Reading 52
Peace be with you
The reading
Luke 24:36-49
As they said these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace be to you.” But they were terrified and filled with fear, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. He said to them, “Why are you troubled? Why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is truly me. Touch me and see, for a spirit doesn’t have flesh and bones, as you see that I have.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.
While they still didn’t believe for joy, and wondered, he said to them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb. He took them, and ate in front of them.
He said to them, “This is what I told you, while I was still with you, that all things which are written in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms, concerning me must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds, that they might understand the Scriptures. He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. Behold, I send out the promise of my Father on you. But wait in the city of Jerusalem until you are clothed with power from on high.”
The companions
Psalm 16:11
You will show me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy. In your right hand there are pleasures forever more.
Isaiah 52:7
How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”
The note
The first word is peace. Not an account of where they were when it happened. Not a question about the running. Peace be to you, said to men behind a locked door who had all failed him.
They think he is a ghost. Luke does not tidy that up either. So Jesus settles it in the plainest way available. He shows them his hands and his feet. Then he asks whether they have anything there, is handed a piece of broiled fish, and finishes it in front of them.
That detail is the argument. A ghost does not get hungry. Whatever the resurrection is, it is at minimum a body with an appetite.
The hope here is not that his teaching outlived him, or that something of him persists in the good he caused. It is narrower and stranger. He is alive, and present, and can be handed a fish.
This week
Say it to somebody. Peace be with you, in whatever words you actually use, to one person you know is frightened this week — about work, health, money, a decision they are stuck in. Lead with that. Before the advice, before the questions, before your own account of things. Notice how strong the pull is to open with something else. Then try the harder version and say it to the person who let you down.
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (public domain).
This page is made for paper too: print it and the reading prints clean, ready for the table.