I often reflect on the quote from CS Lewis:
Jesus can only be one of these three statements:
He is the biggest liar ever to walk the face of the earth
He is a crazy lunatic
He is who He says He is! The Son of God!
What do you say? The world we live in today wants to relegate Jesus as a nice guy; a spiritual being; a good teacher.
But that goes completely against what He said. And what we hear from God the Father. Jesus is our Savior; our Redeemer. He came to earth to complete the Rescue Mission that God set out for Him since the fall of Adam and Eve. To save and redeem His people (& Us) from sin.
And today we hear Luke’s account of the transfiguration - one of my favorite passages in Scripture.
In the Old Testament, we hear God speaking many times. To Noah, Abraham, Moses, the prophets.
But in the New Testament, we hear God the Father’s voice only a few times.
At the beginning of February, we celebrated the Baptism of Jesus, and we heard God speaking these familiar words:
As Jesus came up out of the water, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him like a dove, and God the Father’s voice was heard saying “This is my beloved Son”.
And today. Jesus takes His inner circle of friends (Peter, James and John) up the mountain to pray. And while they are there, they witness His transfiguration. Just imagine yourself there. The dazzling brightness and light. The whiteness and majestic nature of His body and His clothing. A mountaintop experience for these three. And it should be for us as well!
And then, God’s voice is heard again:
This is my beloved Son, and then three additional words. Listen to Him. God’s instructions to them. And to us. Listen to Jesus.
What an encounter this must have been. They were stunned so much that as they came down the mountain, they fell silent and did not tell anyone.
Yet, we know that Jesus gave them the Great Commission after He had risen, the same Commission He gives to us. To share the Gospel with everyone we meet. That all who cross our path encounter Jesus through us.
I think it’s important to focus on these words. Listen to Him. As we read further in Luke 9, Jesus becomes “resolutely determined” to go to Jerusalem and suffer and die. He knew His mission. But His inner circle did not want to hear it. That wasn’t the Messiah they were expecting.
If we ever had any doubts about this mountaintop experience, Peter gives us an eyewitness account in his second letter.
They were eyewitnesses of His majesty. His glory!
2 Peter 1:16-21
We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty.
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For he received honor and glory from God the Father* when that unique declaration came to him from the majestic glory, “This is my Son, my beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
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We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven while we were with him on the holy mountain.
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h Moreover, we possess the prophetic message that is altogether reliable. You will do well to be attentive to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.
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* Know this first of all, that there is no prophecy of scripture that is a matter of personal interpretation,
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for no prophecy ever came through human will; but rather human beings moved by the holy Spirit spoke under the influence of God.
Listen to Him. Be attentive to Him.
We saw Jesus resist the Enemy in His journey in the desert last week. Using Scripture to fight the spiritual battle with the Enemy. In this Transfiguration, we see Jesus conversing with Moses and Elijah about the exodus He was going to accomplish in Jerusalem. They were there to encourage Him as we know from last week that the devil departed from Jesus “for a time”. That’s how the Enemy works. He prowls and waits to trick us in our time of weakness. This encounter on the mountaintop gave Jesus the necessary strength to be resolutely determined to fight the Enemy and complete the Rescue Mission on the Cross.
So how are we going to listen to Jesus this week? I have been suggesting how critical it is in our spiritual journey to be in God’s Word every day. To be with Jesus requires us to spend time with Him. The first fruits of our time. And that begins with opening up our Bibles and letting God’s Word speak to us, teach us and strengthen us in our spiritual journey.
I love today’s Psalm. Psalm 24. Let’s focus on verses 1&4
The LORD is my light and my salvation;
whom should I fear? The LORD is my life’s refuge;
of whom should I be afraid?
One thing I ask of the LORD;
this I seek: To dwell in the LORD’s house
all the days of my life, To gaze on the LORD’s beauty, to visit his temple.
King David writes this psalm. A man, as God says, after His own heart. David who has everything. What does he seek? To dwell in the Lord’s house all the days of his life.
What are we seeking this Lent? Giving up things is nice. But David gives us the words - we should be seeking one thing; and not just during Lent, but each and every day of our lives. To gaze on the Lord’s beauty and to dwell in His house.
Jesus desires for us to have these mountain top encounters with Him each and every day. But that requires us to keep Him in the center of everything. To be attentive and listen to Him.
Spend some time this week reflecting on the Transfiguration and its significance in Jesus’ journey to the Cross. Spend some time reflecting on Peter’s eyewitness encounter in his second letter. And pray these words from Psalm 27 as you seek the Lord and to glorify Him each days.
For Jesus reminds us throughout the Gospels, whoever has ears to hear, ought to hear.
Amen. 🙏
Luke 9:28-36
Jesus took Peter, John, and James
and went up the mountain to pray.
While he was praying his face changed in appearance
and his clothing became dazzling white.
And behold, two men were conversing with him, Moses and Elijah,
who appeared in glory and spoke of his exodus
that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem.
Peter and his companions had been overcome by sleep,
but becoming fully awake,
they saw his glory and the two men standing with him.
As they were about to part from him, Peter said to Jesus,
“Master, it is good that we are here;
let us make three tents,
one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
But he did not know what he was saying.
While he was still speaking,
a cloud came and cast a shadow over them,
and they became frightened when they entered the cloud.
Then from the cloud came a voice that said,
“This is my chosen Son; listen to him.”
After the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone.
They fell silent and did not at that time
tell anyone what they had seen.
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