ON THE ROAD TO EMMAUS -- Jesus explains the Scriptures Episode 1

Picture by Robert Zund

On the road to Emmaus two disciples of Jesus are heading back to their home after the death of Jesus.   They are trying to console themselves after witnessing his horrifying death, feeling they have lost everything.  They truly believed that he was the Messiah they had been waiting for. The Messiah spoken about by the prophets; the one who would return Judah to its former glory and renew its kingdom.  But now with his death...there was nothing to hope for anymore.  On the road, they meet a fellow traveller who seems oblivious to what had just happened -- how could he not have heard about this Jesus that had brought healing to the sick, who raised Lazarus from the dead, and who spoke of God with such words and such love that it stirred their hearts in such a way they could barely comprehend.  The stranger smiled at them when they told him about the empty tomb and were so perplexed as to what that meant.  He said to them, "Oh how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!  Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" (Luke 24: 25,26) And then the stranger began to open up the Scriptures to them of everything that had been written about the Messiah.

From the very beginning of the Bible, Jesus has been revealed. The all-knowing God knew that His creation would fall into sin. Although His plan was to have a personal one-on-one relationship with us, walking in the Garden of Paradise together, He knew that at first this would be temporary, that man would disobey Him and would need to be redeemed.  But in spite of that, He created us anyway.  His love is so boundless it did not matter to Him.  He wanted us to love and He wanted to share His existence with us. 

So we can start at the very beginning of the Bible to the act of creation itself  where we first see Jesus as God uses His Word to bring about His Creation. Jesus IS the WORD of God. (Gen1:3)  He was not yet HIS SON, nor was He JESUS.  In the history of man, at this moment in time, HE was the Word. And together, God, His Word, and His Spirit (The Trinity) brought about creation in all its glory, wonder and beauty.  God didn't just  create a "place" for us to live, but he created a vast universe of beauty and splendor and awe. God did not love in a small way, but only in a marvelous uncontained symphony of love.

But we betrayed that love through Adam and Eve's (our) sin of disobedience and of pride as they wanted to be equal with God.  But God, out of his immense love, did not forsake us.  He promised us that someday we would be able to win back our salvation through the greatest gift he could give us--His own Son.

"I will put enmity between you and the woman,

 and between your offspring and hers; 

He will strike at your head, 

while you strike at his heel." (Genesis 3:15)

There are many interpretations of this verse.  "You" of course refers to the serpent, the fallen angel Lucifer, the devil.  Who, through the same sin as Adam and Eve's pride, lost all that God had given him when he wanted to be as good and maybe even more glorious than God.   The woman refers to Eve, but it may also refer to Mary the mother of Jesus, whose offspring will strike at the evil in this world by his suffering, death and resurrection that will set straight God's creation on the intended path towards eternal life with God.

St Paul, through his Letters to the Romans and the Corinthians speaks of Jesus as the New Adam.  He makes clear that the obedience of the New Adam negates the disobedience of the First Adam.  How his humbleness, which culminated in His coming in the form of man, would bring him eternal glory where every knee shall bend with the mention of His name.   JESUS CHRIST.  A statement in itself, the most perfect prayer, the complete meaning of love.  

St Paul's Comparison and Contrast

between

Adam and Jesus

ADAM	JESUS
First Human being (Hebrew, ‘adam)	Last Adam (new creation)
A living being	A life-giving spirit
A natural being	A spiritual being
An earthly being	A heavenly being
Humans bear the earthly image	Christians bear the heavenly image
Pride-filled	Humble
Disobedient	Obedient
Led to sin	Leads to salvation
Led to death in the world	Leads to resurrected life in the world to come
All ultimately die	All ultimately have eternal life
Is a “type” (Greek, typos) of Christ	The one who was to come, prefigured in Adam

(Gen 2:7; Romans 5:12-14; 1 Cor 15:45, 49; 2 Cor 5:17)

In the next episode of "ON THE ROAD TO EMMAUS"  we will continue our journey in Genesis of the Old Testament Scriptures that reveal  the promise of the Messiah.