HT Meditation – Transfiguration
They hit the dirt. All of them. Peter, James, and John had been invited to the mountaintop to see Jesus transfigured, to hear Him talking with Moses and Elijah. It had been a great and awesome thing! Wonderful to behold. Perhaps a little too wonderful for Peter, because he says, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for You and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” Yeah, it’s great hearing you talk to Moses and Elijah, but maybe I should go get busy doing something instead of just listening.
Then the voice of the Father rings out, cutting Peter and his plans off. “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him.” Stop yammering and planning Peter and just listen! And they all the dirt. Peter does, and James and John too. And rightfully so. Sinners who have gone against God’s plans tended to die, so three sinners duck and cover.
And there stands Jesus, seeing His three cowering disciples. By rights they should die, by rights their bodies should return to the dirt from which man was created. Sinful man had spent generation after generation not listening to the Word of God. But Jesus is not done with them. Instead, He goes to them and He touches them. “Rise, and have no fear.”
God’s plan isn’t centered around smiting. Nope. It is centered in Christ Jesus who Himself becomes man (see, He touched them, physically). And Jesus becomes man so as to go to the cross and die as sinful man deserves to die. He dies to forgive sins, so that man would not have to be terrified of God any longer. He dies so that He would rise and then be able to say to Peter, to James and John, to us come the last day, “Rise!”
And on that day, we will have no fear. Our own bodies will become like His glorious and resurrected body. And until that Last Day, Jesus continually comes to us in His Word, pulling us away from all our busy little plans, and He tells us again of His love, His salvation, His forgiveness. Jesus draws us unto Himself, so that we see Him, now and forever.
