FROM FATHER MIKE All Fulfilled in Jesus? “Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the Scriptures.” Jesus’ appearance to the two disciples on the way from Emmaus is important not just because Jesus showed up and proved his resurrection. This short phrase shows that Jesus needed to explain to the two disciples the importance of the resurrection and what it did. Sure, it is a great event for someone to rise from the dead. But Jesus, in rising from the dead, brings about a whole new era in a new creation. Think about the different stages of salvation history that we read about in the Bible. In a way it can be compared to a play that has different acts. The first act is creation, the second is the fall, the third is Israel, the fourth is Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, the fifth is the Church, and the last is the New Heavens and the New Earth. When one stage ends, another begins. When Jesus explains what was “referring to him”, it isn’t as if he is simply showing some quotes and saying, Look, Isaiah 35:2 refers to me, and so does…” No, it is much greater than that. He is saying that the entire direction of the Old Testament and where it points to is fulfilled in the person of Jesus. After the resurrection, the world is now different and renewed. Life in Christ and lived out in the Church is a transformation and revolution of God’s total presence on Earth. Our worship of Jesus and placing Jesus in the forefront of our lives is a participation in a total transformation that Jesus brings. Sometimes we live as if God is uninvolved or we are uninvolved in his creation. Jesus today is saying that his resurrection changes that false perception. The more we come to see his transformation of all things because of his resurrection, the better chance that we will see him transform us and the world around us. Do you need to be changed? Do you want to see the world changed around you? Do you want to have something more in your life? Jesus is the answer. Not because he fulfilled some isolated passages in the Old Testament, but because he is the fulfillment of everything the Old Testament points to: a total transformation of the world and us included in it. All we need to do is come to him and allow him to do what he died and rose to do.
Posted on: Sat, 03 May 2014 14:47:14 +0000
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