Once again, Jesus kept his promise: "Where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them." For when the disciples strengthened one another in faith through the good news of their experiences with Christ, he suddenly appeared in the midst of them. He came without a sound. No door was slammed, no window was opened, and no current of air came in; but Christ truly appeared and became visible.
At this moment, the disciples were about to go out of mind. They had believed in his resurrection, but there were still residues of doubts in their minds. They felt that Christ’s resurrection from the dead signified the dawn of the kingdom of God, and the beginning of a new age. But they also knew that they ran away from their Lord at the important hour of temptation. They knew that the living Christ saw their sins openly. Some of them thought he was a spirit without a body in the countenance of Christ by means of a devilish trick because of their craving wish. Those were disturbed and unable in thought and in deed.
Jesus had mercy on them. He saved those of little faith from their doubts and unbelief, and spoke to them with understandable words, and they heard his known voice, and felt God’s comfort in their worried hearts. His words of love purified them, and his powerful expression established a new faith. He forgave them their sins by uttering his peace to them. He did not compel them to accept faith under pressure, so as to impose his peace on them saying, "Peace be on you", but made them partners in accepting the dwelling of his peace, addressing them with the words: "Peace to you." At that they knew that he had chosen, called, justified, and sanctified them, and that God himself had accepted his Son’s death and reconciled them greatly through him with himself. So they held fast to this truth, built their hearts on it, and were comforted at the Passover.
In spite of this statement they did not believe in the truth of his presence, for their minds were slow, and their hearts hard and human. Jesus had mercy on his elect once again, and showed them the marks of the nails in his hands and feet as a token of forgiveness of all their sins. The Living One who is risen from the dead is truly the same one that had been crucified. If an angel of light came to you and said he was God, then drive him out in the name of Christ, for our God has the print of the nails in his hands, and we know no other lord but Jesus Christ who was crucified.
The disciples’ faith grew, and their spiritual consciousness became increased, but they lacked the Holy Spirit; and Christ gave them another proof that they might believe in the truth of his resurrection, and realize the greatest miracle given to mankind, that is to believe in his divinity. He said: "Handle me, touch me! See that I have really risen in my body. I have flesh and bones as all men." The evangelist Luke, being a physician, brought into view the wonderful and decisive phenomenon that Christ, after his resurrection, entered with his spiritual body through the walls without any limit of time or place, and was present at all times. He is true God, and at the same time a true man with flesh and blood, hearable, visible, and touchable. We have a great testimony from an official physician that Christ has a spiritual body. He is the incarnate Spirit of God. This reveals to us the miracle of our resurrection, for Christ is the symbol of our future.
The disciples rejoiced greatly in their hearts and minds at the truth of Christ’s resurrection and triumph over death that they were unable to believe, speak, or think, with their minds and feelings inactive, for they saw Christ as a dead man who rose from his tomb. Those who love Christ were greatly glad and astonished.
Yet Christ does not only want to wake our joy, but he also intends to establish cautious faith, and to submit our thought and will to the truth of resurrection. He asked his disciples for food. Undoubtedly he who was raised from the dead had no need of food, for he had an imperishable, eternal, spiritual body, which cannot be tempted. But by way of his love for his disciples, and in order to make their minds work that they might make sure of his identity, the divine Living One showed them that he was a true man, and not a ghost or a spirit. He proved it to them by showing the simplest human motives that is eating. He ate before them of the fish and the honey they had.
The physician Luke had inquired from all his temporaries and from those who had examined Christ after his resurrection, and understood from them that the risen Jesus had teeth, a tongue, a mouth, arms, legs, a body, bones, and a skeleton. He was undoubtedly a real and true man. Christ was the first man who was raised from the dead in the flesh, for he was God from eternity. The disciples rejoiced and believed. They realized that death is not the end, but God’s life is stronger than termination. Christ did not remain crumbled in the tomb as all philosophers, founders of religions, and leaders of history, but had risen and fulfilled what he said: "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die."