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He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken!  Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?”  And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. (Luke 24:25-27)

As they walked away from Jerusalem, Cleopas and the other disciple recited the whole gospel message back to Jesus.  “Jesus was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people” they said.  “We had placed our hope in him as the one who would redeem Israel.  But he was crucified and died.  And now on this third day reports have come of angels and him being alive again… but when some of our companions went to check it out, though the tomb really was empty, they didn’t see Jesus.”

Cleopas and his companion have all the accurate truths of the gospel story.  But somehow it hasn’t quite been enough to spark belief.  Indeed, this very journey out of town is a giving up on Jerusalem and their hopes of Jesus and whatever salvation he may have brought. 

You see, the right information and the right beliefs are not enough in themselves to generate faith in Christ.  Which is why apologetics rarely win anyone to Christ.  What these disciples lacked was the breath of God to inspire the words they spoke and bring those dead bones to life. 

Said differently, the truth of Jesus is not merely learned, it is also experienced: revealed, lived, given as a gift of a Sovereign God who still acts in our lives today as he breathes the dead words of our faith to life in the life of Christ.

This is exactly what Jesus does as he walks with these hopelessly downcast disciples journeying in the wrong direction.  He breathes his words into them: the words of scripture, revealed through the word of he, the risen Lord Christ.  Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explains and brings to life all these scriptures concerning himself.  It is the gift of revelation, worked by the risen Lord that brings their faith to life. 

And even still, it would not be enough.  This inspired word of the risen Lord would still need to be confirmed to them through the sacramental breaking of the bread before they would truly see Jesus as he was.  But already now, their hearts begin to burn within them as the breath of God breathes the scriptures open to them.

Our post-Pentecost confession has always been that it is the Spirit’s work to inSPIRE our hearing of the scriptures, which is why we pray for his guidance before we open them.  We believe similarly that it is the Spirit’s work to give the gift of faith; the Spirit’s work to communicate Christ to us through the sacraments in such a way that we can taste and see that the Lord is good. 

Truth is important, necessary even.  But without the work of the living God here and now in our own hearts and lives, the truth remains dead in the mists of Good Friday.  It takes a living Lord to breath life into our faith.  And thanks be to God: he does. 

Similarly good news is that our conversation with anyone who might not believe, does not rest on our ability to be a rhetorical ninja or an apologetical genius.  It is God that gives the gift of revelation and of faith, and the Spirit is still doing that work.  We simply play assistant to what God is already up to.