What about The LOOK after resurrection?

My last post concerned The LOOK Jesus gives that tells us instantly who we are.

But why did so many of his closest associates not recognize him after his resurrection?

When coming to the empty tomb, Mary mistook him for the gardener. Two of his disciples on the road to Emmaus walked with him for hours without knowing who he was.

One commentator (Chuck Missler) suggests that it was because of Jesus’ horrendous wounds suffered in the hours leading up to his crucifixion. The scars rendered even the resurrected Jesus unrecognizable. For instance, Isaiah prophesies that his beard would be ripped off during torture. Abuses like this rendered his face unfamiliar -- even after resurrection.

I think this theory is off the mark by a long ways. It suggests that the trials of this life are somehow able to disfigure us not only here, but in resurrection as well. It is a theory that looks backwards to this creation marred by sin, and not forwards to a new creation freed from sin.

And besides, if marks of brutality are the reason why Jesus was not recognized -- (doesn’t this very idea seem abhorrent?) -- then why would Mary think the man she saw was a gardener and not, for instance, some sort of convict? And why would the two disciples allow this horrendous figure to exposit the Scriptures to them for hours as they walked to Emmaus?

Jesus indeed had scars, and he did indeed use them as proof that it was he, and not someone else. The resurrected Jesus said to his confounded disciples: “See my hands and feet, that it is I myself…” But the resurrected Jesus did not say: “Look at this brutalized face; see where my beard was; look what they did to me!” How undignified that would have been! Even war heroes of today rarely mention the brutalities they suffered in war. It is just not part of being a hero.

No. There is something about the resurrected body that is so other that we simply cannot fathom what that kind of newness “looks” like. On the other hand, what we do know is that this other-ness is not so other that the resurrected one is not the same one that we knew (or that we were) on this side of the grave. It is that person. But it is that person glorified. It is us. But it is us glorified.

There is simply a chasm between the two realms. The LOOK I mentioned earlier is that other realm peering into ours. That LOOK tells us who we are. When we are given an opportunity to peer into that other realm, well, even our dearest on that other side are difficult to recognize.

It is something to look forward to, isn’t it, to finally be able to understand the difference someday.

Logos2Go

John 20.15 Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?" Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away."

Luke 24.13-16 That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him.

Chuck Missler, "His Unfamiliar Face: An Easter Devotional" in Good News Northwest, April 2009, vol 14 issue 4, pages 1, 5-6

Isaiah 50.6 I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.

Luke 24.39 "See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have."