Luke 24

Luke 24 records the pivotal events of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, detailing his appearances to the women at the tomb, the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, and the gathered Eleven, culminating in his ascension. The chapter emphasizes the necessity of Christ's suffering and resurrection according to the Scriptures and commissions the disciples to be witnesses of repentance and forgiveness to all nations.

• The women discover the empty tomb and receive angelic testimony that Christ is risen, fulfilling his own predictions.
• The risen Jesus joins two disciples on the road to Emmaus, where he corrects their misunderstanding of the Messiah's mission by expounding the Scriptures.
• Jesus reveals his identity to the Emmaus disciples in the breaking of bread, then vanishes, leading them to return to Jerusalem.
• Jesus appears to the Eleven, providing physical proof of his resurrection by showing his wounds and eating food, validating his bodily resurrection.
• Jesus commissions his followers to preach repentance and promises the power of the Holy Spirit, before ascending into heaven.

• The first day of the week
• The stone rolled away (ἀποκυλίω G617)
• The two men in shining garments
• The village of Emmaus (sixty furlongs from Jerusalem)
• The burning hearts of the disciples
• Eating a piece of broiled fish and honeycomb
• The promise of the Father (power from on high)

This chapter is the climax of Luke's Gospel, bridging the ministry of Jesus with the mission of the Church in the book of Acts. It establishes that the resurrection is not an aberration but the fulfillment of the entire Old Testament redemptive plan.

The reality of the resurrected Christ, confirmed by both the witness of Scripture and his physical presence, transforms the disciples from confused observers into empowered witnesses of the Gospel.

The narrative arc begins in confusion and sorrow (v1-17), moves to enlightenment through the interpretation of Scripture (v25-27, 44-45), and concludes with joy, worship, and the commissioning of the Church (v50-53).

• I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high (v49)

• Remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee (v6)
• Repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations (v47)
• Ye are witnesses of these things (v48)

• First-century Jewish expectation generally looked for a conquering Messiah, making the concept of a suffering Messiah a major stumbling block, as evidenced by the disciples' confusion (v21).
• Matthew Henry observes that the disciples' perplexity often arose from their failure to trust the words Christ had already spoken, noting that many of our mistakes in religion spring from ignorance or forgetfulness of Scripture.

• Burial practices involved the use of spices (ἄρωμα G759), which the women brought to the tomb (v1).
• The role of women as the first witnesses was significant, as their testimony was generally given less legal weight in contemporary society; their inclusion underscores the truthfulness of the report.

• This is the final chapter of Luke, providing the bridge to the Acts of the Apostles. It repeats the pattern of the Emmaus encounter and the upper room appearance to validate the resurrection.
• The terminology used for the resurrection (e.g., γίνομαι G1096, 'to become' or 'to come into being') is frequent throughout the chapter to emphasize the transition from death to life.

• The passage heavily utilizes the Old Testament as the foundation for the New. Jesus explicitly cites the 'Law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms' (v44), confirming the three-fold division of the Hebrew Bible.
• The teaching on the suffering Messiah fulfills earlier predictions in Luke 9:22 and 18:31-33.

• v44: Alludes to the entire scope of the Hebrew Bible (Law, Prophets, Writings/Psalms) as prophetic of Christ.
• v47: Connects to the Great Commission motif found in the closing chapters of the other Gospels and the opening of Acts.

• bathýs (βαθύς G901): Used in v1 to describe the early morning; while usually meaning 'deep,' here it signifies the deep, early time of dawn.
• diaporéō (διαπορέω G1280): Used in v4 for 'perplexed,' indicating a state of being thoroughly nonplussed or without a way forward.
• sōma (σῶμα G4983): Crucial term in v3; used to emphasize that the physical 'body' was missing, not merely a phantom.
• gínomai (γίνομαι G1096): Appears frequently, denoting the reality of events 'becoming' or 'coming to pass' in history.

• The disciples' initial inability to recognize Jesus (v16) is attributed to divine intervention ('their eyes were holden'), not a lack of familiarity or a disguise.
• The Emmaus road disciples' hearts 'burned' (v32) as a result of the systematic exposition of the Old Testament, not emotional manipulation.

• There is a long-standing theological debate regarding the 'all nations' (v47) in the context of the atonement. Reformed/Calvinist perspectives typically view this through the lens of particular redemption, while Arminian perspectives view this as an offer of universal atonement. The text itself focuses on the scope of the mission—that the message is no longer confined to Israel but extends to all nations—without explicitly resolving the mechanical nature of the atonement's extent.