Luke 9:27-36
Jesus said, "Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God."
28 About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. 29 As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. 30 Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. 31 They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. 32 Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. 33 As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, “Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” (He did not know what he was saying.)
34 While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and covered them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. 35 A voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.” 36 When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. The disciples kept this to themselves and did not tell anyone at that time what they had seen.
We often suggest certain guys to our single daughter, guys that have liked her Facebook posts or pictures on Instagram and we "stalk" them to see if they are potentials or "bonafide" as they would say in O Brother Where Art Thou. There is always some factor that we aren't seeing on a screen that, in person, have kept her from having those kind of feelings for them. She sees them in a different light than we do. I often think that if we could pay a half dozen girls to swoon over the guy or talk in her presence about how hot the guy is, maybe she would start seeing him in a different light just like say a People Magazine can tell us who is beautiful or best dressed and we believe them.
Jesus had a similar problem with the disciples.They needed to see Him in a different light. As we saw in the last verses, Peter had a wrong view of Jesus - he saw Him as a Earthly deliverer, the one who would deliver the Jews from the Romans. They couldn't even hear Him when He said He would suffer and be crucified because that didn't register in their view of Him. Therefore, He took His three closest guys up a mountain to give them a glimpse of who He really was. They needed to get a different view of Him. He wasn't just some anointed man who was endowed with special abilities by God - like healing the sick, raising the dead, calming the storm, feeding 5000 people - in order that He could deliver the Jews from the Romans, but He was God, covering up His glory with a human body. He wasn't another Moses who could turn the Nile into blood and part the seas in order to deliver the Jews from earthly bondage, He was God come to deliver His people from spiritual bondage. The problem is always, given the choice of Earthly deliverance or spiritual deliverance, people will usually pick the first. We are more concerned with our bodies than our souls.
We too need a new view of Jesus. He isn't here to deliver us from sickness, poverty, left wing oppression, or the back pain I'm having this morning. He just might do that, but as God, He has come to transform me from the inside out. He has put His Spirit inside of me to glow so the world can see God in a new light. I am to influence people today that Jesus is awesome and proclaim His glory so that people might receive Him for the salvation of their souls.
Lord, help me shine your light to a lost world. Help me to see with your eyes, past the Kingdom of Earth, into the Kingdom of Heaven. Help me to live for eternity and with open eyes and open ears see you and hear You more clearly, and fall deeper in love with You. Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment