2. Dear brothers and sisters! We too, at this hour, pray to the Lord: “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is drawing to a close” (Lk 24:29). May this invitation that the disciples of Emmaus address to the Lord guide our festive liturgy today; indeed, the Gospel for this Third Sunday of Easter leads us along the road to Emmaus. This place holds great significance within the context of the Easter events: it is a place of encounter with Christ, a place of the appearance of the Risen Lord.

In the interpretation of the Old Testament peoples, the Easter feast recalls the “passage” of the Lord, the exodus of the Israelites from the “house of bondage” in Egypt on their way to the Promised Land. God himself guides, liberates and saves his people. At the beginning of this exodus there was the sign of the lamb: its blood would mark the houses of the Israelites and save their inhabitants from the punishment of death; its flesh sustained the Israelites at the Last Supper before their departure.

Inspired by this faith of their people, the two disciples of Emmaus had taken part in the Jewish Passover feast in Jerusalem, and had also witnessed the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. When, on their way back, the Lord appeared to them without their recognising him immediately, he explained to them how the Passover feast of the New Covenant had been foretold in the events of the Old Testament; specifically, in the exodus from slavery to freedom. This exodus is now fulfilled in the passage from death to life, from sin to friendship with God. And this takes place once again with the help of a lamb: the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. Moses and the prophets, indeed the ‘whole of Scripture’, already speak of him and his destiny. This is why the risen Lord could rightly ask: “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” (Lk 24:25ff.).

3. Indeed, many statements in the Old Testament foretell the events of the Last Supper and Golgotha. These prophecies, however, would not have been fulfilled if the events of Easter had not taken place at the time and in the manner predetermined by God in Jerusalem. And despite all this, Jesus’ disciples did not immediately recognise the true meaning and deepest truth of this dramatic and moving event, which they experienced with their Master during the Jewish Passover. They found it difficult to ‘believe the words of the prophets’ (Lk 24:25ff.). This truth was so hard for them to recognise, as they were accustomed to a different understanding of the Holy Scriptures. Why should the Messiah have to suffer, be condemned and die on the cross, be despised and mocked as an outcast? Thus, at first, they are as if blinded, discouraged and sad, as if paralysed.

For human beings, it is and will always remain incomprehensible why the path to salvation must pass through suffering. This is why the encounter on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus is so significant; not only in relation to the events of Easter at that time, but forever, for all time – including for us. On this road, the disciples learnt from Jesus a new way of reading the Holy Scriptures and of discovering in them a prophetic testimony about him, a foretelling of him, of his message and of his mission of salvation. Through this teaching, the disciples are instructed by the Lord himself to become his witnesses. Thus Peter, in today’s liturgy, bears witness to the Lord’s resurrection from this new, deeper understanding of the Easter event before the people. In this light of Christ, the Risen One, he also understands and proclaims David’s psalm: “For you will not abandon my soul to the underworld” (Acts 2:27).

When Jesus reveals to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus the true meaning of Sacred Scripture, the apostles in Jerusalem already know that this psalm has been fulfilled in reality: “Truly the Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon” (Lk 24:26).

4. The encounter on the road to Emmaus is of great importance also because, in this way, Jesus emphasised to his disciples, after his death on the cross, that he remains with them. He is with them despite, or precisely because of, Good Friday and the Passion, and he will remain forever with his Church according to his promise: “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you” (Jn 14:18).

Christ is not merely the One who was, but far more the One who is. He was present on the road to Emmaus, and he is also present on all the roads of the world, along which his disciples walk, through the generations and the centuries.

5. Dear brothers and sisters! From the encounter with the Risen Lord on the road to Emmaus, new light dawned for the two disciples on the Holy Scriptures and on the events of Calvary; new light dawned in the darkness of their own lives. Light also dawns on the history and destinies of humanity and the Church, and therefore also on the Church of Augsburg. Christ showed how the Messiah ‘had’ to suffer in order to fulfil his saving mission. Is it not true that it is precisely in this light that we are able, at times, to see and understand the darkness and suffering that Christ’s disciples and the Church have faced on their journey through history? Through this, we are often able to recognise, in trials and sufferings, the good and caring hand of God, who through the experience of the cross leads us to salvation and resurrection.

[Pope John Paul II, homily in Augsburg, 3 May 1987]