He Opened the Scriptures Again
“Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures."
—Luke 24:45
Salmonberry plant growing beside an ancient petrified log beneath blue sky with drifting white clouds.
Sometimes the greatest lessons come when we least expect them. The day Jesus rose from the dead began not with celebration but with confusion. Some of His followers had heard reports that the tomb was empty. Others spoke of angels. Many simply did not know what to believe. Hope and uncertainty walked side by side that morning.
Among those struggling to make sense of everything were two disciples who quietly left Jerusalem and began the long walk home to a nearby village. They were discouraged and deeply disappointed, trying to understand how the One they believed to be the promised Messiah had been crucified. From their perspective, everything they had hoped for seemed to have come to an end.
As they walked along the road, a stranger joined them. Luke tells us that their eyes were kept from recognizing who He was. Rather than immediately revealing Himself, Jesus did something wonderfully unexpected. He asked questions, listened carefully, and allowed them to tell their story before He offered a single explanation.
I have always loved that about Jesus.
The One who already knew every answer first took time to hear their hearts.
After listening patiently, Jesus said,
"How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Wasn't it necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things and enter into his glory?"
—Luke 24:25–26
Then Luke gives us one of the most remarkable sentences in all of Scripture.
"Then beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted for them the things concerning himself in all the Scriptures."
—Luke 24:27
Throughout this book we have been asking one question.
Why did Jesus choose these Scriptures?
Now we discover something even more beautiful. Jesus did not point them to only one prophecy or one familiar passage. Instead, He walked through the Scriptures as a whole, helping them see that the story they had been reading all their lives had always been pointing toward Him.
Can you imagine that walk? Perhaps Jesus began in Genesis with the promise that the offspring of the woman would crush the serpent's head. Perhaps He continued through Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Jonah, Isaiah, the Psalms, and Daniel. Luke does not tell us exactly which passages Jesus explained, and I have often wondered if that was intentional. Instead of giving us a transcript, God gives us something even better—an invitation to search those same Scriptures for ourselves.
As I think about that walk, one truth stands out more than any other. Jesus did not begin by saying, "Look at Me." He began by opening the Scriptures. That had been His pattern throughout His entire ministry, and it remained His pattern after the resurrection.
He began by saying,
"Let's open the Scriptures."
That has been the pattern throughout His ministry.
When He was tempted in the wilderness, He answered with Scripture. When He faced difficult questions, He opened the Law and the Prophets. Even from the cross, His words directed people back to the Psalms. Now, after His resurrection, the risen Lord continues doing exactly what He has always done—opening the Scriptures so His followers can truly understand them.
The risen Lord still teaches through the Scriptures.
Eventually, the two travelers reached the village where they planned to spend the night. Jesus accepted their invitation to stay with them, and as He took the bread, blessed it, and broke it, something extraordinary happened.
Luke tells us,
"Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him."
—Luke 24:31
Just as suddenly, He disappeared from their sight. Looking at one another in amazement, the two disciples exclaimed,
"Weren't our hearts burning within us while he was talking with us on the road and explaining the Scriptures to us?"
—Luke 24:32
I have often wondered what that conversation must have been like—not because I wish Luke had recorded every word, but because I realize that, in a small way, we have been walking that same road together. Since the opening chapter of this book, we have followed Jesus from Genesis to the Prophets, through the Psalms and into the Gospels, listening as He opened familiar passages and revealed His Father's heart through them. In many ways, we have been walking beside those two disciples all along.
There is one final scene that brings this journey to its perfect conclusion. Later that evening, Jesus appeared to the larger group of disciples and reminded them that everything written about Him in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms had to be fulfilled.
Then Luke records one of the most beautiful sentences in all of Scripture:
"Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures."
—Luke 24:45
I cannot imagine a more fitting ending to this journey. The twelve-year-old boy who amazed the teachers in the Temple because of His understanding of the Scriptures had become the risen Lord who now opened the minds of His own disciples. The Teacher had never changed. Only now His students finally understood.
As I close this book, I find myself asking a different question than the one with which we began. Instead of asking, "What Scriptures did Jesus teach?" I now ask, "How can I learn to read them as He did?"
Perhaps that is the invitation Jesus leaves with every one of us. Read slowly. Read prayerfully. Read each passage in its context. Allow Scripture to illuminate Scripture. Look for the Father's heart, and look for the promises that point to Christ. Above all, keep walking with Jesus.
He is still the greatest Teacher who has ever lived. Although we cannot walk beside Him on the dusty roads of Galilee, we can still meet Him in the Scriptures He loved, fulfilled, and patiently opened for His disciples.
Perhaps that is why Luke tells us that their hearts burned within them. It was not simply because they had learned something new. It was because, at last, they had seen the One to whom the Scriptures had been pointing all along.
