Belief and Hope
And he said to them, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. Luke 24:25-27
Belief and Hope
And he said to them, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. Luke 24:25-27
You may have been taught that World War 2 ended after Japan surrendered on September 2, 1945. But that would be incorrect. That is the correct date of the Japanese surrender, but the hostilities did not end on that date. Lt. Hiroo Onoda, an officer in the Japanese Army , was part of a small band of soldiers who were sent to the Philippines in December 1944. When the U.S. invasionary forces landed in the Philippines in February, 1945, Onoda and the remaining troops fled to the hill country and engaged in guerilla warfare. A Japanese man went searching for Onoda in the Philippine hill country and eventually found him. He told him that the war had ended. Onoda acknowledged that they had read fliers that had announced the end of the war, but believed it to be enemy propaganda. Onoda announced that he would not cease fighting until he received a direct order from his commanding officer. Onoda’s former commanding officer was found and sent to the Philippines where he gave the order to Onoda. On March 9, 1974, Hiroo Onoda surrendered, nearly thirty years after the war had ended. For three decades this man had been hiding, living off the land, fighting a war that to him never seemed to end. He did get the memo, he just didn’t believe it.
Jesus comes upon two people walking a road and talking. They were followers of Jesus, but they don’t recognize him. When Jesus asks them about what they are discussing, they stop right in the middle of the road with an expression of sadness and then proceed to tell him about what had happened. They recount that Jesus was a prophet mighty in Word and deed and that He had been crucified. Then they say that they had hoped that He was going to be the One to redeem Israel. There were also reports from of the women in their company that his body was not in the tomb and that angels had appeared to them and announced that Jesus had risen. When Jesus walks upon these Emmaus disciples the question that begs to be asked is why are they returning to Emmaus. They had spoken about hope in the past tense. They were walking these steps in sadness and resignation. If they believed that Jesus had risen, they would have never left Jerusalem. Didn’t they get the memo that He had risen just as He said He would? Actually, they did get the memo. They had the reports of the women, they just didn’t believe them to be true. So they fled to Emmaus. For them, they didn’t believe the report, but unlike Lt. Onoda, rather than fighting, they were surrendering. They walk this dark path in doubt and despair.
How often we are slow of heart to believe what the Scriptures say. We get so much more than a memo. We have the Word, but like the Emmaus disciples we wander along in sadness and hopelessness. We stumble down the road of doubt and despair. But the risen Christ opens their hearts and their eyes as He teaches them the Scriptures and as He is revealed to them in the Lord’s Supper. This same risen Christ who bodily walks with the Emmaus disciples on the road comes to us through the Word as it is poured and preached, eaten and drunk. The risen Christ comes to us and drives away the hopelessness and the sadness.
Prayer – Lord Jesus Christ, drive away all doubts so that we might walk together in faith, strengthened by Your Word and Spirit; in Your most holy name. Amen.
Fraternally in Christ,
President Lee Hagan