Touch Him and see

Hope everyone had an amazing Easter!  I suspect many of you looked at Luke 24 yesterday as part of your church service (me too!)  In reading this beforehand, four little words really struck me about the reality of the Risen Christ, He told them, “Touch me and see”. Let’s take a closer look (and if we’re not too careful, maybe even a touch!)

Luke 24:36-39

While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”37 They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. 38 He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? 39Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”

Things to think about:

• It’s funny He says to them “Peace” and their reaction was being startled and frightened! I guess if you had watched Him die and now there’s someone there you’d swear was Him if you didn’t know better, saying Peace to you would be fairly unsettling 
• it would be pretty freaky to think you saw a ghost too! Nothing about this situation is normal so we wouldn’t have much of a precedent to compare it to.
• a lot pf people try to pass Jesus off as a myth or creation of someone’s vivid imagination.  What’s your best proof He’s actually real?
• Jesus comes in peace in the midst of our our fear and confusion
• and He rightly asks us too, “why are you troubled, and why do doubts risen your minds?”
• we have so much knowledge about Him and many of us many years of life experience with Him.  Why do we sometimes allow ourselves to be troubled and full of doubts?
• what is the cure for this?
• I love the fact that we don’t worship a famous guy from the past who died doing a heroic act, but rather a real person, alive today, who is asking us to touch Him
• Why does He invite them to look at His hands and feet?
• He is not afraid of our having questions, in fact He invites us to press in and see that His claims are true
• What in your life could you point to that would show a doubter that His presence in your life is real and not a figment of your imagination?