THE RISEN CHRIST DISSOLVES DEPRESSION. LUKE 24
He is the incarnate God in His resurrection body. His name means ‘Jehovah is our salvation’, often limited to ‘Jesus saves.‘ Jesus Himself drew near and went with them.’
They reasoned or discussed, disputed, questioned. V15 Would God that we would talk freely about our glorious Lord, and the great salvation in our dear Lord. We freely discuss our professional interests, sporting events, or political instability: but we reluctantly speak of our beloved Lord‘s triumph. Let’s be open in our discussion.
‘Their eyes were holden.’ v16 The sense is ‘mastery of the faculty‘, a check or restraint. While eyes are the organ of sight, they express the understanding mind, with its faculty of knowing. God had everything on hold. Unbelief is sin, restraining the Lord from releasing his blessing. Their expression was sad or sullen. (v17) sulking over the turn of events; brooding over their failure; sour at the dismal future; cheerless facing their future; and grumpy to walk with. We may be just like such, forgetting the sheer wonder of all the Lord has done.
The most stupendous triumph in man’s history was enacted with God in Christ supreme. ‘Are you only a stranger in Jerusalem, when He is King, eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who is alone wise, be honour and glory for ever and ever.‘ (1 Timothy 1:17) Is He a perfect or partial stranger to you?
Trauma produces depression, varying with severity and gravity of the event, including the betrayal, arrest of their lord, the four unjust trials imposed on the Son of God and the confusion and grief to his followers. Often a deep emotional shattering, unfaithfulness in marriage or business associations, financial loss, debilitating sickness, death of loved one, forfeiture of relationships prove traumatic. The incomparable resurrection of our Lord totally conquered death, hades, and the forces of hell.
‘Have you not known the things that happened there in these days’ when the Lord of glory had recorded on many pages of the Old Testament such truths as the triumphant entry of our Lord on a colt and a foal of a donkey to their Hosanna chorusing ) Zechariah 9:9 enacted precisely in the last days at Jerusalem. Did the scribes of heaven tick the unfolding details as they observed? Certainly the omniscient Lord recorded every detail knowing ‘My time has come.’
Contrast the doldrum features of depression with the elevating, strengthening and purifying reception of His risen life.
Depression describes a medical, soulish or psychological, and spiritual condition.
Restoration shows total healing, when the entire being, spirit, mind and body is composed.
Frustration, exasperation, and annoyance characterise depression.
Rich fulfillment of life comes only on meeting the risen Lord.
Running away from life- choosing to abandon Jerusalem, planning an out-of-town, Emmaus.
Joyfully facing and accepting a challenge to return to once-hated Jerusalem.
Slow to react when slow of heart to believe all the prophets have spoken, even when God spoke.
Instantaneous reversed decision to return to scene of crucifixion- resurrection. .
Life not worth living; heartless, without desire to continue. Suicide features in many such.
Horizons enlarged. Eternity embraced. Seeking reunion. Rediscovering purpose.
Overwhelmed, unhappy, depressed. gloomy, glum, miserable down-hearted.
Joyful, in control of situation. Hearty embrace of life.
Indecisive inconclusive, unsettled. Hesitant. Bleak outlook. Horizon restricted.
Decisive, conclusive, composed, collected, unruffled, unmoved.
Physical pain, eg muscle ache after 12 kms walk.
Limbs restored. Lactic acid absorbed. Physiology accelerated.
Concentration impaired; not focused; totally distracted.
Single-mindedness restored. Tell the good news. Close attention. single-minded.
Feeling ‘blue’, low, agitated, fatigued; and useless for the Lord
Cheerful, heartened, energetic. Prepared unto every good work.
Guilty- need to be punished.
Innocent, right. Justified by faith in our Lord Jesus.
Failure, lifeless. Tragedy, prepared for apparent defeat.
Successful, overcoming, Triumph for right, overcoming forces of evil.
Nonsense, idle talk (v11) ‘These words seemed to them as idle tales, and they did not believe them‘.
Alive, animated, vibrant speech or preaching. ‘The Lord is risen indeed. He has appeared to Simon. They told about the things that had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.’ ( (vv34,35 )
Memory suppression and loss. Our Lord three times reminded them of the OT scriptures. Moses, Psalms, Prophets.
Recall of scripture and memorisation by the Holy Spirit. God’s provision.
Resentment anger, hatred, umbrage, envy flow from depression and are soul-destroying.
Acceptance, loving-kindness, dead to self, welcoming peace-loving.
The risen lord enquired ‘What are the communications you have?’ The Greek ‘logos’
Means the noblest thoughts of which your mind is capable, ‘The essential Word of God, the personal wisdom and power in relation to God; His minister in creation and government of God’s universe. The cause of all the world’s life, both physical and ethical, which for the purpose of procurement of man’s salvation put on human nature in the person of Jesus Christ the Messiah, the second Person of the Godhead. What communications do we have to our beloved Lord?
Do we disclose the living Lord?
What our Lord discussed. Presumably, types of Himself in Old Testament. Deane Woods with prominent Hebrew medical men., one of whom has received the Highest University honour while the other is prominent in medical defence. May they see their Messiah in their Old Testament.
‘The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in his heart. So the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.‘ (Genesis 6;6 ) Over 120 years, God detailed construction of the ark bringing Noah salvation and his family ( 8 of them, resurrection number )and solemn judgment to all excluded. Did our Lord choose Noah when speaking of Moses ? Highly probable!
We drove from San Francisco to North Dakota to see Mac’s family. We drove at an altitude of 5000 feet, where shells abound. ‘Yes, the sea covered it‘ . Rather it was deluged in Noah’s flood.
Did the risen Christ outline His ministry as the great High Priest, which office Aaron filled in Exodus 28:1. ’Take Aaron from among the children of Israel that he may minister to me as a priest. The Lord yearned that the priestly ministry would delight Himself. ‘Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord on his two shoulders as a memorial. (V12)
Our High priest in heaven bears our names before the Father’s throne. What a study!
God’s word speaks of the red heifer in Numbers 19:3-6, where the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, ’Speak to the children of Israel that they bring you a red heifer without blemish, in which there is no defect and on which a yolk has never come. ( A type of Christ. ) Eleazar the priest will take it outside the camp, and it shall be slaughtered before them. The priest shall take some of its blood with his finger, and sprinkle some of its blood seven times directly in front of the tabernacle of meeting. The heifer shall be burned in his sight: its hide, it flesh, its blood, and its offal shall be burned. And the priest shall take cedar wood and hyssop ( from Passover sacrifice ) and scarlet and cast them into the fire burning the heifer. Verse 9 reads, ’Then the man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and store them outside the camp in a clean place. Only one red heifer over generations- only one Redeemer for eternity. It is for the purifying from sin.’ Oh, what a picture of our dear Saviour suffering for our pardon and cleansing.
He was crucified outside the city wall. The Garden tomb or Gordon’s Calvary, honoring the Bible-loving, God-fearing British general. As a young man in our medical unit, I was struck by our Lord’s total rejection by crucifixion outside the city, which bears His name.
The Mercy seat was covered with pure gold, as in Exodus 25:17-22. God commanded, ‘Put the mercy seat on top of the ark. And there ( notice the staggering promise ) I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat‘. Did our Lord allude to this? Or to the manna representing Christ as our daily sustenance, as in Exodus 16:15-35. Or Moses lifting the bronze serpent as in Numbers 21, used by our Lord as illustrating His death at Golgotha, in conversing with Nicodemus.
Jonah 1:17 recounts Jonah’s rejection, when actually cast aside ( as in death ), swallowed by sea monster ( picture of the grave ) where he was imprisoned for three days, before being regurgitated on a foreign shore. Contrast this with the dignified resurrection of our beloved Lord: where His grave clothes were carefully folded in the tomb. Jonah’s skin was jaundiced, wrinkled, stretched because of the body heat of the great creature; actually, he was a miracle of risen, preserved life. I spoke with a gentleman in our park. Out of the blue, he derided, ‘You’re not one of them who believes in Noah and the whale? ‘Sure I do! The blood oxygen concentration of the whale is several times greater than the human, permitting the whale to descend to 1000 metres depth, so Jonah was well sustained with oxygen during those three days, Anatomically, at one spot, 20% oxygen is released so that Jonah would breathe.’ He looked amazed. So was I! The Spirit of God had given this new information in the preceding hour.
God gives wisdom when we are fools for HIM.
Christ prophesied as King. Did our dear Lord remind these two that ‘The sceptre shall not depart from Judah nor a law-giver from between his feet until Shiloh come. They were tramping the Emmaus road with the Shiloh of Genesis . (Genesis 49:10) Did our Lord quote from Psalm 24, ‘The King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory?’ The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory. ‘(v 7-9) Indeed, our Lord had fought the greatest battle of eternity, surrendering Himself as the Victim, yet HE had forcefully won. Of which kingly conquest, we subjects are the beneficiaries. They walked with the King.
Consider Isaiah 6:1-3, ‘I saw the Lord high and lifted up and His train filled the temple’ so powerfully given last Lord’s Day. Isaiah 9:7 tells of His ‘government and peace upon the throne of David and over His kingdom‘, while Daniel 7;13,14 told of ‘One, like the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven and coming to the Ancient of days.’
A generation ago, Heugel showed how our beloved Lord ‘reigns from the tree‘, which stirred me deeply. Psalm 96:10 I checked the Scripture, confirming this truth. In His greatest humiliation and distress, our dear Lord wore the crown . God help us ever to present this truth- and the Father’s approval by raising his Son from the dead.
Only eternity will reveal the nature of bible studies the Lord gave, which focussed on HIM. .
His substitutionary death and glorious resurrection are the pillars of these studies.
The crucified and resurrected Christ dissolves every degree of depression.
In our bible teaching, they remain our example.
+- By His grace harrold steward. .