pTwo of Jesus’ friends are on their way back home from Jerusalem, broken. They’d placed their hopes in Jesus, and now He’s been crucified and buried. Then, out of nowhere, a stranger quietly joins them on their journey. When they reach home, they invite the stranger to stay for supper. INCOMING SPOILER. The stranger drops His disguise: He was actually Jesus all along (see Luke 24:13-35 if we ruined the twist for you and you want to read the actual story now).br /
Jesus had told these guys ages ago that He’d return from the dead, just like the Scriptures said He would. And it seems they’d forgotten/stopped believing that. So what does He do now? Smack them round the head with the Scriptures? No. He gently leads them back to the truth. He points out how the Bible had always shown the truth of His resurrection. But this wasn’t the time for a Bible smackdown, and Jesus wasn’t using the Bible as a brick to point out God’s obvious truth. These guys had just been through the terror of witnessing their friend and leader die. And this is the Jesus who wouldn’t ‘break off a bent reed nor put out a flickering lamp’ (Isaiah 42:3 GNB). So instead, He uses the Bible like a companion. With it, He leads His bruised and grieving friends back to the truth. /p
pWhat now?br /
Ask yourself. How do you use the Bible? As a papery brick to smack people with? Or a companion, a friend to lead others to what’s true?/p