Happy Easter! The Lord is risen! He is risen indeed!

The following is an excerpt from the Gospel According to Luke, chapter 24, verses 1-35 as edited by David Norton in The New Cambridge Paragraph Bible. If you are an experienced reader of the King James Version, you will be surprised to notice quotation marks around the dialogue. These were added by the editor. But in his edition, the paragraphs are extended pericopes. I have further broken up the paragraphs to make the narrative read more as a novel, to increase the reader’s appreciation for the action and dialogue in the narrative.

The reason I selected this passage was because I was curious as to the origin of the traditional Easter greeting in which one believer meets another and salutes him with “The Lord is risen!” to which the other believer replies, “He is risen indeed!” One source directed me to this passage regarding the men who met Jesus on the road to Emmaus who were greeted by the disciples when they came to report their experience to them.

May this reminder of the truth of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ comfort us, and encourage us in our faith and hope in him as we await his return.

“Christ is risen!”

“He is risen indeed!”

* * *

Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulcher. And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments.

And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, ‘Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spoke unto you when he was yet in Galilee, saying, “The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again”.’

And they remembered his words, and returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest. It was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles. And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not.

Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulchre, and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass.

* * *

And behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs. And they talked together of all these things which had happened. And it came to pass that while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them. But their eyes were held that they should not know him.

And he said unto them, ‘What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk and are sad?’

And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, ‘Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days?’

And he said unto them, ‘What things?’

And they said unto him, ‘Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people. And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him. But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and besides all this, today is the third day since these things were done.

‘Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre: and when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive. And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not.’

Then he said unto them, ‘O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?’ And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went, and he made as though he would have gone farther. But they constrained him, saying, ‘Abide with us: for it is towards evening, and the day is far spent’. And he went in to tarry with them.

And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and broke, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him, and he vanished out of their sight.

And they said one to another, ‘Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?’

And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, saying, ‘The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon’.

And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread.

Luke 24:1-35 (Norton, David, ed. The New Cambridge Paragraph Bible. © Cambridge University Press 2005, 2011.)