Luke 24:39Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

However, Paul describes the glorified body after the resurrection as spiritual (1 Corinthians 15:44), indicating it is invigorated and directed by the Spirit of God rather than the soul, having been wondrously and spiritually transformed for eternity and maintained in that state. Therefore, we ought to envision the Lord’s post-resurrection body as spiritual, refined, and free from all earthly limitations, requiring neither sustenance nor external needs, even though He partook for confirmation. If He did partake, it was not in accordance with the nature of His resurrected body, but rather through a divine arrangement, meant to demonstrate that the same body which endured suffering was indeed resurrected. That body had the power to pass through closed doors, moving from one place to another with ease.

After the resurrection from the dead, there will be no more opportunities for carnal desires, and the influence of sin will be entirely nullified. Thus, the very body that was laid in the ground will be clothed with incorruption. To ensure that the disciples are fully convinced that it is the same One who suffered, was interred, and rose again, He shows both His hands and feet. He reassures them that He is not a mere spirit, as they mistakenly thought, but a true and tangible body, saying, 'And see that the spirit has no flesh and bones as you see me.' For shadows, spirits, and appearances cannot withstand the touch of a hand.

It displayed scars and marks from His suffering, and the Lord permitted them to be touched, not solely to strengthen faith, but also as an acknowledgment of their honor. He was unashamed to carry the wounds He bore for us into heaven, willingly retaining them and showing them to God the Father as the cost of our redemption. Consequently, the Father exalted Him at His right hand, graciously receiving the fruits of our salvation; within the crown of His sufferings for us, these wounds stand as the most cherished treasures. The numerous demonstrations of righteousness lead us to conclude that Peter did not waver in his belief regarding the Lord's resurrection. John could not doubt when encountering the Savior; he had faith even earlier when he discovered the empty tomb. Why then does Luke mention their distress? Firstly, the feelings of the majority of the disciples may have influenced the others. Secondly, Peter, despite already believing in the resurrection, might have felt alarm at witnessing his Lord suddenly appear in the upper room through closed doors and solid walls. Therefore, Luke recounts all the details in order, while John highlights the key point.

Even after His resurrection, Christ retained His physical form. I hold firm in my faith that He remained in the flesh following His resurrection. When He appeared to those who were gathered with Peter, He urged them, "Take, touch me, and see that I am not an incorporeal spirit." They touched Him and were convinced, reassured by His bodily presence. As a result, they also disregarded death and were elevated beyond it. Additionally, after His resurrection, He shared meals with them, demonstrating that He possessed flesh, even while being spiritually united with the Father.

The Lord reassured them with His greeting of peace, confirmed the reality of His resurrection through the wounds on His hands, feet, and side, and by partaking in a meal with them. He then articulated the necessity of His suffering and glorification through the resurrection as foretold in the Scriptures, much like He had done for the travelers from Emmaus when He opened their understanding of the Scriptures. Once He had confirmed the reality of His resurrection to His apostles, except for Thomas, He departed, reiterating His message of ‘Peace be with you,’ reminding them of their divine calling. He had fulfilled His mission on Earth and now entrusted His work to them. To equip them for this task, He imparted to them certain powers essential for their future ministry—powers that He had acquired through His ultimate sacrifice for humanity, which they could receive solely from Him, the Redeemer, and bestowed upon them the authority to wield these powers with the same autonomy with which He would have acted. Thus, marked the significant day of Christ's resurrection. The apostles now realized that their Lord held authority over both life and death; His affirmations about Himself were irrefutable, for never before had anyone been raised from the dead in such a manner; therefore, their previous experiences with Jesus retained their profound significance, reinstating them as His apostles. However, with the Risen One's departure and the fact that He did not remain with them as He previously had, they were to understand that a new, distinct relationship was being established; His appearance, now more spiritual than physical (since His very flesh had been transformed), hinted at this transition. Gradually, they were to move from their earlier tangible, sensory relationship with Him to one that was purely spiritual and invisible, to which they would fully transition at His ascension. It is likely that on the same day, He also appeared to James (1 Cor. 15:7).

The Apostle John affirms that they genuinely touched Him in his first epistle: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled” (1 John 1:1). The Evangelist does not elaborate on the nature of the resurrected Jesus’ body or how He departed from His apostles after this encounter; we can only surmise that He became invisible as swiftly as He had appeared.

Throughout the Gospel accounts, there is only one instance in which the body of Jesus Christ operated outside the natural laws, and that is when He walked upon the water to reach the disciples, who were struggling against the tempestuous waves. As God, He was above all natural laws, exercising authority over them and performing miracles, yet He never exploited His divine power for personal gain. Whenever He traversed the sea, His purpose was solely to rescue His disciples. In summary, He was both fully divine and fully human, possessing a human form that was subject to natural laws, able to experience suffering, and destined to face death. However, following His Resurrection, His body was endowed with different characteristics. No longer confined by space or barriers, Christ could appear and vanish instantaneously, while still possessing a tangible body that could be touched and that could consume food. This reveals that Christ was raised not merely in spirit but also in body; however, His resurrected form was transformed.

The nature of this body may seem perplexing to us. Yet, do we comprehend everything? Is all knowledge accessible to our finite intellect? We accept phenomena (such as electricity or X-rays) that we cannot fully understand, and yet we utilize them. What justification do we have to dismiss the unique state of the risen Lord’s body if trustworthy witnesses present us with credible, though mysterious, evidence of it? If we acknowledge that this testimony is undeniably reliable, we must accept it with the same conviction we have towards numerous other incomprehensible phenomena in which we harbor no doubt.