Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary
Accounts of encounters with the risen Lord in the Gospel of John have in common a peculiar feature: in none of them is Jesus instantly recognizable.
Early Easter morning, Mary assumes she has met up with the gardener until she hears Jesus speak her name (John 20:15). In John 21, the disciples nearing shore after a fruitless night of fishing see a “stranger” on the beach. John (“the beloved disciple”) declares to Peter that “it is the Lord!” – but only after they’ve followed the stranger’s suggestion to cast the net on the other side of the boat, resulting in a net-straining catch. Even then, when all have gathered for breakfast on the beach, John inserts this odd note: “None of the disciples dared to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ because they knew it was the Lord” (John 21:12b).
This same feature of “unrecognizability” occurs in today’s gospel text, Luke 24:13-35. Cleopas and “another disciple” (some suggest this may have been a woman) walk despondently away from Jerusalem, home to the town called Emmaus. They are joined by someone they do not recognize. They surmise that he is “a stranger” in Jerusalem, since he seems unaware of the trial and execution of Jesus of Nazareth. After hearing their tragic story, the “stranger” proceeds to amaze them, threading together these events with texts in the Hebrew scriptures that describe the mission and fate of the anticipated Anointed One of God. But even this is not enough to render the Risen Lord recognizable! (Perhaps preachers frustrated with uncomprehending listeners can take heart; these two did not understand when the risen Lord preached the good news, either.)
Only at the table, as Christ undertakes the actions now so familiar to us in the Eucharist—taking, blessing, and breaking the bread—do they recognize their Lord. In that instant, he is gone, the broken bread silently testifying to the continuing presence of the risen Lord.
In every post-resurrection narrative, it is what the “stranger” says and does, and to what effect, that causes his followers to recognize their Teacher and Lord. Living, as we do, in a time when face recognition software can certify our identities, we may be frustrated that the Risen Christ can be present and yet not be recognizable. Why not “clinch” the case for resurrection with a detailed description of unmistakable physical features??
Truth be told, we cannot account for resurrection within the physical limits of our three-dimensional world. And yet, Christians down the centuries testify to experiences of Jesus’ living presence, sometime mediated through others whose have devoted their lives to prayer and compassion.
In our wrenching sorrow, in our locked-behind-closed-doors fear, in our heartbroken trudging away from the site of our dashed hopes, in the mystery of ordinary bread taken/blest/broken: there—perhaps especially there—the deeds and words of a perfect stranger may reveal the life-saving presence of our Lord.
Insights into Biblical Greek Grammar and Syntax 