March 22, 2000

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April 16 Lesson

Sometimes seeing comes only after believing ___Luke 24:13-35 ___13 Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 15 As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up walked along with them; 16 but they were kept from recognizing him. ___17 He asked them, "What are you discussing together as you walk along?" ___They stood still, their faces downcast. 18 One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, "Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days?" ___19 "What things?" he asked. ___"About Jesus of Nazareth," they replied. "He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. 20 The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; 21 but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. 22 In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning 23 but didn't find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. 24 Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see." ___25 He said to them, "How foolish you are, and how slow of hear to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?" 27 And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. ___28 As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther. 29 But they urged him strongly, "Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over." So he went in to stay with them. ___30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. 32 They asked each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?" ___33 They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the eleven and those with them, assembled together 34 and saying, "It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon." 35 Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.

___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___"Letters from a Skeptic" is a helpful book written by a father and son over a three-year period in which they conversed about questions reasonable people have about Christianity.
___The father, who was 70 when the dialogue began, was the skeptic. He called himself an agnostic. The son, a theology professor at Bethel College in St. Paul, Minn., desperately wanted his father to embrace the faith that meant so much to him.
___It was a tough sell, because the father had lots of hard questions he didn't think his son could answer. But he agreed to engage in a series of correspondence that ultimately became the content of the book.
___By the 16th letter, the father gets down to his toughest question of all: "How can you believe a man rose from the dead?"
___"Every dead person I've ever known has stayed dead!" the father reports in making his case. "But Christians say that Jesus rose from the dead. You're asking me to overturn all this evidence I (and everyone else who has ever lived) have that people stay dead because of the 'general reliability' of some ancient documents I don't know much about. Would you believe a 'generally reliable' person today if they told you a friend of theirs walked out of his own tomb?"
___The dialogue has hit a stalemate, he declares, because "what I'm objecting to here is simply an article of faith, and faith is the one thing I lack."

___On the road again
___Luke tells an interesting story about two followers of Jesus walking to a village called Emmaus on the day of Jesus' resurrection. He doesn't say who the two were, but we're led to believe they were not any of the 11 remaining disciples, who apparently stayed in Jerusalem.
___These two followers of Jesus, who already had heard firsthand testimony of Jesus' resurrection but didn't believe it, shared the same lack of faith as Edward Boyd, the father in "Letters from a Skeptic." They wanted to believe Jesus was the messiah, but they just couldn't believe he had risen from the dead.
___That's a sentiment shared by many others who walk among us today. It's perhaps a key to understanding why more than 10 million Texans are completely unchurched, meaning they don't attend anybody's church regularly and have no apparent understanding of faith in God through Christ.
___"How can you believe a man rose from the dead?" they may ask.
___It is our responsibility as Texas Baptists and as individual believers to be able to testify to the reality of the Resurrection. For without the Resurrection, we have no faith at all.

___Reasons to believe
___Gregory Boyd makes a compelling case in response to his father's questions about the resurrection--so compelling that his father moves beyond this obstacle and eventually becomes a believer.
___"The evidence for the historicity of the resurrection is, in my estimation, stronger than for any other event of Jesus' life--and stronger than the evidence for the historicity of many other historical events we take for granted," the professor writes his father.
___He then outlines reasons to believe:
___ Independent sources. Five independent sources testify to the Resurrection--Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Paul. And they reference other independent sources such as Peter and James.
___To understand the significance of this point, keep in mind that the Bible was not written as a unified book to begin with. Each of the books of the New Testament, for example, was written independently and circulated among the early churches before being collected into one volume.
___And though Matthew and Luke could have borrowed some material from Mark (the first Gospel written), each of the New Testament writers testifying to the Resurrection has a different vantage point, Boyd notes. "In fact, each of the testimonies has more unique material than it has material in common with the others."
___Had the Resurrection been a lie, those who wanted to tell it as truth would have concocted a uniform story.
___ The tomb. Though scholars today have different opinions on where Jesus was buried, it would not have been any mystery at the time of Jesus' death and resurrection. Any attempt to claim the tomb was empty when it wasn't could have been easily refuted.
___Both the supporters and critics of Jesus agreed the tomb was empty.
___ The origin of the church. "No one disputes that the Christian church began in Jerusalem just a few weeks after Jesus' crucifixion," Boyd writes. "It exploded in growth. And the content of the message that caused this explosion was that Jesus was the Messiah, the Lord of all, as was evidenced by his miracles and resurrection from the dead."
___ Too much detail. Simply put, the New Testament accounts of Jesus' resurrection sound much more like eyewitness accounts than legendary narratives. And the accounts contain unnecessary detail, much of which is irrelevant to the story line but yet lends credibility by its inclusion.
___ Paul's conversion. "The conversion of Paul is unexplainable except on the basis he himself gives; he confronted the risen Lord," Boyd adds. "Here was a man dead set against Christianity, even overseeing the stoning of one of its preachers, and then in one moment he's converted."
___How else can this be explained?
___ Numerous appearances. In 1 Corinthians 15, written perhaps 15 to 20 years after the Resurrection, Paul has compiled a list of Resurrection appearances--appearances like the one to the two followers on the road to Emmaus.
___Hundreds of eyewitnesses to the Resurrection were still alive at the time of Paul's writing. If he were lying, his writing could have been refuted easily.
___ The courage of the disciples. "One day they were fearful and hiding; the next day they are facing hostile audiences preaching the Resurrection," Boyd writes.
___ Motive. What advantage would the followers of Jesus have gained by publicly advancing something they knew didn't occur? They already feared for their lives; why would they have risked themselves for a lie?
___"There is no motive for the disciples to fabricate this story," Boyd explains. "They had nothing to gain and everything to lose."

___Blinded eyes
___For those of us who believe today, it's hard to imagine the two followers of Jesus walking alongside him on the road to Emmaus and not recognizing him. How dense can a person be?
___Yet Luke tells us they were "kept from recognizing him." Perhaps that's a kind euphemism for their inability to see the obvious. But more likely it's a statement of God shielding the truth from their eyes for a brief period.
___Jesus does speak harshly to them about their lack of faith: "How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken." This is an indictment of their lack of faith and understanding that Jesus would rise from the dead more than it is a criticism of their not recognizing him at that moment.
___One of the reasons the two couldn't see Jesus was because they were looking for the wrong thing. Despite all Jesus' preaching and teaching, those closest to him continued to expect a messiah who would establish an earthly reign and push back Israel's enemies.
___We have such a better vantage point to see things more clearly today. Yet we, too, have vision problems.

___Believing is seeing
___These two unnamed followers of Jesus finally recognized him as they sat down together and he broke the bread and gave thanks and gave it to them. The picture parallels the Last Supper Jesus had with his disciples just a few days before.
___The account reminds me of one of the benefits we should gain when we observe the Lord's Supper today, although it's one I'm usually too preoccupied to get. Receiving the bread and the cup should provide for us a window into the reality of Jesus and his resurrection, a reminder of who Jesus is.
___Unlike the disciples of the first century, we don't have the advantage of seeing Jesus in the flesh. But we do see Christ in other ways:
___ We see Jesus in Scripture. Jesus himself drew upon Scripture to explain to the two blind followers why they should have believed in the resurrection. Beginning with Moses and the prophets, the commonly accepted Scriptures of the Jewish people, Jesus explained to them all that had been prophesied.
___Just as Christ opened the Scriptures to these two on the Emmaus road, so the Holy Spirit opens the Scriptures to us today.
___ We see Jesus in the common pursuits of life. Imagine what these two travelers would have missed had they not invited Jesus to stay for dinner with them. Jesus seeks an invitation from us to join us in the common pursuits of our lives.
___ We see Jesus in worship. The disciples were encouraged by the shared testimony of each other. Even the two followers who met Jesus on the road were not saddened by his departure but encouraged by having been in his presence.

For thought and discussion
___ Have you ever had trouble believing in the Resurrection? If so, how did you overcome your disbelief?
___ Do you know others who are skeptical about Christianity? What are some of the reasons for their skepticism, and how could you or others help them believe?
___ Why were even the disciples slow to believe in the Resurrection? What turned the tide to cause them to believe?
___ What are some expectations you have or have had about Jesus that may be different from the reality of who Jesus is? Have you ever looked for Jesus in the wrong places?
___ Where, or in what ways, do you see Christ in the world today? How does he walk with us?
___ In what ways do you see Christ revealed when observing the Lord's Supper?

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