Luke 24:36-44

Luke 24:36-44 … Luke’s account of the forty days between the resurrection and the ascension of Christ continues in these verses. The two men on the road to Emmaus have quickly returned to Jerusalem to seek out the eleven remaining disciples. While they’re there, relating what surely must have been an exciting and animated testimony, Jesus appeared again and with them all there, expounded the Old Testament prophecies concerning Himself. He also (24:39-40) demonstrates physically to the disciples that He is risen bodily … He can be touched and felt … the very same body that was abused and crucified just three days previously. Jesus is there among them, not just in spirit, but in His physical body. The demonstration is quite remarkable and shouldn’t be missed. Jesus is there in a physical body, but it’s still a bit different, isn’t it? Because now, He just appears in the room with them. On the Emmaus road, he just appeared and they didn’t recognize Him. When they stayed briefly at the Emmaus Road overnight lodging, He had taught them from the Scriptures, but when they recognized Him, He vanished. This is a physical body, yes … but it’s quite different.

The Apostle Paul dealt with the matter of resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15:20 and following, explaining that the resurrection of Jesus is the “first fruits” (the first of many bodily resurrections which are to come when Jesus comes again – at the Second Coming – 1 Corinthians 15:23). And Paul asks the rhetorical question in 1 Corinthians 15:35 … How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?, giving the great illustration of a seed being planted and becoming a wonderful new creation. Paul, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, then explains that the resurrected body is real in every sense, but different in this sense … it is imperishable (it will never die) and fitted for everlasting life in heaven. The resurrected body of Jesus is the first … when He comes again, we’ll be like Him (1 John 3:2) … a physical body, yes … but suited for an eternity with God in heaven. Until His Second Coming … believers who pass away are immediately translated in spirit (their souls are transported) to heaven to be with Him (2 Corinthians 5:8). Later in the New Testament, these things are explained, but here in the Gospel of Luke, you see the fact of resurrection visibly demonstrated by Jesus.