What does that phrase, “He opened to us the Scriptures,” mean? We know it means more than Jesus rolled out a scroll of one of the prophets. We know it has a spiritual meaning, especially given these two disciples were affected so spiritually – their hearts burned within them.

We begin to get a glimpse into what these words mean a little further into the chapter when the resurrected Jesus engages all of the disciples. In v45 Luke writes, “Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.” “Opening the Scriptures” occurs when Jesus “opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.”

That goes far beyond comprehension and lexical definition of words. Jesus was not giving them a grammar lesson. In other words, apart from the grace of God, even though we may know the words of Scripture and the meaning of the words of Scripture, we still do not grasp or “get” the Scripture. The part we don’t get on our own is the spiritual force and weight and realities and implications of the words of Scripture. When God opens our minds to understand the Scripture, He is awakening our souls to take in the fullness of the realities and implications of divine truth. He is enabling us to see the divine author behind and underneath the human authors, the big picture of redemption behind all the smaller narratives of redemption, the gospel theme that unifies the whole, the Christ that is the point of the whole. And in seeing what can only be seen by opened eyes, we see how this Almighty God with this massive redemptive plan has included us in redemption by revealing to us His Son!

No wonder their hearts burned within them! No wonder our hearts will burn with love for Christ too as He opens the Scriptures to us!