As they were saying this, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and said,'Peace be with you.' They were terrified and alarmed, and thought the were seeing a ghost.
'Why are you disturbed?' he said. 'Why do these questionings come up in your hearts? Look at my hands and feet; it really is me, myself. Touch me and see! Ghosts don't have flesh and bones like you see that I have.'
With these words, he showed them his hands and feet.
While they were still in disbelief and amazement from sheer joy, he said to them, 'Have you got something here to eat? They gave him a piece of baked fish, which he took and ate in front of them.
Then he said to them,'This is what I was talking to you about when I was still with you. Everything written about me in the law of Moses, and in the prophets and the psalms, had to be fulfilled.' Then he opened their minds to understand the Bible.
'This is what is written,' he said: 'the Messiah must suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and in his name repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, must be announced to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are the witnesses for all this. Now, look: I'm sending upon you what my Father has promised. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.'
Then he took them out as far as Bethany, and lifted up his hands and blessed them. As he was blessing them, he was separated from them and carried into heaven.
They worshiped him, and went back to Jerusalem in great joy. They spent all their time in the Temple, praising God.
As we look to the final scene in the Gospel according to Luke, we have the realization of the hope of Israel and from Israel to all people and indeed, the whole cosmos. In Messiah Jesus, a new heaven and new earth, where justice is at home. God, we see, has taken Jesus' body and made something altogether new out of it. Able to step back and forth through the curtain that separates God's realm, heaven, and our realm, earth (Psalm 115v16). Jesus is perfectly comfortable on either side, in him, you see, the two have become one. This is very difficult for many to understand, Paul invests a good bit of time throwing light upon the subject in 1 Corinthians 15. He makes it very clear that the final state of resurrection is not just spiritual, but has a new physicality about it....flesh, bone, eating, drinking...this is not to deny an intermediate state, that of angels and spirits, where we are 'at rest' and 'with Messiah' (Philippians 1v23-24)...
At these words, an argument broke out between the Pharisees and Saducees, and they were split among themselves. (The Saducees deny that there is a resurrection, or any intermediate state of 'angel' or 'spirit', but the Pharisees affirm both.) Acts 23v7-8
It is a terrifying thing to have the curtain drawn back. Especially the first time. In the Apocalypse (which means unveiling/revelation), John falls down 'as a dead man' before the Lord. But our Lord, seems to always extend words and a touch of grace,'peace be with you' says the Lord...never the less it is an awe inspiring situation, one you wouldn't trade for anything!
And here is the revelation...the biblical Christian hope is for what we see fully and finally in Messiah Jesus right here in the scripture, a fully integrated heaven and earth, this is the 'home' that the born again believer belongs to. God has summed up the cosmos in Messiah Jesus, and this is why we feel so uncomfortable in the world as it is, where His will is not being fully done on earth as in heaven, and why when we have sin in our lives as believers, when we are not walking in the good works he has prepared for us to walk in, it grates on us until we identify it, call it what it is and repent, receiving the gracious forgiveness that is ever available to us through Jesus Christ, our great high priest, the Lamb of God. Then we are not walking in the 'world' or in the 'flesh', but in Messiah.
There is more to it though, Jesus wants us not to just wait round expecting it to all work itself out, but rather to wait, in worshipful prayer and praise, until we are empowered by the promise of the Father, the Holy Spirit...power from on high, and then to go out as redeemed redeemers, New Creation's who are sent into the old creation as agents and vessels through whom New Creation pours into the world until, the earth is full of the knowledge of YHWH as the waters cover the sea, or as Paul says...the time when 'God is all and in all.' This is where King Jesus is leading us. He is the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father, but by him.
For all this, Paul can boldly encourage us, 'my dear family, be firmly fixed, unshakable, always full to overflowing with the Lord's work. In the Lord, as you know, the work you are doing will not be worthless!' 1 Corinthians 15v58
Merry Christmas! May the earth truly receive her King!
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