I love John’s post-resurrection account where Peter and his buddies fished all night without success. At dawn, there stood Jesus on the beach. Perhaps He was just too far away to see clearly at that hour, but they didn’t know it was Jesus (despite seeing Him twice since He arose). Since neither Mary nor the two on the Emmaus Road recognized Jesus either, I wonder whether it was strictly distance and lighting. Apparently they didn’t even recognize His voice.
Only when they followed this stranger’s instruction to cast their net on the right-hand side of the boat, and there was a huge haul, did it suddenly click for John, and he said, “It is the Lord.” John recognized this was signature Jesus. It was just like Him to greet them with a kind and friendly, “Hey children!” It was just like Him to stretch them with something that defied their senses and natural experience. It was just like Him to give them an opportunity to walk in faith, in this case, to work in faith. And it was just like Him to do exceeding abundantly beyond all they could ask or think!
I suspect we, too, encounter the risen Jesus today, just as unaware as the disciples were. Sound far-fetched? Some of us may have even entertained angels without knowing it (Hebrews 13:2). Maybe it’s not Jesus incarnate in front of us, yet it is Him speaking to us and it is His doing. Do we see it? Of a half-dozen disciples in the boat who’d spent three years with Him, only the one who clearly knew Jesus loved him identified Jesus.
Jesus could surprise us, anytime, anyplace.
When He told parables, He followed them repeatedly with, “He who has ears, let him hear.” Our hearing can be dulled and our ability to recognize Jesus compromised, by the cares of the world. That’s what He pointed out in Matthew 6: “The whole world is worried about taking care of themselves, getting what they think they need to be happy. But YOU seek God’s kingdom and His righteousness, and He’ll take care of you. My Father is well aware of what you need!” (My paraphrase.)
Paul observed that God is not far from each of us (Acts 17:27-28). Paul was talking of the lost—that even in their cluelessness God was near at hand. How much more true is that for the believer! The Bible says that the one joined to Christ is one spirit with him (1 Corinthians 6:17). You can’t get much closer than that!
So if God seems far away, it is never God distancing Himself from us! It is our distraction and lack of awareness of His presence. We can sharpen our senses to recognize Jesus when we spend time in His Word and meditate on what He is like. Engaging in conversation with Him and resting in His love, we get to know Him and start to value what He values. We trust He will take care of whatever we need, and instead of constantly staying busy with the affairs of life, we choose the good part like Mary, and sit at His feet.
When we do, we’ll see Him manifest in and through our lives in unexpected ways, and we, too, will know, “It is the Lord!”
