Recognizing Jesus - Part IV
"And He said to them, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into "His glory?" And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." (Luke 24: 25-27)
As our story continues to unfold, we see the Jesus "taking the disciples to school." He has joined them on their walk to Emmaus and listened to them complain about their disappointment in HIS failure to meet their expectations. (Remember, the disciples still don't recognize Jesus is with them!) After having listened to their understanding of what just happened concerning His arrest and death, Jesus responds. Here's the challenge ... can we find ourselves today in this same place? Oh, we may not be complaining about the same issues as the disciples, but we find ourselves complaining about God not meeting our expectations of how He should be responding in our circumstances. As mentioned in "Recognizing Jesus - Part III," we stand still, looking sad, and wonder how God could have so completely missed it in our lives. Then Satan takes the opportunity to plant seeds of doubt, discouragement and bitterness in our lives because, after all, God let us down ... again. Or did He?The story takes an interesting turn at this point. Jesus lets the disciples speak their mind and then He speaks the truth. Let's look at what He said:
- "O foolish ones" - This isn't a slam, it's a rebuke. Jesus is saying is reprimanding them for their lack wisdom. They have allowed themselves to interpret the events based on their wisdom, not His. Their filter is off. Their lens is wrong. Of course it doesn't make sense to them, they are looking at things from an earthly perspective when what they need is a heavenly perspective. This is such a temptation for us. We have to make sure that we aren't viewing situations from an earthly vantage point, but a heavenly one. God sees things differently from us because His gaze stretches much further than ours. ("Mr. Holmes, you must widen your gaze. I'm concerned you underestimate the gravity of coming events." I love that line!) We see in part, He sees in whole. We need His wisdom to see our circumstances in light of His plans, not ours. Ultimately, He is the One writing the narrative of our lives in His much grander story.
- "and slow of heart" - This is an interesting expression. (After having dated for 10 years before I proposed, my wife often accuses me of being "slow of heart!" But that's another blog altogether.) Jesus points out that they were slow of heart. They were guilty of letting their emotions guide their beliefs and cloud their understanding. This is easy to do. Think of how often we respond to something emotionally without really understanding what happened. We go with our knee-jerk reaction and move into self-defense mode. (Often believing the worst and adopting the "Chicken Little" mentality. I saw the movie about Chicken Little a while back and I can honestly say I don't remember a thing about it! Back to Jesus ...) The problem is that in protecting ourselves, we close off our ability to truly understand the situation. And Jesus refers to that as being "slow of heart." They were slow to believe what was in front of their eyes the whole time. (They probably had the scriptures memorized at this point ... but they still didn't understand them. One more side note ... can you imagine having memorized the first 5 books of the bible? Not to mention the whole Old Testament. I have trouble memorizing my username and password. Whoever decided to add the feature where you can recover your password ... SHEER GENIUS! Back to Jesus ...) Paul reminds us in Romans 10 that "with the heart one believes." Not only did they lack wisdom, they lacked belief in God.
- "to believe all that the prophets have spoken!" - this is referring to the Word of God. Lastly, we need to remember to lean on the Word of God in moments like these. We can fall into the trap of writing our own translation of the bible if we are not careful. One that is written through the eyes of our wisdom and our disappointment. (This reminds me of the Jefferson Bible. In it, Thomas Jefferson took the Gospels and removed all portions pertaining with the supernatural or perceived misinterpretations by the authors. His aim was to extract only the "doctrine" of Jesus. A kind of "cut and paste" Christianity.) While this may seem extreme, we can be just as guilty of paraphrasing God's promises to fit our understanding of who He is. Where we interpret His intentions through our filter and explain "what He really meant." But here's the point, God doesn't need us interpreting His intentions, just believing in His nature. What He is looking for is a people so convinced that He is who He said He is, that they won't budge from what He has revealed in His Word already. We need to be able to look at the revelation in His Word and stand on it. This is who He is! And the great news ... He doesn't change!
- "Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things AND enter into "His glory!" - Let's face it ... sometimes suffering is necessary to enter into the "glory" that God has for us. Suffering reveals our weaknesses and the impurities often buried below the surface. In it, God can refine us like gold in the furnace. Suffering can produce in us and through us what we wouldn't voluntarily step into in our comfort. And Jesus throws open the cover of the bible and PROPERLY interprets for them what God has to say about what He just went through. He puts God's plans on the table for them to see. He peels back the curtains of their understanding and allows them to look through the window of God's understanding. AND AT THAT POINT, EVERYTHING CHANGES!
So here's the challenge for us. What is driving our understanding of what is going on around us:
- God's wisdom or man's wisdom?
- Belief in God or belief in ourselves?
- Trust in the Word of God or trust in what others are saying?
To be continued ...
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