Easter 3 Series A
26 April 2020
Acts 2:14a, 36–41
1 Peter 1:17–25
Luke 24:13–35
The Risen Lord Jesus Is with Us in Holy Baptism and in “the Breaking of the Bread”
From “before the foundation of the world” until heaven and earth pass away, “the word of the Lord remains forever” (1 Peter 1:20, 25). This “living and abiding word of God” is the preaching of Christ Jesus, namely that God “raised him from the dead and gave him glory” (1 Peter 1:21, 23). By this living word, we “have been born again” to eternal life (1 Peter 1:23) and ransomed from our sinful and mortal life “with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18–19). This living word also calls us to repentance, to dying and rising in Holy Baptism “in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins” (Acts 2:38). In this, we receive the Holy Spirit “for you and for your children and for all who are far off” (Acts 2:39). Through the preaching of His cross and resurrection, Jesus draws near to bring us “into his glory” (Luke 24:26). As He opens the Scriptures, He opens our minds to comprehend “the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27), and He brings us to know Him “in the breaking of the bread” (Luke 24:35).
Jesus Fulfilled Moses
Rev. Dr. Daniel J Brege
And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself (Luke 24:27).
Jesus presented the basic rule for studying the OT as He explained to the Jewish theologians, You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of Me (John 5:39). This declaration of Jesus should cause one to seek Christ more diligently in the entire OT scriptures. However while He walked this earth Christ guided His followers especially to the writings of Moses. For example in John 5, after stating that the (OT) scriptures testify of Him, Jesus said, If you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote of Me (v 46). Again, in Christ’s parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the testimony of salvation is said to reside in Moses and the prophets. Note the priority of Moses. Then the parable concludes, If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead (Luke 16:31). In Sunday’s resurrection account Christ explained the necessity of His death and resurrection—beginning with Moses (Luke 24:27). Jesus consistently directed people to view the writings of Moses as the primary beacon illuminating Himself.
A central topic of Moses’ writings—and indeed of the entire Old Testament—is sacrifice. If the OT is about Christ, and if sacrificial talk is foundational to these OT books, it would be strange indeed if this sacrificial talk were not about Christ. Clearly the New Testament (NT) testifies that Christ is the person in the portrait painted by the OT sacrificial rites—rites ordained in Moses’ books, the Pentateuch.
As clearly attested in the NT, Christ had to be the ultimate sacrifice, thus fulfilling this central feature of the writings of Moses. Appropriately John the Baptist introduced Jesus by declaring, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29, 36). Christ-crucified is the world’s sacrifice. He is the sin offering, actually paying for sin. He is the burnt offering, establishing sanctification. And His sacrifice creates the peace offering communion meal. But what about Christ’s resurrection?
God’s Moses-ordained sacrificial system also taught resurrection. It did this by the sacrificial blood. Blood was always equated with the life of a creature (e.g. Lev. 17:11). When that life-blood was neither burned nor eaten, but reverently placed on and around God’s altars, it conveyed the thought of continued life. Yes the creatures were sacrificed, but their blood pointed to life after death. Several scholars who have studied OT sacrifice have come to this conclusion. One such scholar, S.C. Gayford, writes: The Hebrews regarded the life-blood almost as a living thing inside the body which it quickened; and not only was it the vitalizing life while it pulsated within the body, but it had an independent life of its own, even when taken from the body. He Concludes: ’Blood’ in sacrificial sense always means a ‘Risen’ life, one that has passed through death, but is alive. (Gayford, Sacrifice and Priesthood, 68, 170). As another example, F.C.N. Hicks explains Christ’s work thus: The death is vital to the sacrifice, because it sets free the blood, which is the life. But the victim is, in a true sense, operative, not as dead, but as alive ‘as it had been slain’... And again, “So St. Paul—brings out the backward look of death, as death, and the forward look of blood, as life—‘while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by His blood, shall we be saved…’ (Hicks, The Fullness of Sacrifice, 18, 243).
So is it incidental that when Jesus asks, Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory, He begins with Moses to explain this necessity? Indeed not! The entire worship system instituted by God through Moses was directing OT believers to ultimately recognize—when it arrived—the centrality of the cross and the empty tomb! Now do something forbidden in OT sacrifice: drink His blood; miraculously drink His life in the Sacrament of the Altar, for He is risen indeed!
Jesus Fulfilled Moses
Rev. Dr. Daniel J Brege
And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself (Luke 24:27).
Jesus presented the basic rule for studying the OT as He explained to the Jewish theologians, You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of Me (John 5:39). This declaration of Jesus should cause one to seek Christ more diligently in the entire OT scriptures. However while He walked this earth Christ guided His followers especially to the writings of Moses. For example in John 5, after stating that the (OT) scriptures testify of Him, Jesus said, If you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote of Me (v 46). Again, in Christ’s parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the testimony of salvation is said to reside in Moses and the prophets. Note the priority of Moses. Then the parable concludes, If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead (Luke 16:31). In Sunday’s resurrection account Christ explained the necessity of His death and resurrection—beginning with Moses (Luke 24:27). Jesus consistently directed people to view the writings of Moses as the primary beacon illuminating Himself.
A central topic of Moses’ writings—and indeed of the entire Old Testament—is sacrifice. If the OT is about Christ, and if sacrificial talk is foundational to these OT books, it would be strange indeed if this sacrificial talk were not about Christ. Clearly the New Testament (NT) testifies that Christ is the person in the portrait painted by the OT sacrificial rites—rites ordained in Moses’ books, the Pentateuch.
As clearly attested in the NT, Christ had to be the ultimate sacrifice, thus fulfilling this central feature of the writings of Moses. Appropriately John the Baptist introduced Jesus by declaring, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29, 36). Christ-crucified is the world’s sacrifice. He is the sin offering, actually paying for sin. He is the burnt offering, establishing sanctification. And His sacrifice creates the peace offering communion meal. But what about Christ’s resurrection?
God’s Moses-ordained sacrificial system also taught resurrection. It did this by the sacrificial blood. Blood was always equated with the life of a creature (e.g. Lev. 17:11). When that life-blood was neither burned nor eaten, but reverently placed on and around God’s altars, it conveyed the thought of continued life. Yes the creatures were sacrificed, but their blood pointed to life after death. Several scholars who have studied OT sacrifice have come to this conclusion. One such scholar, S.C. Gayford, writes: The Hebrews regarded the life-blood almost as a living thing inside the body which it quickened; and not only was it the vitalizing life while it pulsated within the body, but it had an independent life of its own, even when taken from the body. He Concludes: ’Blood’ in sacrificial sense always means a ‘Risen’ life, one that has passed through death, but is alive. (Gayford, Sacrifice and Priesthood, 68, 170). As another example, F.C.N. Hicks explains Christ’s work thus: The death is vital to the sacrifice, because it sets free the blood, which is the life. But the victim is, in a true sense, operative, not as dead, but as alive ‘as it had been slain’... And again, “So St. Paul—brings out the backward look of death, as death, and the forward look of blood, as life—‘while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by His blood, shall we be saved…’ (Hicks, The Fullness of Sacrifice, 18, 243).
So is it incidental that when Jesus asks, Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory, He begins with Moses to explain this necessity? Indeed not! The entire worship system instituted by God through Moses was directing OT believers to ultimately recognize—when it arrived—the centrality of the cross and the empty tomb! Now do something forbidden in OT sacrifice: drink His blood; miraculously drink His life in the Sacrament of the Altar, for He is risen indeed!
- Luke 24:13-35
13 Καὶ ἰδοὺ δύο ἐξ αὐτῶν ἐν αὐτῇ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἦσαν πορευόμενοι εἰς κώμην ἀπέχουσαν σταδίους ἑξήκοντα ἀπὸ Ἰερουσαλήμ, ᾗ ὄνομα Ἐμμαοῦς,
That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem,
14 καὶ αὐτοὶ ὡμίλουν πρὸς ἀλλήλους περὶ πάντων τῶν συμβεβηκότων τούτων.
and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened.
15 καὶ ἐγένετο ἐν τῷ ὁμιλεῖν αὐτοὺς καὶ συζητεῖν καὶ [b]αὐτὸς Ἰησοῦς ἐγγίσας συνεπορεύετο αὐτοῖς,
While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them.
16 οἱ δὲ ὀφθαλμοὶ αὐτῶν ἐκρατοῦντο τοῦ μὴ ἐπιγνῶναι αὐτόν.
But their eyes were kept from recognizing him.
17 εἶπεν δὲ πρὸς αὐτούς• Τίνες οἱ λόγοι οὗτοι οὓς ἀντιβάλλετε πρὸς ἀλλήλους περιπατοῦντες; καὶ [c]ἐστάθησαν σκυθρωποί.
And he said to them, "What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?" And they stood still, looking sad.
18 ἀποκριθεὶς δὲ εἷς ὀνόματι Κλεοπᾶς εἶπεν πρὸς αὐτόν• Σὺ μόνος παροικεῖς Ἰερουσαλὴμ καὶ οὐκ ἔγνως τὰ γενόμενα ἐν αὐτῇ ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις ταύταις;
Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, "Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?"
19 καὶ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς• Ποῖα; οἱ δὲ εἶπαν αὐτῷ• Τὰ περὶ Ἰησοῦ τοῦ Ναζαρηνοῦ, ὃς ἐγένετο ἀνὴρ προφήτης δυνατὸς ἐν ἔργῳ καὶ λόγῳ ἐναντίον τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ παντὸς τοῦ λαοῦ,
And he said to them, "What things?" And they said to him, "Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people,
20 ὅπως τε παρέδωκαν αὐτὸν οἱ ἀρχιερεῖς καὶ οἱ ἄρχοντες ἡμῶν εἰς κρίμα θανάτου καὶ ἐσταύρωσαν αὐτόν.
and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him.
21 ἡμεῖς δὲ ἠλπίζομεν ὅτι αὐτός ἐστιν ὁ μέλλων λυτροῦσθαι τὸν Ἰσραήλ• ἀλλά γε καὶ σὺν πᾶσιν τούτοις τρίτην ταύτην ἡμέραν ἄγει ἀφ’ οὗ ταῦτα ἐγένετο.
But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened.
22 ἀλλὰ καὶ γυναῖκές τινες ἐξ ἡμῶν ἐξέστησαν ἡμᾶς, γενόμεναι ὀρθριναὶ ἐπὶ τὸ μνημεῖον
Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning,
23 καὶ μὴ εὑροῦσαι τὸ σῶμα αὐτοῦ ἦλθον λέγουσαι καὶ ὀπτασίαν ἀγγέλων ἑωρακέναι, οἳ λέγουσιν αὐτὸν ζῆν.
and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive.
24 καὶ ἀπῆλθόν τινες τῶν σὺν ἡμῖν ἐπὶ τὸ μνημεῖον, καὶ εὗρον οὕτως καθὼς καὶ αἱ γυναῖκες εἶπον, αὐτὸν δὲ οὐκ εἶδον.
Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see." -
25 καὶ αὐτὸς εἶπεν πρὸς αὐτούς• Ὦ ἀνόητοι καὶ βραδεῖς τῇ καρδίᾳ τοῦ πιστεύειν ἐπὶ πᾶσιν οἷς ἐλάλησαν οἱ προφῆται•
And he said to them, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!
26 οὐχὶ ταῦτα ἔδει παθεῖν τὸν χριστὸν καὶ εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τὴν δόξαν αὐτοῦ;
Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?"
27 καὶ ἀρξάμενος ἀπὸ Μωϋσέως καὶ ἀπὸ πάντων τῶν προφητῶν διερμήνευσεν αὐτοῖς ἐν πάσαις ταῖς γραφαῖς τὰ περὶ ἑαυτοῦ.
And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
28 αὶ ἤγγισαν εἰς τὴν κώμην οὗ ἐπορεύοντο, καὶ αὐτὸς προσεποιήσατο πορρώτερον πορεύεσθαι.
So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther,
29 καὶ παρεβιάσαντο αὐτὸν λέγοντες• Μεῖνον μεθ’ ἡμῶν, ὅτι πρὸς ἑσπέραν ἐστὶν καὶ κέκλικεν ἤδη ἡ ἡμέρα. καὶ εἰσῆλθεν τοῦ μεῖναι σὺν αὐτοῖς.
but they urged him strongly, saying, "Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent." So he went in to stay with them.
30 καὶ ἐγένετο ἐν τῷ κατακλιθῆναι αὐτὸν μετ’ αὐτῶν λαβὼν τὸν ἄρτον εὐλόγησεν καὶ κλάσας ἐπεδίδου αὐτοῖς•
When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them.
31 αὐτῶν δὲ διηνοίχθησαν οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ καὶ ἐπέγνωσαν αὐτόν• καὶ αὐτὸς ἄφαντος ἐγένετο ἀπ’ αὐτῶν.
And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight.
32 καὶ εἶπαν πρὸς ἀλλήλους• Οὐχὶ ἡ καρδία ἡμῶν καιομένη ἦνἐν ἡμῖν ὡς ἐλάλει ἡμῖν ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ, ὡς διήνοιγεν ἡμῖν τὰς γραφάς;
They said to each other, "Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?"
33 καὶ ἀναστάντες αὐτῇ τῇ ὥρᾳ ὑπέστρεψαν εἰς Ἰερουσαλήμ, καὶ εὗρον ἠθροισμένους τοὺς ἕνδεκα καὶ τοὺς σὺν αὐτοῖς,
And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together,
34 λέγοντας ὅτι ὄντως ἠγέρθη ὁ κύριος καὶ ὤφθη Σίμωνι.
saying, "The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!"
35 καὶ αὐτοὶ ἐξηγοῦντο τὰ ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ καὶ ὡς ἐγνώσθη αὐτοῖς ἐν τῇ κλάσει τοῦ ἄρτου.
Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.
-The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition. Copyright © 2010 by Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software
-ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
-Schnorr Von Carolsfeld woodcuts, ‘The Resurrection of our Lord’© WELS permission granted for personal and congregational use
-LCMS Lectionary notes © 2018 Concordia Publishing House, St,. Louis
-Lutheran Service Book © 2006 Concordia Publishing, St. Louis,
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