Monday, January 28, 2008
Matthew 17:1 After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.
A MOUNTAIN TOP LESSON
Transfiguration Sunday is approaching, the day we remember how Jesus manifested His heavenly glory to three disciples on a mountain of northern Galilee. What a remarkable experience it must have been! To see Jesus (even if only for a brief instant) in the fullness of His glory (as we shall one day see Him)! As they began their trek up the mountain, I'm sure they weren't expecting anything spectacular to occur. They had no reason to believe their time with Jesus apart from the throngs would be different than on previous occasions. "We'll have a chance to rest. We'll have opportunity to ask our Master questions and receive instruction about God's kingdom truths." Not many days before, He had shared with them words hard to comprehend. He floored them with the announcement: "I'm going to Jerusalem to suffer at the hands of the elders, priests, and scribes. I'll be killed and on the third day rise." What did He mean? Why did He speak of suffering on a cross? They needed enlightenment. And what a course of instruction they received! As they stood with Him on the mountain, His face began to shine like the sun. His clothes became bright as a lightning flash. Two prophets, Moses and Elijah, appeared and conversed with Him. A cloud enveloped them from which came a voice: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!" Then, just as quickly as the experience began, it ended. They found themselves alone with Jesus, looking the way He always had, like an ordinary man.
The lessons the Lord wished His disciples then, and us today, to draw from this extraordinary happening? He used this event as a visual aid to reassure our hearts and help us see that He truly is God's Son about whom the prophets wrote, whom the Father chose from eternity to save us by becoming our Servant. In His state of humiliation He looked like no one special. He would suffer and die a shameful death. But this was the very method by which He would obliterate the sin-barrier separating sinners from their holy God and enable them to live in His presence.
