There are many anticipations of the moment of recognition which took place on the day of the resurrection, and yet none match the pointed description that Luke gives of this moment. Abraham felt something of it when he walked down the mountain of Moriah with his son Isaac. Jacob experienced something similar when he first saw Joseph after assuming him to be dead for so many years. And the same must have come over the women who received their sons from the dead through the prophets Elijah and Elisha. The event itself represents the completely unexpected, the reality of what is absolutely unbelievable. It is all too good to be true – so good that faith is as it were overwhelmed by joy.

But the joy of Easter morning transcends all the anticipations of the old dispensation. For here we discover more than bonds of blood at stake. Here the bond of faith speaks, that special bond which the Lord Jesus had established with His disciples. They are gripped with the joy of disbelief, a joy which has that sense of fear and doubt that what is experienced really cannot last, and does not correspond with every day reality. They see their Master, whom they loved and trusted. They had thought that He would never reappear, and yet there He stood speaking in their midst!

The Lord Jesus is fully aware of this euphoric joy, and now He takes pains to deepen and solidify it, so that rather than remaining a passing joy of the moment, it becomes the deepened joy of faith that the whole church may share. He does that by bringing the unexpected into full view and every day reality for all time. For He asks the most ordinary question in the world. He speaks as one that has been away, and now has returned to those with whom He is familiar, those among who He feels at home. “Do you have anything to eat?”

This most ordinary question seals the reality of the resurrection for the disciples. They suspected that the Lord Jesus was a spirit who could come and disappear at any moment. And indeed, the Lord Jesus was sudden and brief in His appearances! He never came to stay in a physical sense. For He had said, “What if you see the Son of man ascending to where He was before?” Yet He does wish to make clear that He comes as one who is at home here among His own, and as one who is among friends. Before leaving the earth, He assures us that He has not abandoned the earth or our flesh! Indeed, He has not only taken on, but also perfected that flesh.

This was the entirely unexpected for the disciples, and what brought bewilderment in all their joy. He was really there, and yet He was not there, for He was so different! He had passed through death. He stood on the other side of the grave, and yet with them in the same room! So Jesus shows them that He is truly flesh and bones, made of the dust of the earth. He is not a spirit, but the same Person who appeared to them and walked among them for three years. Yet He is different! For the price of sin has been paid! The perishable has put on the imperishable and the mortal has put on immortality! A new day has dawned! And the Lord Jesus now prepares to take our flesh into heaven, so that the work completed on earth is also brought to heaven in order to be accepted and rewarded by the Father.

Here the disciples begin to learn the secret of satisfaction, and the wonder of the full renewal of our flesh through the mercy and grace of the Father. Here Easter joy is deepened and sealed. For the Lord Jesus prepares the disciples for His departure. Yet this preparation makes clear to them that He will remain with His Church to the end of the age. He appears and is present not as a stranger, but as a familiar guest. He comes as one who is known, and one who feels at home with His own! So He teaches His disciples and His Church that the bonds of fellowship are stronger than the distance that now separates the Head and the members.

In effect, Easter joy is deepened in the ascension and Pentecost. Easter is only the beginning of greater things! In the ensuing events Jesus proves that our flesh is in heaven, and also proves that His work on earth has been fully accepted by the Father. For He sends us His Spirit as a guarantee, through whom we know that heaven and earth are reconciled, and heavenly gifts have been poured in our hearts, redirecting our flesh to the service of the living God!

So the joy of the disciples becomes the earthly, robust, and lasting joy of faith and assurance. From total disbelief, they are brought to deepened understanding, the understanding of faith. Yet with all the depth the joy and the sense of the unbelievable remains. For in the resurrection of the Saviour, the church is confronted with what is absolutely unexpected, and what is entirely unfathomable! As Paul says,

What no eye has seen or ear heard or the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love Him, God has revealed to us through the Spirit!1 Corinthians 2:9

And with all the depth that faith may have, it must never loose this sense of amazement and wonder at what is totally unexpected, and absolutely unbelievable. He is risen! It still is too good to be true! Yet by the Spirit we may be sure it is true, and may carry this knowledge with us in lasting joy and expectant hope every day!