Just after daybreak,
Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.
(John 21:4)
I don’t know how that could be, that they didn’t recognise
him, but we hear it repeatedly in the gospel accounts of Jesus’s
resurrection. He appears, unexpectedly,
and they don’t know who he is. The
gospel writers, dealing now more than ever with mystery and wonder, are very
soon making copious use of symbolism – here for instance, it’s just after
daybreak, symbolising the dawning of their new life, Easter life. Jesus is on the beach -- in all
literature the beach is potent as a symbol of life on the border, transition
between past and future, known and unknown, safety and peril. Jesus, we find, is also very human here… he is
wounded, and in Luke’s Gospel he actually asks, Is there anything to eat?
So it’s strange. And
strangest of all is that, whether it was Mary at the tomb, or the disciples on
the lake, or on the road to Emmaus, they didn’t know at first who he was. Albert Schweitzer understood this, I think. Schweitzer was a French/German (Alsace)
medical missionary in Africa, in what is now Gabon. A devout Lutheran Christian of independent
mind, Schweitzer was theologian, organist (he was an authority on J S Bach),
writer, philosopher, physician, Nobel Peace Prize winner of 1952.[1] This is what he wrote about Jesus: He
comes to us as one unknown, without a name, as of old, by the lakeside, he came
to those who did not know him. He speaks
to us the same words: "Follow me!" and sets us to the tasks which he
has to fulfil for our time. He commands.
And to those who obey him, whether they
be wise or simple, he will reveal himself in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings
which they shall pass through in his fellowship, and, as an ineffable mystery,
they shall learn in their own experience who he is.
I find this totally encouraging. The risen Lord is encountered in life’s
depths and predicaments, trials, doubts and disasters. It is a matter of being still and
waiting. We find him in our
confusion and setbacks. We learn
discernment, preferring silence and stillness.
Eventually we know, or suspect, who he is.
It is far removed from the embarrassment intelligent and
sensitive Christian faith has suffered lately, with Destiny Church zealots
gathered in Hagley Park, directly over the road from the Al Noor mosque, to broadcast
their testimonies and, as they put it, “reclaim Christchurch for Jesus”. This dogmatism and arrogance has little to do
with the way of Jesus. Neither the
gospel of Christ nor the city of Christchurch depend on any of this for faith
and truth. The risen Lord, hidden and
mysterious, and totally humble, has been ministering in the hearts of
Christian, Jew, Moslem, long before we came along. The point is not to bring him back – he never
left -- the point is to meet him where he is, and always was, with his humility
and simplicity and love.
[1]
While completing his doctorate in theology, Schweitzer somehow studied medicine
in Strasbourg, and was an organ pupil of Charles-Marie Widor. Later he recorded much of Bach’s organ opus.
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