Jesus Appears To The Disciples
JESUS APPEARS TO THE DISCIPLES
LUKE 24:36-45
Jesus had to eat something to prove to them that he was real and risen.
There can be no doubt at all that the New Testament teaches that the Lord rose physically from the dead. The witnesses were clear that they were not in communication with a spirit. He ate food in their presence. 24:39 is part of their testimony.
The witnesses to this first appearance of Christ to the apostles themselves are Luke, John (John 20:19-23) and Paul (1 Corinthians 15:5). In Luke, as we observe, the narrative links with the Emmaus story. In John it is a distinct episode, and adds the important detail that the men were assembled behind closed doors, “for fear of the Jews.” John, of course, was there, and his account supports the authenticity of Luke. Only Luke speaks of the fish and the honeycomb, but John speaks of the Lord’s eating with them on the beach in a Galilean resurrection story told only by him.
The greatest care has been taken by the evangelists, as has been already noted, to establish the fact that the body in which Jesus appeared was a real body, no phantasm or manifestation of the spirit. It was the body of the cross and the tomb, still bearing the marks of suffering. On the other hand, it belonged to a different order of existence. It appeared and disappeared. Something about it baffled immediate recognition, though identity became evident when he so willed it. It is over seventy years since James Orr, in speaking of this phenomenon, hazarded the guess that “physicists are not so sure of the impenetrability of matter as they once were.” Physics since then has demonstrated that matter is only apprehended by sight and touch in the form appropriate to those senses. Its overwhelming proportion of empty space, if that term itself makes sense, the fantastic motion of seemingly motionless material, all emphasize the fact that we see only that which we see, and that there is an order of existence beyond comprehension on such levels of evidence. This does not explain the resurrection appearances of the Lord, but does suggest the thought that there are other orders than those of common experience.
Notes 24:41: “disbelieved for joy”—a realistic observation; compare 22:45. 24:44: “still with you”—points to the difference between his pre-resurrection presence and his post-resurrection appearances. His abode now was elsewhere. “Moses … the prophets … the psalms”—the three great divisions of the Old Testament.