Hearken to Strangers

Reflections on Luke and John’s account of post-mortal Christ

In Luke chapter 24 and in John chapter 20 and 21 in the New Testament, there are only two kinds of encounters people have with the resurrected Christ: those where the first thing he does is introduce himself and those where those seeing him do not recognize him until part-way through their conversation. In the latter group we have

Mary, who thought he was a gardener and spoke with him for less than a minute before realizing who he was.¹¹ John 20
Cleopas and his traveling companion, who thought him a stranger and spoke with him for hours before realizing who he was.²² Luke 24
Peter, Thomas, Nathaniel, James, John, and two others, most of whom had already seen him post-resurrection, who did not recognize him until after he had given them nonsensical fishing advice and they’d taken it to miraculous effect.³³ John 21

Perhaps Jesus just had a very forgettable face. After all, not being recognized even by people who’d seen him before was not new:

In Capernum he got lost in the crowd that was trying to stone him.⁴⁴ Luke 4
At the feast of tabernacles he was part-way through a sermon at the temple before the people who were talking about him and looking for him realized who he was.⁵⁵ John 7
Judas had to identify him to people who’d seen him every day for a week.⁶⁶ Matthew 26, Mark 14, and Luke 22

Or perhaps some of these events were misattributed to him. I’ve heard people tell of meeting people⁷⁷ This is an anecdote about hearing an anecdote, and should be taken with corresponding skepticism who were mistaken for heavenly beings because they showed up, offered aid, and left in short order. That kind of false attribution could explain Cleopas and friend, but probably not Mary or Peter et al, as they knew him very well over many years and their interactions continued after they recognized him.

Any of these could be the cause of his being misidentified, but there’s another explanation I find to be fruitful to consider. Perhaps the Christ wanted to see if people would listen to what he had to say before they knew who he was. There’s a humility in listening to a stranger, learning from them and taking their advice, and humility was something Jesus recommended. Who knows how many others he approached incognito who did not listen to him and thus never knew who he was?

Sometimes I find it useful to ask myself: if God approached me incognito in a park or when walking home or dropped by to offer unsolicited advice about how best to do my job, would I listen long enough for the nature of who was talking to me to be revealed? And, if I knew God never planned to do that would I still listen to strangers with that same humility and willingness to learn?