<p>24:41 <i>And while they still disbelieved for joy and wondered, he said to them: Have you here anything to eat?</i>- The disciples are described as sleeping for sorrow, not believing for joy. Both their unbelief and their sorrow and failure to support the Lord in His time of need are not really excusable by either sorrow nor joy. And yet the Lord generously imputes these excuses to His men, such is His love for them. They are described as being &ldquo;glad&rdquo; when they saw the risen Lord (Jn. 20:20). Yet actually they didn&rsquo;t believe at that time- for Lk. 24:41 generously says that they &ldquo;believed not for joy&rdquo;. And they assumed that Jesus was a phantom, not the actual, concrete, bodily Jesus. Placing the records together doesn&rsquo;t give a very positive image of the disciples at this time. And yet the record is so positive about them. The disciples are said not to have believed &quot;for joy&quot; (Lk. 24:41). But the Lord upbraided them for their arrant foolishness and plain unbelief. They slept, we are told, &ldquo;for sorrow&rdquo;- when they should have stayed awake as commanded.</p><p>One hallmark of the spiritual way of life is an indomitably <i>positive spirit</i>. Not a simplistic naivety, blindly hoping for the best in an almost fatalistic way. But as the Father and Son are so essentially positive, so will we be, if we absorb something of His Spirit.&nbsp; Thus the disciples are said not to have believed &quot;for joy&quot;. But the Lord upbraided them for their arrant foolishness and plain unbelief.</p><p>Joy isn't really a cause for disbelief. It's the grace in the inspired record which makes that excuse for them. They preferred to spiritualize everything, as many do today, rather than face the actual implications of a Lord who is for real. They accepted it was Jesus, and yet they still disbelieved. Note in this context how the women said they had seen &quot;a vision of Angels&quot; rather than actual Angels (Lk. 24:23).<br />This incident of eating was to yet again reassure them that He was for real. Note how later on, by the sea of Tiberias, Jesus again ate before them- He had to keep repeating Himself to get it home to them, that He was for real. If those men, who had heard the many predictions of resurrection from the lips of the Lord Himself, found it hard to believe He was for real when He stood before them- how understandably hard it is for us to grasp that He is for real.</p>