Do We Recognize The Christ?

The Commandry of Knights Templar has three religious events during the year which it celebrates. Christmas, Easter and Ascension. The Ascension Service is essentially a memorial service. Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus. To me the most important religious holiday is Easter. It celebrates the place of the Christ in our lives and the example which He left to us.

When I was Commander I gave the following message for the Easter Service. I think it still has some merit and I share it with you (edited) here.

Do We Recognize The Christ?

Luke 24: 16 “But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.” “They should not know him.” I wonder if we would recognize Christ if we were to meet him in today’s world.

The scripture I chose relates to another example where, after the resurrection Jesus appeared to his followers and was not recognized by them.

Think of that – The disciples, hand picked by Jesus to be with Him and travel with Him during the years of His ministry . . . the men who sat at His feet and learned the lessons which He taught from His mouth, and they did not recognize Him on the shore of the sea of Galilee.

Mary Magdalene, at the tomb took him for a gardener – was He so changed? He was able to show a doubting Thomas the hole in His side and the imprint of the nails so he must have been recognizable – and yet they did not recognize him!

All of us, I am sure, have had the experience of running into an acquaintance or someone we know in some place where we would not expect to see them and momentarily not recognizing them, and yet surely we would recognize a member of our family whom we had shared a meal with three or four days earlier, if we would meet them on the street or on the street and in places with which we would be familiar.

As a teacher of elementary students ages 10, 11, or 12 I have often been asked the question, “Do you remember me?” by a former student now grown to the age of 16 or 17. Of course I have the excuse that they have grown older and have changed, but even then I am often able to recognize them. And yet these men and women who were closer to Jesus than anyone else were unable to recognize Him at first.

In a Bible Commentary I found that some scholars believe that he was not recognized because He had undergone some change at resurrection. Yet before each encounter was over they were able to recognize him.

I have a visual aid. Teachers like to use visual aids. Look at the wood carving picture and tell me what it says.

It illustrates what I am talking about. Most people when they look at this small sign do not see the name on it. Just stare at it and relax your eyes a little. You will see that the word Jesus is there as plain as can be. in fact, once you identify that it says Jesus, you will have a hard time not seeing it.

When Jesus conquered death and arose from the tomb He was changed but he was not changed so as to be unrecognizable.

The Grand Commandery Message (for that year) stated in part, “Christ is Risen! Everything about Christianity depends on that.” We look for Him to come again because he has risen, and we all know that Ascension took place . . . and yet that other fact of Christianity, Ascension, does not mean that He has left the world. He promised “Lo I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”

He also promised that wherever “two or three are gathered in His name – there He would be also.”

I believe those promises are being kept today – right here – right ow.

Christ is a work in the world today and the works which He does today are, as Jon says, “so many that if they were written, everyone, I supposed that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.”

These works are after the Resurrection and after the Ascension.

My question today is simple – Do we recognize the Christ? If not, will we begin to look for Him in today’s world?

Today’s world does not always paint a pretty picture for us to look at. We can’t always make sense of what seems to be happening around us. However, once we begin to recognize the Christ and look for Him daily, we will find it hard not to see Him.

One of my favorite stories is A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote. I read it every year to my class. In that story, about the author as a young boy and his “friend” a rather simple minded cousin there is one instance which I would like to relate at this time. This cousin is an elderly lady who, along with the author, is just tolerated by their relatives. They are each others “best friend” and spend a lot of time together. In this instance they are sitting on a hillside flying their Christmas presents to each other – a pair of kites. As they sit on the grass Capote’s friend cries,

“suddenly alert like a woman remembering too late she has biscuits in the oven. ‘You know what I’ve always thought?’ she asks in a tone of discovery, and not smiling at me but at a point beyond, ‘I’ve always thought a body would have to be sick and dying before they saw the Lord. And I imagined that when He came it would be like looking at the Baptist window: pretty as colored glass with the sun pouring through, such a shine you don’t know it’s getting dark. And it’s been a comfort; to think of that shine taking away all the spooky feeling. But I’ll wager it never happens. I’ll wager that at the very end a body realizes the Lord has already shown Himself. That things as they are’ – her hand circles in a gesture that gathers clouds and kites and grass and Queenie pawing earth over her bone – ‘just as they’ve always been was seeing Him. As for me, I could leave the world with today in my eyes.’”

“Just what they’ve always seen, was seeing Him.” Think of that – this child-like mind had the wisdom to recognize the Christ. And what a blessing that she was able to communicate that faith, that wisdom, to another child so that years later he would remember and write about it to share with us today.

I feel that it is our job as Christians to look constantly for the Christ – to invite “that Mind to be in us that was also in Christ Jesus.” into our lives. to see Him and to invite Him to work through us to make the world ready for Him – to recognize and exemplify the Christ..

Christ is with us today and He is recognizable to those who ar ewilling to enter into the spirit and look beyond material things to find Him.

Remember that visual aid? Remember that you at first you had to work to see the name, Jesus. Now that you have seen it you can’t see anything else. And yet nothing about the sign has changed – only our way of seeing it. Recognizing the Christ is sort of like that, At first you have to work to see Him, but once you begin you will find it hard to see anything else.

You will recognize him in the smile of a child – in the love of parents for their children; even in the halls of government when a step is made towards compassion or world peace; in the comforting touch given to those who mourn in every single facet of your everyday life once you begin to recognize him. He is there!

Someone recently wrote a question about the Second Coming to Bishop John Shelby Spong (who is one of my heroes) His response was, in part:
“On an even deeper level I think Christ comes each day in me when I live fully, love wastefully and dare to be all that I can be. When I assist others in the task of living loving and being, I think Christ comes to them. I commend that pattern to you.”

I agree.

- John Shelby Spong