As
they said these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace be to you.” But they were terrified and filled with fear, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.
Luke 24:36-37
Luke 24 [29.] They urged him, saying, “Stay with us, for it is almost evening, and the day is almost over.”
He went in to stay with them. When he had sat down at the table with them, he took the bread and gave thanks. Breaking it, he gave to them. Their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he vanished out of their sight. They said to one another, “Weren’t our hearts burning within us, while he spoke to us along the way, and while he opened the Scriptures to us?” They rose up that very hour, returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and those who were with them, saying, “The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” They related the things that happened along the way, and how he was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread.
Luke 24 [36.] As they said these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace be to you.”
Luke 24 [37.] But they were terrified and filled with fear, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.
Luke 24 [38.] He said to them, “Why are you troubled? Why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is truly me. Touch me and see, for a spirit doesn’t have flesh and bones, as you see that I have.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While they still didn’t believe for joy, and wondered, he said to them, “Do you have anything here to eat?”
Meaning:
On the evening of the resurrection day the disciples were gathered in Jerusalem. The eleven had just told the two travellers from Emmaus, “The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” and the two had described how Jesus was known to them in the breaking of the bread (Luke 24:29-35). The room was full of reports about the risen Lord. Then, suddenly, the Lord himself was there. Mark records that Jesus appeared to the eleven “as they sat at the table” (Mark 16:14).
- “As they said these things, Jesus himself stood among them”
Luke stresses “Jesus himself.” This is no messenger, no vision of angels like the one the women saw at the tomb, but the Lord in person. He does not knock or walk through the door in the ordinary way; he simply stands among them. His risen body is real, yet it is not limited as before. At Emmaus he vanished from sight (Luke 24:31); now he appears just as suddenly. While they are still talking about him, he comes to them. The risen Christ is not a memory to be discussed but a living person who meets his people.
- “Peace be to you”
This was the ordinary Jewish greeting, “Shalom.” Yet from the lips of the risen Lord it means far more. Only days earlier these men had fallen asleep in Gethsemane, fled at his arrest, and, in Peter’s case, denied him three times. They might have expected rebuke. Instead his first word is peace. The angels at his birth had announced “on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14). On the night before he died he promised, “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you” (John 14:27). Now, through his death and resurrection, that peace has been won. Paul later summarised it: “Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).
- “But they were terrified and filled with fear”
Even though they had just been saying that Jesus was alive, the disciples were not ready to see him. They were “terrified and filled with fear,” thinking they were seeing a spirit, a ghost. The same thing had happened when Jesus came to them walking on the sea: they “supposed that it was a ghost, and cried out” (Mark 6:49). People of that time believed that the spirits of the dead could appear, and a sudden figure in a closed room seemed to fit that idea far better than a bodily resurrection. Their fear shows that the disciples did not invent the resurrection out of wishful thinking. They were slow to believe it even when it stood before them. Earlier the women’s report had seemed to them to be nonsense (Luke 24:11).
- Fear met by gentle proof
Jesus does not leave them in their fear. In the next verses he asks why they are troubled (Luke 24:38), shows them his hands and feet, invites them to touch him, and eats in front of them (Luke 24:39-43). The Lord who greets them with peace patiently leads them from terror to joy and faith.
The Significance of Luke 24:36-37
- Christ comes to his people
Jesus came while the disciples were speaking about him. He still makes himself present among those who gather in his name, offering himself and not merely ideas about him.
- Peace for the failing
The first word of the risen Lord to disciples who had failed him was peace. Those who come to him today, however badly they have stumbled, are met with the same greeting of reconciliation.
- Faith that grows through fear
The disciples’ terror did not disqualify them. Jesus patiently helped them move from fear to faith. Believers who struggle with doubt can trust him to do the same.
Cross-References:
John 14:27: "Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, give I to you." The promised peace.
Romans 5:1: "we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" Peace won through Christ.
Mark 6:49: "supposed that it was a ghost, and cried out" A similar fear on the sea.
Mark 16:14: "Afterward he was revealed to the eleven themselves as they sat at the table" Mark’s account of this appearance.
Conclusion: While the disciples were still talking about the reports of his resurrection, Jesus himself stood among them and greeted them with “Peace be to you.” Instead of rejoicing, they were terrified, thinking they saw a spirit. The scene shows the reality of the risen Lord, the peace he brings even to those who failed him, and his patience in leading fearful disciples to faith.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible