April 4

 "O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and enter his glory?" - Luke 24:25-26

The two men on the road to Emmaus didn’t believe all that the prophets had spoken. Specifically, they didn’t believe that the Christ had to suffer. The apostle Peter expressed similar feelings earlier in the ministry:

Matthew 16:21 From that time Jesus began to show to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised on the third day. 22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to you!” 23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”

The Christ came to defeat the formerly invincible enemy of humanity – death. He fought his battle with death on the cross and in the tomb. He emerged victorious where all others before him had failed.

 

Biblical text from “The Words of Jesus.”