Good Morning,
Praise the Lord this new day. I trust that you had a great weekend of worship, fellowship, and rest. Praise the Lord for the Lord's Day, in which we can gather in His house to worship Him and honor His Holy Name. Yesterday was Transfiguration Sunday. The account of the transfiguration is recorded in Mathew 17, Mark 9 and Luke 9. In this account Jesus took Peter, John, and James to a High Mountain. There He was transfigured before them. What an incredible event! Imagine being one of those 3 apostles, seeing Jesus changed into a being brighter than the noonday sun. What would it have been like to be there with Jesus, seeing Him chatting with Moses and Elijah, heroes of the faith from thousands of years in the past? In this incident, Peter, James, and John witnessed Jesus having a conversation with Moses and Elijah. These two men were among the most important people in the history of the Jewish race. Moses was the great law-giver, the one to whom God delivered the Ten Commandments on MT. Sinai. Elijah was the ultimate prophet. He never died; God just whisked Him up to heaven in a chariot of fire. In this passage Jesus was, simply put, chatting with the law-giver and the prophet!
Jesus life on earth is not some contingency plan that God threw in at the last minute when everything else He tried failed. Through this incident we learn that Jesus is the culmination of everything God had been doing for thousands of years. Paul explained in several places in the New Testament that the plan to bring us grace by sending Jesus to earth was set into motion even before creation. Everything before Jesus, including the Old Testament law and prophets, pointed to Jesus. The writer of Hebrews said in 1:1-2, "In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe." This is really important for us to know, because we have to realize that God isn’t just some big powerful human being muddling along by trial and error until He finally gets it right. God is completely in control, completely faithful to accomplish everything He wants to do. He never fails to accomplish His Will.
God’s plans for our lives are also perfect, without flaw. We need to know that He will never fail us. It may at times seem that things are so messed up that God has lost control, but He never does that. God is in complete control. His purposes never fail.
When Luke recorded this incident he let us in on what Jesus, Moses, and Elijah were talking about. He said, "Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem." Later as the disciples reflected on the events here on the mountain, and then considered the events that soon were to occur in Jerusalem, Jesus’ trial and crucifixion. They came to understand that those events were never spiraling out of control. God never lost control, and He never will. As the 3 disciples who witnessed this event tried to explain to the others what happened, can you imagine how frustrating it must have been? Matthew’s account reads "His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light." Mark’s gospel says "His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them." In Luke 9:29 it says, "As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning." You can almost sense the frustration as the gospel writers attempt to describe the indescribable. They were trying to explain to people something that was beyond human comprehension.
The term in our Bible translated "transfigured" is the same Greek word from which we get the word, "metamorphosis". It is, in fact, the term we use to describe the process of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly, spinning a cocoon, and then being seemingly transformed from one creature to another. As the disciples described it, it was as if, for a moment, Jesus’ human body, the shell that made Him like us, was peeled back. These disciples got a glimpse of who Jesus really is, God in the flesh. Witnessing this event on the side of the mountain made an indelible impact on Peter, James and John. When we read through John’s writings, one of the most prominent ways that he refers to Jesus is as "the light." In 1 John 1:5 he writes "This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all." Many years after the transfiguration, as Peter approached the end of his life, he wrote (2 Peter 1:16-18), "We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, 'This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.' We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain." The encounter with the overwhelming majesty of Jesus was startling to the disciples. They not only saw Jesus changed, but they also heard the voice of God. In the Bible when people came face to face with the majesty of God, their first response was one of fear. The physical presence of God must be overwhelming!What was once an incident filled with fear, as the disciples came face to face with the incredible presence of God, all at once became a great source of comfort to them. There perspective was changed because they recognized not just the power and majesty of Jesus, but they also came to understand the love He had for them.
We live in a very casual society in which the concepts of intimacy and friendship have been greatly watered down. Once people would never think of calling others by their first names until invited to do so. When you first met someone, you referred to the person as "Sir" or ’Ma’am." A great change in our culture has occurred, for better or worse. Unfortunately, that kind of casual assumption also slips into the way people relate to God. Some refer to God or Jesus as, "The big guy in the sky." I cringe. Jesus is not someone to be taken casually. He is the Alpha and Omega, the creator and sustainer of the Universe!
I am certain that the disciples who witnessed Jesus’ glory never took their relationship with Him for granted. Though they were with Him day in and day out for several years, the more they knew who He was, the more they marveled at the fact that He had a relationship with them. When you think about Jesus, that He is God in the flesh and that there are no words that can adequately describe Him, you can’t help but marvel at who He is. Beyond that, it is such a privilege it is to be able to call Jesus our friend. In John 15:14-15 Jesus said, "You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you." This privilege is a gift offered to us by the incredible, awe inspiring, overwhelming grace of God. When we come to understand who Jesus is - the perfect Son of God - and when we also come to realize who we are - sinful, self-centered creatures - we cannot help but marvel at the privilege of being able to be called a friend of God. Yet, we can have that kind of intimate relationship with Him if we come to Him in faith, trusting Him to guide us through this life and beyond.
In Him,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjhOHs5CdkY
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