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.
And he said to them, These [are] the words which I spoke to you while I was yet with you, that all that is written concerning me in the law of Moses and prophets and psalms must be fulfilled.
The risen Jesus stands among His disciples and points them back to His own earlier words — and behind those, to the Scriptures already written. Two questions follow: what did He mean by "the law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms," and what did the disciples still need before those writings made sense to them?
He does not start a new lesson. He picks up the thread He left with them before He died, and now He adds what was missing.
The risen Lord here recognises the very place where He had left His disciples in His earlier teaching. He reminds them of what He had already told them. Scripture was the great witness of the divine mind, and everything written there must certainly happen here. And now what does He do? "Then He opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures." His power now joins itself to His earlier instruction. He is making good in them what He had already given them.
He names three sections, not a handful of passages. That puts His seal on the whole collection — and He does it as the risen Christ.
The critics who pull those ancient writings apart miss their true spiritual connection. It is "Christ"… Here, too, the Lord points to the well-known threefold division of the books of the Hebrew canon: the law, the prophets, and the psalms. These together made up the "scriptures," as the next verse shows. So, as someone has said, "we may accept the Hebrew scriptures from the pierced hands of Christ Himself in resurrection."
"The Psalms" does not mean only the book of that name. Each of the three names covers a group of books.
By the law was meant the Pentateuch. The prophets covered the historical books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings, along with the writings of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the twelve minor prophets. The Psalms covered the rest of the books that make up the canon of Old Testament revelation. That section likely got its name because the book of Psalms stood first in the third great division of the Hebrew Scriptures.
The claim is not that a few verses happen to match. Writers separated by centuries all point to one person.
There are over three hundred prophecies in the Old Testament concerning Christ… These three hundred and more prophecies are like rays of light. The rays are not all the same length. Some are longer than others. Some come from as far back as Moses. Others come from a shorter distance, like Micah. Others come from Isaiah. These rays of light, shot across the centuries, meet on the Baby in Bethlehem's manger… He was the perfect answer to those prophecies. They spoke of Him, and He lit them up. No one could understand them properly until He came.
The word "fulfilled" also points ahead. The Pentateuch is the first five books of the Bible, the books of Moses.
The first coming of the Lord has already fulfilled much of what stands written in the Pentateuch. The rest will come true when He comes again to reign as King of kings and Lord of lords.
The verse names two things: His own spoken words and the written Scriptures. The next verse adds a third.
There are three things here. The first is the words of Jesus, which give faith its true basis. The second is the Scriptures. The third is their understanding, opened by the risen Lord. So they could say more than, We have heard these words, we have heard Him say it, we have listened to His own voice. They could say, It must be so, because God has said it. There is the real and true basis of faith. The words of the Lord Jesus, now in the Scriptures as God has given them, are the ground on which faith can always rest.
What He gives here is not yet the coming of the Spirit. Understanding and power are not the same thing, and they came in that order.
There you get the value of "He opened their understanding to understand the scriptures." That is one of the points we have to notice — the difference between intelligence and power. There was power when the Holy Spirit came down. But they received intelligence before they got power… He had now opened their understanding, and Peter could explain Psalm 109. But they still had no power.
- Spoken. The risen Christ points back to what He said before He died. He takes up His old teaching again instead of replacing it.
- Written. The three names cover the whole Old Testament: the five books of Moses, the prophetic and historical books, and the rest, headed by the Psalms.
- Fulfilled. Prophecies from many centuries meet in Him. Much came true at His first coming. The rest waits for the day He returns to reign.
- Understood. He opened their understanding first. Power came later, when the Holy Spirit came down.
- Grounded. Faith stands on three things: His words, the written Scriptures, and an understanding He Himself opens.