A few weeks ago, I listened to a sermon at church by Stefan Joubert. He used an anecdote about Queen Elizabeth II to illustrate something in his sermon, which went as follows: the Queen was taking her daily stroll through the grounds at Buckingham Palace. She wore her customary scarf around her hair and was accompanied by her bodyguard.

 

A tourist standing outside the fence was hoping to see one of the members of the royal family, but he did not recognise her and asked if she had ever seen the Queen. “No” she answered, but pointing to her bodyguard said “but this man has seen her many times.” The poor tourist probably did not recognise her because he was not really expecting to see her.

 

We also often do not recognise Jesus and do not recognise his hand in all the wonderful things that happen to us. Mary Magdalene stood outside the empty tomb early that Sunday morning when Jesus suddenly stood next to her. She did not recognise him. It is difficult to believe that something like this could happen after so many hours and days in his presence.

 

The last time that she saw Jesus was when his broken body was laid to rest in the tomb, and then he appeared standing there as healthy as can be. His resurrection was so unbelievable, she just could not comprehend it and therefore, did not recognise him.

 

The resurrection is still something that we cannot comprehend, something that we have to accept through faith alone. It is very important that we believe this and recognise Jesus as the resurrected one, otherwise according to Paul “... we deserve more pity than anyone else in all the world.” (1 Corinthians 15:19b).

 

Prayer: Please help me to recognise you in everything that happens in my life, and especially to recognise you as the resurrected Jesus. Amen