{"id":6188,"date":"2014-12-30T00:05:29","date_gmt":"2014-12-30T08:05:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=6188"},"modified":"2014-12-29T10:06:34","modified_gmt":"2014-12-29T18:06:34","slug":"afterlife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2014\/12\/30\/afterlife\/","title":{"rendered":"Afterlife"},"content":{"rendered":"

At that very hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem. They found the Eleven and those with them gathered together, who said, \u201cThe Lord has certainly been raised, and has appeared to Simon!\u201d Then they began to describe what had happened on the road and how He was made known to them in the breaking of the bread. <\/p>\n

\tAnd as they were saying these things, He Himself stood among them. He said to them, \u201cPeace to you!\u201d But they were startled and terrified and thought they were seeing a ghost. \u201cWhy are you troubled?\u201d He asked them. \u201cAnd why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself! Touch Me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have.\u201d Having said this, He showed them His hands and feet. But while they still could not believe because of their joy and were amazed, He asked them, \u201cDo you have anything here to eat?\u201d So they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish, and He took it and ate in their presence. (Luke 24:33-43)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The afterlife is physical. We don\u2019t become ghosts or spirits. There had been many witnesses to Jesus\u2019 resurrection: the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, several women, and even Peter. But when Jesus appeared suddenly in the room with them, his disciples were terrified and their first thought\u2014their automatic reaction\u2014was to think it was a ghost.<\/p>\n

Human beings are funny things. Sometimes we are very slow to accept reality.<\/p>\n

Jesus told them a ghost does not have \u201cflesh and bones,\u201d a standard idiom indicating that he was solid and real, proven when he ate some of their food. The many people that Jesus had raised from the dead should have prepared his disciples for Jesus\u2019 resurrection. The fact that they had already seen him before should have prepared them. But it is just very hard to take a man coming back from the dead for granted.<\/p>\n

Jesus resurrection demonstrates that our own resurrection is going to happen. That he was physical and ate food tells us what our resurrection bodies will be like: much like our current bodies. That they recognized him\u2014eventually\u2014tells us that our bodies will be recognizably ours. He still had the scars of his ordeal\u2014but they had been healed. We too, may bear scars from our lives here, but like Jesus\u2019 scars, they will have been healed.<\/p>\n

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At that very hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem. They found the Eleven and those with them gathered together, who said, \u201cThe Lord has certainly been raised, and has appeared to Simon!\u201d Then they began to describe what … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6188"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6188"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6190,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6188\/revisions\/6190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}