I wonder if you have ever looked at a bible passage and thought ‘this doesn’t make sense’.
I’m sure that there are times like that for most of us, and I am no exception.
I looked at this gospel passage, and was immediately struck by the sentence ‘he opened their minds so that they could understand the scriptures’. Why now? Why not open their minds before? and then explain the scriptures before he died? It would have been easier for them to believe. Easier for them to follow him. Easier for them to accept the miracle of his resurrection.
Yet all through Jesus life they didn't understand. They stumbled and struggled with the teaching. Jesus continually rebuked them and tried to teach them the right way. How much easier it would have been if he had opened their minds first.
So why did Jesus wait until now to open their minds? The answer is simple. The story wasn't complete.
How could they understand until they had seen the death and resurrection of Jesus? They needed to experience the reality before they could start to understand.
I remember a story I heard about an explorer who some years ago had just returned to his country from the Amazon. The people at home were eager to learn all about the vast and mighty river and the country surrounding it. But how he wondered, could he ever describe it to them – how could he ever put into words the feelings that flooded into his heart when he saw the exotic flowers and heard the night sounds of the jungle. How could he communicate to them the smells that filled the air and the sense of danger and excitement that would come whenever he and his fellow explorers encountered strange animals or paddled through treacherous rapids?
So the explorer did what all good explorers do – he said to the people, ‘go and find out for yourselves what it is like’, and to help them he drew a map of the river pointing out the various features of its course and describing some of the dangers and some of the routes that could be used to avoid those dangers.
The people took the map and they framed and hung on the wall of the local science museum so that everyone could look at it. Some made copies of it. After a period of time many of those who made copies for themselves considered themselves experts on the river – and indeed they knew its every turn and bend, they knew how broad it was and how deep, where the rapids were and where the falls. They knew the river and they instructed others in what it was like whenever those people indicated an interest in it.
How many of us fall into the trap of reading the words of scripture and yet fail to understand on a deeper level. Fail to experience the reality of God
It is easy to do because experiencing God can be tough. We don't want to hear the message of carrying the burdens of others. We don't want to hear about suffering for love. We don't want to hear about giving up family and home for the gospel. We don't want to hear about how good people like Jesus have to die before they can become fully alive.
Good news for us is so often the glory given to the faithful. The power given to the righteous. The humble inheriting the earth. The poor in spirit being given the kingdom of heaven.
But we can't have the one without the other. We can't have the earth unless we carry the burdens of others. We can't have the kingdom of heaven without being willing to put God before our own desires. We can't have power without the willingness to suffer. We can't have glory without willingness to die.
Until we understand that; until our minds are opened to see the links between what we are now and what will be later; between what we experience now and what we will experience later; until we see the links between death and resurrection, the scriptures are a closed book.
It is a bit like the children’s story of the teacup:
A grandfather and a grandmother are in a gift shop looking for something to give their granddaughter for her birthday. Suddenly the grandmother spots a beautiful teacup.
‘Look at this lovely cup’, she says to her husband. He picks it up and says, ‘You’re right!’ This is one of the loveliest teacups I have ever seen.’
At that point something remarkable happened – something that could only happen in a children’s book. The teacup says to the grandparents, ‘Thank you for the compliment, but I wasn’t always beautiful’. Instead of being surprised that the cup can talk, the grandfather and grandmother ask it, ‘What do you mean when you say you weren’t always beautiful?’
Well, says the teacup, ‘once I was just an ugly, soggy lump of clay. But one day some man with dirty wet hands threw me on a wheel. Then he started turning me around and around until I got so dizzy I couldn’t see straight. ‘Stop! Stop!,’ I cried. ‘But the man with the wet hands said, ‘Not yet’. Then he started to poke me and punch me until I hurt all over. ‘Stop! Stop!’, I cried. But the man said ‘Not yet’.
Finally he did stop. But then he did something much worse. He put me into a furnace. I got hotter and hotter until I couldn’t stand it. ‘Stop! Stop!’, I cried. But the man said ‘Not yet’.
‘Finally when I thought I was going to burn up the man took me out of the furnace. Then some short lady began to paint me. The fumes go so bad that they made me feel sick.
‘Stop, stop!’ I cried. ‘Not yet!’ said the lady.
‘Finally she did stop. But then she gave me back to the man again and he put me back into that awful furnace. This time it was hotter than before. ‘Stop! stop!’, I cried. But the man said ‘Not yet’.
‘Finally he took me out of the furnace and let me cool. When I was completely cool a pretty lady put me on this shelf, next to this mirror.
When I looked at myself in the mirror, I was amazed. I could not believe what I saw. I was no longer ugly, soggy and dirty. I was beautiful, firm and clean. I cried for joy. It was then I realised that all the pain was worthwhile. Without it I would still be an ugly, soggy lump of wet clay. It was then that all the pain took on meaning for me – it had passed - but the beauty it brought has remained.
Jesus waited before he opened the minds of his disciples because he could do nothing else.
The story wasn’t complete until his resurrection occurred.
At that meeting with his disciples, Jesus didn’t give them special knowledge so that they could understand the scriptures.
He opened their minds, he reminded them of what they had experienced with him, and of what they were at that moment experiencing with him, and he pointed to the scriptures which spoke of that experience: he made connections for them.
Like those first disciples we cannot fully understand until our minds have been opened by our experience with God and by our faith in his resurrection.
Without experiencing God, we are like the people who studied the Amazon, we can know a lot about him, but never understand him or experience all that he has in store for us.
If we allow God to open our minds we will truly understand and we will praise God for it
and for the life he has given us.
Amen.
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