Radiant

 This week's verses are Matthew 17:1-2:

Six days later Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John the brother of James, and led them privately up a high mountain. And he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.

Sorry for the delay in writing. I got laid out by COVID just before Christmas and am only just now starting to feel like myself again. Anyone who says COVID is just the flu is desperately in need of enlightenment, and I would gladly trade my experiences with their worst flu episode ever. But we're here to talk about Jesus, and in these verses Jesus is "enlightening" a select group of his disciples by being transfigured in front of them.

The secret here is that people in Jesus' time believed that when righteous people died, they would receive glorified bodies. These glorified bodies would shine like Moses' face shined. So, Jesus was giving Peter, James, and John a glimpse of Heaven on Earth, a snapshot of the eternity they would live, made righteous by his future sacrifice. He's saying "Look guys, it's true, this is what is in store." Do we believe him? I bet the disciples did!

We don't often think about the glorified bodies. We see them in early artwork of saints, and Jesus is always depicted with a kind of halo of glowiness. But could that apply to us? Is it possible that we as saints could also radiate God's glory in the same way that Moses did and that Jesus did in these verses? Definitely someday, but maybe someday soon too. How might we glow if God made us so?

The cruel world we live in messes us up with disease and aging and injury, but none of that is eternal. We will be transformed. Is it any wonder they don't need streetlights in the new Jerusalem that is promised to us? The glory of God will light everything. It may start with us.

So why did Jesus only shine on the mountain and not everywhere and for the rest of his life? Why do miracles happen sometimes but not all of the time? Because it's just a glimpse of the future. It's a taste. It's a down-payment on a promise. It's proof of the goods, a sample, not delivery in full. But that doesn't make it any less valuable.

So, some things to think about this week might be:

* How would you react if Jesus, or one of your other righteous friends, started to glow like the sun and had impossibly white clothes?

* How would you explain this, or any other miracle, to stunned onlookers?

* How do we get to be among the select few that get to see these kinds of things?