The Scriptures Concerning Christ

Introduction

The Setting

This part of the resurrection story takes place the very day that Jesus was raised. Two disciples, one whose name was Cleopas also known as Alpheus, and the other is unknown. They are walking from Jerusalem to a village seven miles outside the city. We later find out that these two had heard the report of the women who had seen the empty tomb and reported that they had scene the Lord. However, in verse 11 we read that the disciples did not take these reports seriously. The word of a woman was not valued in those days as being truthful or reliable, so in their cultural setting it was easy for the disciples to dismiss this claim. Peter, however, had gone down to the tomb and seen it empty and was surprised, wondering what might have happened.

These events happened before these two disciples left Jerusalem for Emmaus for some unknown reason, and their conversation is taken up by these things.

It is then that Jesus comes to them. We are told their eyes were kept from recognizing him, and this is probably the result of a few things. First, they did not expect to see Jesus, and so the possibility of this stranger being the Lord did not even come to mind. Second, because of their sorrow they were not as willing to look into the eyes of a stranger and have them see their grief. There may also have been a supernatural element to this, where their eyes were veiled to test their faith. So they do not recognize him as he asks them what they are talking about. From their answer, it is likely that Jesus had walked beside them for some time, overhearing their conversation, and the two disciples think this man simply lacks context for what he has clearly overheard.

Their answer is incredulous and they are surprised that even a visitor of Jerusalem surely must know about what had been happening. Jesus asks them to clarify, not for his own information but in order to probe them to see how they interpret the events they have witnessed and whether they see these events through the lens of fulfilled Scripture, or whether they are filled with the discouragement of unfulfilled hope.

They clarify that they are talking about Jesus of Nazareth, whom they esteem to be a prophet and mighty in deed and word before God and all the people. In verse 21 we see that their esteem for Christ had fallen since his death, for they say, “But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.” This is a hope that they no longer have, since he has been put to death by the chief priests and rulers, that is both religious and secular authorities. This betrays in them a very immature understanding of what the Messiah was supposed to do, as we will see. But in their limited perspective, the Christ, the anointed One of Israel, was to deliver the Kingdom of God from her enemies and reign forever in peace and security. Of course, we know this is true in an eschatological sense, but their view of these things again is very limited. They expected visual, apparent, and undeniable victory and instead they got their great Lord lifted on a cross to the scorn of all the world. What hope could there be in such an ending? We can sometimes forget just how unnatural the victory of the cross seems to the mortal man. Whereas the enemies of God lifted up Christ on a cross in shame, we lift up the cross in our preaching and faith with confidence in our victory through seeming defeat.

Why they mention that it is the third day is unclear. It may be a reference to Christ saying that on the third day he would rise, or it may be the language of the event being fully in the past, with no hope of those events being undone or new information coming to light.

Here the experience of the women are mentioned, though not with belief. Though the women’s account of the empty tomb was verified, the presence of the risen Christ was not.

Was It Not Necessary?

Here we come to the meat of our text, Jesus response to them while their eyes remain closed to his identity. Jesus responds to them first with a statement about the nature of their hearts, and a rhetorical question about the nature of the Messiah.

Foolish and Slow of Heart

Jesus gives these men two labels: foolish and slow of heart to believe.

In this context, Jesus in not calling them fools in the same way that Jesus commanded us not to call each other fools in Matt 5:22. There, saying “you fool” is to make a moral claim, to call someone a fool as opposed to the wise person who heeds the words of Christ. It is that sense which Psalm 14:1 uses

Psalm 14:1 ESV

The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good.

This kind of fool is a fool spiritually, rejecting God and his wisdom. This is the sense in which we are not to use the word fool to describe one another.

Fool also does not mean they are stupid or unable to use basic human reason. Jesus is not calling them in idiot.

Rather, fool here means ignorant. They are ignorant and lacking a true understanding of the Scriptures. It is not that they have not read the Scriptures, indeed they probably knew large portions by memoury. But knowing what they said, they were ignorant to what they were actually talking about.

They are also slow to believe. Not only are they ignorant of what the Scriptures say, what they do understand they are slow to accept. It is not that they are outright rejecting it as unbelievers, but their faith is weak.

With this combination of ignorance and weak faith, the result has been discouragement and a deep sense of loss and defeat. What they do not see is how the Scriptures anticipated this.

Suffer and Enter Glory

This is why Jesus follows with a rhetorical question: “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” In other words, Jesus is saying that if they had been paying attention and let the OT Scriptures speak for themselves, and if they had hearts that were quick to believe God’s revelation through the Prophets, they would have been able to expect this. In fact, this is the only way it could have happened. Because of their ignorance, they have taken something that actually proves that Jesus is the Christ and have interpreted it to mean that Jesus cannot be the Christ.

Jesus tells us that this was necessary. We saw on Friday that Christ asked the Father to let there be another way, but this was the way predestined and planned by the Godhead from eternity past. It had to be.

First, he had to suffer. There are a few reasons for this.

First, because it is the lot of God’s chosen prophets to suffer. Jesus, being a prophet and more than a prophet, would not fulfill the expectations of his office if he had not suffered. It has always been that the righteous suffer in this unrighteous world, and indeed Christ would suffer for the unrighteous world that sins may be forgiven and a people may be saved from the midst of this crooked generation. This is the theological principle that leads us to the conclusion that the Christ must suffer.

Second, because it was foretold, as we shall see. This is the Biblical principle which leads us to this conclusion.

And third, because only through suffering is true glory obtained. This is the logical conclusion. Only through testing is glory obtained. Jesus’ glory is all the greater because he suffered so much more. The greater his apparent defeat in this world on the cross, the greater his glory in his resurrection and ascension. There is no glory where there is no stress test or trial, and so we may logically infer that the Christ must go through a great deal of suffering in order to rise victorious in the end.

The Things Concerning Himself.

With this being the case, we come to Luke 24:27

Luke 24:27 ESV

And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

In expanding the Scriptures, the central point is that all of them point to him, the Christ, and specifically concerning his suffering and glory.

Jesus’ disciples should have known that fulfillment of the Scriptures was the centre of Jesus’ claims for who he was. At the beginning of his Ministry, while speaking in the Synagogue in Nazareth, Jesus had read from Isaiah 61:1-2 and claimed that this Scripture had been fulfilled in their hearing.

There is no Gospel in Christ if it does not find itself rooted in God’s previous revelation, and this is what Jesus appeals to in order to show that this suffering was necessary in order to achieve the glory of the Messiah.

Beginning with Moses. That is, beginning from the very beginning of Scripture, from the origins of the story of God and his people. Moses refers to the first five books of the Bible, known as the Pentateuch. The sufferings of the Christ are evident as far back as Genesis 3:15

Genesis 3:15 ESV

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

And the Prophets, which also spoke of the suffering servant. In this conversation, it is doubtless that Jesus spent a good deal of time in the book of Isaiah, specifically Is 53:4-6

Isaiah 53:4–6 ESV

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

And again in Is 53:11-12

Isaiah 53:11–12 ESV

Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

It is clear that through suffering, God’s people would be redeemed. As it was with the prophets who were persecuted before, so it mus be with the one to whom the prophets all pointed. Acts 7:52

Acts 7:52 ESV

Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered,

What that entire conversation sounded like, we can’t know for sure. But it has laid the foundation for how we, as Christians, read the OT. It is based on the phrase he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. Jesus is the point of the Scriptures, not only that he would die, but that he would be raised to life in glory and immortality, calling his people to the same eternal life which he won for himself on the cross. In the resurrection, Christ has guaranteed for us our own resurrection life to be shared with him in his glory.

Conclusion

Jesus finally revealed in the breaking of the bread, a remembrance of the Last Supper. Indeed, when we take of that Table as Christians by faith, we are able to recognize more clearly the face of our dear Saviour. In the Table we not only remember Christ’s sacrifice, but also his victory and the victory he has won for us all.

Did not our hearts burn within us. Reading the Scripture with wisdom, as God intended it, means reading it in a Christ-centred way. Not just theologically, but in a way in which all Scripture leads us each closer to Christ and the hope of his glory, which we will share in if we believe. It is, however, important for us to know and understand the Scriptures in relation to Christ and to our own lives, lest we be dismayed and discouraged as these poor men were.

Sharing the hope together (vs 33-34). Nothing brings the people of God together like the hope we have in the victory of Christ.

Glory. This is the reason all these things happened to Christ, for his glory to be revealed in his victory over the grave. If the suffering of the perfect Son of God had such glorious purpose, how much more should we trust that God will form that glory in us through our trials and sufferings. If we remain faithful, we will see that glory ourselves and be united to him to whom all glory belongs forever and ever, our Resurrected Lord. Amen.