"Jesus Himself": Luke 24:36-49

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While the disciples and others who loved the Lord Jesus were in a house in Jerusalem, and those who had seen Him alive that day were telling the rest of them about Him, suddenly He stood among them.
He said, “Peace be unto you!” Yet they were very frightened; those who had seen Him that day could not have been afraid as the others, who thought Him to be a spirit.
He asked them, “Why are ye troubled? ... Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I myself; handle Me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see Me have.”
A Real but New Body
By those plain ways they learned He was the One they loved: by His voice, by seeing His wounds, by touching Him, talking to Him, seeing Him eat, and by His same tender care for them.
His body was a real body. He spoke of His “flesh and bones,” not flesh and blood, as people say of a living person. He had been flesh and blood (Hebrews 2:1414Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; (Hebrews 2:14)), but His blood flowed out when the soldier thrust the spear into His side.
God had said when an animal was offered in sacrifice for sins, the blood was to be poured out on the altar (Deuteronomy 12:2727And thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, upon the altar of the Lord thy God: and the blood of thy sacrifices shall be poured out upon the altar of the Lord thy God, and thou shalt eat the flesh. (Deuteronomy 12:27)). That showed the life had been taken, as natural life is in the blood. So Christ, the holy sacrifice for sinners, gave His blood, His life. But He had a far greater life though different: He appeared without opening the door and could vanish from them, yet He said, “It is I Myself.”
We do not understand this, but we can wonder and believe and joy as those people then did in the great fact that the Lord Jesus rose. He was not to stay long on earth, but to have those who had known Him before be certain that He was alive again.
He showed them that evening, the same as He did the two on the walk to the village that all these things had been written of Him in the Scriptures. He said, “Thus it is written, and thus it behooved (necessary and right for) Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day.”
Told to Wait
We might think angels would be sent to tell of the One who came to die for men, but the Lord told His disciples who had believed and loved Him, had seen Him die, then seen Him alive again, to “preach” (tell forth) this story to all nations. They did go to all people, and some of them also wrote all these things, so now when anyone tells the story of Christ they speak from the Word of God through those men.
Further Meditation
1. What was different about the Lord’s resurrection body?
2. Who was “the promise of My Father” for whom the disciples were to wait? and where were they to wait? (Luke 24:4949And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high. (Luke 24:49) and John 15:2626But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: (John 15:26)).
3. We, too, can spread the wonderful news of salvation offered to men by a risen Christ. For encouragement on this topic listen to The Great Commission by C. H. Mackintosh.