What Jesus and the New Testament authors say about the Scriptures: Luke 24 (A)
Romans 16:25–27 is a helpful piece of background for understanding the account of the road to Emmaus in Luke 24. The narrative is straightforward enough. Two disciples are journeying toward Emmaus. Jesus comes among them and they fail to recognise him. They tell him some of what had recently happened concerning the death and resurrection of Jesus and he tells them that the prophets had made clear that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and then enter into his glory. Then, beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. After they have travelled a bit further with them he is finally recognised, at which point he disappears from their sight. They then reflect on the fact that their hearts had burned within them while he opened the OT Scriptures to them, at which point Jesus appear again and again opens their minds to understand the Scriptures.
The narrative is intriguing for a number of reasons. For example, there are the references to opening, to eyes, and to heart and mind.
• In verse 25 the disciples are said to be ‘slow of heart’.
• In verse 31 their eyes are opened and they recognise him.
• In verse 32 they explain how their hearts burned when he opened the scriptures to them.
• In verse 45 he opens their minds to understand the scriptures.
In the Old Testament God’s people are often said to be hard of heart or dull in their understanding or unable to see (we referred to this in the earlier discussion of Romans 16). Here, as Jesus walks and talks with them this hardness of heart, blindness, and dullness of understanding, dissipates in relation to the Old Testament scriptures. They become people who recognise, whose minds are opened, and whose hearts are warmed.
You can see how this builds on the information that we had from Romans 16 where Paul told us that God’s great purposes in Jesus Christ were made known in the Old Testament scriptures but that they were somewhat hidden from Old Testament people and they could not fully see, understand, or experience them. Luke 24 tells us that knowledge of Jesus and being taught by him leads to a revelation of the whole content of the Scriptures. In the words of Romans 16:25-27, the mystery hidden for long past is revealed, and this happens as Christ is known and experienced.
The implication is that the key to understanding what the Old Testament is really about is to see it in the light of who Jesus is and what he has done. The New Testament scriptures introduce us to Jesus and once we have met him and been taught by him we will be able to understand and receive the message of the Old Testament scriptures and we will find it to be a message full of Jesus.
It’s worth noting that a similar point could be made from 2 Corinthians 3, which also raises the concept of Israel’s hardness of heart. The difference appears to be that Luke 24 talks about Jesus rather the ministry of the Spirit, which appears to be Paul’s focus. For more on this, see Scott J. Hafemann, Paul, Moses, and the History of Israel: The Letter/Spirit Contrast and the Argument From Scripture in 2 Corinthians 3 (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1995), and 2 Corinthians, (NIVAC, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000).
None of this means that you need a special mystical experience of Jesus and that once you have this all the secrets of the Bible will be revealed. The Bible’s message can be read by anyone. However, I do think that it means what the New Testament says in numerous other places, that is that true interpretation of the Bible can’t be divorced from relating to the one to whom it points.