The Emmaus story is about a day when Jesus walked and talked with some of his followers, but they didn’t even recognise him. Here is what happened.
Read the story below or click here to watch a PowerPoint of the story produced by Cafod
After Jesus was crucified and risen from the grave, two of his followers were walking on the road that led to a town called Emmaus. They were sad and were talking about what had happened to Jesus. Suddenly, Jesus joined the disciples and walked along with them, but they did not know who he was because God kept them from recognizing him.
“You seem to be having a very serious discussion. What are you talking about?” Jesus asked them.
One of the men answered, “You must be the only person in Jerusalem that doesn’t know what has happened the past few days,” Then they told them about how Jesus had been crucified, and buried, and that some women had gone to his tomb, but the tomb was empty. “We have heard that he is alive,” they said, “but we have not seen him.”
“Do you find it so difficult to believe what was written by the prophets in the Scripture?” Jesus asked. “It was predicted by the prophets that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his time of glory.” Then Jesus quoted passages from the writings of the prophets, explaining what the Scriptures said about himself.
By this time, they had come to Emmaus and the disciples invited Jesus to stay with them since it was getting too late in the day to travel. So Jesus stayed with them and when they sat down to eat, Jesus took the bread and blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them. Suddenly, their eyes were opened and they saw that it was Jesus. Then just as quickly as he had appeared to them, Jesus disappeared.
They were so happy and excited to have seen Jesus that they ran back to Jerusalem to tell the others that they had seen Jesus.