A frequently employed narrative technique is the flashback: the writer or screenwriter begins by introducing the theme in its current context. But suddenly, the viewer or reader is catapulted into a jump back in time, illustrating the narrative with a series of highly significant events that might otherwise go unnoticed.
On the road to Emmaus, a path that connects Jerusalem with an ancient village around 30 kilometers away, walked two disciples of Jesus, overwhelmed by sadness. Their master was dead. He had been killed, nailed to a cross. Everything, absolutely everything that gave meaning to their lives, had vanished with him. And yet, the resurrected Jesus Himself, unrecognized by them, joined their trek at a bend in the road and answered all their questions. He explained the meaning of the Scriptures, starting with Moses and the Prophets, and illustrated the story with a unique flashback. Their minds, dulled by fatigue and sadness, opened to a new light and their hearts warmed in His presence. And, when at dinner time He made a gesture to move on, they begged Him: “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening.”
Saxum Visitor Center
The story of the encounter on the road to Emmaus in the gospel of St. Luke challenges the passage of centuries and continues to engage the men and women of today with all its beauty and emotional energy.
At a curve on the road that goes from Jerusalem to Emmaus stands a multimedia facility known as Saxum Visitor Center, which, using current technology, helps the visitor, the pilgrim, to penetrate the meaning of all kinds of insights received during their journey through the Lands of the Bible: the timeline neatly arranges facts and universally known events, interactive screens immerse the visitor in the reality of other times, other cultures, and describes the development of the most emblematic places that arise from their own ruins, generation after generation, to stubbornly draw attention to what has happened here.
Saxum Visitor Center
The air, the light, the stones, the landscape are, in a way, the same as in the time of Jesus. The Saxum Visitor Center, on the road to Emmaus, is an invaluable aid for the visitor; for the pilgrim, who wishes to become another character in the historical events and unravel their meaning.
By Carmen Rodriguez Eyre
Saxum Visitor Center