D. The appearance to the disciples (24:36–43)
D. The appearance to the disciples (24:36–43)
It is fairly obvious that this is the same appearance as that described in John 20:19ff., but the differences show that the two accounts are independent. Luke has nothing about Jesus’ breathing on the disciples, no reference to the Holy Spirit or to the declaration that sins are forgiven or retained. But both accounts refer to the same time on Easter Day, in both Jesus shows the disciples the marks of his wounds and in both there is the greeting of peace.
36. This incident follows hard on the return of the two from Emmaus. It was as they were saying this that Jesus appeared. Luke does not speak, as John does, of ‘closed (i.e. locked) doors’, but that seems to be the implication of Jesus himself stood among them. The risen Lord was not bound by the limitations that beset others and his sudden appearances and disappearances underline this. The placing of the greeting ‘Peace to you!’ in the margin (RSV) seems another example of the tendency to accept the Western text too readily. These words are read by all the important Greek MSS but one, and the fact that they are in John (and thus could have been copied from there by a scribe) is not of itself sufficient reason for discarding them in the light of their overwhelming attestation. They represent the normal greeting of the day.
37. It is not surprising that the disciples were startled. After all, to have the risen Lord suddenly appear in their midst must have been something of a shock. That they were frightened is not quite so explicable. They had just been telling the two from Emmaus that ‘The Lord has risen indeed’. But it is one thing to accept such a statement on the word of someone else about an absent Person and quite another to accept it for oneself when the Person is suddenly present despite locked doors. Small wonder that they supposed that they saw a spirit, i.e. a ghost! Their fear was the natural reaction to the supernatural.
38–40. Jesus proceeded to calm and reassure his followers. First he asked the reason for their being troubled and for their questionings. He takes their doubts out into the open and deals with them. The invitation to handle him and the reference to flesh and bones show that Jesus’ resurrection body had physical aspects, or at least that it could conform at will to physical laws. See my hands and my feet is probably an invitation to look at the marks of his wounds as a means of verifying that it was Jesus himself who stood before them. To handle him would show them that he was not a ghost, RSV’s omission of verse 40 (it is missing from the Western text) should not be followed. Unless we are prepared to give the Western text a veto the words should be read. They are not derived from John for his account refers to Jesus’ hands and side (John 20:20). They indicate that Jesus did what his words implied and showed the disciples where the nailprints were.
41–43. It seemed to the little group that all this was just too good to be true. They disbelieved for joy. So Jesus dispelled their unbelief by calling for some food which he proceeded to eat. AV adds ‘an honeycomb’ to the piece of broiled fish (for the availability of fish in Jerusalem, cf. Neh. 13:16), but this is the reading of inferior MSS and should be rejected.