Is Jesus a zombie?

And so it is taught us here, "And while they were talking these things, he himself stood in their midst, and says to them peace to you.612 But confounded and being frightened, they supposed they beheld a spirit."613 And he said to them, Why are ye troubled, and wherefore do reasonings613a rise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet that it is I myself; handle me and see, for a spirit has not flesh and bones even as ye see me have. And having said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.† And while they were yet unbelieving for joy and wondering, he said to them, Have ye anything to eat here? And they gave him part of a broiled fish [and of a honeycomb].‡ And having taken, he ate before them." It is the Lord Himself, risen from the dead, but a real man, with hands and feet, capable of being handled and seen, 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.614 Thus the resurrection of the body had its glorious attestation in His own person, the needed and weightiest possible support of their faith. Christianity gives an immensely enlarged scope to the body as well as the soul; for our bodies are now the temple of the Holy Ghost as surely as we are bought with a price, and exhortations to Christian holiness are founded on this one wondrous fact. Christ was the great Exemplar of man; His body was the temple of God. We are only fitted for it through His redemption.615 "He himself": so Edd., as ℵBDL, Syrrcu sin Sah. "Jesus himself" is the reading of AEG, with later uncials and most minuscules (1, 33, 69) and Memph. The words, "and says to them, Peace to you," although accepted by Lachm. and Treg., are questioned by most of the Edd., because of absence from D and copies of Old Lat. See John 20:19. They are in all other MSS. and versions. †Verse 40 (cf. verse 12) is doubted by most Edd. from its omission in D, the Syrrcu sin and Old Lat., also because of likeness to John 20:20. It is in ℵAB, all later uncials but Beza's, in the cursives, the other Syrr. and the Egyptians, and is upheld by Lachm. and Treg. ‡["And a honeycomb"]: so EHKM and the other later uncials, the cursives 1, 33, 69, most Syrr. and Old Lat., Memph. Aeth. Arm. Edd. omit, following ℵABDLΠ, Syrsin.

“Why do thoughts arise in your hearts”? He asked of them. “Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself: handle Me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see Me have” (Luke 24:39)! They saw Him thus; and it is recorded in the Scriptures of truth, and yet so-called scholars, modernists, would have us believe that they know better than the disciples, and that it was only an apparition they saw! What folly! What senseless reasoning! Surely Scripture is correct when it says, “Professing themselves to be wise they became fools.” The spiritists say, Christ is the supreme Spirit in the unseen! but God says, He is a Man, in a raised, glorified body at His right hand! He died! He rose! He ascended! and He will yet return! He said, referring to His holy body, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19). When therefore He was risen His disciples remembered that He had said this. Why did our risen Lord say “flesh and bones,” and not “flesh and blood”? His blood had been poured out for our eternal redemption.

It was not with them then a question of illusion or reality, but of bodily or spiritual presence. Mr. R. objects that the Lord says, "It is I myself;" and that His spirit, according to the common belief, would have been Himself. But all depends upon the point of view. To those who had had Him as the living man among them, the mere visit of His departed spirit would not have been "Himself," for it is no question of metaphysical accuracy, but of heart, to which the Lord responds. They saw Him, did not believe that it could be a living man come among them in that mysterious way, therefore thought they saw a spirit; to which He answers by bidding them prove that He had flesh and bones. Thus it was not what would have been the evidence of the triumph of death over Him, but what their hearts would call Himself

We have seen then the Lord affirming the doctrine of the Pharisees as to conscious existence in happiness or misery in the intermediate state. We shall now pass on to a passage which shows how far the disciples of the Lord had imbibed the Pharisaic, or let us rather say, the Scripture doctrine, with which the Pharisaic was identical. For we read that when, after His resurrection, they were gathered together, "Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, 'Peace be unto you'. But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And He said unto them, 'Why are ye troubled, and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have'" (Luke xxiv. 36-39). Now, here it is plain they recognized the form of the Lord, for in none of the appearances to them do we find anything spectral to make them think otherwise it was a spirit they saw. Mary Magdalene had supposed Him the gardener. The two on the way to Emmaus just before had taken Him for an ordinary man. Moreover, they had just come among the other disciples, and found them "saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared unto Simon." Then, while they were giving their own account, "Jesus Himself stood in the midst." It was this sudden appearance, the door being shut, that staggered them. They did not doubt who it was, nor, had they doubted, would handling Him have given them that knowledge. The Lord does not need to name Himself nor do it. He does not say, "It is I Jesus," but "it is I, myself;" using that common language which I have spoken of; the language of sense, which identifies man with his body: "HANDLE ME and see: for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have." Thus, it was not a question of its being Jesus or another, but as to its being Jesus in the body or as a spirit only. This the Lord's answer shows. The objections of Ham and Storrs are thus clearly set aside, for they make the question one of (to use the language of the former) "the existence of other beings, who are called spirits." But this is not the question, but whether it was He Himself in bodily presence, or as a spirit. The whole circumstances and the Lord's words assure us of this. Upon the authority of "some ancient MSS. of Luke," Roberts would substitute "phantasma" for pneuma in ver. 37, and then, without any authority, make pneuma mean phantasma in the 39th verse, having thus converted "spirit" into "phantom," he would make the whole a question of "reality or of spectral illusion." But Mr. R. can find no such meaning for "pneuma" in the New Testament or in the Greek language anywhere, as "phantom" or "spectral illusion," and he must know he cannot. Hence his anxiety to import "phantasma" into ver. 37, a reading unanimously rejected by every editor of the Greek that I am acquainted with, and disproved by the fact of its being unquestionably pneuma in the 39th: for if their thought had been that it was a mere illusion that they saw the Lord would not have answered it by saying, "a spirit," etc. It was not with them then a question of illusion or reality, but of bodily or spiritual presence. Mr. R. objects that the Lord says, "It is I myself," and that His spirit, according to the common belief, would have been Himself. But all depends upon the point of view. To those who had had Him as the living man among them, the mere visit of His departed spirit would not have been "Himself" for it is no question of metaphysical accuracy, but of heart, to which the Lord responds. They saw Him, did not believe that it could be a living man come among them in that mysterious way, therefore thought they saw a spirit; to which He answers by bidding them prove that He had flesh and bones. Thus it was not what would have been the evidence of the triumph of death over Him, but what their hearts would call Himself.

Again, HE has finished the work, He has endured the Cross, and sin, that mighty barrier standing in the road of the sinner's return to God, is taken out of the way; the mountains of my guilt, yea, "the tops of the highest mountains" of mine iniquities, having been "covered" by "THE BLOOD OF JESUS," the Saviour rises from the dead. The grave could not detain Him. He rises, He bursts the bonds of death, for it was "not possible that He should be holden of it." He presents Himself to His disciples, who, with blighted hopes and scattered prospects, are terrified and affrighted. All their hopes had been laid in the grave of Jesus, never again, as they thought, to rise. Consequently, when He appears, He causes fear and affright among them. And how does He reassure their hearts? What is the plan He adopts to restore their confidence and peace? He presents HIMSELF, saying (Luke 24:39), "Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I MYSELF." Then (v. 40) "He showed unto them His hands and His feet." Still, it is "HIMSELF;" it is not even a clear announcement of the proofs of what He was; it is not a recalling to their minds that He had taught them these things. No, precious as this would have been from His lips, there was something yet more touching, more melting, more convincing, and that was — presenting HIMSELF — "Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I MYSELF." How blessed is all this!

"By man came death," we know, and here we see, "by man came also the resurrection of the dead." (1 Cor. 15:21.) Hence we find that after Jesus rose from the dead, He showed Himself alive again by many infallible proofs, being seen of His disciples, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. He appeared in their midst, showed them His hands and His side, gave commandments, breathed on them, and said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost;" and expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. When some who saw Him were terrified and affrighted, and supposed they had seen a spirit, He fully demonstrated to them the reality of His own actual and bodily resurrection from among the dead. He said unto them, "Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And when He had thus spoken, He showed them His hands and His feet." (Luke 24:37-40.) Moreover, He led them out as far as to Bethany, and while He blessed them, was parted from them, and carried up into heaven; and they watched Him ascending higher and higher, until a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they stedfastly looked toward heaven, hoping to catch another glimpse of their precious Saviour, heavenly messengers stood by them, and said, "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven." (Acts 1:9-11.) Nothing can more fully prove the reality of the resurrection of the man Christ Jesus from among the dead. This was victory indeed.

On the resurrection day He came forth from the grave a real Man in a human body, not a body of flesh and blood as He had before the Cross, but of flesh and bones (Luke 24:39); a body in which He could eat (Luke 24:43); a body which bore the marks of His suffering and which could be handled by Thomas (John 20:27).

For Jesus is risen. Death in our case shows sin's triumph over us, and our weakness in the presence of Satan's power. Resurrection in His case shows His triumph over both sin and Satan. He Who went into the grave came out of it. Let it be distinctly averred that the Son of God, Jesus, Who was dead, now lives again — in resurrection estate surely — but with His own Person complete. It would be just as false to deny His bodily presence on the first glad resurrection day of which we read in John 20, or in Luke 24, as it would be false to deny His bodily presence on the cross or in the grave. Death is an enemy in God's creation as far as man is concerned, and if death for ever secured the body as its prey, then would God's enemy have triumphed. The triumph of God is set forth in Christ's real resurrection, the full result of which will be in the resurrection of the just in its time, and in the resurrection of the unjust in its time (1 Cor. 15; John 5; Rev. 20).

It is scarcely needful to call evidence as to the Lord's resurrection, but as the coming of the Holy Ghost was entirely dependent upon it, it will be well to note that He was seen, and handled, and heard by many of His disciples on many occasions after He rose from the dead. They had looked into His grave and found it empty, they had handled Him and found that he had a body of flesh and bone, they saw the wounds in that body which were made at the cross, and never afterwards questioned the fact of His glorious bodily resurrection.

285 But I continue. "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the Word of life," 1 John 1. He insists on having handled Him; nor had He evaporated to his mind; he insists it was no unreality as to His true bodily human nature. And after His resurrection, in those beautiful and touching words, "Why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have" - He is as much a Man now as ever, though with a spiritual body and glorified. "I see," says Stephen, "the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." God has made Him, whom the Jews crucified, Lord and Christ.