Did Not Our Heart Burn Within Us?

As Jesus walked on the road to Emmaus with the two disciples, they explained to Him all that had happened “concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people: And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him.” They told of “how certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre; And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive.” The way Jesus responded to their concerns if very instructive: “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” He taught them from the scriptures to show that what had happened was exactly what had been prophesied. After He disappeared the disciples said, “Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?” (Luke 24:19-32) Jesus was a resurrected, glorified Being with all knowledge, and yet He still turned to the written word in the scriptures to teach these disciples about Himself. Soon thereafter Luke recorded how He showed Himself to the apostles, and again He taught them through the scriptures. After eating before them, proving He was truly alive, He said, “These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day” (Luke 24:44-46). He taught them from the law of Moses, the writings of the prophets, and the psalms (touching all three parts of the Jewish Bible) to help them understand what had happened.

                The Savior did something similar when He visited the Nephites and taught them. He quoted extensively from Isaiah, Micah, and Malachi, and then He invited them, “And whosoever will hearken unto my words and repenteth and is baptized, the same shall be saved. Search the prophets, for many there be that testify of these things.” He examined the Nephite scriptures—telling them to record things which had not been written down—and then “expounded all the scriptures in one” (3 Nephi 23:14). After quoting two full chapters of Malachi to them, “He did expound all things unto them, both great and small. And he saith: These scriptures, which ye had not with you, the Father commanded that I should give unto you; for it was wisdom in him that they should be given unto future generations. And he did expound all things, even from the beginning until the time that he should come in his glory” (3 Nephi 26:1-3). If the Savior would spend that much time teaching the people from the scriptures, then surely in our teaching in the church we should do the same—the scriptures are our primary text for teaching in every situation. In a recent podcast Dr. Ross Baron shared this: “When I was a new bishop, my stake president interviewed me…. He came to me and he said, ‘Are you using the Scriptures in your interviews?’ I said, ‘No, I'm not.’ He said, ‘You need to use the Word of God in your interviews.’” He related that it “totally changed everything I did. I used the text. I tried to be more like the Savior where he opens the Scriptures and helps them.” Indeed, we must use “the text” more in all that we do because there is power in the word of God to change us and others. Those two disciples on the road to Emmaus declared after the Savior opened the scriptures to them, “Did not our heart burn within us?” The words of the scriptures will be far more powerful in helping change hearts than anything else, just as Alma knew: “The preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just—yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else, which had happened unto them—therefore Alma thought it was expedient that they should try the virtue of the word of God” (Alma 31:5).