Recognizing Jesus

When Carlotta was young, she thought her mother had a remarkable gift for recognizing other people. But Carlotta’s mother was normal. It was Carlotta who was remarkable. She had a rare condition called prosopagnosia. She couldn’t recognize or remember faces.

Shortly after Jesus’ resurrection, two disciples walking from Jerusalem seemed as if they had such a condition when they encountered someone they should have recognized. The two were talking about the exciting news of the past few days (Luke 24:14), but the third person seemed unaware of the events. They gave Him a quick summary only to be surprised as this unknown person (Jesus) “explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself” (v. 27). Then Christ broke bread with them (v. 30)—something He’d done many times before.  At that moment, “Their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight” (v. 31). They hurried back to Jerusalem to tell others (v. 33).

Those disciples didn’t recognize Jesus when they were with Him, and they hadn’t recognized Him in the Old Testament, something they read often and thought they knew well. They needed Jesus to reveal Himself to them because they couldn’t see on their own. 

We need that help too. Let’s ask God to open our eyes to see Jesus on the pages of the Bible, and in our lives.