Beginning with Moses
Beginning with Moses
Scripture Reading: Luke 24:27
And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself…
The post-resurrection story of the two disciples who were walking to Emmaus is one of my favorite Bible stories. I can easily find myself in the place of these two downcast disciples. A “woe is me, all is lost” attitude isn’t difficult to acquire. When we seek to understand why this couple was so distraught, the answer isn’t eluding us.
They missed Jesus.
It’s not just that they missed seeing the resurrection happen. While that is true, that wasn’t the root cause of their despair. It wasn’t even that they hadn’t yet been witnesses to the risen Lord’s physical presence. That would happen, but it is not what Jesus wanted them to build their despair-destroying hope on.
Instead, Jesus took them on a biblical journey. He gave them a crash course on Old Testament Survey with an emphasis on Christology. He didn’t say, “Look, it’s Me standing here!” He said, “Look at what Moses, David, and Isaiah wrote. They were all pointing to the Christ. Don’t you believe them?”
There was a man who Jesus told about that said if someone could come back from the dead and warn his brothers they would repent and believe. Jesus responded that if someone won’t believe Moses and the Prophets, they won’t believe if someone rises from the dead.
Throughout December I have tried to point out a few places among the many that exist, that the Old Testament points us to Christ. It has not been meant to be an exercise in thinking, “That’s interesting,” it has been meant to be an exercise in building faith – the kind of faith that crushes despair, the kind of faith that makes our hearts burn within us, the kind of faith causes us to run to others and “The Lord has risen indeed.”
