Questions From Readers

● Can you tell me why, at Luke 24:37 to 43, Jesus said he was not a spirit creature who had materialized and that he was human and hungry enough to eat there with his disciples? Do you not teach that Jesus here was a spirit creature who materialized?—C.S., U.S.A.

The scriptures in question read: “They were terrified, and because they became frightened they were imagining they beheld a spirit. So he said to them: ‘Why are you troubled, and why is it doubts come up in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; feel me and see, because a spirit does not have flesh and bones just as you behold that I have.’ And as he said this he showed them his hands and his feet. But while they were still not believing for sheer joy and were wondering, he said to them: ‘Do you have something there to eat?’ And they handed him a piece of broiled fish; and he took it and ate it before their eyes.”

As has been repeatedly noted in the columns of The Watchtower, there is an abundance of Scriptural testimony to the effect that, as the apostle Peter expresses it regarding Jesus, “he [was] put to death in the flesh, but [was] made alive in the spirit.” We cannot escape it, if Jesus had been raised in his body of flesh he would have ascended into heaven with it, and “flesh and blood cannot inherit God’s kingdom, neither does corruption inherit incorruption.” No human fleshly Jesus Christ could be ‘the reflection of God’s glory and the exact representation of God’s very being.’ His human body was “the bread that [he gave] . . . in behalf of the life of the world.” For him to have been resurrected in it would have meant that he had taken back this gift of life and mankind was no longer ransomed.—1 Pet. 3:18; 1 Cor. 15:50; Heb. 1:3; John 6:51.

Then how are we to understand Jesus’ words? His disciples thought, because of his sudden appearance in their midst, that they were seeing an apparition, even as they so thought when he came to them upon the water when they were in distress because of a storm. (Matt. 14:26, 27) Rather than try to get them to understand something for which they were not yet ready, Jesus merely assured them that he was no ghost or apparition, which he was not, but that it was indeed he; and he did indeed have a fleshly body which he materialized for the occasion. In other words, Jesus was assuring them that he was not the product of their imagination, neither was he someone else, but in truth and in fact the very Jesus they had known before his death.

Jesus’ answer to his disciples later, as to his restoring the kingdom at that time, was along the same line. (Acts 1:6) He did not stop to explain that his kingdom would be a heavenly one and that they would reign with him from the heavens; they were not prepared for such strikingly new information. “I have many things yet to say to you, but you are not able to bear them at present.” (John 16:12) So Jesus at that time merely told them that it was not for them to know the time for restoring the kingdom to Israel; letting them find out later that the kingdom was never to be restored to fleshly Israel but given to a spiritual Israel. And so with Jesus’ remarks to his disciples as recorded at Luke 24:37-43. He did not endeavor to explain that he had been resurrected a spirit creature and had now materialized for their benefit, but merely drove home the fact that it was really he, the Jesus they had known all along. He asked for something to eat, not because he was hungry, but merely to help impress upon them that he was a real person, not imaginary.

● Is it proper for a Christian to carry life insurance? Is it not a form of gambling?—S.P., U.S.A.

Life insurance and other forms of insurance cannot be condemned as gambling but are rather a form of investment. One is not trying to insure that one will not have an accident or will not die, but is only seeking to provide in the case of an emergency. It is Scriptural for a man to provide for those that are his own, and if he wishes to make such provision in this way, that is entirely up to him.—Gal. 6:5;1 Tim. 5:8.

In some places automobile insurance is compulsory; in others, health insurance is. To comply with such laws is merely to render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. (Matt. 22:21) Where the law does not require insurance, it is up to the individual Christian to decide for himself what to do about insurance.