Christ Incognito

Devotional Reflection, Monday, April 21, 2025

Monday in Easter Week

The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.

Key phrases for reflection from today’s Gospel reading

4 And you know the way to the place where I am going.’ 5Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ 6Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.’

(You will find the full text of today’s Gospel reading at the end of this reflection.)

Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 958)

AM Psalm 93, 98; PM Psalm 66

Jonah 2:1-9; Acts 2:14,22-32 or 1 Cor. 15:1-11; John 14:1-14   

David's Reflections

Easter week's Gospel readings take us through the farewell discourses of Jesus, as recorded in John, that is his conversations with his disciples on the night of the Last Supper and his arrest as recorded in John’s Gospel alone (John 13:31 through chapter 16).  In today's reading, John 14:1-14, John’s Jesus makes the fundamental affirmation that in him the disciples were experiencing God embodied in a human life, that in Jesus they saw the ultimate and fullest disclosure of the nature of the God who sent Jesus into the world.  As Jesus said to Philip, "He who has seen me has seen the Father."  (14:9). And, as the prologue says, “No one has ever seen God. It is the only Son, himself God, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.”*

The stumbling stone of this reading comes in verse six, which makes a positive and a negative statement.  The positive statement, "I am the way, the truth and the life."  The negative, "No one comes to the Father except through me."  Other statements in this Gospel convey this same idea, but none do so more bluntly (See John 1:5;  1:14;  10:1, 9;  12:47).  Are we to understand this in an exclusive or inclusive way?

Two opposite answers seem to me equally inadequate.  On the one hand, some claim that only faith in the historical Jesus, faith as experienced in Christian churches brings salvation and brings people into the presence of God.  On the other extreme, those of a more pluralistic bent claim that Christianity is one of a number of ways to God and that the Christian claim to unique and final truth is arrogant and exclusive. Neither option seems consistent with the totality of the biblical revelation and the thrust of the church’s tradition.

I believe that a commitment to the uniqueness of the Christian revelation can acknowledge God's missionary activity outside the efforts of the Christian missionary movement and avoid both dogmatic exclusivism and a casual universalism. Ultimately, John's Gospel claims that the revelation of God comes in personal terms, that Jesus does not merely proclaim the truth about God but embodies that truth.  God’s ongoing missionary activity creates faith in the light that is Jesus even where the historical Jesus’ name is not acknowledged, hence the concept of Christ incognito.

Can one come to salvation and to God's presence both now and after death if he or she either does not know about the historical Jesus or if they adhere to another world religion?  God revealed Godself to Abraham and that revelation brought Abraham to salvation (Genesis 12 and 15).  Paul's sermon in Acts 14:17 says that God has not left Godself without a witness everywhere.  John 1:9 says that Jesus is the true light coming into the world that enlightens every person.  Matthew 25 says that there will be people in the final judgment who will say, "When did we see you hungry or thirsty?", and that they will learn that they had come into direct contact with Jesus without knowing it.

It may sound counterintuitive to speak of Christ incognito. Yet if Christ’s light stirs faith in someone who has no knowledge of the historical Jesus, that person has encountered Christ incognito without knowing about Jesus. Would that person be even more graced with Jesus’ life as a known example, with Christ’s Spirit as a known presence? Of course! But that may not always be possible.

D. T. Niles put it in a way that has helped me immensely.

. . . when Jesus Christ makes his place and time of appointment with (people) men, he does not always give his name. . . . The point is not that there are alternatives to commitment to Christ--other ways by which (people) men can be saved--but that to speak of the finality of Christ is not to tie oneself to where his name is actually pronounced.  As he himself tells us, he determines the form and occasion of his presence, and where and to whom he will come incognito.+

*Here I am quoting from the newly released New Revised Standard Version ue. The New Revised Standard Version, which we read on Sundays has been updated by this new revision. I find their rendering superior to the NSRV reading,”It is God the only Son.”

+D. T. Niles, Who is This Jesus?  (Nashville:  Abingdon, 1968), p. 102.).

[Note the excellent summary discussion of this issue by the Roman Catholic Hans Küng, On Being a Christian, trans. Edward Quinn (New York:  Doubleday, 1976), pp. 89-113).]

Collect of the Day, Easter Day

O God, who for our redemption gave your only-begotten Son to the death of the cross, and by his glorious resurrection delivered us from the power of our enemy: Grant us so to die daily to sin, that we may evermore live with him in the joy of his resurrection; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.   (BCP, 222)

Monday in Easter Week

Grant, we pray, Almighty God, that we who celebrate with awe the Paschal feast may be found worthy to attain to everlasting joys; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.  (BCP, 223)

A Collect for the Renewal of Life

O God, the King eternal, whose light divides the day from the night and turns the shadow of death into the morning: Drive far from us all wrong desires, incline our hearts to keep your law, and guide our feet into the way of peace; that, having done your will with cheerfulness while it was day, we may, when night comes, rejoice to give you thanks; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.  (BCP, 99)

Of the Holy Angels

Everlasting God, you have ordained and constituted in a wonderful order the ministries of angels and mortals:  Mercifully grant that, as your holy angels always serve and worship you in heaven, so by your appointment they may help and defend us here on earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.  (BCP, 251)

A Prayer for Light

Almighty God, we give you thanks for surrounding us, as daylight fades, with the brightness of the vesper light; and we implore you of your great mercy that, as you enfold us with the radiance of this light, so you would shine into our hearts the brightness of your Holy Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.  (BCP, 110)

An Easter Season Collect

Mighty God, in whom we know the power of redemption, you stand among us in the shadows of our time. As we move through every sorry and trial of this life, uphold us with knowledge of the final morning when, in the glorious presence of your risen Son, we will share in his resurrection, redeemed and restored to the fullness of life and forever freed to be your people. Amen.  (Revised Common Lectionary Prayers, p. 112.)

A Collect for Mission

O God, you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth, and sent your blessed Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near: Grant that people everywhere may seek after you and find you; bring the nations into your fold; pour out your Spirit upon all flesh; and hasten the coming of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 100, 257)

Daily Office Gospel, John 14:1-14

14:1‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. 2In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.

4 And you know the way to the place where I am going.’ 5Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ 6Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.’ 8Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.’ 9Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”? 10Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves.

12 Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. 13I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.

Daily Prayer Offices in The Book of Common Prayer

Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, Book of Common Prayer

Noonday Prayer, p. 103, Book of Common Prayer

Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p. 109, Book of Common Prayer

Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer

Compline (Night Prayer), Page 127, Book of Common Prayer

Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer