In Luke 24 Jesus raises from the dead, but the people are thinking he is still dead. Jesus appears to these two guys walking to a village and strikes up a conversation with them, but the men don’t recognize him. Jesus asks what they are talking about and to this they reply,
“The things that happened to Jesus, the man from Nazareth,” they said. “He was a prophet who did powerful miracles, and he was a mighty teacher in the eyes of God and all the people. But our leading priests and other religious leaders handed him over to be condemned to death, and they crucified him. We had hoped he was the Messiah who had come to rescue Israel. This all happened three days ago.
“Then some women from our group of his followers were at his tomb early this morning, and they came back with an amazing report. They said his body was missing, and they had seen angels who told them Jesus is alive! Some of our men ran out to see, and sure enough, his body was gone, just as the women had said.”
Then Jesus said to them, “You foolish people! You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures. Wasn’t it clearly predicted that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his glory?” Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
By this time they were nearing Emmaus and the end of their journey. Jesus acted as if he were going on, but they begged him, “Stay the night with us, since it is getting late.” So he went home with them. As they sat down to eat, he took the bread and blessed it. Then he broke it and gave it to them. Suddenly, their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And at that moment he disappeared!”
Jesus’ response to these guys is amazing, “You foolish people! You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures. Wasn’t it clearly predicted that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his glory?” Hey now, I resemble that remark.
I love the picture of the absoluteness of the scriptures Jesus displays. “You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures.” Yes, sometimes I do, it seems really dumb now that I would have ever doubted, but yes I did.
For me this speaks to the fact that faith is not directly attached to our emotions. Neither is the truth always reflected in the circumstances. Jesus had died and because of that these guys said, “We had hoped he was the Messiah who had come to rescue Israel.” Meaning his death was proof to them that he was not the Messiah. But Jesus said, “Wasn’t it clearly predicted that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his glory?”
These guys thought their hope was in vain. And Jesus said it’s foolish to not believe what was written.
Sometimes things don’t always look like you thought they were going to look. This can bring about discouragement, unbelief and hopelessness. When we focus too much attention on what we aren’t seeing we can forget about the promises, about the vision and purpose which created faith and action. These guys forgot and or overlooked/couldn’t remember what was written because they thought they were wrong to believe in Jesus. But Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus did rise from the dead. And there are promises God has spoken to us that will come to pass if we hold on to our faith and belief. Don’t get distracted by what you do or don’t see. Create such faith, belief and action that you pull that promise into reality. Come on somebody! God always means what he says!