Anglican Bishop's News - November 2005

The disciples often failed to recognise the Risen Jesus when they first met him. Mary Magdalene thought he was the gardener until he spoke her name (John 20:15 -16). Two friends walking the road to Emmaus thought he was a fellow traveller until he broke bread with them (Luke 24:16,30-31). For the fishermen he seemed to be simply a stranger on the beach until the disciple he loved acknowledged him Lord (John 21:4-7).

As we read the stories of the Risen Christ we see over and over again that it was not Jesus’ presence amongst them that came suddenly, but their recognition. It is as if Jesus was with them all along but they simply did not recognise him.

This may surprise us but really it should not. After all did not Jesus say to his disciples, “I am with you always, to the end of the age”?

Jesus is always with us too. We just do not always recognise that he is there.

For Thomas recognition demanded that he see the scars of crucifixion. It is a fact that the nail-marks in Jesus’ hands and feet, the wound in his side, were still part of his risen body. Rising from the dead did not reverse the effects of his suffering on the cross. The pain and sorrow of Good Friday was not blotted out by the Resurrection but like the body of the risen Christ himself the pain and sorrow were transformed into signs of love and mercy. The fact of the crucifixion had not changed but its meaning had. No longer were the wounds of crucifixion reminders merely of pain and death, they had become the signs of Love’s victory. Jesus still bears the marks of his crucifixion, even now, because they are the evidence of a love that cannot be destroyed.

There is a message here for us if we will only see with the eyes of faith. Christ is always with us, but we often fail to recognise him. He speaks to us through the poor and the needy, through the ministry of Word and Sacrament. He is always with us, if we have faith to see and hear him. In any conversation, in any act of worship, in any deed of kindness we must look for him. Recognising that the Risen Christ is with us in our present experience, whatever that may be, we find each moment transformed into an encounter with the living Jesus.