Luke 24-7.12.21
SCRIPTURE
Luke 24:38-40
And He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 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.” And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet.
OBSERVATION-What does it say?
When Jesus was crucified, the apostles and disciples were left with a feeling of loss, not only because their friend was gone, but also because they felt they had lost their hope of a savior of Israel. Within a short period of time, Jesus had told the apostles, very clearly, he would be taken and crucified. He explained it was necessary for Him to suffer in order to fulfill the prophecies about him. Yet, they were left with a feeling of despair when it all happened. In a bit of irony, He shows himself to them without revealing who he was. In doing this, he draws out of them their testimony and then he gives them the final piece of the puzzle, His resurrection.
UNDERSTANDING-What does it mean?
Some of my favorite movies to fall asleep to are The Lord of The Rings. I mean, I seriously love these movies, but without fail I will fall asleep about one quarter of the way through the movie. One cause of this, is the fact that my kids are too young to watch these. Therefore, we have a tendency to start them late in the evening. Since I have a tendency to live as if I were already taking advantage of the 55+ discount, I am usually ready for bed by about nine pm. So starting a three hour movie at 8:30 never goes well. Of the movies, the second, ‘The Two Towers,’ is my favorite. I would argue that it has the best battle scenes of any movie, ever. In one of the most pivotal moments in the movie, the Battle of Helm's Deep, it appears as all hope is lost and the protagonists have their back against a wall, literally and metaphorically. As the hero, Aragon, appears to be riding out to his death in a blaze of glory, in comes help from Gandalf the wizard, who had previously told him he would be there. In the movie, you can see the expression of relief and the amazement that help was actually there. Several times in scripture God gives us similar cliffhangers, like when the priests carried the Ark into the Jordan while it was flooding (Joshua 3), or when Jonah demands to be thrown in the sea, or when Jesus allows Lazarus to hang out in a tomb for three days before raising him from the dead (John 11). But his death and resurrection is the ultimate cliffhanger. While all of his closest companions are dumbfounded, Jesus comes almost satirically, “Hey guys, what happened, why are you so sad?” Right now, it feels like we are in a bit of a cliffhanger moment. What’s going to happen with church, with my job, with the economy and our freedoms? But God knows what is next, He told us He wins and what happens at the end. But he asks us to trust Him in the in between.
LIFE APPLICATION
Jesus, I will lean on You and Your wisdom. I will cling to You for my peace and my comfort, for you are my strength and my refuge (Psalm 46).
-Tyler Galloway