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My Dear Shepherds, Don had been a faithful churchgoer all of his 80 years
but when he came to our church his faith didn’t know what to think. He waited
for the sermon like a man who hadn’t eaten. He’d sit right down front in rapt
attention. He believed in Christ. He loved Communion more than most. But he’d
had no idea how rich and life-giving Scripture was. When Jesus appeared incognito to Cleopas and his fellow
disciple on the Emmaus road they were like Don. They were deeply committed to
Jesus and “had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.” But
they couldn’t make sense of Jesus’ death or the angels’ proclamation of his
resurrection. Then this Stranger, who had seemed oblivious to what had happened,
said , “How foolish you are, and how slow to
believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer
these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the
Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning
himself. (Luke 24:25–27) Those two disciples bear a striking resemblance to
folks in your church. Your people may be further down the road with Jesus
than those two but God put you among them, Bible in hand, to serve in Jesus’
stead. Devout disciples—ourselves included—are still prone to be
uncomprehending and slow to believe what lies plain in Scripture unless
someone opens our minds. By “foolish,” Jesus meant they were undiscerning, blind
to the obvious. They weren’t “slow to believe” the Scriptures because they
were hardhearted but because they expected too little. They thought they knew
more than they did. They saw the Passover, for example, like we might study a
stained-glass window at night, without ever seeing the light that made it
beautiful. They knew Isaiah’s Servant Songs but evidently they had never
factored them into their hopes for Jesus. Disciples are still like that,
seeing only so far in Scripture; believing only so much. I’m sure you’ve puzzled over why those two disciples
“were kept from recognizing” Jesus. One reason is that if they’d recognized
his face they wouldn’t have been able to concentrate on seeing him in the
Scriptures he was explaining so vividly. Incredibly, seeing Jesus in
Scripture might be even better than seeing him in person! It was clearly
enough to enflame their hearts. Now, we take Jesus’ place in walking with his
disciples. He’s there, but they just see us. So before we meet them, we’d
better study the Word diligently and prayerfully, assuming that we, too, are
prone to be oblivious to what lies before us unless Jesus teaches us and
we think, hard. Not every passage is about Jesus but he delights
to meet us in every text to show us God’s grace and truth embedded there. We
are not called to simply explain the Bible. We are to reveal Christ. Because
when our people see Christ their hearts are set afire. There was another guy like Don. Tom and his wife came
to our church for their grandchild’s dedication, and never left. It was God’s
Word that held them. They drank it in. Tom always sat in the second row, left
side, and when I preached he just stared at me. I joked with him once, “Tom,
you never take notes.” He replied, “I’m not taking my eyes off you.” He might
have been looking at me, but in those sermons he was seeing Jesus. Be ye glad! Source: Lee Eclov Retired Pastor, PT Contributor, |
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