During Holy Week, the discipline of study will help us to slow down and look closely at Jesus, discovering how all of Scripture points to him.
Pastor Adele Calhoun defines the discipline of study as, “attending to the Word of God with the mind and heart in order to know God’s ways and be shaped by God’s truth.”
Studying God’s word faithfully helps us to understand and live out the gospel with our heads, hearts, and hands—learning to read the Bible the way Jesus taught—that all of Scripture points to him and finds its fulfillment in him.
From beginning to end, the Bible tells one unified story of God’s redemptive work, and Holy Week invites us to see how the cross and resurrection stand at the center of that story.
May we come to obey God as the author of the entire story, allowing our hearts to be shaped and rooted more fully in the hope of the resurrected Jesus.
Read | Luke 24:13–35
Now that same day two of them were on their way to a village called Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem. Together they were discussing everything that had taken place. And while they were discussing and arguing, Jesus himself came near and began to walk along with them. But they were prevented from recognizing him. Then he asked them, “What is this dispute that you’re having with each other as you are walking?” And they stopped walking and looked discouraged.
The one named Cleopas answered him, “Are you the only visitor in Jerusalem who doesn’t know the things that happened there in these days?”
“What things?” he asked them.
So they said to him, “The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet powerful in action and speech before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him. But we were hoping that he was the one who was about to redeem Israel. Besides all this, it’s the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women from our group astounded us. They arrived early at the tomb, and when they didn’t find his body, they came and reported that they had seen a vision of angels who said he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they didn’t see him.”
He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Wasn’t it necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things and enter into his glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted for them the things concerning himself in all the Scriptures.
They came near the village where they were going, and he gave the impression that he was going farther. But they urged him, “Stay with us, because it’s almost evening, and now the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.
It was as he reclined at the table with them that he took the bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, but he disappeared from their sight. They said to each other, “Weren’t our hearts burning within us while he was talking with us on the road and explaining the Scriptures to us?” That very hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem. They found the Eleven and those with them gathered together, who said, “The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!” Then they began to describe what had happened on the road and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
Click here to listen to the Scripture in ESV.
What does Jesus reveal to us and to the two disciples about the purpose of Scripture? And how does that purpose change how you read your Bible?
The disciples admit their disappointment in Jesus. Their hopes in him as Messiah had been dashed by his crucifixion (24:21). When have you experienced disappointment in your relationship with Christ and how does Jesus’ faithful presence in this story challenge you to trust him even when life looks different than you expected?
Focus
Today, read this devotional from the Story of Scripture team on our text for the week, Luke 24. As you read the devotional and passage, consider how all of Scripture points to Jesus in his sacrificial life, death, and resurrection.
Easter Devotional | — Turning Broken Hope Into Burning Hearts
They said to each other, “Weren’t our hearts burning within us while he was talking with us on the road and explaining the Scriptures to us?”
- Luke 24:32
The risen Jesus doesn’t just defeat death—he turns broken hope into burning hearts (Luke 24:32).
Why did the first and earliest witnesses of Jesus’ crucifixion and death have a broken hope? Doctor Luke gives us several clues: they had a sincere hope, but it was incomplete, they had no category for a suffering Messiah, resurrection was not part of the Messianic expectation, and finally, the trauma of the crucifixion clouded their ability to see clearly.
It is important to note that the transformation of turning a broken hope into a burning heart was not a matter of the first witnesses trying harder or believing more deeply. Instead, they needed a paradigm shift that gave them new categories to reframe Jesus’ suffering, crucifixion, death, and even the resurrection. So, the risen Jesus did for them what they could not do for themselves. He “opened their minds to understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:45).
It has been more than 2,000 years since those early witnesses, whose hearts “burned” as they walked and talked with Jesus, listened as he explained the Scriptures (Luke 24:32). Their challenge was to find the categories to process the resurrection experience.
Today, our challenge is to keep that initial hope from fading into familiarity and the mundane—how to keep burning hearts from becoming settled, satisfied, and stuck in the status-quo. A. W. Tozer wrote, “To have found God and still to pursue Him is the soul’s paradox of love, scorned indeed by the too-easily-satisfied religionist but justified in happy experience by the children of the burning heart.”
The keys to becoming children of the burning heart are embedded in Tozer’s words. First, following Jesus has always been a paradox—we find our lives by losing them (Luke 9:23-24). Second, we should not be surprised when others—sometimes even those closest to us—criticize or even scorn our pursuit (Luke 6:22). Finally, the authentic Jesus-follower does not justify his or her walk by seeking human approval, but finds their own “happy experience” with Christ (Galatians 1:10).
Children of the burning heart are sustained by a living hope—once broken—that looks forward to being like Jesus, even as it transforms us in the present. The apostle John reminds us: Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him as he is. And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure. (1 John 3:2–3)
Pray
Ask God to prepare your heart for the journey of Holy Week. As we walk through Old Testament connections to the Easter story, ask him to reveal how all of Scripture points to Christ.
Planning Ahead
Poor Bishop Hooper will present their Golgotha Experience at Christ Community Olathe Campus on Good Friday, April 3, at 7:00 PM. Even if you normally attend another campus, consider joining us for this moving contemplative Good Friday service.
All Christ Community campuses have Good Friday services and we invite you to share this solemn service at the end of Holy Week.
Going Deeper
If you are also following the BibleProject’s One Story That Leads to Jesus reading plan, complete today’s reading.
