This week’s devotions are based on Week 1 of Cross Examined: Can We Stay? (LISTEN HERE)
Seventeen years ago at Wake Med hospital in Cary, NC was a moment that forever changed our lives. The good Lord gave us a healthy daughter, Mikenna, who has since brought much joy and pride to our lives. She is a young woman of God and beautiful inside and out.
Moments like this are to be treasured. When I held her for the first time, I couldn’t imagine the full blessing and significance she would have in our lives, but that moment changed everything for the better. Happy birthday Mikenna! We couldn’t be more blessed by God and proud of you!
You have had moments like this in your lives. Moments that replay in your mind and stick with you more than other events. As you look back on them through the lens of history you begin to see more and more the significance of that day, of that event.
The amazing thing is God packs all that significance into that moment…it just may take us a while to discover.
The moment of Jesus’ transfiguration was one of those moments for Peter, James and John. In the moment it was brilliant. It was amazing. It was awesome. It created wonder and fear, amazement and reflection.
So what did the Lord pack into this moment?
This moment was about a week after something:
Luke 9:28 About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray.
Here’s what happened eight days prior:
Luke 9:18 Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?”
19 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.”
20 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Peter answered, “The Christ of God.”
21 Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. 22 And he said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”
Peter made the confession “The Christ of God.”
Matthew’s Gospel records that Peter objected when Jesus started sharing about his upcoming suffering and death. The implication was that Peter’s idea of the “Christ” was not a suffering servant.
But that’s not what the Scripture had said.
Luke 9:29 As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. 30 Two men, Moses and Elijah, 31 appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem.
Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus talking about his upcoming departure, i.e. his suffering and death that was coming. Jesus was standing with the testimony of “Moses and the prophets” to clarify that the role of the Messiah, the Christ was to complete a mission in Jerusalem that entailed his suffering and death.
Jesus wanted to solidify this truth that the suffering of the Christ was not antithetical to the Scripture, but rather exactly what Moses and the prophets declared.
In the moment it maybe didn’t make sense, but the moment was given to the disciples and to us to confirm, “Yes, Jesus is the Christ” AND yes, the Christ was sent to suffer and die for the sins of the world. As Jesus said after his resurrection:
Luke 24:25 He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
Don’t move on from the transfiguration too quickly, but soak it in and realize the impact of the moment as it clarifies who Jesus is…the Christ, our Savior.
Apply: What moment in your life have you looked back on only to realize the impact of the moment was greater than you realized at the time the moment happened?
Prayer: Lord God, thank you for in your mercy you create moments to communicate and clarify your truth to us. Help us to never miss the impact of these moments, from the past or from our present. AMEN.