On the road to Emmaus, the risen Jesus joined two of His disciples, unrecognized by them, as they were discussing the things that had happened over the past few days and that culminated that morning in the discovery of the empty tomb. They had believed in Him as the Messiah who would deliver Israel, but He was brutally suppressed by their own religious and political leaders and crucified—the same thing that always happens in this world to those who oppose the power of its rulers. Although they clearly understood His prediction that He would be delivered up, put to death, and raised again on the third day, of which it now was, still, even with the discovery of the empty tomb, because they couldn’t account for what had happened to His body, as much as they wanted to believe, they couldn’t—it made no sense to them. What should we learn from this about those times in our own lives when God’s promises seem to make no sense to us in light of our circumstances, because from our own limited understanding we can’t imagine how they could possibly come to pass? Cf. Mar 5:35-36, 9:23.
After chiding them as foolish men (lit. unthinking, or not perceiving) and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets had foretold, He then upended their understanding with the truth that fallen humanity resists and finds so difficult to accept as to even imagine it could be true: that God’s greatest glory is not found in the breaking forth of His magnificent power to destroy His enemies, but in the even more magnificent power of a humble, servant’s heart that is willing to subject itself to suffering, even suffering unto death upon a cruel cross, in order that His enemies might not be destroyed but reconciled to Himself; cf. Rom 12:21. For it was this understanding of His own example that His disciples would soon follow to turn the world upside down and establish God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven; cf. 1Pe 2:18-3:1, 4:12-14, 5:10. What does Luke say that Jesus then did to open their eyes to this truth? See Luk 24:27 Was it the case that the prophets themselves clearly understood the things about the Christ that they themselves had written about through His Spirit? See 1Pe 1:10-11. Was it only from fallen men that this unexpected truth was hidden? See 1Pe 1:12, and note that to look there means literally to stoop down to look, as when Jesus’ disciples had to stoop down to look into the empty tomb; cf. Eph 1:10, 3:10, Phil 2:10, Col 1:20.
Starting where does Luke say that Jesus began to explain the things about Himself to these two disciples? See Luk 24:27. Where in the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible) written by Moses does it speak of Jesus? See Gen 3:15,21 (cf. Gal 3:27), Gen 22:18 (cf. Gal 3:16), Gen 49:10 (cf. Joh 18:31-32), Lev 23:10-11 (cf. Mat 28:1), Num 12:3 (cf. Mat 11:29, 21:5 where the same word used in the LXX meaning meek and gentle is used of Jesus), Num 21:6-9 (cf. Joh 3:14-15), Deut 18:15-19, 34:10 (cf. Joh 1:21, 5:46, 6:14, 7:40, Act 3:22-23, 7:37), Deut 21:23 (see Joh 19:31, Gal 3:13). What does Luke mean by all the prophets from which Jesus explained to the two disciples about Himself? Was He just referring to what we know as the major and minor prophets located at the end of our Old Testament? Note: these were known to the Jews as the latter or writing prophets to distinguish them from the oral prophets like Elijah, Elisha, Nathan, and many others whose ministries are only mentioned in what they referred to as the former prophets (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings); cf. Zec 1:4, 2Ch 36:15-16. I.e., all the prophets also referred to what we refer to as the historical books; see, for example, 2Sam 7:12-13. Although He started with Moses and “all the prophets”, was it from just these Scriptures that He was able to explain Himself to them? See again Luk 24:27. How did the Jews refer to this third part of Scripture? Cf. Luk 24:44 and note that Psalms was the most prominent book of the third part known as the Ketuvim or Writings (in Greek, the Hagiographa or holy writings); the Hebrew Bible is also known as the TaNaK, which word combines the first letters of these three parts: Torah (law), Nevi’im (prophets), and Ketuvim (writings).
Besides in the books of Moses, where else in the rest of Scripture may Jesus have explained about Himself to the two disciples as they were conversing on the road to Emmaus? See Ruth 3:9 (cf. Gal 3:27), 2Sa 7:12-13 (cf. Mat 22:42, Luk 1:32-33), Psa 16:9-10 (cf. Act 2:27-31, 13:34-37), Psa 2:1-7 (cf. Act 4:25-28, Rom 1:2-4), Psa 22:1,7-8,12-22 (cf. Mat 27:35,39-44,46), Psa 34:19-20 (cf. Joh 19:36), Psa 41:9 (cf. Joh 13:18), Psa 69:21 (cf. Mat 27:34,48), Pro 9:1-6 (cf. Col 2:3), Song 2:4 (cf. Joh 14:1-3,21,23, Eph 5:31-32, Rev 19:7-9), Ecc 12:11 (cf. 1Co 2:7-8), Isa 7:14 (cf. Mat 1:23), Isa 9:6-7 (cf. Mat 28:18, Luk 1:35, Joh 1:14, Eph 1:20-22, Heb 1:8, Rev 19:11), Isa 11:1 (cf. Act 13:22-23, Rom 15:12), Isa 11:2 (cf. Joh 1:32-33, Act 10:38), Isa 40:11 (cf. Joh 10:11), Isa 50:6 (cf. Mat 26:67, Joh 19:1), Isa 53:4-9 (cf. Mat 8:17, 27:12-14,57-60, Luk 23:9, Joh 19:9, Act 8:30-35, 1Pe 2:22-24, 3:18), Jer 23:5-6 (cf. Mat 1:21, Rom 3:22, 1Co 1:30, 2Co 5:21, Phil 3:9), Eze 34:23-24 (cf. Heb 13:20, 1Pe 2:25, 5:4), Dan 9:24-26, Zec 9:9 (cf. Mat 21:5), Mic 5:2 (cf. Mat 2:6, Joh 7:42), Zec 13:7 (cf. Mat 26:31,56), etc… Note also that once our eyes are opened to the truth about Christ, the truths concerning Him are found imprinted throughout Scripture in more subtle types and prophecies, such as the author of Hebrews brings out about Melchizedek (Heb 7).