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
When I look forward to vacations, events or other gatherings, I tend to get in my head about what they’re going to look like. If something doesn’t pan out the way I thought it would, I can be completely thrown off. Have you ever experienced this? Unmet expectations can affect how I feel in the moment, taking truly amazing experiences and manipulating them into something disappointing in my mind. It often takes good conversations with friends and family to readjust my mindset and help bring me back to enjoying what we are doing.
Throughout Jesus’ teachings with the disciples, He foreshadows His death and resurrection while pointing to the scriptures, reinforcing that He is the Messiah. In his Gospel, John references how Jesus’ actions worked to fulfil the prophets and mark Him as the Messiah. Although many of His disciples had been present during these teachings, His death massively shook them to their core. In that time, many left! They decided He must have been just another prophet to come and go without freeing the Jews from the Romans. They had built an expectation of Him in their heads, not understanding His own teachings in the process and forgetting He had told them about His resurrection multiple times.
To address this, Jesus starts at the beginning with two disciples, reviewing with them everything the prophets foretold about Him and the acts He had performed during His teaching. In doing so, Jesus emphasizes the importance of reading and understanding scripture. He also teaches us to entrust our hopes to God and listen to Him as He speaks into our lives. As we do that, we begin to hear God’s voice and His plan for our lives. Today, think about what hopes you’ve put aside that, when looking back, God was or is still moving in. Take the time to sit in prayer, thanking God for working in your past hopes and for Him to speak into your future.
By John Egland
