Jesus invites the disciples to come close and become physical witnesses of his resurrection. Luke 24:40 goes on, “And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.” There was no mistaking the body of Jesus for anyone else. The marks of the nails make it clear to all that this was indeed Jesus. This made the great change in them from fear and disbelief to joy and disbelief. Luke 24:41 says, “And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’” You’ve heard that if it sounds too good to be true, it is!! Well, I think that’s the joy of the disbelief that’s mentioned in this passage. There was no longer fear, but joy in their incredulity. But Jesus further dispels their disbelief by eating! Ghosts don’t eat. Verse 42 says, “They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them.”

Luke is the only one that tells us what Jesus was given to eat. That stands to reason because in the prologue to his Gospel he makes it clear that he did diligent research to get all the facts straight. But there is a problem with modern translations. The King James and even the Catholic Douay Rheims Bible include the phrase “and honeycomb.” Jesus was given both fish and honeycomb to eat. This points to the food of angels. Psalm 78 refers to manna as the food of angels. It says, “Man ate of the bread of the angels; he sent them food in abundance.” Manna was described by Moses in Exodus 16:31. He says, “Now the house of Israel called its name manna. It was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.” At one point in his earthly life, Jesus took two fish and five small loaves of bread and fed 5,000 and then again on a separate occasion fed 4,000! Fish and honey bread: the food of heaven!

Since Jesus is the first fruits of the resurrection and all believers will follow, we’ll have incorruptible, immune from disease bodies and will also be able to eat the food of heaven. In Revelation 19:9, John is told “And the angel said to me, Write this: ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’” There will be one great feast day of all the fish and bread you can eat! As a kid, I grew up with Joe Tess’ carp dinners on Friday nights. My dad would bring them home almost weekly. Along with that meal came a slice of black rye bread as I remember it. I used to enjoy both the fish and the bread. It seems almost blasphemous to compare the fish and sweet honey bread of the banquet in heaven with the fish of Joe Tess, but I just couldn’t help it! As much as I enjoyed those fish dinners, I can hardly wait to partake of the heavenly one that is yet to come!