Thursday, December 19 ~ Miriam

Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan is Revelation 15; Nahum 1-3.

Today's scripture focus is Luke 24:13-32.

The Road to Emmaus

13 And behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 And they were talking with each other about all these things which had taken place. 15 While they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself approached and began traveling with them. 16 But their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him. 17 And He said to them, “What are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you are walking?” And they stood still, looking sad. 18 One of them, named Cleopas, answered and said to Him, “Are You the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days?” 19 And He said to them, “What things?” And they said to Him, “The things about Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people, 20 and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to the sentence of death, and crucified Him. 21 But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened. 22 But also some women among us amazed us. When they were at the tomb early in the morning, 23 and did not find His body, they came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said that He was alive. 24 Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just exactly as the women also had said; but Him they did not see.” 25 And He said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” 27 Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.

28 And they approached the village where they were going, and He acted as though He were going farther. 29 But they urged Him, saying, “Stay with us, for it is getting toward evening, and the day is now nearly over.” So He went in to stay with them. 30 When He had reclined at the table with them, He took the bread and blessed it, and breaking it, He began giving it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight. 32 They said to one another, “Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?”

I like this story.  Jesus came to the two men on the road, but they were not able to recognize him, and he explained how all the prophecies of the old testament had been fulfilled through the events that had just occurred, now, while it was all still fresh in their minds.  His first priority after coming back from the dead was to teach.  He really and truly wanted people to understand who he was and how the events had all fulfilled the prophecies the Jews had waited so long to have fulfilled, but not in the way they had expected.  The sermon by Mark Driscoll is quite humorous and I really enjoyed it.  If you'd like to read or listen to it, you can find it here.  I'll just take a couple of excerpts.

“While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him.” And this is that you can be physically alive and yet spiritually blind. And here they don’t see Jesus for who he is, even though he’s right there.

The sad truth is that that is the state of all people who are apart from Christ and those of us who are in Christ that choose to close our eyes to the truth of Christ. God has to open our hearts. He has to open our minds. He has to open our eyes. He has to open our understanding.

And so for those of you who have non-Christian family, friends, coworkers, neighbors, they’re not stupid. They’re blind. It’s not necessarily that they’re opposing what they see; they don’t see Jesus clearly.

That’s this great illustration here. Jesus is right there, and they don’t see him. They don’t see him for who he truly is.

And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets . . . ” That’s another way of saying the Old Testament Scriptures. At this point in history the New Testament had not yet been written. “. . . he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”

Coolest Bible study ever. Jesus is like, “Let’s start in Genesis. Here I am. Exodus, more me. Leviticus, ha, me, too.” He just kept going. He just kept going through the Old Testament, taking all of the Scriptures and connecting them to himself. “This is about me, this is about me, this is about me, this is about me.”

IT’S ALL ABOUT JESUS

Here’s what’s really important. This is how Jesus taught the Bible. There’s morality in there, but it’s not primarily about morality. There’s religion and tradition and history, and miracles and the supernatural in there, but it’s not primarily about all of that. All of that is secondary. It’s primarily about Jesus.

Happy Thursday!

Tomorrow's scripture focus:  Luke 24:33-43

Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage:  Revelation 16; Habbakuk 1-3