And He said to them, What things? So they said to Him, The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people… 

Luke 24:19 

Christ is the Master of the well-placed question. After He rose from the dead, He showed Himself to be alive to various disciples under different circumstances. One instance was while two of the disciples were walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus. Christ came alongside them, engaged them in conversation and asked why they were so sad. They responded, ‘Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem, and have You not known the things which happened there in these days?’ To that Christ responded, ‘What things?’ He was eliciting from them a recitation of what they knew. To that question they responded with a narrative of the public ministry of Christ. They spoke of His execution; what they had hoped and how their hopes had died with Him. They related the story of the women who had gone to the garden tomb. This exhausted their store of knowledge. Christ responded with, ‘O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?’’ He then began ‘at Moses and all the Prophets’ to explain to them ‘the things concerning Himself.’ Christ often does similarly with us. He allows us to exhaust our store of knowledge and then steps in to reveal to us much more truth than we ever knew before. He is our inexhaustible storehouse of revelation. 

Our Gracious, Loving Savior, 
we rejoice that You come alongside us 
when we are in our saddest moments. 
We praise You that You open the Scriptures 
and reveal Yourself to us. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

Remembering Christ’s Words

And they remembered His words.

Luke 24:8

The death of Christ shattered and scattered the disciples. Their hopes, which had been so high regarding the ascendancy of Christ lay utterly and completely in ruins, dashed to shards all around them. The women who had diligently followed Christ, and lovingly cared for Him after His death, came, on the first day of the week, to complete the preparation for His burial. As they arrived, they discovered that the stone was rolled away from the mouth of the tomb. More than that, the tomb itself was empty. Christ was neither within or about the outer area. The women encountered two ‘men’ or angels who said to them, ‘”Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’” It was then that, ‘they remembered His words.’ How often do we find it so with us? We have loved Christ fervently. We have followed Him diligently. We have hoped to serve Him. In spite of all these things that we have desired, we have at times, gone to where we thought we might encounter Him, and yet He is not there. It has been then that some messenger has reminded us of what the Word of God says, and suddenly, we ‘remember His words.’ All our hope is in the Living Word of God, and the Living Word speaks to us the things that we need to remember most. Perhaps today, dear reader, you stand in need to remember the words of Christ to you. He will do all that He has promised. Jesus never fails.

Our Glorious Living Christ,
we rejoice that Your Word is good.
We praise You that You will do all that You have said,
and fulfill it in every detail.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning