Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Jesus in Disguise? | The Gospels | John 21:1–14

Episode Date: September 3, 2026

Why didn't the disciples recognize Jesus? Where might he be working in your life without you realizing it? And how can you learn to recognize him more clearly? In today's episode, Patrick explores John 21:1–14 and invites us to keep our eyes open for Jesus, even when his presence isn't immediately obvious. Read the Bible with us! This year, we’re exploring the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—and it's never too late to join! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passage: John 21:1–14

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. Have you ever had a Bible question you just weren't able to answer? Here's one I've always struggled with. Why couldn't the disciples recognize Jesus after his resurrection? In multiple gospels, we have eyewitness testimony from the disciples claiming that they couldn't identify Jesus after he came back to life.

Now, I've always found this strange because this was a man that they spent three years. side by side with. So what exactly was the problem? Well, there have been many explanations, but if I'm being honest, none of them fully satisfy me. The best is the theory of divine withholding. It's the idea that God somehow prevented them from recognizing Jesus. And this idea actually comes from the text. It's in Luke's gospel, where he writes that the disciples were, quote, kept from recognizing Jesus on the road to Amas. And while that might very well be the case in that one circumstance, that phrase isn't repeated in any other gospel. And it seems like maybe something more is going on. And so a different theory is that maybe their grief blinded them. I mean, when you believe

that someone is dead, you see someone actually die on a cross. Well, the last thing that you expect to see is that person alive. And so even if you see them, your mind will kind of repackage what you see. It'll tell you that it has to be someone else. But again, I'm not sure that this makes sense. There's stories of mistaking strangers for loved ones after they die. That happens all the time. So why would grief blind the disciples to Jesus' actual face? Another explanation is that Jesus' resurrected body was somehow transformed. And this fits really well with what Paul says about the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15.

In that passage, he says that we are sown in weakness but raised in glory. The old body was controlled by the flesh, but our new physical body will be controlled by the spirit. it. Now again, this idea that maybe his resurrection changed him and made him unrecognizable, it seems reasonable to me. But just like the Amas story, I've often thought that there has to be something more going on. Why is that the case? Well, it makes sense for God to withhold Jesus's identity one time, you know, maybe the first time the disciples see him. But why would he do it multiple times with the same disciples? Again, it would make sense for the disciples maybe not to recognize Jesus's resurrected body the first time they see him. But why do you they do they do?

they continue to not be able to recognize him after that? And I'm bringing all this out because the Gospel of John, it gives us a story that tells us that the disciples saw Jesus multiple times, and in each instance, they struggled to recognize him. So if it was just a new body, why didn't they recognize him on the third visit? Or if God was withholding his identity, well, clearly he wasn't doing that every single time. So what changed? In other words, if they'd already seen him resurrected once, then why do they have so much trouble recognizing him the third time? Let's read John 21 verses 1 to 14. Afterward, Jesus again appear to the disciples by the Sea of Galilee.

It happened this way. Simon Peter, Thomas, also known as Didymus, Nathaniel from Cana and Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. I'm going out to fish, Simon Peter told them, and they said, we'll go with you. So they went out and got into the boat. but that night they caught nothing. Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not recognize that it was Jesus.

He called out to them, Friends, having you any fish? No, they answered. He said, throw your net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some. When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish. Then, the disciple whom Jesus loved, that's John,

said to Peter, it is the Lord. As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, it is the Lord, he wrapped his outer garment around him, for he had taken it off, and jumped into the water. The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there, with fish on it and some bread. Jesus said to them, bring some of the fish you have just caught. So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153. But even with so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, come and have breakfast. None of the disciples dared to ask him,

who are you? They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came, took the bread, and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead. Now, there's a lot we could say about the story, but you have to admit part of it is strange. The disciples clearly do not physically recognize Jesus, and yet by his actions, they come to know him. They won't even ask him, hey, is this really you because they're convinced by what he does? Now, if God were keeping them from recognizing Jesus, then surely they wouldn't have recognized him by his actions. And if his unidentifiability was a function of his resurrected body, then surely they would have recognized him by his third visit. Something more is going on here.

and I think it's left a mystery to us precisely so that we will meditate upon it. What does this mean? Yes, it was a historical fact. These things happened. But it also, I think, means something more than that. I think there's an important lesson that the gospel writers wanted to communicate to us. What is it? Well, I have a few ideas.

The first is to teach us all an important lesson. Jesus is not always readily recognizable in our life. In fact, he will often be hidden and unrecognizable to us. Of course, there's rare instances of people seeing Jesus in dreams or visions, and we should praise God for that. But more often than not, Jesus appears in our life in disguises. He's in the love of a friend who supports us, the grace of a spouse who forgives us, the unexpected turn of events that protects us. I think of a friend of mine who took his Jeep up Mount Princeton.

He invited his grandson to come with him, and he told his grandson, hey, you can drive the Jeep. And he said that his grandson did a fantastic job, until a boulder, came out of nowhere and it sent them over the edge of the mountain. The Jeep rolled multiple times, but by some miracle, it just stopped. While both of them were injured, they both survived. The rescuers told them that this should have been impossible. Then my friend told me something remarkable. He said just a minute before they rolled, he saw a vision of them rolling. He wasn't buckled in at the time, and so he put on his buckle just out of precaution. You see, he didn't see

Jesus in that vision, but Jesus was there. And the same is true in our own lives. When we crash and we're saved, whether it's a literal crash or a metaphorical crash, Jesus is there. You may not see him or recognize him, but he is there. How do you know? Well, you know the exact same way that Peter and Thomas knew. You don't look at the external reality. Instead, you look at his hand and his work. You know him by his actions. They knew it was Jesus because they pulled in a miraculous load of fish. Then he gave them bread and fish, which repeated the miracle that he'd done in the past. They knew it was Jesus when he called them closer to the truth, closer to his heart, closer to his love, because that's what Jesus always does. So do you recognize Jesus in your life even when he's disguised? Look for him in the

moments of suffering that produce perseverance, character, and obedience. How do you know it's Jesus in your life? Well, look for the moments that draw you closer to him, that force you to trust him, that show you his immeasurable goodness. I don't think that this is the full explanation for his unrecognizability, but I do think it may be a part of the lesson John wanted to share. So keep your eyes open for Jesus. And when you see him, praise him, enjoy him, and follow him.