January 24th, 21

Have You Found Your Decoder Ring?

Exodus 9 - 11 and Luke 24

Today’s reading is from Exodus 9-11 and Luke 24.

Have you ever had a decoder ring?  Do you remember ever foraging through a box of cereal to find one?  With the ring, came the promise to be able to read secret messages and decode things locked away and hidden from normal eyes.  It was a great prize.  Today, we read a story and it’s almost as if we’ve been given a decoder ring to the Bible, history, God’s redemptive plan for our life.  In this passage we are given a key to all that has happened before, what is happening right now, and what is to happen in the days to come.

Jesus meets these two men on the way to a little town, 7 miles outside of Jerusalem, called Emmaus. They’re on their way, with hearts that are dejected.  Their hopes and aspirations had been dashed.  They are broken people.  Having followed Jesus through his ministry, they had hoped that He was the Messiah.  They had seen many of his miraculous signs.  They were overcome by his amazing teaching and thought, this could be it!  This might be the man! Yet, three days prior, they had seen the man they had pinned their hopes on, crucified. Now the story that they had hoped for, had come to an end, or so they thought.  But it’s here at this moment, when their hearts are at their darkest, and their hopes are most broken, that Jesus shows up.  He is veiled to them at first, but eventually He is going to reveal himself and show them who he really is.

“Then Jesus said to them, ‘You foolish people!  You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures.  Wasn’t it clearly predicted that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his glory?’”  (Luke 24:25-26)

At this  point, Jesus is still veiled to them.  He acknowledges their disappointment and discouragement. He reminds them that they should have known that the Messiah would have to suffer and die for His people.  And then, this man, an apparent stranger to them, begins to take them through all the writings of Moses and the Prophets.  And he explains, from the Scriptures, what they should have been able to see.  He takes them through the Scriptures concerning himself.   He explains who the Messiah is, what the signs are, and that He, indeed, is the Messiah.

He is offering them a decoder ring, as it were.  He’s saying, listen, if you look at the Bible, through me, you will understand all that God has been planning, from the beginning, and where this story is going.

Jesus is the great decoder ring.  The key to God’s plan for the world, is Jesus.  The key to freedom from slavery to Pharaoh, is Jesus.  The key to the deliverance from the angel of death is Jesus.  The key to the plagues of the world, is Jesus.  The key to stubborn hearts, is Jesus.  The key to a life of disappointment and broken dreams, is Jesus.  The key to understanding not only God’s plan for the world, but for you and me, is to understand it all in light of Jesus.  

Christ is that Passover Lamb, that saved God’s people.  Christ is the antidote to the plagues of this world.  Christ is the light that shone through, even during the dark days of Egypt.  Jesus is showing himself to us all through the Scriptures.  We see his reflection coming out.  Christ is our decoder ring.  He’s the one that will help us make sense of what we are going through right now. 

I don’t know what road you are on right now.  For these guys it was a 7-mile journey to Emmaus.  Maybe you’re on your own 7-mile journey of discouragement.  Maybe you are experiencing brokenness and disappointment, dreams that have collapsed, relationships fractured, or a diagnosis that has you afraid. Perhaps you are wondering, as were these two men, where this journey is taking you. We have someone who has come alongside us just as He did for these two men.   He has a plan in place.  He offers us a way to look at our circumstances through Him.  When we do that things will make sense.  We’ll begin to have hope.

When we begin to see our life through Him, we begin to experience clarity, strength, mercy and grace, there with us as companions, each step of the way, walking with us on that seven mile journey. 

As you walk this journey, may you see Him.  May He come into your house, break bread with you, and help you see what has been there all along and that He has a plan.  He is the plan.

You are loved!