Slide 2:
12 After this he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country.
13 And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them.
Slide 3:
These verses parallel Luke’s account of the two men on the road to Emmaus (Lk. 24:13-35).
When Mary Magdalene and the other women reported that Jesus had risen they weren’t believed because they were women and in the human experience people didn’t rise from the dead.
Now we have two men with the same experience and again they aren’t believed.
In order to believe that he rose from the dead you would have to make the leap of faith that what he preached, is what he meant and now all of his predictions had come true.
Slide 4:
These men were leaving Jerusalem and thus had given up all hope in the Resurrection and have decided to return home.
Why do you suppose that Jesus decided to appear to these two in “another form?”
Jesus wants to restore confidence in the two who have been in mourning because of his death and the mourning had then turned into despair.
Jesus like any other good teacher brought these two men, these two students, back to the basics.
And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. (Lk. 24:27)
Slide 5:
Once the review lesson was complete they recognize him as Jesus and then returned to Jerusalem with the news that they too had seen the Resurrected Jesus.
They like the women before them were not believed because the remaining 11 Apostles held on more firmly to the world, their humanity and thus hardened their hearts to the spiritual world of faith.
Miracles still happen on a daily basis yet we have come to take them for granted.
If you don’t believe in miracles check with a nurse, doctor or EMT.