Today’s Gospel passage from Luke is the famous “Road to Emmaus” story. Jesus walks with two disciples who do not recognize him. He acts oblivious of recent events, and they tell him the news…the news about himself…about Jesus the Nazarene.
Then Jesus chastises them for not recognizing these events as the fulfillment of all Scripture (what would have been the Old Testament for a first century Jew). We can only imagine to which passages Jesus would have pointed, but it apparently took the better part of that seven-mile walk. There are so many possibilities. Some scholars took the time to try to find at least several hundred passages that predict the coming Messiah or tell something about him. Here are just a few:
To the devil in Genesis 3:15 – “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; They will strike at your head, while you strike at their heel.”
Abraham’s near sacrifice of Isaac showed what God would do with only Son.
The Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven in Daniel 7.
Nathan’s prophecy to David in 2 Samuel 7 – “I will raise up your offspring after you, sprung from your loins, and I will establish his kingdom. He it is who shall build a house for my name, and I will establish his royal throne forever.”
The Palm Sunday entrance prophesied by Zechariah.
The Suffering Servant in Isaiah.
And so on…and so on.
The Vatican II document on Sacred Scripture, Dei Verbum, quotes Saint Augustine, “God, the inspirer and author of both Testaments, wisely arranged that the New Testament be hidden in the Old and the Old be made manifest in the New.”
Jesus is the culmination of God’s saving plan for us. Are we willing to see that? Are we willing to appreciate that? Do we have an appreciation for God’s word in both the Old Testament and the New Testament? Do we read the Old Testament with Christ in mind? Do we look for how it is fulfilled by him? While we know that Jesus is especially present at Mass in the Eucharist, are we also open to how he is present in the word of God? Do we pray with Sacred Scripture?
The Bible is the greatest story ever told. It is the story of God’s saving plan. It is our story.