him shall all the fam­i­lies of the earth be blessed; that he will hear the cry of the needy and save the souls of the poor who seek him; that all na­tions shall call him blessed? That such a De­liv­erer shall be as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. That he will feed the flock like a true shep­herd, gath­er­ing the lambs in his arms and ten­derly car­ry­ing them in his bo­som. That he will open the eyes of the spir­i­tu­ally blind and bring the pris­on­ers of de­spair out into full lib­erty and light; that all who sit in dark­ness shall see the great light of eter­nal sal­va­tion. That he will bind up the bro­ken­hearted, pro­claim lib­erty to the cap­tives of sin, and open up the prison to those who are en­slaved by fear and bound by evil. That he will com­fort those who mourn and be­stow upon them the joy of sal­va­tion in the place of sor­row and heav­i­ness. That he shall be the de­sire of all na­tions and the ev­er­last­ing joy of those who seek righ­teous­ness. That this Son of truth and righ­teous­ness shall rise upon the world with heal­ing light and sav­ing power; even that he will save his peo­ple from their sins; that he will re­ally seek and save those who are lost. That he will not de­stroy the weak but min­is­ter sal­va­tion to all who hunger and thirst for righ­teous­ness. That those who be­lieve in him shall have eter­nal life. That he will pour out his spirit upon all flesh, and that this Spirit of Truth shall be in each be­liever a well of wa­ter, spring­ing up into ev­er­last­ing life. Did you not un­der­stand how great was the gospel of the king­dom which this man de­liv­ered to you? Do you not per­ceive how great a sal­va­tion has come upon you?”

190:5.5By this time they had come near to the vil­lage where these broth­ers dwelt. Not a word had these two men spo­ken since Je­sus be­gan to teach them as they walked along the way. Soon they drew up in front of their hum­ble dwell­ing place, and Je­sus was about to take leave of them, go­ing on down the road, but they con­strained him to come in and abide with them. They in­sisted that it was near night­fall, and that he tarry with them. Fi­nally Je­sus con­sented, and very soon af­ter they went into the house, they sat down to eat. They gave him the bread to bless, and as he be­gan to break and hand to them, their eyes were opened, and Cleopas rec­og­nized that their guest was the Mas­ter him­self. And when he said, “It is the Mas­ter—,” the mor­ontia Je­sus van­ished from their sight.

190:5.6And then they said, the one to the other, “No won­der our hearts burned within us as he spoke to us while we walked along the road! and while he opened up to our un­der­stand­ing the teach­ings of the Scrip­tures!”

190:5.7They would not stop to eat. They had seen the mor­ontia Mas­ter, and they rushed from the house, has­ten­ing back to Je­ru­sa­lem to spread the good news of the risen Sav­ior.

190:5.8About nine o’clock that evening and just be­fore the Mas­ter ap­peared to the ten, these two ex­cited broth­ers broke in upon the apos­tles in the up­per cham­ber, declar­ing that they had seen Je­sus and talked with him. And they told all that Je­sus had said to them and how they had not dis­cerned who he was un­til the time of the break­ing of the bread.