How the Old Testament Points to Jesus in Luke 24:22–27

One of the most important lessons in Luke 24:22–27 is how the Old Testament points to Jesus. On the road to Emmaus, two discouraged disciples had the evidence of the resurrection, but they still lacked understanding. They knew the tomb was empty. They knew the women had reported that angels said Jesus was alive. They knew others had gone to the tomb and confirmed the women’s report. Yet they still did not believe. https://youtu.be/h47NFMhmSbU Table of contentsThe Disciples Had Evidence but Still Did Not BelieveBelief Is Not Primarily About EvidenceJesus Rebuked Them for Being Slow of HeartTrue Faith Believes All That God Has SpokenBelief Is Primarily a Heart IssueThe Christ Had to Suffer Before Entering GloryThe Old Testament Is About JesusJesus Reveals Himself Through ScriptureJesus Wants Us to Find Him in ScriptureRead the Bible Looking for Christ The Disciples Had Evidence but Still Did Not Believe Luke 24:22–24 says: “Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.” This is a stunning admission. Up to this point, we might assume the two disciples were discouraged simply because all they knew was that Jesus had been crucified. But now we learn they knew much more than that. They knew the tomb was empty. They knew the women’s testimony. They knew angels had declared Jesus to be alive. They knew others had gone to the tomb and confirmed the women’s report. That is a remarkable amount of evidence. Yet still, they did not believe. This raises an important question: why didn’t they believe after all that evidence? The answer is one of the most important truths we can learn about faith and unbelief. Belief Is Not Primarily About Evidence Belief is not primarily about evidence. Evidence matters. God has given us reasonable grounds for our faith. The Christian faith is not irrational or blind. The resurrection occurred in history, and Luke presents eyewitness testimony to show that it truly happened. But if belief were strictly a matter of evidence, then everyone who heard the gospel would be saved, and everyone exposed to Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection would believe. Yet that is not what we see in Scripture or in our own experience. Two people can hear the same sermon, read the same passage, listen to the same testimony, and be presented with the same evidence, yet walk away with very different responses. Why? Because people have different hearts. This is one of the main points of the parable of the sower. The same seed is scattered, but it falls on different soils. The seed is the same, but the responses differ because the hearts differ. Sometimes we think, “If only I had one more sign,” or “If only God made things clearer,” or “If only I saw one more confirmation.” But often the deeper issue is not a shortage of evidence. It is a heart slow to submit to what God has already said. Unbelief is not chiefly about evidence. The deeper issue is the human heart's slowness to trust God’s Word. That is why Jesus rebuked them. Jesus Rebuked Them for Being Slow of Heart Luke 24:25 says: “And he said to them, ‘O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!’” Jesus does not say, “O uninformed ones.” He does not say, “O people who lacked enough evidence.” He says they were foolish and slow of heart. There is a difference between ignorance and foolishness. Ignorance means you do not know. Foolishness means you knew better but did not act on what you knew. That is why Jesus calls these disciples foolish. They were not ignorant. They had been told. They had heard the reports. More importantly, they had the Scriptures. Jesus says they were “slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.” Their problem was not that God had failed to speak clearly. Their problem was that they had failed to believe all that God had already spoken. True Faith Believes All That God Has Spoken The word “all” in Luke 24:25 is significant. These disciples were willing to believe some of what the prophets had spoken. They were happy to embrace promises of glory, deliverance, kingdom, and redemption. But they struggled to believe the parts about suffering, rejection, humiliation, and death. That is still a danger for us. We love the Scriptures about God’s love, grace, mercy, and blessing. But we can struggle to embrace the Scriptures about suffering, trials, judgment, repentance, discipline, and self-denial. True faith believes all that God has spoken, not only the parts that fit our preferred narrative. The disciples were profoundly confused by the cross. They probably thought the crucifixion meant Jesus could not be the Messiah. But in r