
<p><span style="line-height: 1.3em;">When you have become reflexively aware of this experience – which may have been peripherally present to your consciousness many times already – you are likely to begin to feel the same power in a number of other places in the gospels where someone spontaneously voices his or her experience of the ‘recognition’ of Jesus Christ. When Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” the words of recognition spring joyfully from Peter, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” We are there, the words and their wild joy are ours, as if in that sudden knowledge were all the wisdom of God.</span></p>
<p>Peter speaks as the heart of Jesus’ disciples&nbsp; – as the heart of a child. When some of those who had followed him, shocked and confused by his ” hard words,” are drifting away, Jesus asks the twelve, “Will you also go away?” it is again Peter who replies. “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life . . .” (John 6:68) Those are the words of the heart.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;<br />There is a similar poignant feeling in the words of the two disciples on Sunday evening when they have arrived at Emmaus with Jesus – still unrecognized – and he turns to leave them . . . “Stay with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is now far spent.” And after Jesus has broken the bread with them and they have recognized him and he has disappeared, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures?”&nbsp; (Luke 24:29,32)</p>
<p>Right at the beginning of Mark’s narrative of the ministry of Jesus, we find him speaking in the synagogue, at Capernaum. “And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.” Mark 1:22) &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;</p>
<p>When a storm arose while Jesus was asleep in the boat, the disciples awoke him, and he spoke to the wind and the waves and they became quiet, those in the boat “were filled with awe, and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even wind and sea obey him?’” These words convey the mystery as well as the transcendent power of this man who had come among them. (Mark 4:41)</p>
<p>The wonder of Jesus’ presence is powerfully conveyed in the stories of Jesus’ healings. The leper knelt before him and pleaded,&nbsp; “If you will, you can make me clean! “ (Mark 1:40) <br />In chapter 9 of John’s Gospel, Jesus restores his sight to a man born blind. Once healed, the man becomes a stalwart witness to the one who has given him his sight. When the Pharisees question the authenticity of Jesus’ works, he replies, “. . . Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” (John 9:32-33)</p>
<p>We hear these exclamations in the presence of Jesus right to the end of the gospel story. The thief crucified beside Jesus on the cross cries out in his agony, ” Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingly power,” and hears from the man who hangs beside him,.. . Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:42-43) In chapter 20 of John’s Gospel (apparently the original conclusion of the gospel) we hear a final – and full – ‘recognition’ of Jesus in the words of Thomas, “My Lord and my God!” (Jn 20:28)</p>
<p>These cries of wonder and recognition lose much of their force when gathered together in this way; each one is most effective in its own place and context in the gospel narrative. Each one can draw us into the original experience of those who encountered Jesus during his life on earth; each one is able to ignite once again within our heart and mind the fire of his Spirit as it leapt up within those who awakened to a new life in his presence.</p>
<p>These words from awakened hearts are hot stones – in which you can still feel the energy of the second ‘Big Bang’ – the Event of Christ that initiated the Second Creation twenty centuries ago – burning in the living experience of those whom his presence awakened and burning within the inspired gospel writers. There are plenty more of these stones in the gospels. Once you have become alert to them, they will warm you again and again.</p>