Yesterday, the lectionary text visited the road to Emmaus. You probably know the story. Two disciples are walking along with Jesus and they don’t recognize him. There are various theories as to why but it is interesting because clearly they knew him and spent time with him.
We have the closest disciples – the ones we refer to as apostles. In the last hours of his life Jesus was sharing a meal with his disciples. One them, Philip, said, “Lord, show us the Father.” Jesus replied, “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been with you all this time? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? (John 14:9 CEB). At that point, Jesus had been with Philip and the other disciples for approximately three years.
It has now been almost two thousand years since Jesus was raised from the dead and proclaimed as Lord. That is over 600 times as long for his disciples to be studying him! Has this not been long enough for us to recognize that seeing Jesus is seeing the Father? Why do we still think there’s someone else besides him? We have 2000 years of church history and tradition. We have scholars who have studied Jesus’ words and teachings. In fact, I have my own collection of Jesus’ teachings – the Bible and yet I am not sure I always recognize him either. Why?
It is because we have not looked closely enough at Him. By all means, seek Christ anew!
