Luke 24:36-43 | I Corinthians 6:19-20
There is much more to consider regarding bodiliness in scripture than the Church has recently paid attention to. From beginning (the creation story) to the end (resurrection), the human body matters to God. Our bodies together are not just individual vessels, but a corporate temple. Issues of food and health saturate the biblical text (yes, yes…sex, too, but not just sex). So Jesus appearing, manifesting, and living as a resurrected body is important.
What would be wrong with Jesus just being a ghost?1 (It’s not because ghosts are scary and evil.)
But the post-resurrection Christ was not a ghost. He had a body. With scars. Jesus helps us know what we can have scars and yet live fully as God intended.
Luke 24:36-43
While they were saying these things, Jesus himself stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” They were terrified and afraid. They thought they were seeing a ghost.
He said to them, “Why are you startled? Why are doubts arising in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet. It’s really me! Touch me and see, for a ghost doesn’t have flesh and bones like you see I have.” As he said this, he showed them his hands and feet. Because they were wondering and questioning in the midst of their happiness, he said to them, “Do you have anything to eat?” They gave him a piece of baked fish. Taking it, he ate it in front of them.
I Corinthians 6:19-20
Or don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you? Don’t you know that you have the Holy Spirit from God, and you don’t belong to yourselves? You have been bought and paid for, so honor God with your body.
Prayer
God,
Help me to be a steward of my body. I am the product of a generation that has slathered, poked, prodded, stretched, abused, and in any number of other ways modified the body and yet doesn’t appreciate it for what it is. Help me to live a healthy, appreciative physical life, all the while avoiding the bodily obsessions that often arise.
Give me the enjoyment of food, the pleasure of sex, and the satisfaction of recreation. Help me to sense you not just in my mind, but with all that I am in fingers, nose, eyes, ears, and tongue.
Make me a good steward, but keep me from preoccupation.
By your spirit which gives life and in Christ who bore it well,
Amen.
The word in Greek here is indeed pneuma. As a translation, “ghost” works contextually, but “spirit” is probably better.