There are no rules for these things. You hear the story over and over through the years and it seems so. . . obvious—that it had to happen exactly this way. But you know, there are no rules for these things.

Jesus rises from the dead and miraculously appears to the eleven (absent Thomas) in Luke 24. It’s a familiar account. But with that familiarity, we slip through the story, sliding by details, passing through nuance, the blurring speed of the bullet train blending savory detail away. For a few minutes, please slow down, pull over and take a long, deep breath of fresh mountain gospel air with me.

“See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.” Following rumors and reports of seeing Jesus after his death, Jesus abruptly appears in the room with the disciples. They are startled, frightened, caught out-of-place, unsettled. To reassure them, He calls them to see His hands and his feet. Why? Why His hands? Did His hands stick in the disciples’ minds as He ministered to and with them?