Its fascinating just how far the Gospel writers go to make it clear that with the resurrection of Christ we really are talking about Resurrection: not resuscitation or the appearance of pure spirit or ghost.  Jesus goes to great lengths to assure his disciples that he is no mere phantasm or illusion. He shows them the marks of his crucifixion and he explains how the scriptures foretold his death and rising.   Several times he make the point of eating food with the disciples.

S Jerome, one of the great early Fathers of the Church once wrote: "As he showed them real hands and a real side, he really ate with his disciples; really walked with Cleophas; conversed with men with a real tongue; really reclined at supper; with real hands took bread, blessed and broke it, and was offering it to them.  Do not put the power of the Lord on the level with the tricks of magicians, so that he may appear to have been what he was not, and may be thought to have eaten without teeth, walked without feet, broken bread without hands, spoken without a tongue, and showed a side which had no ribs." (From a letter to Pammachius against John of Jerusalem 34, 5th century)

S Paul states that the centrality of the gospel is the cross; but fortunately it does not stop there. Through the cross Jesus defeated our greatest enemies – sin and death.  But it was his resurrection that made his victory complete and entire.  Through the cross and resurrection, Jesus shows us the way to the new life he promised, and he gives us the power to overcome sin and despair, and everything else that would stand in the way of his love and truth.