Luke 24:36-39, NIV
‘While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see, a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see, I have.”
Sometimes even really good news is so extraordinary, and so outside of our capacity to believe, that at first we cannot take it in! It`s sometimes easier not to believe than to believe what your eyes, your ears and all your senses are telling you.
Jesus had told the disciples in advance that he was going to Jerusalem to die. He also told them that on the third day he would be raised again to life. While this knowledge of what Jesus had said would certainly have been in their minds, the reality of seeing this promise fulfilled was so far outside their previous experience that to believe it was stretching their capacity to understand!
It certainly seemed as though what Jesus had said would happen, had happened. For his body was certainly not in the tomb, but no one seemed to know where he was. Had He really been raised from the dead? Their natural understanding of life and death had limits beyond which there ordinary senses could not go. So, Jesus himself appeared to them all and made himself visible before their very eyes. Their first reaction was to think that they were seeing an apparition, a ghost, so Jesus had to say to them, “a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see, I have.”
I would love to have been there when the disciples put out their hands and touched his hands and his feet and realised that the One who was standing in front of them really was their Jesus, the one they had walked with and talked with and been blessed by for the past three years. They were indeed experiencing the miracle of the resurrection first-hand.
Yes, a few days ago they had lived through the terrible news of the death of Jesus, but now the good news of the Resurrection was exploding on their understanding and was about to explode into the world. May I encourage you to celebrate today with great thanksgiving and give yourself afresh to the Lord as a loving response to the one who gave everything for you.
Prayer: I am so thrilled, today, Lord, at the wonderful news that we celebrate as believers. I choose, today, to love and serve You as my Saviour and my Lord, both now and for the rest of my days. Amen.
