As it draws close to Easter time, I believe every Christ Follower should read through the Gospel accounts of the last week of Jesus life on earth and then the resurrection accounts before His ascension. It always stirs up my anger at the injustice Jesus received in all the events leading up to and including His crucifixion. I'm always moved. I start feeling like Peter proclaiming that I'd never deny Jesus, grabbing a sword and cutting of somebody's ear or head or at least taking a swing at somebody. It's unfair what Jesus went through! But that's the point! It was unfair what Jesus had to endure for our sake. Those emotions that are stirred in all of us at Jesus' torture, humiliation and death should bring into clarity the cost that God paid to bring about our reconciliation with Him. It really should move us to get on our knees and cry out to God for forgiveness for insolence. We should be called to strip ourselves of our own ambitions and surrender to His.
There is so much to learn in rereading these potent passages. So many more emotions to experience, insights to gain. questions to ponder. We could spend weeks just pausing over each of the events leading up to those final hours on the cross and then the forty days after His resurrection. Following Peter's life alone during that time could costs us days of reflections. And each of the Gospels has a different perspective and brings a new light on those final days of Jesus life on earth.
As I was reading Luke's account of those days, I was forced to muddle over one of Jesus' encounters with the disciples in Chapter 24. Jesus unexpectedly appears to His disciples and says, "Shalom, homies." They freak out thinking they've seen a ghost. But Jesus calms them down, shows them His hands and feet complete with holes where the nails were driven through and tells them to touch Him to see if He is real. Then he grabs a filet-o-fish sandwich and chows down to prove He is really flesh and blood.
Now here's where it gets interesting. In verse 44, Jesus tells the disciples that He'd trying to explain to them all along that everything in the Law, Prophets and Psalms had to be fulfilled. Then in verse 45 the text says that He "opened their minds so they could understand scriptures." Whoa. Wait a minute! What does that mean? Did He perform a craniotomy? Crack open their thick skulls and insert something here?
Jesus had been teaching these guys for three years. What does it mean that He opened their minds? Did He do something magical or mystical here that they suddenly knew things they had never known? What happened? It may simply mean that He did with them what He did with the two men on the road to Emmaus, taught them from the beginning so they finally understood in a new light. The text doesn't really explain. It only says that He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.
Somehow the disciples finally got it. But the question remains how? That raises another question for me, "Can God give instant enlightenment or revelation to us today?" What do you think?
To be honest, I believe that that is one of the roles of the Holy Spirit. As we read and reread the Bible, the Holy Spirit gives us new insights and new understandings. The disciples had been taught only one interpretation of what the Messiah would do and be. It had been ingrained in them. And even after being with Jesus for three years they continued to hold to those beliefs. It wasn't until the Death, Burial and Resurrection played out before their very eyes that they could understand the truth of the prophesies. Sometimes God's Word is illusive to us because we are blinded by our own preconceived notions. It takes an honest look, a fresh look at His teachings with the aid of the Holy Spirit to clarify His truths. And that is how we should approach reading the Bible, with the goal the Holy Spirit opening our minds.
God, forgive me when I interpret Your Word with my own understanding. Open my mind through Your Holy Spirit so that I might have a right understand of Your truths and teachings.