Icon of the Road to Emmaus – F22

Description

On the Day of the Resurrection, Christ appears first to the Virgin Mary and also to Saint Mary Magdalene, Saint Peter, and then Saint Luke and Cleophas, who are shown here taking a Sabbath’s Day walk (around 2,000 cubits, or about 7/8ths of a mile).  The two Disciples were walking on the road to Emmaus and were discussing the events of the last few days when Jesus had suffered His Passion and Death.  Although Saint Luke and Cleophas had heard about the report from the Myrrh-Bearing Women that Christ was Resurrected, as of yet the other Disciples as a group had not yet seen the Resurrected Lord, as He would appear to them later behind locked doors

Not recognizing Jesus Christ at first, they thought that He was a stranger who didn’t know what had just happened in these last days.  Christ then explains how the Messiah must suffer, die, and be risen.  It was only when they stopped to eat and then in the breaking of the bread that they knew Him.  They then exclaimed, “Did not our heart burn within us, while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us the Scriptures” (Luke 24:32).