From: Jacob Reebel
Date: August 22, 2018
Question: Why wasn’t Jesus immediately recognizable to his disciples following his resurrection?
Answer: This seems to be the will of God to help their faith.
According to Luke 24:16, the two disciples on the roads from Emmaus were kept from recognizing Jesus. In other words, they were no able to recognize who He was. The Bible is not clear why this was the case, but seems to suggest this was an act of God. They were only able to recognize Jesus (Luke 24:31) after He broke bread and then He vanished before their eyes. This worked to convince the disciples that Jesus had truly risen from the dead. They quickly rushed back to tell the other disciples.
According to the gospel of John, His closest disciples did not immediately recognize who He was. In John 21:14, Mary did not recognize Jesus. Perhaps this was because of her grief, but once she interacted with Him she quickly figured it out. She immediately rushed back to tell the other disciples also.
In John 21:4, the disciples who were out fishing may have not recognized Jesus because He was not close enough for them to see Him clearly. What is interesting here is that He had appeared to them twice before. Perhaps they also were prevented from recognizing Him. After the great catch of fish, they figured out that they were speaking to Jesus and they quickly came to Him.