And they gave him part of a broiled fish and of a honeycomb;
It is the evening of resurrection day. The disciples are standing in a room with a Man they had watched die. They are too glad and too startled to trust their own eyes. What they hand Him — a piece of broiled fish — settles the question that words alone had not. Some translations also add a honeycomb to the meal, which is why several writers name both.
Their problem was not coldness but confusion. Joy and wonder ran ahead of faith, and His question about food met them right there.
Wonder and joy were mingled in their minds, and I can understand the mixed state of their hearts. They were thrilled with joy, while hampered with unbelief and wonder. His words, "Have you anything here to eat?" made the reality of His presence absolute to them... All was now clear. Every mist of doubt rolled away as they saw Him eat.
His eating proves He has a body. It does not mean He was hungry. Commentators draw a careful line here between what the risen Lord was able to do and what He required.
It is the Lord Himself, risen from the dead. He is a real man, with hands and feet they could touch and see. He is not a spirit, but has a spiritual body. Of this He gave the fullest proof by proceeding to eat in their presence. As having a body He could eat; as having a spiritual body He did not need to eat. So His own person gave the resurrection of the body its glorious proof. Their faith needed this, and nothing could support it more strongly.
The same act says two things at once. It rules out a phantom, and it also shows a body that is no longer tied to earthly conditions.
Scripture also shows us that the resurrection body does not depend on earthly conditions. At the same time, it can enter into them. He ate the broiled fish and honeycomb to show them His body was truly material. Yet it was no longer a body for the earth.
Why does a meal matter so much? One writer answers: rescuing the spirit alone would have left the body as Satan's trophy.
Suppose God had said, "Satan has ruined your body, so I will take you to be with Me in spirit." That would have confirmed Satan's victory over the body. Did God come into the world to do that?... it is necessary to see that He has got a victory in this world; so to prove this, the Lord stoops down in a wonderful way. "He said to them, Have you anything here to eat?" Why was all that? Simply to verify that it was no mere spirit that stood before them. The Lord came to fight a battle for you — real flesh and blood you can touch. Manhood you can touch was destroyed, so manhood you can touch must be redeemed.
Risen and glorified, He does not hold Himself at a distance. He is still the same Man His friends knew.
The Lord presents Himself as the very same Man... Here also His hands, His feet, all that marked His manhood, His previous wounds are presented. He eats... The Lord shows it to them in a very ordinary, close-up way. He eats and drinks in front of them — how far He stoops! But this was reality and truth. It restored their souls and made them know Him as still a Man — risen indeed, but a Man, truly and really.
Notice whose meal this was. The fish came from their own supper. A later meal by the lake turns that around.
The Lord was about to give them the strongest proof that His Person was real. So He eats the broiled fish and honeycomb they had provided for themselves. This assures them it is really Himself. When you come to John 21, again there was broiled fish, but this time He provided it, to assure them that He cared for them. How rich and deep is the grace that ever provides that which will confirm our faith, and feed and sustain our souls.
The meal met a need, but not His own. Behind the evidence stands His love for His own.
The One they killed on a tree ate and drank with His own after He rose from the dead. He did not need the food. They needed the evidence that He was alive from the dead — a truly risen Man, Who loved His own who were in the world, and loved them to the fullest.
- Doubt — their unbelief came from joy, not hardness, and He answered it with a fact they could watch.
- Body — as a man He could eat; as risen He did not need to, so the meal proves reality without implying weakness.
- Victory — Satan ruined the manhood you can touch, so Christ redeemed the manhood you can touch. A rescued spirit alone would leave the body lost.
- Stooping — the risen Lord takes food His friends had kept for themselves. Later, by the lake, He provides the meal Himself.
- Witness — He did not need the fish. They needed the evidence that He was alive, and that evidence became the ground of their faith.
and he took it and ate before them.
Here the risen Jesus takes a piece of fish from His disciples' hands and eats it while they watch. Commentators ask two things: what this proves about His body, and why He would stoop to such a plain proof.
The disciples wondered whether they were seeing a spirit. Eating settles the question in a way no argument could. One writer draws a careful line between what the risen body could do and what it needed:
It is the Lord Himself, risen from the dead, but a real man, with hands and feet that they could touch and see — not a spirit, but a spiritual body. Of this He gave the fullest proof by proceeding to eat in their presence. As having a body He could eat; as having a spiritual body He did not need to eat. So the resurrection of the body was gloriously proved in His own person — the support their faith needed, and the weightiest it could have.
So why eat at all, if He had no need of food? One writer answers by describing the kind of body He now has:
Scripture also shows that the resurrection body does not depend on earthly conditions, and yet it can enter them. He ate the broiled fish and honeycomb to show them that His body was real matter. Yet it was no longer a body for the earth.
The marks on His hands and feet tie that new condition back to the cross:
His was a body of "flesh and bones." The conditions were new, yet it was to be recognized as the body of "flesh and blood" in which He had suffered. The marks of that suffering were there in both hands and feet. While the truth was dawning in their minds, He made it plainer still by eating in front of them, so that they might see He was not just "a spirit."
The point is not only that a man rose, but that this man rose. One writer shows how the apostles' testimony rested on meals like this one:
The apostles were witnesses of His resurrection. They had eaten and drunk with Him afterwards. That was the proof that He was still a true man, though He then had a spiritual body, and that He was the same Jesus whom they had known alive on the earth. The end of Luke's Gospel is the basis of every record in the Acts. There it is remarkable how Jesus, in perfect grace, takes pains to make the disciples sure that He was the same Jesus they had known.
Notice the order of what He offers them — words, then sight, then touch, and only then the meal:
But notice how kindly the Lord cleared away their doubts and fears. See what pains He took to convince them that His resurrection was real. He gently says to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?" Then with infinite grace He says, "See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself." He even said, "Touch Me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." And finally, to chase away the fears that still clouded their sight, He said, "Have you anything here to eat?" They gave Him a piece of broiled fish and a honeycomb. He took it and ate before them — the blessed Lord, as the Risen Man, stooping to share the food of His humble followers.
Rising from the dead changed the shape of His life with them, but not the nearness:
It is true that He no longer shared one home and table with His disciples, as He once had… But still there was full intimacy… He eats and drinks with them, as He once did. He calls them "brothers," as He had not done before His resurrection. He speaks of having one God and Father with them, as He had not done then.
- Doubt. The disciples thought they were seeing a spirit, and the meal met that exact fear.
- Proof. Eating showed a real body: as a man He could eat, though in a spiritual body He had no need to.
- Identity. The One eating was the same Jesus they had known, with the marks of His suffering still on His hands and feet.
- Grace. He took pains, step by step — word, sight, touch, food — stooping to share the plain food of His followers.
- Fellowship. The meal that proved His resurrection also kept the friendship: He eats with them as before, and now calls them brothers.