In this play covering the appearance of Jesus to the disciples who returned to their old activity of fishing and his later delivery of the Great Commission, that weird science fiction-y effect where people don’t recognize him at first arises once again, and to an even greater extent. This time, there’s no “ah ha!” moment when they finally and fully recognize him after some initial disorientation. Instead, they go through an entire meal never quite recognizing him. (The text states that they knew it was him, but then it also reports that they had to keep themselves from asking him who he was, which implies that there was some kind of ongoing doubt or disconnect, which I’ve assumed was the recognition issue.) Then, on the mountain when he appears to a larger group, some of them don’t believe in him at all, which suggests to me that they never have that moment of recognition that the core disciples all had at least initially.
What’s going on here?
I have no idea, but do love the phenomenon because it’s the very effect I’m trying to accomplish in these plays. If I can portray a Jesus that readers constantly do and yet do not recognize, that causes them to go back and forth between, “Yes, this is the Lord I know,” and “This is an impostor!” I’ll be very happy indeed.