46 Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, 47 and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. (Lk. 24:46,47 NKJV)
After Jesus, recently resurrected from the dead, opened the minds of His disciples to understand the Scriptures (Lk. 24:45), and presumably after He gave them an Emmaus Road-like Bible study similar to the one Cleopas and other unnamed disciples received (vs.27), He concluded by saying, “Thus it is written and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and rise from the dead the third day” (vs.46). Their ‘kingdom now’ expectations had been part of the reason they overlooked the Scriptures explicit predictions – the Christ was to suffer, die, and rise (Isa. 53; Ps. 22; 16:10). It was not an aberration of the plan of God and neither was it a contingency; it always was the plan. The promises found in Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms all bore witness to that.
