Devotional Thoughts: The Transfiguration

Matthew 17:1-13 described a brief moment when three of the disciples were able to catch a glimpse of Jesus unambiguously divine.

In watching him through the various episodes, they saw his power to heal, to calm the waters and to "know" how to evade the wily opponents. These all pointed to his divinity. But here, they (Peter, James and John) had a "Moses and the burning bush" type of moment, where the divinity of Jesus was unveiled. In fact, they even got to see Moses! Elijah was there as well. All of this is described in vv. 2-3.

Then there was a brief moment of Biblical humor for in v. 5 it says that God interrupted Peter who was yammering away. Some of us cower in fear in response and others like Peter have nervous yammering!

Verse 6 said they were terrified and in v. 7 Jesus "touched them" and said "Don't be afraid."

Having an encounter with God is going to have a tremendous impact on mere mortals.

There definitely is fear because God is holy and we are not. Isaiah 6 is one of those classic passages that illustrate this. Isaiah had an encounter with God and said "My destruction is sealed, for I am a sinful man and a member of a sinful race."

Isaiah, through an angel, was assured that his sins were forgiven and God commissioned him to be a messenger to the people.

I have not had this kind of dramatic encounter with God in my life.

I have had many moments where I've sensed my sinfulness and the relief that God forgives me through Jesus but it was not accompanied with the kind of physical manifestation of God as described in Isaiah 6 or Matthew 17.

I suppose we all long for that kind of "burning bush" moment or a visitation from God and the angels like Isaiah.

Or do we?

Without such a moment, do we feel we can kind of slip away from God without having to be accountable? Maybe we don't want such an unambiguous episode?

I have had moments were I experienced what I call "whispers of grace." These are moments where I believe God is at work. No bright lights, flaming fires, booming voices but just a sense that God is doing something in my life or in some one else's life. I suppose skeptics will dismiss it is an emotional response, wishful thinking or placebo effects.

The fuel of our devotion to God must encompass our whole being. Emotions are part of it. But if we rely on emotions we would be unstable as emotions fluctuate so much. Reason is a part of it. Our prayers engage our rational mind and aren't just incantations that induce some mediative state. Reading the Bible engages our reason as well as emotions thus moving our will to follow Jesus. But in the end, our reason has limits. It is the height of folly to believe finite human minds could unpack the mind of God.

Is our reason, emotion and will enough to follow Jesus?

I suspect not. Without God's initiative into our lives and ongoing walking with us, we would falter.

Some skeptics feel that Christians can act "holier than thou" and thus discount Jesus. That is a failing of us as Christians and not of Jesus. As one of my friends put it, Christians are nothing more than beggars who point the way to food. There is no pride in that but simple gratitude to Jesus and the earnest desire that others receive the same grace from God.