Christ stopping at Emmaus.
We have here:
I. A striking illustration of our Lord's method of teaching which was, to give more when that already given had been duly received. He did not pretend to open truth after truth, just as though His whole business had been to furnish to the world a certain amount of revelation, whether they would hear or whether they would forbear; but He watched with great attentiveness the reception of truth, and He added or withheld according as that reception did or did not indicate love for truth and a readiness to obey its demands. And the importance to ourselves of observing the course which Christ pursued on earth lies mainly in this. We have no reason to suppose that such course was followed only in the days of His public ministry, but rather that it was universally characteristic of God's spiritual dealings. Let there be a real anxiety for spiritual wisdom, an honest wish to ascertain, in order that you may obey the Divine will; and one lesson shall lead on to another, and you shall always be drawing from Scripture, and yet always feeling yourself to be farther off than ever from exhausting its stores. There is every now and then, with regard to ourselves, a stopping at Emmaus that it may be seen whether you are willing to part with your teacher.
II. A most emphatic warning as to the danger of losing golden opportunities, or of letting slip, through ignorance or procrastination, the means of acquiring great accessions of knowledge and grace. We cannot but think that Christians would escape many of those changes of which they so feelingly complain, and enjoy far more of unbroken fellowship with God, if they were watchful for such moments as those in the streets of Emmaus moments at which desertion seems likely to succeed to presence, or darkness to light; but which are really moments at which the Redeemer, having vouchsafed some rich manifestation, only waits to be importuned that He may vouchsafe a yet richer. They whom privileges make languid in prayer may justly expect to find their privileges diminished; but they, on the contrary, who pray the more fervently as their privileges increase, will find in every spiritual blessing the germ of a brighter.
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit,No. 2,662.
References: Luke 24:32. Homiletic Quarterly,vol. iii., p. 281; G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines of Sermons,p. 305; Preacher's Monthly,vol. ii., p. 607; Ibid.,vol. iii., p. 234; H. P. Liddon, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxv., p. 257; Ibid., Easter Sermons,vol. i., p. 256; J. R. Macduff, Communion Memories,p. 202.Luke 24:33-35. Spurgeon, Evening by Evening,p. 146.