When the resurrected Jesus first appeared to the group of His apostles Sunday evening His first words to them were, “Peace to you”. Nevertheless, because they rightly understood that mortal life could not be restored to Jesus’ dead body that had been beaten, crucified and then its life fluids drained from it, they were terrified. For they as yet didn’t understand the nature of His resurrection body and supposed they must be seeing a ghost or spirit, which was just as frightening to them as a poltergeist in a haunted house would be to us. Their mistaken thoughts arose not in their brains, as we think of our mental functions, but in their hearts, which Scripture makes clear is the connection point of our immaterial souls where the thoughts of our real person take place. For as “the soul of the flesh is in the blood” (Lev 17:11), it is the heart as the organ that pumps the blood throughout the body that Scripture describes as the location for where our immaterial thoughts are made manifest in our physical body, after which our brains, being informed by our heart, may direct our bodies to act accordingly. To convince the apostles that it was really Him, Jesus directed them to His hands and feet and side (Luk 24:39, Joh 20:20), to prove that the one talking to them was the same who had been on the cross, whom they had seen die. In addition to showing them in order that they might see that it was Him, what else did He bid them to do to prove it was really Him, and dispel their mistaken understanding that they were only seeing a spirit? See Luk 24:39; cf. 1Jo 1:1, Act 1:3.
What truth does Jesus also reveal in Luk 24:39 about spirits, as opposed to the living or resurrected souls of men? How does this help us to better understand the difference between a spirit, such as a demon or unclean spirit as they at first wrongly imagined Jesus’ appearance to be, and a living soul such as God created man to be, having both flesh and bones, as well as blood? Cf. Gen 2:7, Lev 17:11,14. Is it perhaps significant that Jesus did not say He had flesh and blood, which is what we might have expected Him to say, but flesh and bones? See Mat 16:17, Gal 1:16, Eph 6:12, Heb 2:14, and 1Co 15:50. AlsoLuk recall that Jesus as the Good Shepherd laid down His life (lit, His soul, ψυχή), and gave His life (lit., His soul, ψυχή) as a ransom for many, and the soul of the flesh is in the blood. See also Joh 20:27 where the language used is very vivid, saying literally, “cast / throw your hand into (Greek εἰς) my side”, which would seem to indicate that Thomas’ hand could literally be placed into Jesus’ side where the spear had been, as if, perhaps, Jesus’ resurrection body was just flesh and bones, without blood, indicating a different nature to His immortal resurrection body from that of mortal men. Cf. Joh 20:25 where Thomas in his doubts also said he wanted to put his finger into (Greek εἰς) the print of the nails in Jesus’ hands to prove it was really Jesus, for recall that both Mary Magdalene and the two disciples on the road to Emmaus did not at first recognize the risen Jesus. What is the special significance in terms of His relationship to His followers that Jesus spoke of His resurrection body as having flesh and bones? See Gen 2:23-24, Gen 29:14, Jdg 9:2, 2Sa 5:1, 19:12-13; cf. Eph 5:28-32.
Although Jesus’ words make clear that a spirit has no flesh and bones as do the living souls of man and as did His resurrected body, did He deny that such spirits may be able to manifest themselves as an apparition, which was what the disciples imagined they were experiencing? Is this not exactly how angels, whom the author of Hebrews describes as ministering spirits (Heb 1:14), seem mostly to manifest themselves? Cf. Jdg 13:20, Luk 1:11,22, 24:22-23. This begs another question: are angels just spirits, or is there more to their nature than that of the unclean spirits whom the first century Jews believed to be the disembodied spirits of the Nephilim half-breeds whose mortal lives were destroyed in the flood? See Gen 19:1,3,10,16 which clearly indicates that angels may manifest themselves in some sort of physical body that can be touched and physically touch others; cf. Act 12:7-10, Heb 13:2. While angels are clearly not the same as men, for men were made a little lower than the angels (Heb 2:5-7), and will judge angels (1Co 6:3), in what way is the nature of resurrected men similar to that of angels, as illustrated by Jesus’ resurrection body? Cf. Luk 20:35-36 and note that the NAS like angels translates ἰσάγγελος that like an isosceles triangle, does indicate an equality (cf. the KJV) or sameness between angels and resurrected men. However, notice that it does not say that resurrected men are angels, as in fact saying that they are like angels makes it clear that they are not angels, but in some sense similar to them. Besides the similarity of a resurrection body to that of angels, in what way does Luk 20:36 specify that resurrected men are like angels? Whereas Jesus’ words make clear that resurrected men are not angels, what does He say that they are in the same verse? What then is the relationship between angels and sons of God? See Gen 6:2,4, Job 1:6, 2:1, 38:7, Mat 5:9, Rom 8:14,19, Gal 3:26, Jud 1:6, Rev 12:9 and note that the LXX translates sons of God as angels of God in Job 1:6, 2:1 and my angels in Job 38:7. This seems to indicate that sons of God is a classification that at first referred to God’s holy angels, whose relationship to God, although not begotten but created beings, was like Christ’s as sons to a Father, but from which some rebelled. With the unfolding of God’s plan of redemption the classification also came to include men born again who would be resurrected to become like angels. How might this help us to better understand the important role that men play in God’s eternal plan of redemption that includes both them and angels? Cf. Eph 1:10,20-23, 3:8-11, Col 1:15-20, 2:15, 1Pe 1:12.