Luke 24
On the first day of the week, very early, the women find the stone rolled away and the body absent. Two men in gleaming clothing ask why they look for the living among the dead and instruct them to remember how Jesus told them in Galilee that the Son of Man must be delivered, crucified, and raised. Peter runs to confirm the empty tomb, wondering but not yet understanding. The Emmaus road narrative is the Gospel's resurrection theology in miniature: two disciples walking in grief are joined by the unrecognized Jesus, who opens the Scriptures to them (did not the Messiah have to suffer before entering his glory?), producing burning hearts; at the meal in Emmaus, the fourfold bread-breaking produces the recognition and the immediate disappearance. They return at once to Jerusalem to find the gathered community already saying the Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon. The appearance to the assembled disciples — the showing of hands and feet, the eating of broiled fish, the proof that ghosts do not have flesh and bones — is followed by the final commission: repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem; you are witnesses; wait for the power from on high. The ascension near Bethany — hands raised in blessing, taken up into heaven — is met by the community's worship and their return to Jerusalem with great joy, where they stay continually at the temple praising God.
Luke 24:38
He said to them, why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? — why are you troubled (tetaragmenoi, disturbed, shaken): the same question the angel asked Mary at the annunciation (1:29). Why do doubts rise in your minds (dialogismoi anabainousin en tē kardia hymōn): the doubts are addressed before the evidence is presented.
Luke 24:39
Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have — look at my hands and my feet: the wounds of the crucifixion as the resurrection evidence. It is I myself (egō eimi autos): the personal identity assertion. Touch me and see: the invitation to physical contact that a ghost cannot provide. Flesh and bones (sarka kai ostea): the physical, bodily resurrection — not a ghost, not a spiritual apparition, but the bodily risen Lord.
Luke 24:40
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet — showed them his hands and feet: the evidence displayed. The wounds of the crucifixion are the marks of the resurrection body — the continuity between the crucified and the risen Jesus.
Luke 24:41
And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, do you have anything here to eat — while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement: the paradox of disbelief-from-joy. The joy and amazement are so overwhelming that belief is difficult to sustain. He asked them for something to eat: the eating request is the final physical evidence — resurrection bodies can eat.