Getting Schooled By A "Stranger"...

This week we are looking at an encounter that two individuals had with Jesus on the very first Easter afternoon. Yesterday, we looked on as, unknown to these two men, Jesus, after being raised from the dead, had joined them on their journey as they headed back home from Jerusalem. And as Jesus joined them on their journey, Luke tells us that Jesus joined in on their conversation.

We looked on as these who men spilled their guts to Jesus regarding all that they had witnessed in their last week of following Jesus. We looked on as these men explained to Jesus that they were depressed and disappointed that following Jesus did not turn out how they thought it would. These men were depressed , disappointed, and heading in the wrong direction. Today, we see

Luke reveal for us how Jesus responded to the story that these men told in Luke 24:25:

  And He said to them, "O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! "Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?" Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.

Luke tells us that Jesus responded to these men by basically saying to them “Are you so foolish and so dull to believe all that the prophets had predicted and proclaimed when it came to the Messiah! Don’t you understand that it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer and to enter the splendor and radiance of who He is?” Luke tells us that Jesus then basically gave these two followers of His a Bible study about what the Old Testament predicted and proclaimed about the Messiah.

Jesus basically started at the book of Genesis and went through every letter that makes up what we have today in our Bibles as the Old Testament and revealed how the entire Old Testament pointed to Him being the Messiah. Jesus basically started at the book of Genesis and went through every letter that makes up what we have today in our Bibles as the Old Testament and revealed how the entire Old Testament pointed to how the Messiah would suffer and die and then be raised from the dead.

Here is a question to consider: Don’t you think that Jesus was depressed and disappointed with His followers that first Easter? Don’t you think that Jesus was depressed and disappointed when He was raised from the dead to see no one at the tomb waiting for Him? After all, on three separate occasions Jesus had told His followers that He would be arrested, tried, killed and would be raised from the dead on the third day.

Yet on the third day, that first Easter Sunday, there was no one outside Jesus tomb as the sun rose that day. Jesus followers were not outside the tomb playing rave music and having a countdown as the sun rose in anticipation of Jesus rising from the dead. When Jesus exited the tomb and saw none of His followers waiting for Him, what do you think went through Jesus mind?

Do you think that Jesus was depressed and disappointed that His followers were depressed, disappointed, and heading in the wrong direction? Do you think that Jesus was depressed and disappointed that some of His followers who had walked with Him were now walking away from Him? However, Jesus did not respond to what occurred that first Easter Sunday by walking away from His disciples.

Instead, Jesus responded to what happened that first Easter Sunday by pursuing His followers. Jesus responded to what happened that first Easter Sunday by walking alongside those who He was pursuing so that He could reveal the reality that He was who they had hoped He was.

Now, I want us to take a minute and imagine ourselves as one of these two men who were walking away from Jesus and who had unknowingly encountered Jesus. Can you imagine what that Bible study must have been like? Can you imagine Jesus going through the entire Old Testament to reveal who He was and that what happened to Him had been predicted and proclaimed to happen thousands of years earlier? Can you imagine what you would be thinking as you listened to this stranger teaching you about the man you had been following? Can you imagine how you would be feeling? Luke reveals for us what happened after Jesus finished His Bible study with these two men in verse 28:

 And they approached the village where they were going, and He acted as though He were going farther. But they urged Him, saying, "Stay with us, for it is getting toward evening, and the day is now nearly over." So He went in to stay with them. When He had reclined at the table with them, He took the bread and blessed it, and breaking it, He began giving it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight.

Can you imagine what that must have been like? Can you imagine inviting this stranger who had just blown your mind with all the he knew about the Bible and what it said about the Messiah to stay with you instead of traveling through the night? Can you imagine preparing a meal for your guest, only to have the guest ask to pray over that meal? Can you imagine what it must have been like to have your eyes open that all this time you had been traveling with Jesus as He began to hand out the food to you?

Can you imagine what would be running through your mind as you suddenly connected the dots that this was the same Jesus that you had eaten so many meals with before? Can you imagine watching Jesus vanish before your eyes only moments after connecting those dots? If you were one of those followers of Jesus, what would you be thinking at this point? What would you be feeling? How would you respond? We see how followers responded to their encounter with Jesus in verse 32:

  They said to one another, "Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?" And they got up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found gathered together the eleven and those who were with them, saying, "The Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon." They began to relate their experiences on the road and how He was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread.

Luke tells us that these two followers of Jesus who were walking away from Jesus responded to their encounter with Jesus by heading straight to Jerusalem to find the rest of the disciples. Their encounter with Jesus placed a burning desire with them to head straight back to Jerusalem to share their encounter with Jesus with others. Upon arriving in Jerusalem, Luke tells us that these two followers of Jesus related their encounter with Jesus to the rest of the disciples.

But not only did they relate their encounter with Jesus; Luke tells us that they also backed Peter’s claim to have encountered Jesus. These two followers of Jesus shared in great detail the events of that afternoon and evening that led them to connect the dots to the reality that they had encountered Jesus. These two followers of Jesus shared in great detail the events of that afternoon and evening that led them to the belief that Jesus was alive and was who they had hoped that He was.

However, as these two followers of Jesus shared about their encounter with Jesus, there was another individual who would make an appearance to the disciples. Friday, we will see Luke introduce us to that individual...