WHILE THEY WERE still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
37They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. 38He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? 39Look 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.”
40When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. 41And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” 42They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43and he took it and ate it in their presence.
44He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”
45Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46He told them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48You are witnesses of these things. 49I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
50When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. 51While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. 52Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. 53And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God.
Original Meaning
THE THIRD RESURRECTION passage in Luke adds to the author’s portrait of the resurrection’s significance in a variety of ways.1 Luke 24:1–12 highlighted the empty tomb; 24:13–35 presented an appearance by Jesus and stressed how Scripture prophesied the resurrection. The present passage reveals Jesus’ post-resurrection commission to his disciples to go to all nations. It also gives further evidence, through his partaking of a meal and his invitation to the disciples to touch him, that his appearance is no mere apparition. Any Gnostic-like ideas that Jesus merely appeared to have a raised body are ruled out by this text. Thus it has both instructional and apologetic value.
The scene is an extension of the previous passage, where the reporting over Jesus’ various appearances continues. The momentum of his appearances is stacking up, as one meeting follows another in rapid succession. As the disciples are sharing reports, Jesus himself stands among them and gives a beatitude that sums up his ministry in triumph, “Peace be with you.” It is a greeting of comfort. God’s blessing is invoked on their behalf, as the resurrection means the end of anxiety about Jesus’ well-being and the continuation of God’s plan (cf. Luke 2:14; Acts 10:36). The group is frightened by his appearance, since they think Jesus is a “spirit” (NIV “ghost”). They still have trouble getting used to the idea that he is risen and is appearing to his disciples.
Jesus asks the group why they are frightened (NIV “troubled”) and why they have doubts in their hearts. The “heart” is the place for reflection in the ancient world, much like we use the term “mind” (which explains the NIV term here). Jesus’ remarks suggest some are still doubting even after the appearances. So he invites them to look at and touch his hands and feet, where the evidence of his crucifixion remains.2 As directly as he can say it, Jesus notes that a “spirit” (NIV “ghost”) does not have flesh and bones as they see here. In other words, the resurrection possesses a physical element. As 1 Corinthians 15:35–49 argues, the resurrection body is both the same as and different from the physical body, retaining aspects of physicality while existing in a glorified condition. Jesus does everything he can to reassure his disciples that he is truly alive.
As he shows the disciples his hands and feet, they still struggle to believe it all. The remark about not believing may well be a rhetorical understatement indicating they can hardly believe it, since they are also filled with joy and amazement—attitudes that would not be present if they did not think that this was Jesus. They are almost paralyzed by the awareness that Jesus is really risen from the dead.
To drive the point home even further, Jesus asks for something to eat. Broiled fish is available, so he takes some and eats it. The meal indicates that Jesus is not a phantom, but has real being. Once again he reveals himself at a table as fellowship takes place over a meal.
Jesus now explains what has taken place. How can he be here like this? What have the cross and resurrection meant? “This is what I told you while I was still with you.” He reminds them that he predicted what has taken place (9:22, 44; 17:25; 18:31–33; 22:37). A crucified and raised Messiah is not an adjustment in God’s plan; this road was in the design all along (see v. 25). In fact, everything written about Jesus “in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms” must be fulfilled.3 Again the dei (“must”) of divine design is mentioned. The disciples are experiencing what Scripture promised and what the saints of old longed to see (10:23–24; 1 Peter 1:10–12).
Jesus then instructs in the Scriptures. Note that the church has developed its understanding of the Old Testament from Jesus. His instruction regarding basic elements of divine promise is summarized by three verbs: “suffer,” “rise,” and “be preached” (all infinitives in Greek). Jesus’ death and resurrection lead to an evangelistic commission for the disciples. All three of these stages are reflected in the Old Testament. The Christ, the Messiah, was to suffer (e.g., Pss. 22; 69; Isa. 52:13–53:12) and to be raised (e.g., Pss. 16:8–10; 110:1), and the disciples must now engage in preaching to the nations “repentance and forgiveness of sins,” starting from Jerusalem (Luke sees texts like Isa. 40:3–5 and Amos 9:15 as fitting into this promise). Both the desired response (“repentance”) and its effect (“forgiveness”) are noted here.
Repentance as rooted in the Old Testament is an important concept, since the Hebrew concept of repentance involves a “turning.” That is, to repent is to change direction from allegiance to idols to serving the living and true God (cf. 1 Thess. 1:9–10). This change of perspective embraces Jesus and produces the forgiveness he offers. This message of salvation extends to all the nations, though the disciples will take ten chapters of Acts before they see that “the nations” means more than Diaspora Jews. They must preach to every tribe and nation—a fact we take for granted today, but was revolutionary at the time, since religions had a stronger ethnic character to them.
The disciples have served as witnesses of the events surrounding Jesus. They saw him hang on the cross and have now seen his resurrected body. Their calling is to share that what they know has taken place according to the Scriptures (1 Cor. 15:1–5). Jesus will send them out, but not before he has equipped them. To this end he will send to them the Spirit from his Father, in an event described as being “clothed with power from on high” (see Acts 1:8; 2:1–11). The allusion here is to Joel’s promise of the Spirit in the end time and to Jeremiah’s promise of the coming of the Spirit as part of the new covenant. The Spirit is the one who enables us to witness and testify to Jesus effectively (Luke 12:11–12). As God’s plan moves ahead, the disciples are a major part of its advance. But until the Spirit comes, they must remain in Jerusalem.
This Gospel closes with Jesus’ taking the disciples out to Bethany, lifting up his hands, blessing them, and departing into heaven. The ascension is summarized here and detailed in Acts 1:9–11, linking Luke and Acts together.4 Jesus blesses the disciples as he departs to continue his work from God’s side. What follows for them are worship and joy. They return to the temple, where Luke’s story began with Zechariah, in order to praise God for all that has take place. Luke never forgets that the heart of a believer’s walk involves responding to God with joy.
Bridging Contexts
MOST OF THE issues related to bridging contexts have been taken up in the previous passages on resurrection. The resurrection is built on the realization of God’s promise, which in turn reassures us about the rest of his promises. But three points remain. (1) Jesus takes this appearance as the occasion to issue a commission to the church to take the gospel to the world. Here is the type of open-ended commission whose outworking never stops. We are witnesses, however, in a different sense than these original disciples. They testified to what they saw, whereas we bear witness to their testimony and to our experience of the resurrected Jesus.
(2) The response to the gospel in terms of worship is another fundamental feature of this text. We tend to think of worship merely in terms of the offer of praise, but at its base worship involves a renewed attitude and openness toward God. The worship present in this text is not only offering praise to God, but also obeying what Jesus has commanded (vv. 49, 52). The transformation that comes with response to the gospel should refresh and renew our hearts so that we not only thank God with our lips but with our actions. The Gospel of Luke closes with disciples ready to obey the call of Jesus, and to do so with joy. Acts 4 shows them still doing so, and we should still emulate that thrill of mission today.
(3) The key to accomplishing that commission is the enabling work of God’s Spirit. By his leading and power the message goes out, and rejection can be faced boldly (Acts 4:24–32). A quick look at Acts 2 shows how Peter himself is transformed from the timid figure of denial and failed nerve at Jesus’ trial to a preacher with fearless enthusiasm before an immense crowd at Pentecost. The contrast evidences the Spirit’s transforming power at work.
Contemporary Significance
THE COMMISSION IN Luke 24 calls us as a community to take the gospel to all nations. But how can we do that effectively? Each generation must begin that message and frame its basic content of forgiveness and relationship to God in terms the particular culture can comprehend. This type of bridging is important to effective communication of the gospel. Often someone within a given culture does a better job of communicating to an audience than someone outside the culture. They understand the culture’s outworking and its metaphors so they can speak in a way people will appreciate.
In communicating cross-culturally, those able to relate the gospel well to the pictures of the culture are the most effective in making the gospel clear and relevant. I know that whenever I travel outside the United States, I always feel a little at a loss in terms of illustrations and communication, because many of the pictures I use in Texas are not appreciated or understood in Tübingen or Guatemala City. That does not mean I cannot share the gospel, but it does mean that I must often spend time asking about the host culture, its values, its heroes, the games they like to play, and other such elements of everyday life. I watch closely so that the message can be personalized in terms of the life people live.
Such variety in communication and sensitivity to a variety of audiences is reflected in the New Testament. Jesus communicated with examples from Palestinian agriculture because he was in a largely agrarian environment. But the speeches of Acts betray an approach to Gentiles that is different from the approach to Jews. Paul, for example, cited Greek poets or used terms of the Greek culture. This is not because the gospel itself differs for the Gentiles, but because different cultures require different images and techniques. Speeches to Jews could appeal to a long history of God’s people and their hope of his promise. Speeches to Gentiles had to address God as the Creator or as a judge who establishes a new relationship with humanity. Metaphors about church appealed to body imagery, for the political imagery of the Greeks spoke of the city like an organism. As the church continues to take the gospel to the world, we must think through how to communicate its truth through pictures familiar to our audience.
This includes using illustrations in youth work that plug into their world—for example, sports or athletics. To be effective with business people requires speaking in their language. My church has developed an illustration control group for me, since I tend to love sports illustrations. Some women in our community have taken it upon themselves, whenever I teach a Bible study, to volunteer a “culturally equivalent” illustration when my communication gets one-sided in terms of gender. The move is a healthy reminder to me to think in terms of my total audience.
What all of this means is that prepackaged approaches to the gospel, though helpful to get us started being comfortable in sharing our faith, should not become our only means of sharing.5 The Bible is full of rich metaphors for the faith. We should appreciate the variety of such terms as we share the gospel. As long as we call a person to embrace the grace of God in faith and not to trust in his or her own deeds for salvation, we are preaching the gospel. We can speak of repenting when considering where we start from at conversion. We can speak of turning to describe the change of direction that comes from embracing God. We can speak of faith in Christ to highlight the object of our hope. We can speak of receiving him to emphasize the personal appropriation of faith that is more than mental assent. We can speak of coming to him to describe the act from Jesus’ perspective. We can talk of confessing him as an expression of how faith verbalizes its presence. All these terms highlight the saving act of faith where people embrace Jesus with a trust that he will forgive them by his grace and bring them into relationship with him.
Another issue raised by this text is Jesus’ resurrection, because its presence proves that there is an afterlife (cf. 1 Cor. 15). This new life has a consciousness of reality, even though its form differs from life now. The bodily nature of the resurrection shows the continuity between who we are and what we will be. Death is not an end, but a transition. The critical question is, a transition into what? Will a person enter into eternal life or into a second, more permanent death? The choice for life involves a choice for Jesus. This entire Gospel has been about that choice and its benefits. Some of what I have said in these sections has repeated this theme over and over, but that is because Luke wants to make this point again and again.
It is a privilege to be witnesses to Jesus. In the technical sense, of course, a witness is someone who has seen the raised Jesus and knows about his earthly ministry. That is only true of those in the first century. In a secondary sense, however, we also know of the Lord’s work in our lives and can share that testimony with others as we share the gospel that the disciples entrusted to the church. There is no greater commission or higher calling than to help others find the way to experience God’s presence.
Recently I was asked what I would do if I were witnessing and the people to whom I was speaking said they already had a relationship with God (because they had a church membership or some other external reason), but they did not know Jesus. How would I respond? Three points emerged in the ensuing discussion. (1) It is best to begin with careful listening. Christians are often quick to speak but slow to listen. In hearing a person share his or her spiritual journey, we get insight into his or her portrait of God and what that person expects of religious experience. Sometimes by listening to someone’s struggle in the pursuit or nonpursuit of God, we can discern how to address him or her. (2) We can probe how confident an individual is of his or her relationship with God. Sometimes an opening for the gospel emerges in an expression of uncertainty (cf. Paul in Acts 17:23). (3) We can share the positive nature of our own experience, starting from when we were introduced to Jesus as the unique way to God.
I often hear people say they are afraid to witness because they are not sure what to say theologically. They do not feel capable of debating with their lost friends, or they do not always want to. But we do not need to learn a rash of theological terms or a ream of apologetics in order to be witnesses; we simply need to tell our story. An effective addition to many church services might be a weekly testimony, moderated by the pastor to prevent people from rambling or being afraid of saying something wrong. In this sharing of God’s involvement in our lives, we get practice in verbalizing our testimony and hearing how God works in a variety of ways. God becomes visibly present to others. In order to share Christ effectively with those outside the church, it usually requires time to build relationships with them. That way, we get close enough to them for our testimony to have credibility. Our commission from God is an honor to participate in.
Lest we get too nervous about evangelism, let’s remember that we do not share Jesus by ourselves. Jesus has provided his Spirit, who indwells us to help us make sense of our testimony. The disciples waited for the Spirit in order to be empowered and enabled to share with conviction. To see how effective the Spirit can be, we need only contrast the Peter of the three denials with the Peter of the speeches of Acts. The greatest obstacle to our own evangelism is our fear of others’ reactions and of our own capability. But the Spirit works to help us share Jesus, while our fear of reactions is really an expression of uncertainty about resting in God’s acceptance of us.
Luke’s Gospel concludes with what can be called an open ending. The disciples return to await the enablement God will give so they can share Jesus with a needy world. Luke will follow this up with the account of the early history of the church as the disciples fulfill the commission God called them to have. Yet even at the end of Acts, the account of this commission is not over. Around the world the testimony to Jesus Christ goes out one message at a time. It can be shared by a missionary, by a preacher or evangelist, by a wife with a neighbor, by a business person with a colleague, by a teenager with a friend, by a father or mother with a precious son or daughter, or even by a child with a beloved parent or grandparent.
Witnessing can come in moments of joy or despair or even at death’s door. The sharing can take place in English, Spanish, German, French, Russian, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Swahili, or a whole host of other languages. Just contemplating the task and the process is testimony to the power of Jesus’ resurrection to ring across the centuries with its message of hope and forgiveness. What other movement has been able to span the centuries and the variety of cultures that the Christian movement has touched? Where else can people of a wide variety of national backgrounds be woven together in a rich fellowship? Part of the gospel’s power is surely seen in the success of the commission that was launched from the original apostles. What other movement began so obscurely and ended so comprehensively? God has surely been at work in the movement that began with an announcement at the temple and a birth at Bethlehem.
We have an opportunity to share in that march of faith throughout history. God is at work in it all, fulfilling what he promised centuries ago in some ancient Jewish writings. He is as present in our own sharing as he was in the commission Jesus issued to a small group of mostly Galilean followers in the first century. The march of faith moves one era at a time, one person at a time, one testimony at a time. Centuries ago, Luke wrote to reassure Theophilus that he belonged in that honored line of march. Fortunately for us, God made sure that Theophilus was not the only one to be reassured about his grace through Jesus.