“Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.”
What a moment it must have been! The risen Jesus appears to the disciples. Not surprisingly, they are terrified. As is His way, He says “don’t be afraid, it’s only me” (paraphrasing obviously) and the story proceeds towards the glorious ending of the ascension, after which “they worshipped Him and returned to Jerusalem filled with great joy”.
The verse that has caught my attention the most this morning is the one quoted at the top, though. In the midst of everything, Jesus opens the minds of the disciples so they could understand the scriptures – so that they could understand how what they were seeing with their eyes was corroborated with what their scriptures told them, and what He had told them about Himself. This leads to a couple of questions for me:
1. If they were not able to understand until their minds were opened, at what stage are our minds opened?
2. If we answer 1 with ” by the Spirit” aren’t we in danger of having nonsense opinions, and passing them off as divinely inspired?
I’m inclined to think that we think too much of thinking. I don’t think we’re supposed to understand everything. I think that by thinking too much about thinking, we are, in fact, idolatrous. I don’t want to be a Bible teacher, or one who believes or leads people in to a life of Father, Son and Holy Scripture. That way leads me to gain more and more power and authority, as I show I “know things” until I’ve lost the thread of the point of it all, which is, in case you were wondering, relationship with God. I don’t know about you, but most of the relationships I have, I don’t understand completely. If I claimed to I’d be lying heinously. The beauty is in the ongoing revealing of what it means to know, love and to be known and loved. This takes more than knowledge. It is a conscious, many times a day, decision about how and what to prioritise.
We are to try and put God first. That is all.