Hello. It’s Friday, the end of the week for our Foundations podcasts. We’ve been working our way through the Gospel of Matthew, asking God to speak to us each day through this powerful account of the ministry of Jesus.
REFLECTION:
We’re well over halfway through this Gospel now and today we’re focusing on Matthew 17:1-13. This passage is referred to as the Transfiguration. Here are verses 1-7:
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.”
Have you ever seen Lord of the Rings, the Two Towers? If you have then you probably know where I’m going with this. When I imagine the Transfiguration, I imagine something like the scene in that film where Gandalf the white appears for the first time. Everyone thinks he’s dead, but then he appears in this incredible flash of light, one of many great moments in an excellent trilogy of films. Back to our Bible passage, what struck me this week though, reading this passage afresh were the reactions of Peter, James and John. Strange moments where they suggest building shelters aside, their strongest reaction comes not to the dramatic change in Jesus’ clothes, or the fact His face was shining like the sun, which you’d imagine would both be solid contenders for strongest reaction. By far the thing that has the most impact in this surreal and powerful encounter is the voice of God. The passage says that when they heard the voice of God, the disciples ‘fell facedown to the ground, terrified’. God Himself was speaking to them.
It’s interesting, isn’t it? That all through the Bible when God speaks people’s response is often fear. When God appears to Moses in the burning bush Moses hides his face as he is afraid to look at God. Later on in the story of Moses he is allowed to glimpse God’s back, but not his face as it would be too much for him. Even angels sent by God generally cause some form of terror. Whenever they appear in the Christmas story people are petrified! We don’t often talk about fearing God, but we do sing about it, “come and stand before your maker, full of wonder, full of fear”. It does appear in the Bible as well. Both the Old and New Testaments sometimes describe people as ‘God-fearing people’.
To fear God goes further than just showing Him a bit of respect every now and again. It is to deeply revere Him. To acknowledge that He is more awe inspiring than we can ever imagine. To know that He is Holy, set apart, He is unlike all else we know: as all we can see and touch and hear are merely things that His hands have created, that His voice has spoken into existence. Deep reverence of the Lord must have an effect on how we live. However, it’s important to say that we are God fearing, but we are not scared of God. I love this classic passage from C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe: “Aslan is a lion- the Lion, the great Lion.” “Ooh” said Susan. “I’d thought he was a man. Is he-quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion”…”Safe?” said Mr Beaver …”Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”
The way Jesus responds to the disciples is easy to miss but defines our relationship with God. Verse 7- Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.” God is strong and mighty and sovereign and Holy, and yet Jesus walks alongside us today, picking us up and filling us with His words of eternal life. He is generous, giving us all of Himself. Let us always take heed of what God spoke to the disciples on that mountaintop in Galilee, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!’
PRAYER:
God, thank you that you choose to reveal yourself to us. Thank you that even though you are awesome and beyond our comprehension, you are generous and you give yourself to us freely. Help us to listen to your words today. Amen.
READING: Matthew 17:1-13
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 face down 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.’
The disciples asked him, ‘Why then do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?’
Jesus replied, ‘To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognise him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.’ Then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist.