For anyone outside the Christian faith approaching the Gospels, perhaps the most decisive part of the narrative is the account of the Resurrection. It is the hinge upon which the drama stands or falls. Christianity stakes everything upon the historical reality of Christ’s Resurrection.
Recognising the Risen Lord
What proves even more intriguing, though, is to consider what Resurrection really means. What was it like for the disciples to encounter the risen Lord? What did He look like? And why didn’t He manifest Himself to everyone? Why did He appear only to those who knew him?
The touchstone feature of nearly all the resurrection accounts, particularly today’s reading, is that the risen Jesus was qualitatively different from the person they had seen and known before. He was the same but different. For this reason, recognition did not come immediately but only after some time in his presence. Once they realized his true identity, however, the unanimous reaction was great joy. He was not merely Jesus restored to his old form, but Jesus glorified in the flesh—a glimpse of heavenly reality.
It is the Lord
In today’s Gospel, we accompany the disciples on the Sea of Galilee as they head out fishing. After a night of catching nothing, in the early morning, they see a figure on the distant shore, who calls out to them, asking if they have caught any fish, and then telling them to put out their nets once more. John realizes the stranger is Jesus and exclaims to the rest of the apostles, “It is the Lord!”
The fact that John highlights this recognition implies that it was not immediately obvious. Later on, as they breakfast together on the shore by the charcoal fire, he observes that “no one dared to ask who he was, because they knew he was the Lord.” The peculiar turn of phrase, “dared to ask,” implies that this encounter retained some degree of mystery and otherness; though they all sensed it was indeed their Lord, he looked and seemed different in a way that inspired fresh awe, reminiscent perhaps of his transfiguration on Mount Tabor. To ask him who he was would have been like asking a king for his credentials. Something about the risen Christ radiated quiet splendor. At the same time, John mentions this notion of “daring to ask” because he looked different enough now in his glorified form to make them wonder. Was it really Jesus?
Same but Different
These unusual details about the encounters with the risen Christ bear the texture of a real witnessed experience. Clearly, the disciples were in the presence of a Jesus who was both the same and different from the one they had known. It is fitting that after having passed through the crucible of the Passion and having actually died, the risen Jesus would no longer be the same as he had been before. Suffering served as a gateway for the manifestation of glory.
Today, I invite you to take to prayer this encounter with the risen Jesus. Place yourself there among the disciples by the charcoal fire and consider what it was like to behold the transformed appearance of the Lord, glorified in the flesh. One could touch him and speak to him as before, yet now his presence bears a new majesty. Do we recognize him? May we confidently acclaim, as St. John did from far off in the boat, “It is the Lord!”.
