When the forlorn disciples met up with Jesus following His resurrection, it made the short trip from Jerusalem to Emmaus much more pleasant. Before revealing who He was and that indeed the Christ was alive from the dead, Jesus talked with them as a fellow pilgrim in life—but one who had extensive knowledge about the Scriptures. We find this story in Luke 24.
He rebukes them, but more as a human like them who is confounded that these men do not see the truth about the death of Christ three days earlier. He is rebuking them for not reading the Scriptures with understanding, and for being men with weak faith: “Oh foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” Then He reveals to them a key of knowledge: all of the Scriptures are about the Christ!
“Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.”
Do you get it?
I will not finish the wonderful story in Luke 24. We have enough in the above statement to do us a lot of good. Jesus had no problem talking for some time, from passage to passage, starting in Genesis, about Himself. In these passages He illustrated that ALL of the Scripture was about Him. If Jesus believed that was true, and if He in fact expressed that it is so, then we are under compulsion to read the Bible in that light. The Scriptures, beginning in Genesis, are Christotelic—intentionally aimed at revealing Christ!
This statement could refocus many seminaries and Bible Schools, transform weak churches, and enliven weary Bible readers. When you read the Bible, open your eyes to this one great motif, and you will find Christ, as did the Emmaus travelers, on paths and roads where you have not recognized Him before.
Copyright Jim Elliff, 2013, revised 2022