Jesus Reincarnated

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Background
Joseph of Arimathea gave Jesus' body a customary-Jewish burial on the evening of the Passover. Before daybreak on the second day after the burial, a woman, or women, discovered that Jesus' body was missing from the tomb. However, an angel or angels instructed the woman or women to tell the Disciples to meet Jesus in Galilee, or just reminded them of Jesus' words regarding His resurrection.

Then Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene, either when she was at the tomb or on her way back to tell the Disciples about the empty tomb. She either grabbed His feet and worshiped Him, or was told by Him not to touch Him.

If that is at all confusing, you have the disparate accounts in the Gospels to thank.

Jesus Reincarnated

Besides the vast number of contradictions from one Gospel to the next, one of the strangest aspects of Jesus' post-resurrection appearances is the great difficulty with which people had in recognizing Him. People under stress or grief can experience “jamais vu”, which is sort of the opposite of "deja vu". It is where a known face, word, or situation instead appears unfamiliar. That is a possible explanation, but what if Jesus did not look like Himself anymore? Let us take a closer look at one of these post-resurrection appearances to see if we can identify the real Jesus.

Luke 24:13-35 records the first and second appearances of Jesus since His resurrection, at least according to Luke, who skipped the Jesus-Mary encounter. The story goes like this:

The day that the empty tomb was discovered, "two of them" (Jesus' disciples, but not of the Eleven Disciples {12-1, Judas had killed himself}) were walking from Jerusalem to a town roughly seven miles (~11 kilometers) to the northwest, when Jesus came along and walked with them (Luke 24:13-15). As Luke 24:16 renders it:

but they were kept from recognizing [Jesus]. NIV

They "were kept" from recognizing Jesus? That speaks of some sort of active impediment or effort which prevented their recognition. That impediment may have been that Jesus neither looked nor sounded like He did before. Or, that effort may be God supernaturally inhibiting their recognition of Jesus, like how God prevented the Disciples from understanding Jesus' prophesy of His fate in Luke 9:43-45 and Luke 18:31-34. Either way, there is clear implication that the reason why they could not recognize had nothing to do with either their innate abilities or their mental status. We will revisit this point later, but now let us continue on with the story.

Jesus Misunderstood
Jesus inquired about the discussion they had been having, and, shocked that this unrecognized Jesus did not know about what had recently happened, they briefly explained that Jesus had been a prophet who was crucified by the Chief Priests, and how the women had found the empty tomb and had an angelic encounter (Luke 24:16-24). The most interesting line in that summary comes from Luke 24:21:

"but we had hoped that He was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place." NIV

Note the past tense here. They "had hoped", meaning that their hope had died with Jesus.

What hope was that? The redemption of Israel. If we take "redeem Israel" in its Old Testament Biblical context, it is more about re-establishing the Jewish nation, independent of foreign (Roman) rule, and enriched by God's blessing, similar to what we see in 2 Samuel 7:23, Nehemiah 1:8-11, and Micah 6:4 (among many other references). This appears to be the context of that statement, as opposed to a reference of a cleansing of sins and a shiny, happy afterlife.

Of course, that was a false expectation. So Jesus rebuked them for not believing the Scriptures, and then reviewed with and explained to them all of the Old Testament Messianic prophesies (Luke 24:25-27).

The Birth of Christianity?
Wait a moment though. Why would these disciples have such wrong expectations and understanding? They were disciples, literally students of Jesus' teaching, so how could they get it so wrong?

It could be that Jesus was a poor teacher, but how could that be? Teaching was Jesus' thing! Or, at least, it was one of His major focuses.

It could be that, like what we noted above, God had prevented them from understanding. However, if that was the case, then Jesus' rebuke of their misunderstanding, "How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe", would seem misplaced; chiding them for something completely out of their control.

It could be that, although they had become Jesus' disciples, they had resisted His teaching and clung to the traditional interpretations, but why would they follow Him if they did not believe what He was teaching?

Or maybe, just maybe, it could be that this poorly thought-out work of fiction written with an intent. That intent? Simple. Show that those who had been eyewitnesses to Jesus' teaching, even those who had become disciples, did not fully understand His teaching of redemption.

At the hands of the early "church" leadership, this type of recorded misunderstanding would have allowed Jesus' message to evolve beyond anything which the historical Jesus had actually said, inferred, or intended. In other words, this change in understanding was how Christianity was born; "You only thought you understood. What Jesus really meant was... And it is only now that this truth is revealed to us by the Grace of God."

Jesus of a Different Form
Anyway, as the story continued, the disciples invited Jesus to stay with them that night. At dinner, after Jesus shared bread with them, they finally recognized Him and then He suddenly disappeared (Luke 24:28-32).

These disciples went back to tell the Eleven Disciples what had happened. The Eleven believed them, and reported that Simon/Peter had also been visited by Jesus (Luke 24:33-35).

OK, let us take a final look at how the disciples "were kept" from recognizing Jesus until the breaking of the bread. To do so, we will jump over to Mark, the original source of the story. In Mark 16:12-13 we read:

Afterward Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking in the country. These returned and reported it to the rest; but they did not believe them either. NIV

Jesus appeared "in a different form". In other words, Jesus did not look like Jesus. It was as if Jesus had been reincarnated as someone else, in a manner of speaking. Or, maybe it was someone else! Also, note the different outcome; the Eleven did not believe these disciples.

Jesus may not have been the only thing reincarnated. It may be that Luke, who has consistently been a bit of an editor, was using Mark for a source here, and did not like what he read. A different form? If he did not look like Jesus, how can you be certain that he was Jesus? That is a huge problem when you are trying to build up credibility in the story, because someone could suggest that an imposter had claimed to be the resurrected Jesus. That uncertainty had to die.

Summary
Luke resurrected, polished, and expanded this snippet from Mark. Luke wanted to be sure to present Jesus as Jesus, without any possible doubt. So it was the same Jesus, but they were kept from identifying Him, presumably by God. Of course, as noted above, that makes Jesus' rebuke of the disciples' misunderstanding unwarranted. Luke was not that good of an editor. ;-)