12. — [Jesus sait7i...Come and dine.] Tlie object of this gracious invitation seems to me to have been two-fold. It was meant partly to show our Lord's tender compassion for the weary bodies of His disciples. Though risen, He knew and felt for their wants, and would supply food for them when hungry and fatigued. It was meant partly to show that, though risen from the dead, with a glorified body. He would be on the same lov- ing terms of familiarity and kindness as before with His disci- ples. They need not be frightened at Him. He had not for- gotten them. He did not mean to keep them at a distance. He was still one who would eat and drink with them, as a man eateth and drinketh with his friends. It is written, " I will come in to him, and sup with him, and he with Me." (Rev. iii. 20.) An old divine says, " Christ loveth to deal familiarly with men."
The Greek word rendered " dine," does not necessarily mean a mid-day meal. Parkhurst shows, on the contrary, from Xen- ophon, that it may mean a morning repast. As things are in England now, the translation is a peculiarly unfortunate one. Two or three centuries ago, when people dined at eleven o'clock, the unfitness of it would not have been so remarkable. The meaning evidently is, " Come and partake of a morning meal."
[And none. ..durst ask. ..the Lord.] These words describe the Btate of mind in which the disciples were at this moment. They all felt convinced and satisfied that the Person before them was the Lord. They felt no doubt ; and no one was the least disposed to say, " Who art thou?" Nevertheless they all felt awed and solemnized by His presence. A deep sense of the mysterious nature of their Lord, in consequence of His resurrection, filled their minds with an indefinable sensation of mingled embarrassment, reverence, and fear. Surely we can all understand this ! Even when Joseph spoke lovingly to his brethren, and revealed himself to them, they were " troubled at his presence." (Gen. xlv. 3.) To sit, and eat, and drink, in the company with one who had risen from the dead, and ap- peared and disappeared after a supernatural manner, was no light thing. Who can wonder that they felt awed ?
Chrysostom says, " Seeing that His form was altered, and full of awfulness, they were amazed, and desired to ask some- thing concerning it. But fear, and their knowledge that He was not some other but the same, checked the inquiry ; and they only ate what He, with greater exertion of power than before, created for them. For here Jesus no more looked up to heaven, nor performed those human acts, showing that those also which He did formerly were done by way of conde- Bcension." 13. — [Jesus then cometh and taketh bread, etc.] This verse ae- Bcribes what took place at this meal, or as our Bible calls it, this dinner. Our Lord came forward, aa the host and enter-