13 That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14 and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened.
15 While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus Himself drew near and went with them.
16 But their eyes were kept from recognising Him.
17 And He said to them, “What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?” And they stood still, looking sad.
18 Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered Him, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”
19 And He said to them, “What things?” And they said to Him, “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and how our chief priests and rulers delivered Him up to be condemned to death, and crucified Him.
21 But we had hoped that He was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened.
22 Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, 23 and when they did not find His body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that He was alive.
24 Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but Him they did not see.”
25 And He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!
26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into His glory?”
27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.
The first point we need to bear in mind here is when Luke says in verse 27 that Jesus interpreted to Cleopas and his friend “in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself,” He was referring to what we know as the Old Testament. What a privilege it was for those two men that day. Can you imagine being part of that Bible study! God though, in His infinite wisdom, has not revealed the conversation Jesus had with the two disciples that afternoon.
The Bible commentator William McDonald does a wonderful job in summing up how all Christians feel when he writes, “It was a wonderful Bible study, and how we would love to have been with Him then!” However, he continues by writing, “But we have the same Old Testament, and we have the Holy Spirit to teach us, so we too can discover in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.”
What this means is that when we take the time to study the Old Testament and rightly interpret it, we will see the same things Jesus revealed on the Emmaus road that day. We will see that the Old Testament is a message of the Messiah and His Gospel, the message of His death and His resurrection. The Old Testament is about Jesus, and this is such an important point to bear in mind, because how often have we heard sermons from the Old Testament about David and Goliath, and the main point of the teaching is how we can learn to slay the giants in our life?
Or we’re taught to have the courage of Gideon, or we should dare to be a Daniel? These accounts and many others we find in the Old Testament are not meant to teach us moral lessons on how to be better people. These accounts are there to point us to the central character of the Old Testament - the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible is not about us - it’s about Christ.
When we place ourselves into the Bible stories as the primary character, and apply the message to ourselves, we are doing what is known as eisegesis. We are writing our own life story into the Biblical text. Webster’s dictionary defines eisegesis as “the process of interpreting text in such a way as to introduce one’s own presuppositions, agendas or biases. It is commonly referred to as reading into the text.” This is not how we are to study the Bible. When we do this, we are making the Bible all about ourselves. Now of course, as we study the Scriptures, we should be asking what this means to me, and how this teaching should affect my life and my faith. We should be asking questions like, “How does this comfort, encourage or challenge me?” We certainly should be doing that. The Word of God has to be applied in our lives, but we are not the central character in Bible. Jesus is.
The opposite of eisegesis is exegesis. When we exegete the text, we are drawing out the meaning of the text, rather than reading our own interpretation into it. I realise this all sounds a bit technical, and maybe not that important, but it is. The Bible is a written account of who God is, and what He has done in order for us to be saved. The Bible reveals the Gospel of Jesus Christ to us. He is the central character of the Scriptures, and we need to learn to read it objectively, and not subjectively.
The whole of the Bible, including the Old Testament, is about Jesus.
As He walked with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, He had already lived a perfect life, fulfilling the will of God all the way to the point of death, and God vindicated Him and declared Him to be righteous by raising Him from the dead. And now, He declares after His resurrection to Cleopas and his friend that He had come to fulfill everything that was written in the ancient Scriptures about Him.
The New Testament Gospel is the Old Testament Gospel. When the apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:3-5, “I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve,” the Scriptures he is referring to here is the Old Testament. The New Testament had not been written yet, but Paul still talks about the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.
The New Testament makes it clear that the Gospel it proclaims is not new. It is first presented in the Old Testament. What Paul and the other New Testament writers do is to point out that Jesus Christ is the promised Messiah that the Old Testament prophets talked about. You’ll remember from last Sunday, that which was a shadow in the Old Testament, now becomes substance in the New Testament. It’s the same story which flows throughout the Bible. What was promised, is now fulfilled in Christ.
In John 5, Jesus is talking to the Jews about how John the Baptist bore witness about Him. He says to them in verses 33-35, “You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.” What was Jesus talking about here?
He called John the Baptist a burning and shining lamp. There was no doubting John’s enthusiasm. He had a charisma that brought light to his listeners. His passion was pointing people to Jesus. At first, the Jews flocked to John the Baptist. He was something of a novelty, and for a while they accepted him as a popular religious teacher. Jesus’ question to His listeners in John 5 was, why, after accepting John so willingly, would they not accept the One of whom John preached? They were caught up in the moment and all of the emotion of John’s fiery preaching, but there was no repentance. They received the forerunner, but would not receive the Messiah.
Jesus then ramps up the pressure in the next 5 verses. “But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has Himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, His form you have never seen, and you do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom He has sent. You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” (John 5:36-40)
But still Jesus is not finished. At the end of the chapter He says, “Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” (John 5:45-47)
These words would have pierced His listeners to the heart, and they are very important in how we understand that Jesus is the central character of the Old Testament writings.
Jesus says, seemingly cryptically in verse 45, “Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father.” Of course, there were many charges He could bring against them, but His point is that there was no need for Him to do it, because the writings of Moses would be sufficient to accuse them. The Jews took great pride in the Old Testament and especially in the first five books written by Moses, the Torah. They were proud that these Scriptures were given to Israel. But the trouble was that they did not obey the words of Moses, as verse 46 shows. Jesus put the writings of Moses on the same level of authority as His own words when He said, “If you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.” In essence, what He was saying was, “I am the one Moses promised, but you refuse to come to me to have life.” The great irony is that it was Jesus, and not the unbelieving Jews who was put to death for the sin of blasphemy.
Jesus was referring directly here to the words of Moses in Deuteronomy 18:15-18.
“The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers - it is to Him you shall listen - just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ And the Lord said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him.’” Peter, in Acts 3 also quoted this passage.
Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is breathed out by God,” so whether we are reading the Old or the New Testament, we are reading the Word of God, so if the Jews had believed the words of Moses, they would have believed the words of Jesus also, because the prophets, including Moses, wrote about the coming of Christ.
In Deuteronomy 18 Moses prophesied the coming of Jesus, and he told his readers to listen to Him and obey Him when He came. Now Jesus had come, but the Jews failed to receive Him. This is what Jesus meant when He said Moses would accuse them to the Father because they pretended to believe in Moses, but they failed to do what Moses commanded.
Jesus’ challenge to His listeners in John 5 was basically this: If you don’t believe and obey Moses, how will you believe my words?
He tells the parable of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16, and Jesus ends the parable with words that echo John chapter 5.
“There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’” (Luke 16:19-31)
Jesus is the promised Messiah which the Old Testament prophecies all point to, and unbelief in Jesus Christ, who He is and what He has done is the sin that condemns. Deny Christ, and you are committing the unpardonable sin, because it is His death on your behalf that saves you, but if you refuse to accept His death for your sins, you are lost. It is Christ, and Christ alone that saves.
As we’ve seen in recent weeks with our focus on the Easter narratives, Isaiah 53 is one of the better known Old Testament prophesies of the cross, where Jesus is represented as the suffering servant. Verses 4 through 6 is probably the most-quoted passage in Isaiah 53. “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned - every one - to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
We know those words so well, because we hear them repeated during Easter each year, but we do need to read on into verse 10: (In the NKJV) “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgressions of My people He was stricken. And they made His grave with the wicked - but with the rich at His death, because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief.” (Isaiah 53:7-10)
It pleased the Lord to bruise Him. Where have we heard those words before?
Isaiah’s prophecy is not the first time in the Old Testament we are told just how lost sinners will be saved. It actually begins all the way back in Genesis 3.
“The Lord God said to the woman, ‘What is this that you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’ The Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.’” (Genesis 3:13-15)
It all began in the Garden of Eden, where God promises a single male offspring of the woman. The grammar used here is important. It’s a single masculine pronoun which is associated with the offspring of the woman, who will ultimately bruise the head in a death blow to the serpent himself while at the same time the offspring of the woman will suffer. This is what the Lord meant in verse 15 when He said to satan, “You shall bruise His heel.”
The Cross of Calvary is first proclaimed in Genesis 3. Right at the very beginning, even before God declares His judgment on Adam and Eve for their sin, a Saviour is promised.
Through the offspring of a woman, the virgin Mary, God will raise up a human man who destroy evil itself. He will defeat the one who has been a murderer from the beginning, who comes to steal, kill and destroy. This man, the second and final Adam, will succeed where the first Adam failed, because not only will He be fully human, but He will be fully God.
It is Jesus Christ alone who will triumph over sin, death and the grave. And the first promise of this victory is not in the New Testament. It is all the way back in the Old Testament, and it is promised the moment sin came into our world.
Just what did Jesus say to Cleopas and his friend on the Emmaus road that Sunday afternoon? We don’t have the details, and again, as McDonald wrote, “It was a wonderful Bible study, and how we would love to have been with Him then.”
What we do know is this: Jesus did not teach them any great moral lessons. He didn’t tell them to be like David and slay the giants in their lives. He didn’t tell them to be a fearless and courageous champion like Gideon or Joshua. No - He opened the Scriptures concerning Himself to them. He opened their eyes to the truth of who He is, and what He has done for them. He proclaimed the power of the Gospel, and that made all the difference.
We began today with the conversation between Jesus and the two disciples. As we pick up the story again, just listen to the remarkable transformation the preaching of Christ crucified and risen from the dead we see in them.
“Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if He were going farther, but they urged Him strongly, saying, ‘Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.’ So He went in to stay with them. When He was at table with them, He took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognised Him. And He vanished from their sight. They said to each other, (and here it is…) ‘Did not our hearts burn within us while He talked to us on the road, while He opened to us the Scriptures?’ And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, ‘The Lord has risen indeed!’” (Luke 24:27-34)
Their hearts burned within them as the Scriptures were opened, and the Gospel of Christ was preached to them. That is what made all the difference to those men.
Homegroup Study Notes
Read Luke 24:13-27
It is easy for us to be critical of the two disciples, because we know how the events unfolded.
How have we made the same mistake of not seeing the Gospel message in the Old Testament?
What is your understanding of the terms eisegeis (reading into the text) and exegesis (drawing out of the text)? (Wikipedia may be helpful here.)
Why is it important for us to read the Bible objectively, rather than subjectively?
Read Isaiah 53:4-10 and Genesis 3:13-15
Discuss the similarities in these two passages, and how they prophesy the events at Calvary.
Many Christians, especially those new to the faith, struggle to make sense of much of the Old Testament, particularly when they read about the seemingly unnecessary bloodshed.
How would you try and explain the difficult parts of the Old Testament to new Christians, or to someone who is genuinely trying to make sense of the Bible?