A SEVENFOLD OPENING
Reading: Luke 24
Bill Thompson
THIS resurrection story points us to the possibility of having fresh openings to new things, while still holding on to the values of the past. Our tendency is to imagine that the blessings God has given us are, as it were, the last word; and therefore we hold on to them as though there were nothing more to follow. When the three disciples had their experience on the mount of transfiguration they were so overwhelmed with the glory of the Lord Jesus that their immediate reaction was a desire to perpetuate that experience. Everything was so wonderful that they felt the need to settle down with it, not realising that they could take its values with them and yet move on to new discoveries of the infinite greatness of Christ.
"The Lord has yet more light and truth to break forth from His Word" is not merely a thrilling thought from a hymn but a real possibility, if only we are open to such new light. One of the perils of wide-margin Bibles is that we may use them to provide fixed rails for our thoughts, and so develop a closed attitude towards the Lord's new speaking. Our notes and underlinings may be helpful, but they should never be allowed to have this kind of effect. Perhaps from time to time we should start a new Bible. This would be good for trade, but it might also be good for our spiritual growth and progress. Certainly we must watch out for anything which would hinder our spiritual life by making us closed when we should be open. So quickly we get into a rut, and unintentionally feel that we are only safe so long as we confine ourselves to [90/91] what we have always been used to. It is very important, though, that we should constantly allow the Lord to open up new areas of our being. I have recently had my attention drawn to seven openings which may be found in this chapter, and have found help in considering each one of them separately.
1. The Open Tomb (vv.2-3)
This is a resurrection chapter and therefore we are not surprised that it begins with an open tomb. This, in fact, is where everything begins for us as Christians, for there is no patching up of our old life, but the bringing in of an entirely new one. Those who know the power of resurrection life and live in the good of it have no need to be always reverting to the past, but have new faith for new experiences of God's power. Faith is not something which can be stored up, as though we could draw on a fund of reserve faith. "I live by the faith of the Son of God" means an ever present and ever fresh experience, coming livingly to us from the risen Christ.
The opened tomb was the expression of God's power to do something which had never been done before. That is why these two could not understand it and walked on to Emmaus with hearts that were slow to believe that God could do it, concerned and perplexed as we always are until we have learned to be governed by the principle of the opened tomb. We reason around things and make an effort to explain them, while all the time God is asking us to believe that He means what He has said, and is well able to fulfil His promises. The opened tomb is His great guarantee that He has the answer, not in terms of explanations and appeals to reason but in the person of His risen Son. This kind of life is full of joyful wonders, as we see the working of the God of the impossible. It is a feature of our age that we have lost our capacity to wonder because so many extraordinary things are happening. God's wonders, however, only begin when man's efforts are exhausted, and the resurrection of Christ is meant to lead us into constantly new and unexpected proofs of His ability to open up the deepest grave in which we may find ourselves.
2. The Opened Home (v.29)
