The bull of St Luke

The Gospel of Luke

The Resurrection of Jesus: Luke 24

What may have struck you as you read this chapter is that it is a well constructed and carefully put together whole. It has been called "From eye-witnesses to Ministers of the Word.

The grammer is such that the opening sentence reads: And while they rested on the sabbath according to the law then on the first day of the week at early dawn..."

Following this stess on time, the next beginning is, as expected, in 24,13 "that same day.."

There is then a third reference to time, in verse 33: "that same hour...". There is also a change of place in this verse with the return of the two disciples to Jerusalem.
Normally, the Emmaus story is taken as continuing to verse 35. Making verse 33 its conclusion gives us a notable time frame for this chapter: early dawn...the same day...the same hour.
It is important that all this is told as taking place on one day, even if that seems rather implausable.

In verse 50, there is no reference to time though there is a change of place, to Bethany.

We therefore have three episodes to this chapter and a conclusion:
24,1-12: the tomb, at early dawn
24,13-32: Emmaus, that same day
24,33-49: Jerusalem, that same hour
24,50-53: Bethany, and back to Jerusalem

The whole chapter is centred on Jerusalem, neither Emmaus nor Bethany being far away. This is quite different to Mark and Matthew where the stress is on the forthcoming appearance in Galilee. John has a second appearance of Jesus eight days later (Jn 20,26). Luke has to centre on Jerusalem so as to prepare for the Acts of the Apostles, his second volume. The theme of the chapter as a whole is to lead from the resurrection to the opening of Acts.

The first part, 24,1-12, the empty tomb, is told in all four Gospels. Comparing 24,1-12 with Mk 16,1-16 indicates that even here Luke's account is different. The rest of the chapter is unique to him.
In all three episodes, the Easter proclamation is made: "on the third day" is present in each one (24,7.21.46)

In conclusion, we have three pages for our reading as above, taking 24,33-53 (Jerusalem) as one page.

Let us now return to the main page

The Sunday Gospel

The presentation of this chapter in the Sunday Lectionary and the way it spreads the chapter around the various years of the cycle is not satisfactory. What Luke has presented as a unity has been broken into pieces.
It would have been a better presentation if the Emmaus story had followed the Gospel of the Easter Vigil by being read on the 3rd Sunday of Easter in year C. (The tradition is that John chapter 20 is read on the first two Sundays of Easter in all three years of the cycle.)
However, there would still have been a few more weeks before the last part of the chapter is read for the Ascension.

We can return to the main page and begin our reading of the chapter.