Ever wonder just how many times the Lord has been near to us and we didn’t recognize Him?
At the tomb, Mary Magdalene initially thought that He was a gardener. On the road to Emmaus, the Two thought He was a stranger. Same day, but different misunderstandings.
Vincent adds emphasis to stranger in the Two’s question to the unrecognized Jesus:
“[The word] is used in later Greek of strangers who have no rights of citizenship, and no settled home. The only of the A. V. [Authorized Version] is commonly understood adverbially: ‘Are you nothing but a stranger?’ But the emphasis of the question falls there, and the word is an adjective. Render ‘Dost thou alone dwell as a stranger in Jerusalem?’ ‘Are you the only one who sojourns as a stranger in Jerusalem, and who does not know?’”
Yet, with all the emphasis on Jesus being the stranger, the Two were, in all actuality, the ones who did not know.
A common thread of recognition emerged when both Mary and the Two recognized Him as Jesus. What was the thread? It was a present act that had been personally witnessed previously.
For Mary it was the calling of her name, “Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master” (John 20:16 KJV).
How many times before had she heard His voice, and now, with her back to the “gardener,” she heard it again and acknowledged her Lord.
For the Two it was how he took the bread, blessed it, and broke it to give them. They had seen that before, maybe at the feeding of thousands (see Matthew 14:19), or maybe they saw the nail prints in His hands as they received the bread. Whichever the case, they had pervious knowledge of His action, and then “their eyes were opened, and they knew him…” (Luke 24:31).
Oh, how I want to make a special effort to “see” Jesus around me. I want to take a strand from my past encounters with Him and thread the needle of sight today! Join with me in looking for Him!!
