Meeting the Risen Lord

KEY VERSE: “Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures?” —Luke 24:32

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Luke 24:13-21, 28-32

TWO of the disciples, being discouraged and confused after the crucifixion of Jesus, started to walk the approximately eight miles to the village of Emmaus which was probably home to one of them. They were so engrossed in their discussion of the events of the past two days that they hardly noticed the stranger who joined them as they walked. The stranger, of course, was Jesus “but their eyes were holden that they should not know him.” (Luke 24:16) Jesus said, “What manner of communications are these that ye have with one another, as ye walk, and are sad?” (vs. 17) It seemed impossible to the two disciples that anyone could have been in Jerusalem for the past two days and not be aware of the things that had occurred there. But they explained to the stranger all the things that had happened to Jesus and they revealed the state of their hearts and minds when they said, “But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, today is the third day since these things were done.”—vs. 21

The third day was important to these disciples because Jesus had promised that he would rise from the dead on the third day and they had no sure evidence that this had occurred. In Matthew 17:22,23 Jesus said, “The Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men: and they shall kill him, and the third day he shall be raised again.” But then Jesus, without identifying himself, said, “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”—Luke 24:25-27

We, of course, do not know the exact scriptures Jesus used, but we believe one of them would certainly be the words of Jehovah spoken through Moses in Deuteronomy 18:18,19. Moses was God’s servant and the mediator of the Law Covenant that was given to the Israelites at Mount Sinai. The prophecy states that Moses was a picture or a type of a future servant of God, Jesus, who would be the mediator of the New Covenant. The Apostle Peter in Acts 3:19-26 quotes this prophecy in part and applies it to Jesus.

Then, we believe that the beautiful ritual of the Day of Atonement sacrifices (Lev. 16) under the Law Covenant arrangement could have been used to illustrate the reality of the wonderful sacrifice for sins accomplished by Jesus. This fulfillment of the type was brought to our attention at a later time by the Apostle Paul in Hebrews 9:11,12, “But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption.” The animals that were sacrificed on the typical Day of Atonement pictured Jesus, who would offer his life once as an atonement for all sins.

Then Jesus would almost certainly have called to the attention of the disciples the prophecy concerning himself as recorded by the Prophet Isaiah. In the first three verses the prophet describes how the “root out of dry ground” (Jesus) was rejected and despised by his countrymen, the Jews. Then the prophecy continues to describe the life of trials and suffering and finally death that was the actual experience of Jesus. Some of these verses are as follows: “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. … He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth, … yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.”—Isa. 53:4,5,7,10

When Jesus revealed himself to them by blessing the bread they were breaking together, their eyes were opened and they knew him. It was then that they recalled how their hearts did burn within them as he opened the Scriptures to them.

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