Resurrection Sunday: Promise Fulfilled

Now that same day two of them were on their way to a village called Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem. Together they were discussing everything that had taken place. And while they were discussing and arguing, Jesus himself came near and began to walk along with them. But they were prevented from recognizing him. Then he asked them, “What is this dispute that you’re having with each other as you are walking?” And they stopped walking and looked discouraged. The one named Cleopas answered him, “Are you the only visitor in Jerusalem who doesn’t know the things that happened there in these days?” “What things?” he asked them. So they said to him, “The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet powerful in action and speech before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him. But we were hoping that he was the one who was about to redeem Israel. Besides all this, it’s the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women from our group astounded us. They arrived early at the tomb, and when they didn’t find his body, they came and reported that they had seen a vision of angels who said he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they didn’t see him.” He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Wasn’t it necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things and enter into his glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted for them the things concerning himself in all the Scriptures. They came near the village where they were going, and he gave the impression that he was going farther. But they urged him, “Stay with us, because it’s almost evening, and now the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them. It was as he reclined at the table with them that he took the bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, but he disappeared from their sight. They said to each other, “Weren’t our hearts burning within us while he was talking with us on the road and explaining the Scriptures to us?” That very hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem. They found the Eleven and those with them gathered together, who said, “The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!” Then they began to describe what had happened on the road and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

The Old Testament and the New all tell One story

On this road to Emmaus, we find a Jesus that has been crucified but also and raised

The two traveling disciples aren’t sure what to believe about the women’s report that Jesus is alive.

Note, these aren’t folks that are part of the 12

These are other disciples.

Cleopas is one

Who is the other?

Unknown, but potentially his wife.

As we meet them, they are discussing the recent events with sadness (Luke 24:17).

Luke 24:17 CSB

Then he asked them, “What is this dispute that you’re having with each other as you are walking?” And they stopped walking and looked discouraged.

Jesus’s question prompts them to explain the meaning of their sadness, but it also opens the door to challenge it.

Using their own description of these events to explain their foolishness, Jesus reminds them that the Scriptures were the source from which they should have ascertained that the Messiah’s death was promised, but that was not to be the end of the story.

This is a Jesus lead systematic Bible study.

Moses and all the prophets formed the starting-point, but he also went on to the things that referred to himself in all the scriptures.

All of the Old Testament points to Jesus

Luke gives no indication of which passages the Lord chose, but he makes it clear that the whole Old Testament was involved.

throughout the Old Testament a consistent divine purpose is worked out, a purpose that in the end meant and must mean the cross.

The terribleness of sin is found throughout the Old Testament and so is the deep, deep love of God.

In the end this combination made Calvary inevitable.

The two had wrong ideas of what the Old Testament taught and thus they had wrong ideas about the cross

If we don’t understand what scripture, in particular the OT, is teaching us, we can misunderstand the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus.

God’s Unfolding Plan

All of Scripture, including and especially the Old Testament, is not a simple collections of bronze age stories about a particular ethno-religious group

Rather, scripture is the record of God’s unfolding plan for the redemption of all of creation.

The walkers to Emmaus had thought that God’s story was how he was going to redeem from suffering

But instead God’s plan was to redeem through suffering.

In particular the suffering of the messiah.

Jesus is taking a verse here, a verse there and proof-texting.

No, Jesus is showing them how the whole story of scripture, from Genesis through Malachi points to a fulfillment, a healing, a restoration that could only occur when God’s anointed, who had to be God incarnate, took on the suffering and sin of the world, died under it’s weight and punishment, and rose again as the beginning of God’s new creation, God’s new people.

This is what scripture to this point, what we call the Old Testament had promised.

And now, that promise has been fulfilled.

We should be able to read the Old Testament and see Jesus all over it.

It’s all about Jesus

It all always has been about Jesus, even when people didn’t realize it.

Jesus is the “hinge of history”

The resurrection

Jesus Meets us

Here is the thing, however. This “hinge of history.” This God-Man that has given his own life to suffer and die for us, is not aloof and separated from us.

If he were, this wouldn’t be good news.

Rather, the story of Emmaus is a great example of how Jesus meets us in our despair, our hurt, our brokenness, our pain, and can lead us back to the road of confidence.

Jesus comes to these two disciples, in their darkest hour, in their confusion, in their hurt and pain, and shows them how it is that He is putting all things back together.

He search and search for an answer. We look in all the wrong places.

HE IS THE ANSWER!

We need to be reminded of God’s work in our lives.

Acts, things to do, to be reminded

Journaling

Celebration of the Lord’s Table

Baptism

Anointing

Seeing life through the lens of Scripture and letting God tell us his story, no matter our difficulty in understanding it, helps us keep our focus and look for God’s work among us.

The two on the road to Emmaus were saddened by what they perceived as a great loss; however, Jesus helped them remember that what appeared to be a loss was in fact the world’s greatest gain.

This can only happen when we encounter the risen Lord, when we allow him to come along side us, to bind our wounds, to heal, reclaim, and restore us.

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