“Seeing and Following the Risen Lord”
Luke 24
Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. [Luke 24:25-27]
Seeing the Resurrection “in all the Scriptures” is the emphasis. “And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.”
The volume of the Bible speaks of Jesus. “Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come – In the volume of the book it is written of Me – to do Your will, O God.” [Heb 10:7]
We saw this in our Good Friday scripture in Exodus 12 at the first Passover. Jesus fulfilled Passover by becoming the final Passover Lamb on the Cross.
But even back in Genesis 3:15 is the protevangelium, the first giving of the Gospel. The Cross and Resurrection run through the whole of Scripture.
What is interesting in the “Road to Emmaus” account that we will focus on this morning is when the two disciples recognized Jesus. It was only after He broke bread.
“Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight.” [Luke 24:30-31]
I oftentimes have pondered these verses and wondered, how was it that they did not recognize Him? And why only after the breaking of bread?
I am still not 100 percent sure but over the years I have come to realize that even though the volume of Scripture speaks of Jesus, it is not always Jesus that we come to know. The point is that you can know Scripture and not know Jesus, sad but true.
And perhaps that is what the breaking of bread signifies. Because it is in the breaking of ourselves that we come to recognize and see and know and follow the Lord.
“Lord” means Master and a servant obeys his Master. But it is the three enormous impediments called, “me, myself, and I” that keep me from obeying.
Life is in Christ, not self. And perhaps that is why they only recognized Him in the breaking of bread. Because it is in our breaking that we are able see and follow the Risen Lord.
