In the previous passage we saw that the disciples failed to recognize Jesus as He came walking towards them on the water. Their failure was rooted not in an inability to recognize Jesus' face, but in a lack of familiarity with the actions and character that scripture said would define the Messiah that were so anxiously anticipating.
In the movie "Hook", Robin Williams plays a grown-up Peter Pan who returns to Neverland with no recollection of ever having lived there, or indeed ever having been Peter Pan. One of the more touching scenes of the movie is where one of the Lost Boys, humorously named "Thud Butt", runs his hands over Peter's face trying to find a semblance to the Peter Pan they once knew. For the Lost Boys, the connection was made when they saw the adult Peter regain his natural ability to wield a sword quite effectively. When in a moment they see this bumbling adult go from klutz to expert swordsman, they know that somewhere buried inside is the Pan they once knew. It is then that Thud Butt runs his hands over Peter's face, trying to find their lost friend. Eventually Thud Butt looks into Pan's eyes and exclaims with a look of startled amazement, "there you are Peter!"
It's odd to think that these children, these Lost Boys who seemed to Peter to be strangers, actually knew something about his past. They knew something about his true identity that those closest to him, including his wife and children, knew nothing about. This is the situation Jesus' finds Himself in when He reaches the shore and the people "immediately recognize him." Strangers see in Jesus what His own disciples were incapable of noticing. I pray that is not the case in our own time. I pray that the Jesus we follow, that the Jesus' we preach is one who is clearly recognizable both to disciple and stranger alike.
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