Even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know him so no more.

1 Corinthians 5:16

“On the first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early….and seeth the stone taken away.” But for Mary it was not enough to find the tomb empty; she wanted to see the Lord’s body.”I know not where they have laid him!” she cried to the angels. Then, turning, she saw the Lord she knew so well- and she took him for a stranger. If you doubt the need for divine revelation, consider that!

For here is an important principle. Christ “after the flesh” had been crucified. Knowing him thus could end only in the vain search for a corpse. Mary, so engaged, saw Jesus standing there but knew him not. Yet surely her faculties has not altered? No, it was he who had been raised with great power and restored to his glory; and because he had changed, the means of him had necessarily changed too. Only through his speaking to her did Mary know him, and it is thus alone all revelation comes. The inner clarity of recognition you simply cannot explain in human terms. You just know, and that is enough.

Mary wept. Seeking a corpse, she mistook her Lord. Many of us have things to weep about. We reach a deadlock, with no possible way out. But then we hear close at hand a voice say “Mary”- and lo, there before us is the One we thought we had lost!

Watchman Nee

Mary wasn’t the only one who failed to recognize the resurrected Christ. We read of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus who walked beside Him a good way and further more had a conversation with Him, yet they failed to recognize Him until He made Himself known. In another occasion when He appeared to the disciples, they too, failed to recognize Him until He spoke. In the book of Revelation we find John describes his encounter with the resurrected Christ:

“I was in the Spirit [in special communication with the Holy Spirit and empowered to receive and record the revelation from Jesus Christ] on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet, Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And after turning I saw seven golden lampstands; and in the midst of the lampstands I saw someone like the Son of Man, dressed in a robe reaching to His feet, and with a golden sash wrapped around His chest.”

Revelation 1: 10, 12-13

How do these stories apply to us? What caused Mary, the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, and the disciples to fail to recognize Christ? What was different with John on the Island of Patmos?

In simplest terms, we find the former looking for Christ “in the flesh.” In other words they were looking for the same Jesus they saw beaten and crucified for that is what their intellectual view of Christ knew. I think that Thomas captures this intellectual approach best. Often we may accuse Thomas of being the only disciple that walked in unbelief. We’ve even given him the name “Doubting Thomas” for we forget that the other disciples didn’t believe that Christ had risen until it was revealed to them. Again I refer us to the stories above. Mark in his gospel tells us that even when the disciples received the message from the women they didn’t believe it and when the two disciples on the road to Emmaus told the news, they didn’t believe them. Only after Jesus appeared to them and revealed Himself did they believe. Thomas wasn’t among the disciples that day and when they told him of the resurrected Christ, he believed not. He makes a powerful statement when he says that he will believe only if he can touch the wounds in the hands and feet of Jesus. Why? Because he saw them being made while Christ was in the flesh hanging on the cross and that was what would identify Him to Thomas intellectually. However, when Christ made Himself known to Thomas, there was no need for him to touch the wounds. As he receives the revelation of the resurrected Christ, he falls on his face and cries out, “My Lord and my God!”

To best understand that we can never know Christ if we try to do so intellectually let us look at the story of Jesus and the woman at the well. As they meet that day, she sees a tired, thirsty Jew sitting at the town’s public well. As a Samaritan she is fully aware that no Jew would speak to her and certainly would ask no favor. Yet here is one who audaciously asks her to give Him a drink of water. If the story ended there she would have gone home thinking about this unusual encounter. But it doesn’t. Instead she hears startling words, “If you asked Me, I would give you living water and you’ll never thirst again.” Her response is unsurprising for being unable to comprehend kindness from a Jew, she brings up religion and the differences between Samaritans and Jews. Jesus’ reply is significant, not just for her but for us when He says:

“But a time is coming and is already here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit [from the heart, the inner self] and in truth; for the Father seeks such people to be His worshipers. God is spirit [the Source of life, yet invisible to mankind], and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

John 4:23-24

John writes nothing else about this encounter until he tells us about the woman’s response to Christ. She runs back to the town and begins to tell its inhabitants about this Man at the well. She doesn’t try to convince them with words although there’s no doubt her own transformation must have been obvious. She merely invites them to “Come and see.” That’s what they did and John 4:39 records that many of the Samaritans believed that Christ was the Messiah.

Two truths that are significant and their order is unchangeable. Jesus said that those who become “true worshippers” begin by worshipping “in spirit.” We can listen to great sermons, sing great songs and be students of knowledgeable teachers but unless the Holy Spirit makes Christ known, we will never know Him. We intellectually may understand Him as a baby born in a stable, but we can’t see Him as God wrapped in swaddling clothes until the Spirit makes it known in out hearts. To perceive that such a tiny infant is God requires something more than the human mind. We can grasp from reading the lectures of Jesus that He is truly a great teacher, and many do, but to know Him as Savior requires revelation that exceeds just comprehending what He taught. We ourselves give testimony to the fact that Christ cannot be made known by mental activity. Most of us heard many sermons and sat through a number of classes given by skilled individuals, yet nothing they said moved us until the moment in our hearts we became aware of our need for a Savior. That impulse didn’t begin in our minds but in our spirits as the Holy Spirit made known the reality of Christ. One day we will stand in the literal presence of Christ and only because our spirits have received the revelation of who He is will we be able to say, “My Lord and my God.”

Following “worship in spirit” is “worship in truth.” Pilate asked a timeless question, “What is truth?” The same question is being asked today as we hear many proclaiming to speak truth. Again the same Spirit who reveals Jesus to us as the Lamb of God is also the One who guides us into truth. We are not told to lean on our intellectual abilities to comprehend the truths of God but to be “led by the Spirit.”

We as the people of God must turn away from the feeble attempt to know Christ through human thought and cry out to God for a revelation of the risen Christ by the Holy Spirit, for unless we are given such revelation, we will be looking for a corpse; we will walk beside Him and not see Him, and we will hide in fear and doubt thinking our hope is gone. But if we seek to “know Him by the Spirit, we will discover like Thomas that we have no need to physically touch His hands and feet. We just need our eyes touched so we can see.

We aren’t left with no means to know Christ and His truths for we have been given the Helper- the Holy Spirit.

“And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper (Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor—Counselor, Strengthener, Standby), to be with you forever— the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive [and take to its heart] because it does not see Him or know Him, you know Him because He (the Holy Spirit) remains with you and will be in you.

John 14: 16-17

But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper (Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor—Counselor, Strengthener, Standby) will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him (the Holy Spirit) to you [to be in close fellowship with you]. And He, when He comes, will convict the world about [the guilt of] sin [and the need for a Savior], and about righteousness, and about judgment: about sin [and the true nature of it], because they do not believe in Me [and My message]; about righteousness [personal integrity and godly character], because I am going to My Father and you will no longer see Me; about judgment [the certainty of it], because the ruler of this world (Satan) has been judged condemned. But when He, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth [full and complete truth]. For He will not speak on His own initiative, but He will speak whatever He hears [from the Father—the message regarding the Son], and He will disclose to you what is to come [in the future]. He will glorify honor Me, because He (the Holy Spirit) will take from what is Mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Because of this I said that He [the Spirit] will take from what is Mine and will reveal it to you.”

John 16: 7-11, 13-15

Knowing Christ “after the flesh” isn’t sufficient for any to truly believe. But once the Holy Spirit shows us our Risen Lord, nothing is sufficient to make us doubt. Only after the disciples received the revelation that Christ was truly the Son of God were they transformed from fearful, doubting people to those who fearlessly put their lives on the line as they proclaimed the message of the Gospel. Though they had physically walked with, ate with, slept with and listened to Jesus for three plus years, none of that was sufficient to produce faith. But when the Holy Spirit made Christ known and their “hearts burned within them,” nothing- no threats, no suffering, no skeptical audience- could cause them to doubt.

Today if your journey has been through an attempt to believe because you read or heard, I invite you to ask God to truly reveal Christ to you. If you’re trying to convince someone to receive Christ as their Savior, I invite you to ask in prayer for the Holy Spirit to reveal Christ to their hearts. May we say as those who came with Phillip, “We would see Christ.”

Dr. John Thompson