Luke 24:36b-48 (NRSV)
Read Luke 24:36b-48 on biblegateway.com
Verse 36While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you." Verse 37They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. Verse 38He said to them, "Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Verse 39Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." Verse 40And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. Verse 41While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, "Have you anything here to eat?" Verse 42They gave him a piece of broiled fish, Verse 43and he took it and ate in their presence. Verse 44Then he said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you-that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled." Verse 45Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, Verse 46and he said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, Verse 47and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. Verse 48You are witnesses of these things.
Devotion
Luke tells a resurrection story in which the physicality of the risen Jesus is central. The disciples touch and probe Jesus’ body ostensibly to counteract the perception that Jesus is a ghost. Jesus says, “a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” Jesus eats a piece of fish. A ghost does not need food. And yet, “Jesus himself stood among them” without opening a door.
To Luke, the resurrection is not an abstraction. It’s not spectral. It happens in, with, and to the community of disciples, once deflated and frightened, now energized. The disciples experience the resurrection with their hands and feet.
Luke invites us to go deeper than the abstraction and to discover within ourselves—within the physical—the resurrected one. In between the lines of this story is a wonderful gift to us. Jesus revives the flesh and bones of his followers. What would it mean for you today to live into that resurrection reality?
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Prayer
O God of awe and mystery, stand among us today that we may be energized by your enlivening presence. Revive us. Renew our lives. In the name of the resurrected one, we pray. Amen.