That very day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all the things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him.

And he said to them, "What is this conversation which you are holding with each other as you walk?" And they stood still, looking sad.

Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, "Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days:"

And he said to them, "What things?"

And they said to him, "Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since this happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his body; and they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb, and found it just as the women had said; but him they did not see."

And he said to them, "O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He appeared to be going further, but they constrained him, saying, "Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent."

So he went in to stay with them. When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognized him; and he vanished out of their sight.

They said to each other, "Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?"

And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven gathered together and those who were with them, who said, "The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!"

Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.
                                                        [Revised Standard Version]

 

The symbolism of this walk to the small town of Emmaus outside of Jerusalem with Jesus after the Resurrection is extraordinarily fruitful.  Emmaus Ministries began as a counseling ministry, and I first used the image to picture the counseling situation, two persons walking with the unseen Christ to discover Him and themselves in that journey. 

The process of "inner healing" or "the healing of memories" is precisely such a journey, walking back into one's past memories, inviting Jesus to come to be the Lord and Savior right in those troublesome memories which haunt our past life, mostly buried under the weight of repressive pressure.  

As Jesus becomes the Lord and Savior in those circumstances, we are set free to be our real selves, to live in reality, live in the light.  Biblical Inner Healing is a book about that process, and about the wider subject of a Biblical psychology, a Biblical understanding of human nature, what it means to be whole, how we get broken, and how God restores us back into wholeness. 

But it is also a parable of our public lives, our "journey perilous" into adulthood, our self-discovery in Christ, our life in the public arena, as we deal with the inescapable fact of our dependent and vulnerable natures.   The walk with Jesus is the walk into reality (all of it, physical, emotional, relational, political, -- nothing is left out), into wholeness, into the abundant life. 

None of us sees Him at first, but as we allow our selves to be honest with Him and He with us, then life begins to happen. 

E. Fox 

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