Luke 24:29 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.”
During this past year we have become increasingly aware of the presence of diseases that can be transmitted with touch, or even a cough! I think we were always aware that the common cold and flu were transmitted this way, but with the fear, much of it unjustified (unless you are old & in poor health, or live in a nursing home in New York), heightened our application of universal precautions outside a hospital setting. This heightened application of precautions probably led to the decrease in other illnesses.
During this past year we stopped shaking hands, greeting with a hug, or if we are of French persuasion, the kiss on the cheeks. Physical touch became an action of unimaginable horror for some. Unfortunately, now many have fallen into depression and loss of hope as a result. We are made for physical connection and without it, we suffer. Think of those locked up in senior living situations who haven’t had contact with their families for this past year.
So when Jesus tells His followers in that private room, after having suddenly appeared in their midst, to touch Him, our present day sensibilities get triggered. Touch! We don’t do that here. We don’t do that now.
But they wouldn’t have done it back then either. Touching an open wound would have made the person touching ceremonially unclean for the day. They would have had to perform a cleansing ritual before they could rejoin the fellowship of believers.
Jesus’ request for them to touch was for the purpose of establishing the fact that He was there physically, not just some ghost or phantom. He was physically alive. His body had been transformed, but He still had a physical presence that could be interacted with physically. They had the ability to touch Him. He had the ability to eat fish.
This is a central element of orthodox Christianity. Jesus didn’t just come back to life in some spiritual way. No! He came alive physically, bodily, permanently. Death had been defeated and life was now the order of the day.
And Jesus then opens the minds and hearts of these followers so that they can see the plain teaching of the Old Testament related to the person and work of the Messiah. They begin to actually hear the foretelling of the details of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection that were right there in the Scriptures the whole time. All the hyperlinks were now activated.
We can trust these witnesses of these events. They were willing to live and die based on their experiences with the living and risen Jesus. They taught the Scriptures and witnessed to the Incarnate Word of God, Jesus. And for many of them, this witness led to their deaths. Not many people are willing to die for something they know is a lie. Would you die for something you knew was a lie?
Would you live for something you know is a lie? I hope not. That is why having reliable witnesses is so important. Without them we might as well eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die, and that without any hope of a future.
But since we do have witnesses who can be trusted, then we do have hope. And this is the hope we need to speak by our lives and with our words. Both are necessary. Words without lives is hypocrisy. Lives without words is a mystery, not knowing the reason for the life.
So live and speak today as someone who knows the One who ate that fish with His followers.
The Arnold Journey 