Jesus said, “Thus it was written and so it happened that the messiah is to suffer and rise from the dead on the third day. In his name, repentance and forgiveness of sins are to be preached to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.
Luke 24.46-48
In this story Luke reflects the experience of the Christian community after Jesus’ resurrection. As Jesus’ followers continue to use Israel’s scriptures in worship, they hear them in a new light. Jesus fulfills the scriptures in ways they do not expect. Jesus is the stone the builders reject that becomes the cornerstone—Psalm 118.2. Jesus is the suffering servant in the prophetic poetry of Second Isaiah (Isaiah 53).
The process of remembering and trying to understand events stirs the disciples’ deepest hopes to new life. We continue this process each time we wrestle with the meaning of the scriptures for ourselves.
When have you found Jesus alive in the midst of the Christian community with whom you open the scriptures and break bread?
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