Why didn't the disciples always recognize Jesus after His resurrection?

At that moment the risen Lord intervened and she turned herself back from the angels to find Him standing there, yet she did not recognize Him. The same feature characterized His meeting with the two disciples going to Emmaus that afternoon, and the rest of the disciples in the upper room that evening. It was the same Jesus but with a difference owing to His being clothed in a risen body — risen, though not yet glorified — hence they did not identify Him at once. She mistook Him for the gardener. He, the Great Shepherd risen from the dead, knew well that here was one of His sheep thoroughly devoted to Him, seeking only Himself and weeping because she knew not where to find Him.

Two of the disciples were walking that day from Jerusalem toward Emmaus, which is a distance of about seven or eight miles (12 km), their minds and their conversation filled with those things that were filling many minds. Before this, John tells us, the Lord had appeared alone to Mary Magdalene (Jn.20:14), whose heart was overcome by sorrow. He suddenly appeared to these two whose discouragement was leading them back to their own home. Drawing near, the Lord walked with them, but they did not recognize Him. Mary had not recognized Him either, and there is a spiritual lesson in this. He did not return in the same condition as before, nor in the same relationship. Though they had "known Christ after the flesh," yet in this way they were to know Him no longer (2 Cor.5:16), for in resurrection He is the Head of a new creation, altogether above the level of fleshly relationships.

After this, on the same afternoon, He appeared to two disciples as they were walking into the country. This was evidently the two spoken of in Luke 24:13-33, Cleopas and his companion. It is said that He appeared in another form. Neither Mary nor they knew Him when they first saw Him. Also, we are told in Luke 24:16: "their eyes were holden that they should not know Him." But what is the reason for "another form" I do not know. When these disciples told the others of their seeing Him, the disciples still did not believe. There were evidently some exceptions to this, however, for Luke 24:33-34 indicates that some told them the Lord was risen and had appeared to Simon. At least some had believed Simon when he told his experience. But Mark does not mention this.

Well, Cleopas answers the Stranger's query by "Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days?" (Luke 24:18). Very simple and very touching is that answer given to the total Stranger that addressed them. You might say, "Why did they not know Him?" Turn to Mark 16 for a moment, and I think you will get the reason. "After that he appeared in another form to two of them, as they walked, and went into the country. And they went and told it to the residue: neither believed they them" (Mark 16:12-13). Their testimony was not believed, just as, apparently, the disciples had not accepted the testimony of the "certain women of our company," who earlier in the day "astonished" them by saying "he was alive" (Luke 24:22-23).

That was the reason, possibly, why their eye was holden. The Lord sometimes puts Himself in our company that we may learn just where we are in the history of our souls. He likes us to be real and genuine. We may be hypocrites before each other — that is, one may appear to be what he is not. Verily that is our danger. But He always likes to see the truth. He looks for the truth, and I do not think when He finds the truth, as He did find it in them, that the Lord was in any sense angry with them, though He may rebuke them for their unbelief. But for the Lord to find you and me true and real, on the way, is a great thing. I think He values and estimates it. And what does He find here? What I have no doubt was very attractive to His heart, a sorrowful and unintelligent couple, but a couple deeply interested in Him and His things. This led to His inquiry — "What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad? And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said to him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days. And he said to them, What things? And they said to him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people" (Luke 24:17-19).

"But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore: but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus" (John 21:4). A little bit of self-will always blinds the eye. A little bit of taking our own way and of departure from the known will of the Lord will certainly bring spiritual blindness. Why did not they know Him now? There He stood. The fact was this, He had bidden them go and wait for Him but they took their own way, and went a-fishing instead, turning back to the old paths they had been called out of years before. They inclined to go on the road that presented itself as a temptation, instead of patiently waiting and watching for Him to appear to them, and consequently when He does appear, they do not know Him. There is a pregnant lesson for all saints in this.

In the morning the Lord was standing on the shore, not recognized by the disciples. This is surely intended to teach us that if we are occupied with our own plans and purposes, it is unlikely that we shall quickly discern what is the actual interposition of the Lord.

Seven tired and dispirited fishermen were driving shorewards as the morning sunbeams were filling the eastern sky. It had been for them a wearisome night of fruitless toil, and they approached the land with heavy hearts. Then it was that through the morning mists they discerned a solitary watcher on the shore, but they "knew not that it was Jesus."

The disciples were not expecting His appearance at that place and moment. They had seen their Risen Lord in the privacy of the upper room at Jerusalem, the doors being closed for fear of the Jews. But which of them would expect to see Him in the chill dawn of a spring day amid the solitudes of a sea beach? Yet the Lord had said to them all that He would not leave them orphans, but would come to them, and that He would go before them into Galilee.

(2) In the next place, the Lord, by His words "It is I," corrects the error of the apostles regarding Himself. Most probably they failed to recognise Him, because they were not expecting Him to come to them at that particular time or in that particular manner. Hence they imagined they saw a phantom until the Master said, "It is I." Similar cases of non-recognition occurred after the Lord's resurrection. When J esus appeared to Mary and spoke to her, she supposed Him to be the gardener until He called her by name (John 20:15). And again, when He subsequently presented Himself in the midst of His disciples and said, "Peace be unto you," they were terrified and affrighted and supposed they had seen a spirit (Luke 24:37). Speaking generally, we may say that it is the latent incredulity of man's heart which prevents him from accepting the operation of divine power and love in superhuman ways, and such sluggish comprehension was often displayed by the apostles.

How grateful to the heart of the Lord must have been these signs of Mary's deathless affection; and it might be surely said, that they constituted an irresistible appeal to His own heart. Yea, He felt for her and sympathised with her in the desolation of her grief; and He was already on His way to give her the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Thus, when she had answered the question of the angels, "she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus." All her desire was before her eyes and yet she was so pre-occupied with her own sorrow and with her own thoughts, that she did not recognise her Lord. It was not, say as with the two disciples on the way to Emmaus, that her eyes were holden; but, as she had no thought at that moment of Jesus except as having been buried and rapt away from the tomb, she was too absorbed with her own feelings to think of anything else. There was Jesus standing before her eyes, and she know not that it was Jesus. Ah! beloved reader, how often have we been in similar circumstances. In the midst of great disappointments or griefs, the Lord has drawn near to our souls, and we did not recognise Him. Instead of welcoming Him, we were rather like the disciples who, when they saw Jesus walking upon the sea, thought that they had seen a spirit, and cried out for fear. We can therefore understand how it was that Mary did not recognise her Lord. Indeed, it was of Himself that she did not, for He was seeking His sheep, and about to call her by name; and through grace she was ready to hear and to respond to that well-known voice.

As in her sadness Mary turns away from angels, her sorrow and the devotedness of heart had brought the Lord near, though she did not know Him. She had known Him after the flesh, but was not prepared to know Him in resurrection: the earthly relationship was all that she understood. The Lord asked her, not only why she was weeping, but “whom are you seeking?” Supposing Him to be the gardener, she wanted only to learn of Him where the Lord's body was, and she would take it away. She seems to think it unnecessary to explain who the “Him” is. Nor does she even think of how she would take the body away, or where. In her disconsolate grief, she turns away even from Him!