Wrong Direction
After a late night of reading skeptical websites in high school, I fired off an email to my Bible study leader. I wanted to know how he could be a Christian when the Bible contradicts itself in hundreds of places. I copied and pasted the evidence, hit send, and went to bed discouraged. The next day, he invited me to discuss them one at a time. After we discussed about twenty of them, my heart softened. Over and over again, he kept showing me how the most obvious contradictions actually fit together. I just needed someone to help me understand.
Luke 24:13-35
Now on that very day, two of them were making their way to a village named Emmaus, seven miles or so from Jerusalem. They were talking together about all that had happened. And as they talked it over and debated, Jesus himself drew near and walked beside them, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him. He said to them, "What are you arguing about with each other as you walk?" They stood in place, looking gloomy. One of them, a man named Cleopas, answered him, "Are you the only one staying in Jerusalem who doesn't know what happened there in the past few days?" "What things?" he asked. They said to him, "All about Jesus of Nazareth. He proved to be a prophet, mighty in what he did and what he said before God and the whole people. And our chief priests and rulers gave him up to a death sentence, and they crucified him. But as for us, we had been hoping he was the one about to redeem Israel. And yet, on top of all this, today is the third day since these things occurred. And there is more. Some women from our group left us stunned. They had gone to the tomb at dawn, and they could not find his body. They came back saying they had even seen a vision of angels, who told them he was alive. So some of those with us went off to the tomb and found it just as the women had said. But they did not see him." Then he said to them, "How dull you are, and how slow your hearts are to trust everything the prophets spoke! Did the Messiah not have to suffer all this, and then enter into his glory?" And starting with Moses and on through all the prophets, he explained to them everything about himself in all the Scriptures. As they came near the village they were heading for, he walked on as if he were going farther. But they kept insisting: "Stay with us, for evening is coming and the day is almost gone." So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and began handing it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he was gone from their sight. And they said to each other, "Were our hearts not burning inside us as he was talking to us on the road, as he was opening the Scriptures to us?" They were on their feet that same hour and turned back for Jerusalem. They found the Eleven assembled there with the others, all of them saying, "The Lord really has been raised and he has appeared to Simon!" Then the two of them began to tell what had taken place on the road, and how he became known to them when he broke the bread.
Even though the women testified that angels revealed that Jesus was alive, and even though some of the male disciples found the tomb empty, Cleopas and his friend are walking away from Jerusalem. They had been hoping that Jesus would redeem Israel, but they can't see it for themselves. But they're still debating what it all means, so Jesus joins the conversation. Perhaps openly discussing our doubts and discouragements is an opportunity for God to meet us. These two friends are familiar with the Scriptures, which we would now call the Old Testament. They know what the prophets say; that's why they are waiting for God's Messiah. But after their leaders sentenced Jesus to death and crucified him, their grief overtook them. His suffering invalidated their expectations of triumphant deliverance. Understandably, when they couldn't see how a dead man could help them, they walked away. So, Jesus candidly rebukes them for their dull thinking and reluctance to trust God. It's uncomfortably confrontational. But his critique is tempered by his love. He has just been crucified for their sins. Then he walks down the road with them. He cares about their intellectual struggle and carefully explains to them everything that points to him throughout the Scriptures. (This conversation is part of the reason the New Testament quotes the Old Testament a couple hundred times, with thousands more allusions.) Most of all, he serves them bread, blesses them, and reveals his identity to them. For two of the least deserving disciples, Jesus puts their needs above his own. When God enables these friends to recognize they have spent the day with the risen Jesus, they are staggered. They risk the trip back to Jerusalem in the dark to share their testimony with the other disciples. When they arrive, they find their experience wasn't isolated: Simon also saw the risen Lord. (In the following passage, Jesus stands among them and emphatically confirms he is alive.) It's often said the resurrection is the key that unlocks the Bible. But the risen Jesus opens our hearts himself. He comes to us so we can receive not only the message, but his pattern of life together.
Have you ever felt the Old Testament and New Testament are disconnected or contradictory?
What does it tell us about Jesus that he took the initiative to explain the Scriptures to two discouraged friends?
Since Jesus had to endure suffering before entering his glory, how does that change how you view your disappointments and difficulties?
Text the question about the Bible you've never resolved to a friend. Ask them, "How does Jesus make sense of this?" Before you talk about it, ask God, "Would you please join this conversation and help us to see how you love us?"