Isaiah 56-58, Proverbs 29:1-14, Luke 24:13-27, Hebrews 12:1-13

Luke 24:13-27:

What a conversation this must have been! On that famous road to Emmaus, two of the disciples are wondering and worrying about what all the events surrounding Jesus’ death could possibly mean. They had had such high hopes concerning him, and yet they had only thought he was a prophet mighty in deed and word. Now his death threatened that perspective. And now it was three days since he had died, and some women of their company had told them that they had found the tomb empty, that they had met angels who had told them that Jesus was alive. They could not make head nor tail of it all.

Jesus, whose identity had been hidden from their eyes, now intervened and interpreted for them all the Scriptures the things that concerned Jesus—that the Christ must suffer these things and then enter his glory. At this point the story is only half told (more tomorrow), but as it is, it leaves us on a cliffhanger. When the Scriptures, meaning here the Old Testament, are rightly taught, understood, interpreted and believed, they point to the death and the resurrection of the Messiah. The whole Bible centers on that event of the cross.

The natural question then that we must ask ourselves this morning is: do our lives also center on this great event of the cross? Do they center on the cross even when we are confused and uncertain? Is the cross the lens through which we interpret the Scriptures?

The Bible is not a book of religious how-to instructions for the best way to live life under the rules. The Bible is a book that reveals the salvation plan of God, all culminating in the death and resurrection of Jesus. As our thinking, and our living, becomes more Christ-centered and cross-shaped, then we will increasingly enter into the understanding and living that Jesus was teaching these two disciples.