The Hope of the Resurrection
This is a talk I delivered in 2025 at a series of public Christian talks. I have also delivered a shorter and more evangelistic adaptation of this talk, entitled Why does it matter if Jesus rose from the dead?.
36As the disciples were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!” 37But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. 38And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” 40And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. 41And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marvelling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” 42They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43and he took it and ate before them.
Luke 24:36-43
Introduction
What's the most wonderful, joyful or significant thing you've ever seen? The birth of your child? A gorgeous vista from the peak of a mountain, all the sweeter given the long struggle to get there? Maybe even the first man stepping out of the lunar lander in the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, the first man to set foot on another world? Wonderful things no doubt, and of course all very significant in different ways. But let me suggest something else: an old friend appearing to a group of confused and scared men roughly 2000 years ago. Nothing has changed the world as much as this event; nothing is as wonderful; nothing can bring so much joy. Let's see what Luke, the ancient saint, doctor and historian, records about Jesus meeting His disciples after He rose from the dead, three days after they watched His grisly murder.
First of all,
Jesus brings peace
Jesus brings peace. Look at verse 36: “As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!””. … The first thing Jesus says to all His disciples when He meets them after being brutally crucified is “Peace to you”. I wonder what you think of that? At such a momentous occasion, why is this the thing that Jesus chooses to say? Let's see.
Peace is a major theme throughout Luke's Gospel. Right back at the beginning of the Gospel, we encounter the famous nativity story—the record of Jesus' birth. At His birth, angels throng the skies above some lowly shepherds, proclaiming “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”. Later on, as Jesus enters into Jerusalem to approach His death, the crowds who welcome Him shout “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest”. The coming of Jesus brings peace—but what is that peace?
Peace in heaven, and peace on earth among those with whom God is pleased. This is clearly something greater than just feeling calm and rested. This is bigger even than ending hostilities between individuals or countries. This peace that Jesus brings certainly encompasses those other things, but it also far surpasses them! What is it that brings “peace in heaven” and “peace on earth among those with whom God is pleased”?
In Luke 7 we hear of the time that Jesus was eating dinner with a Pharisee, one of the religious elite at the time, when a woman, identified only as a “sinner”, came to Jesus and wept at His feet, anointing Him with ointment. Jesus doesn't disregard this sinful woman, but seeing her faith and repentance, He comforts her, saying “Your sins are forgiven”. And then He tells her “Your faith has saved you; go in peace”.
To understand this peace, let's look at it in contrast to its opposite: conflict. Unlike the Pharisee, this woman knew she was a sinner. To put it explicitly, she was living a life in rebellion against God. This sinful woman had been waging a foolish war against God for her whole life. In fact, we all do this by nature: rejecting God's love and ignoring or despising His laws.
If sin is our war against God, then God forgiving our sins brings peace—a permanent truce. This forgiveness and peace is offered to all who trust and turn to Him, as this woman did to Jesus. This is why Jesus says “Your sins are forgiven” and “Your faith has saved you”, and then concludes with “Go in peace”. This peace is nothing less than peace with the God whom we had once made our enemy. Reconciliation to our loving Creator whom we have scorned and rebelled against. This is the peace of salvation from our sins, the peace of salvation from the judgment they earn, and the peace of salvation from the separation from God that they cause: “Your faith has saved you; go in peace”. No war waged against God would ever be successful. It's a fool's errand, for wicked fools. But Jesus comes, graciously declaring that the war between heaven and earth is over, for all those who have faith and turn to Him. “Peace in heaven”, and “peace on earth among those with whom God is pleased”? Well, they come from a solution to the problem of sin.
So why does Jesus, having just raised Himself from the dead, greet His disciples with “Peace to you”? It's because what He has just done by dying on the cross is the thing which has finally brought peace. The woman whose sins were forgiven had peace with God, but she could only have her sins forgiven because Jesus died in her place, taking on the punishment for her sins. And so it is with us: we can have peace with God by the forgiveness of our sins, which was won for us by Jesus choosing to take our place on the cross. So, when Jesus greets His disciples with “Peace to you”, He's declaring the dawning of peace between heaven and earth, for all on earth who will lay down their arms and come to Him; this peace He has just won for us three days prior, on the cross.
So Jesus has won for us peace with God, if we turn to Him in faith. What comes of that peace? Well, that peace brings life, and that brings us to our second point:
Jesus rose in triumph over death
Jesus rose in triumph over death.
Three days earlier, His disciples had seen Him brutally murdered, but here He is, well and truly alive. They are absolutely not expecting this. Some people take a bit of a snobbish and progressive view of history, thinking that history has been a long process of people getting less and less stupid, and so many people reject the accounts of the Resurrection because they think the disciples must have just been mistaken.
But they weren't stupid—they knew as well as we do that people don't just come back from the dead. So they very clearly see the man whom they just watched being crucified, and naturally they don't assume He's back alive again. The best explanation they have for the fact that they can all see Him and yet He's … dead is that they're seeing some kind of apparition, in verse 37—and so they're terrified. And who can blame them? As good Jews, they believed that the dead would be raised on judgment day, the final day, but not now! Not before their very eyes! Of course the dead stay dead!
But notice how much emphasis is put on the fact that Jesus really is alive. He gently comforts them—see verse 38 there: “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?”. Then He helpfully points out to them that ghosts don't have flesh and bones, then He shows them His hands and feet: flesh and bones, the same flesh and bones as the disciples have. Jesus did not come back as some undead ethereal spirit, but as a real, living, glorified man. Take a look down at verse 39:
39“See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” 40And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. 41And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” 42They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43and he took it and ate before them.”
Luke 24:39-43
While they're all standing around open-mouthed with amazement, He doubly drives the point home, by asking them for a light snack! I probably don't need to explain that ethereal apparitions don't eat kippers for breakfast. Make no mistake about it, Jesus is alive, which is Very Good News.
Why is this good news for us? We have seen that in announcing “Peace to you”, Jesus has declared an end to the war between heaven and earth. Jesus died for the forgiveness of sins, to bring about peace with the God of Life. Those sins give us two things: firstly, judgment by the God of justice, and hence death; and secondly, separation from the God of life, and hence death. Death's power comes entirely from our sins: the judgment they incur, and the separation from the source of life that they cause.
And therefore, Jesus death was the conquest of death itself, precisely because it brought forgiveness by the God of justice, and reconciliation to the God of life. Again, the power and sting of death came through judgment and separation from God, because of our sins—so with restoration of peace with God, death has no power. Therefore, this event, Jesus announcing peace and parading His living body, which death could not hold down, is the victory parade of the king.
He's taken away all of death's power over us, and so this victory parade is truly triumphant. In contrast, imagine, if you will, a king returning from battle limping, having lost his crown and one of his arms, with a dozen scruffy archers, and being escorted by enemy soldiers, and yet insisting that he was victorious and the enemy were completely crushed. It'd be a pitiable sight, and you'd probably conclude he'd also been bashed on the head during the battle. It'd be the same if Jesus had come back as a ghost. Not fully dead, but certainly not alive—bound by the chains of death, yet insisting He'd won.
But here is Jesus, well and truly raised from the dead. Not as an undead ghostly spirit, but as a living, glorified man. So, rather than the delusional defeated king, this is the king returning from battle on His noble steed, arrayed in gold and velvet, followed by ten thousand mighty warriors and the enemy king in chains. Death is dead and Christ has conquered, and His disciples are seeing the victory parade. The King has returned from battle, utterly victorious, having vanquished His—and our—greatest enemy, and He proclaims the good news to the people of His kingdom: no more death, but instead peace with the God of Life, and hence life to the full, for evermore.
Let's explore a bit more about what this victory means for the disciples and for us. First of all, how does this affect how we view death when we encounter it? Many people try to sugar-coat death—and who can blame them? The severity and finality of death is uncomfortable and so you often hear people comforting themselves saying things like “He's gone to a better place” or “It's probably just like falling asleep”, or “I'll just be reunited with nature”. Again—it's not surprising that people talk about death in this way, because death is not the way things are meant to be, and we don't really want to face it head on. But what do we expect when we wage an unholy war of sin against the God of all life and goodness? Of course death is the ultimate outcome of such a rebellion. And as we have all sinned, this is a reality faced by all.
But we don't have to try to mask death's severity to comfort ourselves, because Jesus' victory march is not celebrating an irrelevant triumph, won by a king just for his own sake. This parade is a celebration of triumph not just for the King, but for His whole kingdom, for all His people. His people share in the peace with God that the King has won, and being reconciled to the God of life, they too will enjoy eternal life with Him, because of His victory.
Remember the first thing Jesus says to the disciples: “Peace to you”. We saw that that peace is not just an inner calmness, but an end to the hostilities between heaven and earth, between God and all men who turn to Him in faith. Nor is this peace abstract and distant. That peace comes through the forgiveness of our sins, made possible by Jesus' death on the cross three days prior. And so with an end to the hostility for all who come to God in faith, there is also an end to the power and sting of death for them. Rebel against the God of life, waging a wicked and foolish war against Him; get death. Repent and turn to the God of life, having Jesus win peace and forgiveness for you; get life.
One point which is probably worth my spelling out is that our passage makes it very clear that the physical world is not bad! Corrupted by sin, yes, but physicality is not inherently bad. Jesus has not “escaped His fleshly prison”, as some might think. No, He's restored it to true life, never to die again. The struggles and sufferings that we face in our physical bodies are simply because we are in a world which has been separated from God by the war waged by mankind against Him. Jesus, the Son of God, now dwells eternally in a glorified body with the Father. All who have peace with God will have the same glorified and perfected resurrected bodies. Human life to the full, physical, spiritual and in the life-giving presence of God Himself.
So, just as Jesus was not raised to die again, so all those who have faith in Him will not experience death as an eternal separation from God, something to be feared and dreaded, but rather as the gateway to inexpressible joy in His presence eternally. If you have peace with God, you are released from the grip of death.
Jesus rose in triumph over death. So how do His subjects receive the good news? What do they think of the victory parade? We see that
His disciples' terror turns to joy
His disciples' terror turns to joy.
At first, before they know what's going on, they're terrified—let's remind ourselves of verse 37. Jesus startles them by His sudden appearance, and they think that they're being haunted by some undead ghost. I think I'd probably act the same in that situation. They haven't yet understood that they're watching the royal triumph and the proclamation of the defeat of death, and they don't believe that Jesus has been victoriously raised from the grave.
But after they see and feel His hands and feet, and the nail-holes left in them by the crucifixion, they “disbelieve for joy” and “marvel” at Him. Have you ever received such good news that you almost don't believe it? When I proposed to my wife, I knew she was going to say yes, but still, when she said it, I could hardly believe it for joy! It was too good to be true—yet here we are, a year and a half into our marriage. Perhaps you've had a similar experience: the dream job or house offer, the news that you're going to be a parent or an uncle or aunt. “I can't believe it!”. In my life, the only good news that topped hearing my wife say “Yes” was hearing for myself the news that these terrified men heard and saw.
What utter joy! Their good and loving master and teacher, arrested and murdered at the hands of wicked men, now triumphantly standing there, more alive than they are, announcing that His crucifixion has actually brought peace between heaven and earth, and eternal life in God's presence for all who believe. Not only have they got their beloved friend back, but they have witnessed the victory parade for the conquest of death.
As Christians, we have heard Jesus say to us, “Peace to you”. We know of His victorious conquest of death. We will still face the struggles and pains of this life, and we will not be perfectly cheerful every day for the rest of our lives—but underneath the shifting sands of life, we have a firm foundation. Whatever comes in this life, we can face it with an underlying peace and joy, knowing that nothing can ultimately harm us, because Christ has conquered death for us. Christians throughout the centuries, including many martyrs, have been encouraged by this truth in the face of death, knowing that for them, death is just the ticket barrier to eternal joy in the kingdom of the life-giving Lord.
If you are not a Christian, why not take some time to consider these claims seriously? This is a historical account, based on eyewitness testimony, of an event which instantly turned the disciples from cowards in hiding, fearing for their lives, into bold and unafraid witnesses, many of whom were tortured and even martyred, but never denied the truth of what they saw and touched. You might also like to ask a Christian friend about how this joy and peace impacts their life!
We are beginning to approach Easter, the feast where we celebrate this world-changing event. You may well know the traditional Easter hymn, Thine Be the Glory, which begins
Thine be the glory
Risen conqu'ring Son
Endless is the vict'ry
Thou o'er death hast won.
Christians all over the world will be triumphantly singing these words in a few weeks time. Let's rejoice, knowing that peace with God and that life which was won for us by Jesus on the cross and proclaimed at His resurrection.