Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Readers of the final chapters of the Gospel of St Luke are treated to the remarkable story of an encounter between the risen Christ and two disciples on the road to Emmaus. The two disciples do not recognize Jesus as he joins them on their journey and are amazed at how little this stranger knows about the troubling “events of the past few days.” As they walk along, they inform him of the events surrounding the trial and execution of Jesus of Nazareth in Jerusalem. After hearing them out, Jesus rebukes them for being “foolish… and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared!” “Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glor?” Jesus asks. Then, “beginning with Moses and all the Scriptures” (see Luke 24: 13-35).Among the many interesting features of this story, there is something particularly instructive for our puroposes here. The way in which Christ poses the question and then goes about answering it sheds light on very basic elements of the field of inquiry that has come to be called theology and that is our subject in this essay.Why was it necessary for Christ to suffer? The question is a cogent and difficult one, and once we start thinking about it we find ourselves asking additional questions. Why did Christ have to suffer these things? We believe that Christ died to save us from our sings, but how does dying in this ... log in or subscribe to read full text