Reflection on Matthew 17:1-9

For just a brief moment, they saw the truth.  But, as such epiphanies usually go, the moment passed quickly, and Jesus was standing with his three closest disciples as he did normally: a man wearing dusty robes and sandals just like them.  But, for just a brief moment on that mountaintop, they saw the truth about Jesus, and hopefully that glimpse of truth changed things for the disciples. 

So, what exactly was that glimmer of truth that the disciples saw? 

Surely, the truth was more than a guy wearing clean, white, laundered clothes with a radiant facial complexion.  Surely, the truth was more than a prophet standing alongside the other great prophets, Moses and Elijah…as great as that might be.  Surely, the truth was much, much more.  And, it was.  The truth that pierced the mountain air that day is a truth that is still sought out today.

Where is God found?  How can I connect with God?

I just heard a guy answer the other day: “Why do I hunt?  I hunt so that I can sit in God’s creation in peace.  It is there that I hope to find God.”

I heard an answer also from a yoga instructor: “Why do I do yoga?  I do yoga so that I can quiet my mind enough so that I can hopefully, at last, be one with God.”

And, it is Peter’s inclination to set up tabernacles, or small tents, so that within those temporary tents he may see God, just as God used to show up in a tent in order to speak with Moses all those years ago in the desert. 

We want God.  We need God.  So we search in the woods, or in our meditations, or in the sacred spaces that we create.

On the lips of a teen who felt lost in the world, sang out the words during a talent show at a Christian camp:

I want to know You
I want to hear Your voice
I want to know You more
I want to touch You
I want to see Your face
I want to know You more.

The words of Chris Tomlin’s song “In the Secret” had found a home in her spiritually wandering heart.  In her “lostness,” the teen wanted to find God.

Searching for God. 

Striving for God. 

Working to find God. 

Seeking God. 

Meditating upon God. 

Finding God.  

All of the phrases speak to our yearning to stretch out as far as we can and touch the divine.  Behind them all is a sentiment that most of us hold in common; that we, somehow, in some way, need to do something in order to find God.

And, that is why the truth of that mountaintop experience that Peter, James and John shared together is so important.  Because, rather than “searching” and “striving” and “seeking,” those disciples discovered in a brilliant flash of light that God’s presence had been walking with them the entire time.  They did not need to work and stretch in order to find God; God had decided to come to them.  They did not need to climb up because, God comes down.

Do you want to know the heart of God?  Do you want to know all that God cares about?  Do you want to see the face of the divine?  God gives you the answer as God’s voice thunders down from the clouds: "This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!" 

“Listen to him!”

Listen to Jesus.

God reveals that the very heart of God had been walking around with the disciples the entire time in those dusty clothes and sandals.  There is no need to build tabernacles in which we can meet God.  Jesus is God’s tabernacle. 

As the gospel John says, “And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. We looked upon His glory, the glory of the one and only from the Father, full of grace and truth” (TLV, John 1:14). 

In Jesus, we see the very heart of God.  In Jesus, God has come to be with us.

When Jesus is with you, amazing gifts that you might not have known that you even had can shine forth. 

I think of my Namibian friend who, at the height of Namibia’s civil war, was facing the end of a gun wielded by a soldier whose eyes were filled with bright red hatred.  The soldier just happened to also be a neighbor.  With Jesus at her side, the love of enemy in her mind, and the gift of forgiveness in her heart, she spoke what she thought were her last words: 

“Brother, why are you filled with hate?  I love you and I forgive you.  You are a beautiful child of God.”

As if the clouds had parted and the voice of God had spoken, the soldier lowered his gun and walked away, to his home.  They are still friends to this day.

Amazing things can happen when God walks with you.  And, in Jesus Christ, God is right there.

           

Speaking of God being right there, speaking of Jesus being our tabernacle, set up in our mind and in our heart, you too walk with Jesus until the end of the ages. 

And this closeness with the divine is not of your own doing, but because God has chosen to show up.  God has given you the scriptures to work on your heart.  And, God has given a gift of the Spirit which God desires to use for the good of yourself, and the good of your neighbor. 

These two together, the passion provided by the scripture, and the gifts that you have been given through the Spirit, come together to accomplish the will of the Lord. 

Your passion, mixed with you gift, is and will continue to be used by God in order that others may know that God is with them…that God is with us.