Our text describes the last meal that Jesus ate with his disciples as far as Luke’s gospel is concerned. And it’s a really important one.
Luke seems intent on making sure we think about Jesus’ resurrected body (he passes through walls, yet has flesh and bones and eats real food).
It’s interesting that Luke specifies that Jesus ate the fish “before” the disciples . . . and not just “with” them. Jesus clearly wants to make a point out of the fact that he has a real body. He’s not just some sort of apparition or disembodied spirit.
And then, of course, Jesus teaches them the significance of his resurrection. “This is where everything in your Bible has been pointing,” he says. “Now go tell the world . . .”
This is the moment that forever changed a group of guys who had run away from the guards a couple days before and who had since then been hiding in a room to try to escape the same fate as Jesus. These guys would soon begin preaching a message that would get almost all of them killed–deaths that they faced with remarkable confidence.
But that’s what believing in resurrection does . . . it changes you, gives you a new perspective on life in this messed up world. It gives you the ability to display courage in the face of danger, to be hopeful when surrounded by despair.
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