Ghosts Don’t Eat!

 

Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread. While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence. Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.

I don’t know what you would have done if someone you saw dead and buried a few days ago suddenly appeared in your presence, but I am pretty sure you would have freaked out. Little surprise, then, that the apostles were startled and terrified when the resurrected Jesus appeared in their midst. And then he asks them why they are frightened. Duh! Or did they deserve the rebuke? Hadn’t he told them that he would rise from the dead on the third day?

So then he showed them his hands and feet. He told them to touch him and see for themselves that he wasn’t a ghost because he had flesh and bones. Scripture says that they were joyful, but still unbelieving, so he said, “Have you anything to eat?” He must have figured if they saw him eating, they would believe he was alive because ghosts don’t eat food. 

Now here’s a question for you. How much of what God says do you believe? When he says, “I am the Bread of Life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:35), do you believe?  When he says, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12), do you believe? 

And when he says, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die” (John 11:25-26), do you believe? The simple test of whether you believe or not is the peace that you have. If you truly believe what Jesus says, there will be complete peace; if you don’t believe what he says, then you will be constantly anxious, distressed, fearful.

I suspect that many of us don’t really believe what Jesus says, because the evidence all points to it. We are always worried, always afraid, always despairing. What do we do? Scripture says that Jesus “opened their minds to understand the scriptures”. So used to the rubbish the world teaches, our minds are closed to the great spiritual truths contained in Scripture, so we need to open them.

And it wouldn’t hurt to ask Jesus to open our minds for us.