Biblion Bible Commentary
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Then He Opened Their Minds
Luke 24:44-49
44 He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you, that all things which are written in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms concerning me must be fulfilled.” · WEB
The whole of Scripture is opened a second time, and the commission that follows is to be witnesses — after they wait.
"All things which are written in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms concerning me must be fulfilled" Luke 24:44.
The three named divisions are the whole Hebrew Bible as it was reckoned. The claim is not that a handful of proof texts point to him but that the entire collection does — and must be fulfilled is this book's word for the last time.
Then he opened their minds, that they might understand the Scriptures Luke 24:45.
The same verb used of the Scriptures being opened on the road Luke 24:32 and of the two disciples' eyes at the table Luke 24:31. Three openings in one chapter — the text, the eyes, the mind — and all three are done to people rather than achieved by them.
It is worth pausing on that. Everything the eleven will preach for the rest of their lives, they receive here, and they receive it as a gift given in a room.
"Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem" Luke 24:46–47.
Three things are said to be written, and the third is the surprise. That the Messiah would suffer and rise is one claim; that the mission to all the nations was equally foretold is another, and it is placed inside the same sentence as a matter of Scripture rather than of policy.
This is where the book has been going since Simeon held an infant and called him a light for the nations Luke 2:32, and since the Isaiah quotation in chapter three was run on to all flesh will see God's salvation Luke 3:6.
And beginning at Jerusalem is the exact program of the second volume — the city that killed him gets the first offer.
"You are witnesses of these things" Luke 24:48. Not advocates or organizers. A witness has one qualification, which is having been there, and one job, which is to say what he saw. That is what the men in that room are, and the preface of this book rests its whole authority on people like them Luke 1:2.
"Behold, I send out the promise of my Father on you. But wait in the city of Jerusalem until you are clothed with power from on high" Luke 24:49.
The commission comes with an instruction to do nothing. Men who have just been given the greatest news in history and told to take it to every nation are ordered to stay put — and the word is wait.
The reason is in the last clause. Clothed with power from on high is a thing done to them, from outside, and until it happens the errand is not to be attempted. It is the same Spirit that came on Mary, filled Elizabeth and Zechariah, descended at the Jordan and led him into the wilderness. The book that began with the Spirit moving on individuals ends by promising the same to everyone in the room.
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