Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself

Now as they said these things, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, "Peace to you." But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit. And He said to them, "Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have." When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. But while they still did not believe for joy, and marveled, He said to them, "Have you any food here?" So they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb. And He took it and ate in their presence.

Then He said to them, "These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me." And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures. 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, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things. Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high."

And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. Now it came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven. And they worshiped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. Amen.

- Luke 24:36-53

In yesterday's reading, we read about the two disciples walking along the road to Emmaus. A Stranger was walking past -- we are told it was Jesus, but that "their eyes were restrained." The Stranger asks about their conversation, and the disciples believe He must truly be the only one in all Jerusalem who doesn't know what has happened -- the crucifixion of the One who was their hope for a redeemed Israel. And then there are the perplexing reports about His tomb! But the Stranger speaks to them of the Scriptures concerning Jesus, beginning with Moses and the Prophets. As they came to the village, the Stranger would continue alone, but they constrained Him to stay with them. When they sat down to eat, He took the bread, blessed it and broke it and gave it to them. Suddenly they knew Him, and He vanished from their sight. They immediately went back to Jerusalem to join the others, who told them, "The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!" And they related to the others all that happened. See The Lord is risen indeed - Road to Emmaus.

Now as they said these things, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, "Peace to you." Here is a beautiful greeting for all of us -- this resurrectional greeting resounds throughout liturgical worship, and we should remember the fullness from whence it comes when we share it with others.

But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit. And He said to them, "Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have." When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. But while they still did not believe for joy, and marveled, He said to them, "Have you any food here?" So they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb. And He took it and ate in their presence. My study bible suggests that Jesus does all of this -- allowing their touch, and even eating in their presence -- to counter their fears and doubts. It adds, "This is a special instance, since the glorified body of Christ needs no food for sustenance." But what we focus on here is the real tangibility of what is happening, of His appearance to them. No ghosts, no idle tales, no dreamy appearance is this -- but rather it is once again their Teacher, inviting them to touch, sitting down to eat in their company. It reminds us that our faith is not just a spiritual reality and understanding, but something that has already been incarnate among us, fully fleshed, and lives through all that we do in our earthly lives, just as our worship involves all our senses. We live our faith, as our Lord shares our lives with us, as tangible as it is glorified.

Then He said to them, "These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me." These are the three sections of the Hebrew Scriptures. My study bible explains they are also called the Pentateuch, the Prophets, and the Writings. We note this message, that it is similar to the one of the Stranger on the road to Emmaus.

And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures. My study bible has an important note here: "Understanding is not merely intellectual, but a full experiential, spiritual understanding. To comprehend and receive the spiritual value of the Scriptures is a gift of the risen Lord through the power of the Holy Spirit." The experiential nature of faith is, in my opinion, an essential part of our understanding and of the fully-fleshed nature of its reality. God was incarnate so that we know He experienced all there is of our lives, so that others knew Him, and so that faith is shared through every facet of what it is to be a human being. Spiritual understanding and growth is thus also experiential for us.

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, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things." We note how the full experience of life, and suffering and death -- and resurrection -- are all essential and necessary components of this faith, this story, His story. They are tied here to repentance and remission of sins, and for all people, "all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." The spiritual growth, real experiential change in the repentance ("change of mind") and remission of sins is the purpose. It is a fully experiential transformation, in the living of our lives, that is effectively preached through the fullness of His. And it is in their witnessing - another experiential aspect of the faith - that it begins. But there is more.

"Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high." Jesus promises the power of what is yet to come: the Holy Spirit with which they will be anointed. They will be filled with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost -- another experiential and necessary, integral aspect of the faith. My study bible says, "The apostles are to wait in Jerusalem, because their divine mission can be accomplished only with the enabling of divine power. Luke concludes his gospel with this reference to the Promise of My Father and begins the Book of Acts with the fulfillment of it."

And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. Now it came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven. And they worshiped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. Amen. Thus ends the gospel of Luke, and his writing will continue in the Acts of the Apostles. My study bible says, "The Ascension is as great a mystery as the Resurrection, and should not be understood simply in terms of time and space. The risen Lord Jesus Christ is now enthroned, sharing fully the ruling power of the Father together with the all-Holy Spirit. The disciples worshiped Him because His Resurrection and Ascension fully reveal His divine nature." Importantly, it also adds, "Joy dominates their lives through the renewing experience of His Resurrection." So, in these last verses, we get the fullness of all that His life and Resurrection really mean: He has lived with us as one of us, He has suffered and died. He has fully re-appeared in the Resurrection to His followers, and now He takes His place in His divinity. The fullness of all things is truly in Him, but with a great guarantee for us: we can experience and know this for ourselves, through the witnesses and through the power of the Spirit with which they will be anointed and which we can experience in our own lives through faith. That joy is the experience of such is our great gift, the blessing of His life and the reality that we can experience in faith.

As the Gospel of Luke closes, I would like to focus on that joy that is in the promise of renewal. The Resurrection and Ascension guarantee the power behind this daily participation we can have in our own renewal, in the regeneration of life itself that is possible through faith. Most of all, we understand that through the experiential life of faith, especially in prayer, we can come to terms with ourselves and our natures, our failings, and know that there is so much more to life than we give credit for. Beyond today or this moment, there is also a hope of renewal in the here and now, as we live our lives. We call on this power, on this glorified reality, to help us and to go forward -- to heal us from our wounds, to change and grow, to give us life in our hearts, and the joy that accompanies His love for us. All things become transfigured in Him. In the words of Matthew, "With God all things are possible." We look to this light as a daily experience, to teach us what is good and valuable, and to help us discard what is not. This is our experience of faith, with joy. It's what the early church would call the Way. And we always remember His greeting, and the fullness it promises: "Peace to you."