Spiritual Heartburn

It was the greatest sermon ever preached, and we don’t even know what it was. As Jesus walked with the two disciples on the Emmaus road, the Bible tells us that “beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:27 NKJV).

Jesus took them on a flyover of the Scriptures and all the verses that pointed to what the Messiah would do.

No doubt He took them to Genesis and the first passage that spoke of the coming of the Messiah: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (3:15 NKJV).

Jesus might have reminded them that in Genesis when Abraham offered up his son Isaac, it was a picture of what God the Father did at Calvary. The difference, however, was that Abraham didn’t have to kill Isaac (see Genesis 22:8 NKJV).

In Exodus He was the Passover lamb. In Numbers He was a rock in the wilderness, broken to give water. In the book of Joshua, He was the Captain of the Lord’s armies. In Isaiah, He was called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace (see Isaiah 9:6).

Jesus also might have taken them to Isaiah 53, where the prophet wrote, “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5 NKJV).

And perhaps He pointed them to Micah, who said the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.

As He gave them a guided tour of the Bible, their hearts began to burn again (see Luke 24:32). I think we could all use a good case of spiritual heartburn—not from spicy food, but from letting the Word of God ignite our hearts.