Mensa Otabil - A Necessary Correction

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Luke 24: 25-26. Then he said to them, "Oh 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 entered into his glory?"

Jesus took time to listen to his two disciples on the road to Emmaus. He carefully listened to them and their arguments and debates, and after he had listened to them for a while, he rebuked them and called them foolish ones and slow of heart. This phrase is used to describe that they were dull of understanding. They couldn't grasp the import of who he was and what his mission was. Jesus was disappointed that after being with his disciples for so long, they still could not truly understand what his mission was at this last moment.

The reason was that most Jews of Jesus's day expected the Messiah to be a political redeemer. Many of the Old Testament prophets spoke about the Messiah during times when Israel was suffering, whether under Babylonian and Assyrian captivity, or when they had returned from captivity but were still controlled. Consequently, they envisioned the Messiah as one who would come to redeem them.

Now they were under Roman rule, which was worse than what they had experienced before. Images of the redeemer were always painted through political views, in part because the Messiah was supposed to be the Son of David, and David was seen as a warrior king. Thus, they interpreted the Messiah as one who would be like David, come to fight their Goliaths and liberate them. When the disciples saw Jesus suffer and die, it conflicted with their understanding of what a redeemer was. It was not just the disciples of Jesus but quite a number of Jews who struggled to incorporate suffering into the narrative of redemptive purpose.

However, Jesus was a suffering redeemer because his primary role was to reconcile man to God; he did not come to overthrow the Roman government but to restore the relationship between man and God. The sin of man had to be paid for, and so he had to suffer. But his suffering was purposeful, for it was through his suffering that we are redeemed, and that is how we experience the glory of God. There is a lesson here: sometimes we follow the Lord but have our own agenda, an expectation of what God should do for us.

This expectation may not be promised by the Lord. When it does not happen, our faith is undermined, and we become sad, just as the disciples were. Their sadness stemmed from a misunderstanding of the mission of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus had to suffer. This also tells us that in the Christian walk, we often go through hardships, pain, and afflictions. However, affliction is not meant to disappoint us and make us sad; it helps us see the redemptive power of God, for many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him from them all. God is a deliverer from affliction, and he will honor his people whom he has purchased by the blood of his Son, Jesus Christ.

For us today, we see the suffering of Jesus more clearly because we now see the whole picture and realize that the suffering was for the redemption of mankind. However, for those disciples at that time, it did not make sense. We can apply this to our lives in many ways: whenever we go through difficulty and hardship, instead of becoming sad and abandoning our faith, we must trust the Lord that through tribulation, we will come out as pure gold, victorious and glorified. May the Lord grant us understanding so that we can make sense of all our life experiences.

Let us pray. Say with me, "Heavenly Father, open the eyes of my understanding to your word. I see you using my afflictions for your glory, in Jesus' name. Amen. And amen."