Strong Words
Scripture Reading — Luke 24:13-35
“How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken!”
—Luke 24:25
These are strong words: “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe … !” Words like these can make people defensive.
Jesus spoke these words to wake up the disciples and give them a new understanding of life. The disciples needed to move from a place of blindness to a place of sight. They saw the death of Jesus as an obstacle and a loss, while it actually was the greatest victory in history. They had heard that Jesus was alive again, risen from the dead, but they were stuck in a place of complaint and were unable to see that Jesus had enabled them to receive the gift of life. They needed strong medicine to heal their blindness.
God’s Word is needed in our lives too. As God’s people, we are part of a sacred story. Yet we often live as if this world is all there is. We are so captured by what we can see that we miss the unseen. A spoken word is needed from the One who is the fulfillment of prophecy. As he joins us on the road and explains Scripture to us, his presence sets our hearts burning.
New possibilities open up for us as we recognize Jesus and all he has done for us to give us new life. In thankfulness we welcome into our lives the one who makes our hearts burn.
Jesus, we confess that our hardened hearts have blocked you out. “Open the eyes of our hearts, Lord,” so that we can see who you are and that you want us to fully live. Receive us, we pray, in your name. Amen.
About the author — John Kuperus
Since he was young, John Kuperus has had a passion that everyone would know Jesus. Spreading the good news that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15) is very important to him. To be better equipped for missions, John attended Reformed Bible College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He applied these skills with marketplace evangelism in a business he started in Sussex, New Jersey. This calling continued to follow him, so John attended seminary and became a minister in the Christian Reformed Church, serving a church in Ontario for eight years. Currently he serves as a missionary for Youth with a Mission (YWAM). He witnesses Jesus changing lives as people walk out of the darkness into the light. John is married to Helen, and they have seven children.
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