Contemplative Bible Reading

Luke 24:19-24 (New International Version 2010)

¹⁹ “What things?” he asked.

“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. ²⁰ The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; ²¹ but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. ²² In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning ²³ but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. ²⁴ Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.”

Let’s focus on the first part of verse 21:

but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.

Jesus did redeem Israel; he also redeemed the rest of us for the rest of time as well. The trouble is that words can mean many things. Sometimes we limit them as did these people here. They understood

redeem Israel

as

redeem just Israel from just its political troubles with its Roman occupiers

There are no limits in the words “redeem Israel.” Any limitations are the ones we add from our own perspective, culture, time, situation, politics, and so on.

How else do we limit God’s promises?