A Walk Through Salvation History (part 3): "He opened their minds"

*This is the third and final part of a 3-part series I wrote on Salvation history; scroll down to read the other two posts in this series that precede this one*
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"Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:45).

We have been talking about Salvation history; we have seen how God has revealed his desire to bring all of humanity into his family. We have seen the progression of how God has done this through his covenants; with Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and finally Jesus, we see how God had sworn covenant oaths with a couple, a family, a tribe, a nation, a kingdom, and finally with a Church (all nations).

The history of our Salvation is also a history of our sin. Adam and Eve disobeyed God; Noah got drunk, and shamed himself; Abraham slept with an Egyptian mistress; Moses doubted God’s promises, and he himself was not allowed to enter the Promised Land; David became an adulterous and a murderer. And yet, God still leads his people; he led the chosen people of Israel; he leads the Church today. He is able to do so because he is God – and as John Paul II rightly observed, “sin cannot destroy the order of Love”, the order of God who saves humanity.  Despite humanity's many sins, the sovereignty of God in Salvation history can never be thwarted.

On the day of Jesus’ Resurrection, he accompanied some disciples as they journeyed to Emmaus, and opened up for them the meaning and the fulfillment of the Scriptures:

“He said to them, ‘How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself” (Luke 24:25-27).

Some time soon after, Jesus appeared again to the apostles:

“He said to them, ‘This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.’ Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:44-45).

The fruit of what Jesus explained to them concerning the Scriptures remains in the Church to this day. The evidence from the preaching of the apostles is more than impressive!  These men, who may not have been able to make such connections between the Scriptures and their definitive fulfillment in Jesus on their own, is realized in what we read in the New Testament (see, for example, Acts 2, 8 and 13). These are connections that Jesus himself must have given to them, as he “opened their minds to understand the Scriptures” - "all the Scriptures concerning himself".

Jesus is the new Adam, who brings about a new creation (Romans 5:12-14, 17-19)
Jesus is a new Noah, who brings about a flood that saves through baptism (1 Peter 3:20-21)
Jesus is the new son of Abraham, in whom all the nations of the world will find blessing (Matthew 1:1; Galatians 3:29)
Jesus is the new Moses, who gives his people a new Passover, leading them through the final exodus of sin and death (1 Corinthians 10; 1 Corinthians 5:7)
Jesus is the son of David, in whom is fulfilled the everlasting covenant that God promised his people (Luke 1:32-33; many more!)

Perhaps we too can say with those disciples who journeyed with Jesus on the road to Emmaus: “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:35)