February 23, 2020 – Transfiguration Text: Matthew 17:1-9
Dear Friends in Christ,
David McCasland wrote about an experience that happened to him some years ago. A woman was stalled at an intersection with her car hood up and she flagged McCasland down for help. Here’s the account:
“’I can’t get the car started,’ she said. ‘But if you jiggle the wire on the battery I think it will work.’ McCasland grabbed the positive battery cable and it came off in his hand. It was obviously too loose! ‘The terminal needs to be tightened up,’ he told her. ‘I can fix it if you have some tools.’ The woman replied, ‘My husband says just to jiggle the wire. It always works. Why don’t you just try that?’ McCasland thought to himself, ‘Then why doesn’t her husband drive around with her all the time so he can jiggle the cable.’ Finally he said, ‘Ma’am, if I jiggle the wire, you’re going to need someone else to do it every time you shut the engine off. If you’ll give me two minutes and a wrench, we can solve the problem and forget about it.’ Reluctantly, she fumbled under the front seat and then extended a crescent wrench through the window.
“As he repaired the terminal, McCasland thought about the many times he tried to get ‘quick fixes’ from God. ‘I have this problem, Lord, and if You’ll just jiggle the wire, things will be ok. I’m in a hurry, so let’s just get me going again the quickest way possible.’”
At the Mount of Transfiguration we learn that God doesn’t simply jiggle wires. He guides our living in this world and, through that, prepares us for the world to come. Many will follow if only they can be spared the uncertainties and sufferings of tomorrow. But it doesn’t work that way.
“LIVING THE NOW BETWEEN THE HERE AND THERE”
The text begins, “After six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.” Six days after what? Six days after he told them that they must deny self and take up their cross and follow Him. Jesus is talking the here and now. You might gain the world but you will forfeit your soul.
They are led up a high mountain. What a moment for these men but also getting there would be strenuous and tiring. Like life in the here and now. We strain and tire ourselves to get the most out of life. We want to enjoy our creature comforts. But no matter how we mask it, the world is still decaying away.
Jesus is then transfigured and Moses and Elijah are with them. What were the disciples seeing? They were seeing the glory of Christ. Jesus is God the Son. Secondly, by seeing Moses and Elijah, the disciples glimpsed the glory of Heaven. That’s why Peter wants to build the tents. He wants to stay there forever. Who wouldn’t want that?
The earlier words of Jesus “take up your cross and follow me” had faded into the background. They had traveled from the here – earthly, to the there – heavenly because they were followers of the Christ.
We to will make that same journey. We will go from here to there. From earth to heaven also because of our Christ connection. But what about the now? How can we draw strength for the days and possibly years ahead of us? How can this trip up the mountain help in our day-to-day living.
“He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud over shadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.’” (v. 5)
What an encouragement for them. That moment impressed upon them the eternal victory in Christ is certain. There is still suffering and cross bearing in this fallen world but Christ has made an eternal home a sure thing. The Father is pleased that His Son would do everything necessary to secure our forgiveness and eternal life.
God loved and loves us in spite of ourselves. In the now we have minds riddled with hideous thoughts and words and deeds. Yet He would give His Son to pay for that. And to believe that is to have everlasting life. Light! Glory forever!
At the Mount of Transfiguration we learn that God doesn’t just jiggle wires to make things go. He prepared the disciples then and He is preparing you and me now to live for Him in this world. And, in Christ, our lives here overflow with this promise: “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” (Psalm 23:6)
Living the now between the here and there is never without the presence of Christ’s love.
Amen.