Big Idea: Luke’s first record of an appearance by the risen Jesus is to two otherwise unknown disciples outside Jerusalem who do not recognize him until he breaks bread with them.

Understanding the Text

Following the discovery of the empty tomb, Luke’s Gospel records only two occasions (and hints at another one [24:34]) when the risen Jesus appeared to his disciples, both on the evening of Easter day itself, and chapter 24 taken alone would suggest that Jesus’s ascension followed immediately that same night. But Luke will record in Acts 1:3 that in fact Jesus appeared to his disciples frequently over a forty-day period leading up to the ascension, so that the few appearances recorded in his Gospel must be taken as only selected examples. Their interlinking, along with the sequence leadin…