Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. Luke 24:27 (NLT)
Can you imagine it? Walking along the road, discussing the day’s events and Jesus walks up and starts a conversation with you? Can you imagine how that would feel? As they discussed the latest news and how heavy their hearts were, Jesus engages. Later they said that their hearts were on fire as he talked to them.
What I find really interesting is that he doesn’t just say “Here I am! It’s me, there is nothing to fear.” Instead he takes them through Scripture. He goes back and shows them all the foundational things said by God through humans. He grounds them in truth.
Later in this chapter, he does the same thing with the disciples. He shows up and blows them away with his presence. They are dumb-founded and amazed. But instead of saying “Well, now you’ve seen me you are good to go”, he points them to Scripture. Again taking them through the things that pointed to him. He cemented their experience with the Scripture.
Just like then, we often get to encounter Jesus in our lives and our walks. We have experiences where we understand that he is revealing himself to us. It’s exciting and motivating and profound. As awesome as that is, we can’t stop there. We have to be grounded in Scripture.
Our walk has to be a balance of heart and head. If we have only an experiential knowledge of Christ or only an intellectual knowledge of Christ, we will be off balance. We need to have both. We need to experience him and understand him through Scriptures.
Jesus set this example for us long ago with the early disciples. Now, we as his disciples need to continue the practice. How are you experiencing Jesus today? How are you grounding yourself in his Word?