Personal relationship
This week is on Matthew 17:1-9:
These verses always make me laugh. Peter just freaks out when he encounters God in a new way, and Jesus is so patient with him. The couple disciples who Jesus brought with him up the mountain had just seen something probably nobody in their generation had ever seen, yet Jesus tells them on the way down not to tell anyone!
There are plenty of ways God interacts with us corporately, as a whole church. Miracles and signs and wonders tend to come to whole churches, even regionally and worldwide. Wisdom and knowledge tend to propagate through the body as well, but every now and then God wants to do something to invest in us individually. It doesn't make sense theologically, probably, but it's a documented fact.
So, why would Jesus make Peter, James, and John sign some kind of verbal non-disclosure agreement? Why not have them tell everybody? This isn't the only time Jesus has done that. Sometimes he'd heal someone, and then tell them not to tell anybody. I think God just wants to give us a gift for ourselves sometimes. In the three disciples' case here, I think God just wanted to show them who he was, as a kind of preview of what the world would find out later. Some people need to be explicitly told that a gift is for them, or they'll just give it away.
The verses suggest to us that we're valuable, not just as part of the widespread church, or as generic workers, but as individuals before God. He invests in the church corporately, but he also invests individually. He wants us to be close to him. As we are willing to climb the mountain to be close to him, he's willing to draw closer to us. In the case of the three guys on the mountain, the fact that the Jewish Celebrities Road Show disappeared when they fell down almost seems to suggest that God actually allowed his world to permeate their beings for a moment, allowing them to see the spiritual world clearly. That's pretty amazing.
As we follow God, we may find ourselves seeing some pretty freaky stuff. It's OK if nobody else sees it. It's OK if you feel like you're not supposed to share it just now. It's even normal and forgivable to be uncomfortable with it at first and to turn away. God will still touch us and ask us to be with him. He recognizes "the church" and he recognizes individual bodies, but he also recognizes and seeks individual individuals. That's you and me.
After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”
While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”
When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.” When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.
As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, “Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”
These verses always make me laugh. Peter just freaks out when he encounters God in a new way, and Jesus is so patient with him. The couple disciples who Jesus brought with him up the mountain had just seen something probably nobody in their generation had ever seen, yet Jesus tells them on the way down not to tell anyone!
There are plenty of ways God interacts with us corporately, as a whole church. Miracles and signs and wonders tend to come to whole churches, even regionally and worldwide. Wisdom and knowledge tend to propagate through the body as well, but every now and then God wants to do something to invest in us individually. It doesn't make sense theologically, probably, but it's a documented fact.
So, why would Jesus make Peter, James, and John sign some kind of verbal non-disclosure agreement? Why not have them tell everybody? This isn't the only time Jesus has done that. Sometimes he'd heal someone, and then tell them not to tell anybody. I think God just wants to give us a gift for ourselves sometimes. In the three disciples' case here, I think God just wanted to show them who he was, as a kind of preview of what the world would find out later. Some people need to be explicitly told that a gift is for them, or they'll just give it away.
The verses suggest to us that we're valuable, not just as part of the widespread church, or as generic workers, but as individuals before God. He invests in the church corporately, but he also invests individually. He wants us to be close to him. As we are willing to climb the mountain to be close to him, he's willing to draw closer to us. In the case of the three guys on the mountain, the fact that the Jewish Celebrities Road Show disappeared when they fell down almost seems to suggest that God actually allowed his world to permeate their beings for a moment, allowing them to see the spiritual world clearly. That's pretty amazing.
As we follow God, we may find ourselves seeing some pretty freaky stuff. It's OK if nobody else sees it. It's OK if you feel like you're not supposed to share it just now. It's even normal and forgivable to be uncomfortable with it at first and to turn away. God will still touch us and ask us to be with him. He recognizes "the church" and he recognizes individual bodies, but he also recognizes and seeks individual individuals. That's you and me.
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