An Atheist's Anthem ...

 “If I only saw a sign, I would believe.”  This is a familiar chorus I have heard from nearly every non-believer I have encountered.  Sadly, it is also a familiar refrain I have heard from many Christians.  We look for the impossible to validate a faith that does not make any sense.  We ask to see the impossible for ourselves, unwilling to take the words or testimony of others on this account.  It needs to be personal.  It needs to be tangible.  Or else, how could I believe?  And in this we destroy our journey-of-faith and wish for certainty in its place.  But be honest, how could you ever be certain, of the impossible?  Even if you witness a single incident of it, will one witness be enough to believe in all the others, and for the rest of your life?  So if you must witness more than one incident, how many will be enough?  All of them?  Would it really take time travel to finally make us believe that what is recorded in scripture was real?  If you are looking here, you are cheating yourself.  There is another venue, and something a lot more personal for each of us.

To begin, certainty is not the goal.  If I asked you to trust me, how would you go about it?  You might evaluate our interactions, our history together.  You might conclude that if my behavior was always in line with your expectations, that you could extend trust to me, and then see what happens.  But therein lies the catch.  No matter how I have behaved with you in the past, no matter how consistent our history may be, each time you extend trust to me, you take a risk.  If past is prologue, then you may believe the risk to be low.  But that “belief” is still a “belief” you hold about my trustworthiness, based on a myriad of factors, but none the less a “belief” that I will not let you down.  This is how trust works. 

You may trust your mom for example, because your mom has demonstrated that she loves you.  Even if she screws up, she still loves you, though her mistake proves her human.  You may even elect to extend trust to her again after a huge mistake, because there has been only one (or few you know about), and generally she does not make them.  But even with mom (mistakes or no), every time you extend trust, you hold a “belief” that it is worth it, to trust her.  Certainty is impossible.  Because you cannot absolutely predict what anyone else (including God) may do, or why they do it.  In the end, you have ideas about it, guesses about it, even educated guesses about it.  But behavior is a tricky thing to absolutely predict, and so people surprise us sometimes (for better or for worse).  To trust anyone, is to embrace “belief”, at the exclusion of absolute certainty.

But where God is concerned, it is more blame that goes around, than trust.  That has directly to do with our picture of “who or what” God is.  The media, our parents, our church, our friends, our professors, may have all played a role in forming an image in your mind about who God is.  Suffice it to say, it boils down to one of 2 main images.  Most folks think God is a version of Santa Clause.  We go to Him to ask for stuff.  We are happy when we get it.  Mad when we don’t.  But are generally quick to ruthlessly blame God for anything bad that happens, under the logic that Santa should have been watching and been able to prevent the bad stuff before it ever happened.  After all, He has done it for others, why not me?  Way too many Christians have this exact image of God, despite all the scriptures.  Most Atheists just don’t believe in any kind of Santa Clause, or any god, but if there were a God, He would be to blame for everything.

In the Santa Clause picture of God, no trust is required.  Neither is certainty.  If you get the stuff you asked for, hallelujah.  If not, it must not be in God’s time yet.  So Santa has a slot machine sort of response to what you ask for, the odds are low, but you never know.  How could faith ever grow in you, if this is the image of God you believe in, or have the most experience with?  And believe me, Satan is WAY too happy to keep this image of God in your mind.  Perhaps enough to grant you some of those wishes himself, in order for you to never shed this image of the God you pray to.  But our real God, needs us to trust Him.  That trust is a critical component of His ability to save us – from us.  Denying yourself to let some random God you don’t really know remake who you are, is just not likely.  Better to keep the Santa image, and just hope for the best.

So God’s problem is getting you to stop thinking of Him in terms of doling out rewards and punishments, and start thinking of Him for the Being He truly is.  The other image of God (a saving God).  God wants to save you, from you.  He loves you (being the primary and singular motive of His).  God sees sin as the punishment and the addictive disease.  And He has only one way to rid you of it.  But for that to work, you have to trust Him enough to let Him do it, in spite of how it looks.  Trust, in spite of common sense.  Trust, in spite of what everyone else tells you.  Trust, that He is able to do the impossible in you, where history demonstrates, you are clearly unable to do it.  So if that is His mission, and trust is what He needs from you.  Offering you certainty does nothing to accomplish it.  If you witness a 1,000 different acts of the impossible, all you will have learned is that it is possible for God to do the impossible.  You might have already imagined that.  But you will still have no reason to let Him reconstruct who you are.  A thousand elements of certainty do not build trust, they build resentment.  Back to the Santa Clause image – now that I have seen 1,000 impossible things – I intend to open complaints about why I did not benefit from any of them.  A thousand acts of love and impossibility for others, does me not one bit of good.  So now I am mad at Santa, because there was only coal in my stocking, while my neighbor got Barbie’s playhouse.

The first problem with asking for signs, is that it does not bring trust.  The second, is that it will only make you mad they were not for you, or selfish if they were (who does not want more miracles in their own lives).  And lastly they are usually requested as a condition of belief (instead of a result of it) doing nothing to foster trust, so there will never be enough of them, to really make a believer out of you.  You will either find a way to let your skepticism reduce the impossible, to a scientifically explainable trick (or perhaps a random set of circumstances that worked out just right despite the incredible odds, like say the hypothesis of evolution) - or you will find you have an insatiable appetite for more signs, at the cost of what you profess is a belief.  In any case, the mission God has to save you, from you, by remaking you fails because He grants your wishes for signs as a condition of belief.  A change in thinking, on the other hand, will pull back the veil that has blinded your eyes to the impossible.  What you witness after a change in how you perceive life, is going to be mind blowing.  Sounds crazy right now, but that’s the point.  It is crazy.  But it is also real.  And it will be a lot more personal to you than you could possibly imagine now.

Take as a case in point the story of two types of people in the gospel of Matthew the 27^th chapter.  Picking up in verse 38 it reads … “Then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand, and another on the left.”  You could argue these men might have been believers in the Jewish faith (though obviously not perfect observers of the Law).  It is not known exactly what they believed at least from Matthew’s account.  However we know from other versions of the good news, that one repented before he died, the other did not.  Dieing in the company of known criminals tends to make one look like a criminal even if this is not true.  This death will do nothing to uplift the reputation of Christ.  But Jesus does not care about His reputation.  In His trial all manner of lies were told about Him, and His response was perfect silence.  No condemnation, no calling people out on their sins, only silence.  But Jesus was eager to speak to anyone who seeks salvation.  When the dying theif seeks Jesus, Jesus responds, no matter what kind of physical pain He was in.  When that same theif was hurling insults at Him, Jesus remained silent.

Matthew continues in verse 39 saying … “And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, [verse 40] And saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.”  Dying in the company of thieves, and up on a Roman cross, was decidedly NOT the sign the Jewish people were looking for where it comes to proving Jesus was God.  These were believers.  These were those who studied scriptures.  And yet their ideas about what God was supposed to do – that is, to throw off Roman oppression and setup a Kingdom that would last forever – overpowered all the other texts and prophecies that predicted exactly this part of the mission of God to save us.  “Believers” who desired something else of God, and refused to accept what God was actually doing to truly answer their prayers.  When Santa does not behave how we want Him to, what good is Santa right?  And so in this case, the very fact Jesus was actually fulfilling prophecy, was the very fact that disqualified Him as being the Messiah in their minds.  Sound familiar?

How often do we ask God for a thing, and threaten Him that if He does not do it, we will believe no longer?  Save me.  Save my child.  Save my spouse.  From the disease and death that stalk them.  If the results are not what we expect – we become angry and decide there cannot be a God – or else why did He not answer my prayer.  But perhaps He did, just not in the way you expected.  Perhaps from Gods point of view, saving you, your child, your spouse, for eternity is most important to all of you.  Should earthly life end today, and infinite life begin tomorrow, reunited, with infinite love in all of your hearts – is this not the preferred outcome all of you would want, even if it comes at the price of shortening how long you live in this world today?  Let’s say instead of focusing on the eternal, that God allowed you the answer to your prayers, and saved that life in the here and now.  As time passes, you, or your child, or your spouse, begin to change (not for the better).  Perhaps over time, one of you decides there is no God at all, and if there is, He is not worth following.  Sin is more “fun”, instead of the disease it truly is.  If that is how you meet your end in this world, and the eternal world is sacrificed in the process.  Did God really do what was in your best interest all those years ago when He saved you only to meet this new end?  And God knows what you will choose long before it happens.  Santa might let this play out.  But God would rather it didn’t.  God would prefer to cherish you while your free will choice reciprocates that love, rather than let you exist long enough to discard it under the weight of sin’s embrace.

So because God does not do what we want or expect, does not make Him any less trustworthy.  Keep in mind Jesus was doing what ALL of us need for salvation.  Not trying to prove Himself to nay-sayers at the time and place of His death.  Matthew continues in verse 41 saying … “Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said, [verse 42] He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him.”  And there we have it, the Athiest’s Anthem coming right out of the mouths of the very top leadership of the church at that time.  What image of God do you suppose they had, the one of a saving God who would die in our place, and fulfill prophecy – or the one of Santa who doles out punishment and reward emphasis on punishment.  And had Jesus descended off that cross in front of their eyes, gliding right down in front of them fully healed, what do you suppose their response would have been?  They would have hated Him all the more, because now Roman oppression still abounded, and Jesus would be impossible to kill after all.  Think about it, they already had ALL the previous miracles Jesus did to consider in weighing whether or not He was the Messiah, and NONE of them changed their course of action or belief.  They chose to dismiss every previous sign and still pursue killing Him.

And should Jesus have chosen to assuage His own ego, by proving to these priests He truly did have this power, what kind of God does that truly make Him?  A God of ego?  Who would gladly sacrifice our eternal considerations for those of the moment?  How could we be saved then?  It is often our expectations of what God should do, that could never be met anyway.  Because we come from a place of ego and selfishness, where God comes from a totally opposite perspective.  Jesus believes it is better to die to save all of us, than to do anything shortsighted, and gain nothing.  Jesus never used any of His power to benefit Himself.  Instead He used it unceasingly on us, the objects of His love, restoring us, removing the pain of sin and death from us.  Our restoration tops the mind of a saving God.  Not just getting rid our physical diseases, but getting rid of the way more deadly sinful disease of bad motives driving bad choices we continue to embrace.  Curing us of our desire to sin, is way more important.  Saving us from an eternal perspective way more important than saving us in the moment.

The ridicule continues as Matthew writes picking up in verse 43 saying … “He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God. [verse 44] The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth.”  Matthew hears the mockery of the thieves, but misses the repentance of the one.  Here we have an example of Jesus suffering the same fate as we do from time to time.  Jesus trusted in His Father.  And yet, He was dying, very painfully in this world.  The Father had NO interest in seeing His Son be tortured and die.  But the Father had a GREAT interest in seeing all of humanity be saved and reconciled unto Himself.  The death of His Son was that price.  In order that the need for Justice be satisfied.  So Jesus dies, in extreme pain we inflicted.  And the Father must sit there in silence and watch.  The eternal salvation outweighing the salvation of the moment.  This is how great our God desires to save us in the eternal realm, not just the here and now.  It is a different way of thinking.

So the repentant thief represents one kind of person, the mocking priests another.  For those mocking priests, no sign would ever be enough.  And frankly the next section of texts are going to have some doozies.  For the repentant thief however, for those of us who seek salvation from Jesus, what will happen in us is a change.  You will note that repentant theif was NOT saved from the cross.  He died in this world, but with certainty about his own place in the next one.  And change began to occur even in the worst dying circumstances any of us can imagine.  We too will become different than we are today.  Not because we work for it.  But because we begin to choose to trust Him, and allow Him to remake us however He sees fit.  Then change is surely on its way in us.  We read scripture differently.  We begin to see love as the primary motivation, instead of some wild afterthought.  We begin to reason differently.  And over time, the blinders of bad choices, the blinders of doubt, fall away – and what is revealed is a regular diatribe of the impossible happening all the time.  For example, the changing of hearts.  Not just of others, but of my own.  Learning how to love differently, and more deeply, than you had ever imagined.  No seminar could ever get this done.  But allowing Jesus full access sure does.  Without Jesus, things tend to degenerate.  But with Jesus, things tend to improve, especially in areas where it matters the most.

That sign, that impossibility, is very personal, very tangible, and you will live with its benefit every day of your life.  Does it cure your cancer?  No.  It could.  But it does not have to.  It fixes something more important.  The quality of your days expands exponentially, whether you are beset by physical pain and disease, or whether you are healed from them.  Keep in mind, disease does not exist in heaven.  So whether here or there, you are destined to see disease, pain and death no more.  And what happens to the desire to see a sign now?  You lose the selfishness part of that.  Instead of asking for goodies for yourself, you have no thought of yourself.  But you are swamped with thoughts of others.  You want to BE a sign for someone else, help them, meet their need if you can, no matter how you are feeling at the time.  And where you are powerless to meet their need, you do ask God for the impossible.  Not as a condition of belief, but because you are SURE He can, and will do what is right for that person’s eternal interest.  Where it comes to the removal of sin, 100% guarantee He wants that.  Where it comes to all the other worldly stuff, His gifts must fall in line with our salvation.  Knowing He longs to give them, and knowing He must hold them back, if they would add to our downfall.

Life, instead of existence, is a very tangible, and personal thing.  No one else can define it for you.  No one else can deny the impossible you are witness to in your heart and life.  For you know what is true for you.  You see what God does in your life.  What you suffer from in the eyes of others matters not.  Whether you are burdened with wealth, sickness, persecution – those do not represent the favor or curse of God.  They represent the danger of evil in this world, and are used by Satan to try to get people to believe in a Santa Clause image of God doling out rewards and punishments.  But for the one who truly believes, and chooses to truly trust, the curtain is pulled back – and the impossible is revealed every day no matter what our circumstances or positions may be.  Certainty has never been the goal.  Trust in spite of not knowing has always been it.  That kind of trust prevents the next Satan in the world to come.  And creates a new creature of you in the world we live in today.

 

The Price of Devotion ...

The one thing all of us hold on to with everything we have is our life.  We do not look forward to death and try to postpone that eventuality as long as possible.  It is human nature.  It is the nature of life itself.  Life was meant to be lived.  It was meant to be eternal.  But the embrace of sin introduced pain, and eventually death.  Things God did not intend for us; knowledge we were never supposed to know.  Pain and death were supposed to be mysterious concepts we might discuss in perfection, having no idea what they meant, but trying to guess at them.  Instead, humanity has a first-hand knowledge of both pain and death.  And mortality itself drives us to postpone our eventualities as long as possible.  The irony in all of this, is that when pain or death overtake us, we have the nerve to call these tragedies “the will of God” (that would be the definition of fake news).  It is as if we stole those words of blaming God from the mouth of Satan himself.  It is not God to blame for any of this.  We shoulder that blame.  Nor is it His will that any should suffer or die, it is sin that introduces those eventualities; the diseases that come, the wars that are fought, the acts of violence and accident that take lives and limbs.  None of it, the will of God.  All of it, God must stomach like the rest of us, for sin cannot be driven away through edict, or free-will would be swept away with it.

But when we discuss life and death, we should examine the word “life” as much as we discuss death.  Is it “life” when pain still exists?  Or is that really just existence?  Think of the life of someone who has been abused so horrifically they have lost their mental faculties, and now repeat things without reason, act in ways that are self-destructive, and find themselves lost, homeless, and unable to understand what you are saying to them or trying to do for them.  Add the self poisoning of drugs and chemical destruction to the mix.  Can we still call living in this kind of depraved condition, a real life, or is this just some form of existence?  God does not will this.  God has something else in mind, so great, this poor and afflicted person could not comprehend it even for a moment.  We can hardly imagine it.  How could a mind so degraded begin to understand it?  We would look with extreme pity on such a soul.  We would ask ourselves how we could help, and come away only sharing simple human kindness, and praying for intervention against the sin and Satan of this world.

The poor and depraved, and mentally degraded person I describe, is not some random homeless on the street; it is you, and it is me.  We are homeless as this world the way it is, is NOT our home.  We wander through a wasteland cursed by our own sin.  We have no idea what our real home is going to look like, and why the greatest mansion on earth today is a poo-poo hill, next to what the smallest shack in heaven will look like.  But we don’t know that world, so we begin to value the poo we have, while angels hold their noses and wonder how this is possible.  And we have been abused by the nature of our sinful choices.  We develop habits, repeating things over and over that do not make any sense, and work to our own self harm.  Yet we seem powerless to stop this self-destructive behavior.  We go around muttering things like “we have to look out for number one”, and other slogans of self-empowerment, when the pursuit of happiness only leads us further into misery.  We are diseased.  We are afflicted with genetic degradation that makes us incapable of understanding what perfection and eternity really look like.  It is the core of who we are, our characters, that are so engrained in these diseases, that there is only one cure for them – to die – and to be reborn, or re-created by Jesus Christ.

But as our mortality drives us to postpone physical death; our engrained characters are none too happy to die either.  We may understand that what Jesus will re-create in us might be great; but we are comfortable with who we are now, and unsure, or unwilling to let that go.  So what is the true price of devotion to Christ?  Is it willingness to let who we are go, and to be reborn?  Perhaps this is what it means to die to self.  Peter thought he was ready for it.  He wasn’t.  Matthew tells the story of their shame in chapter 26 of his gospel picking up in verse 31 saying … “Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad.”  Yikes.  Each and every one of the disciples, the followers of Christ, the devoted ones – were to be “offended” by Jesus Christ that night.  Shocked by His actions (or rather inaction) in the face of death.  Unable to understand that death must come, in order for rebirth to occur.  Or perhaps like us, unwilling to let our understanding go, in favor of accepting an understanding only He can give us.

But Jesus was not done with His prophesying.  Jesus continues in verse 32 saying … “But after I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee.”  Death was coming.  There was no way to avoid it.  Because of sin, death became an eventuality, even for Jesus – especially for Jesus – in order that life might come for us.  A return to the meaning of life as God intended it.  Not just existence, but life.  A removal of the fog of our diseased thinking, and an instillation of the clarity of His thinking in its place.  Prior to transformation this is very hard to understand.  But our God does give each of us a glimpse through the fog, enough that we are free enough, to make this choice without the burden of our sin weighing down the outcome.  We are given the freedom of mind to choose His love, or to reject it.  But make no mistake, without the intervention of our God to bring us up to parity to choose; sin would rob us of our free-will and make deranged slaves of us all.  It is the outcome many choose in spite of a moment’s clarity to choose Jesus.  The price of our devotion to Christ may lead to our death.  But the price of rejecting His love only buries us in an existence of pain, while doing nothing to avoid the death that will one day take us all.

And as for the death of “who” we are.  This is a death we should long for.  It is the trading of deranged existence for the restoration of what a real life means.  Your diseased mind cannot comprehend it while it remains diseased.  You need the power of His transformation of who you are, to free your thinking, so that you can begin to see the difference between existence and life, between fake happiness, and deep personal joy, that none can take away.  It is as Jesus foretold, He would die, but would NOT stay in the grave.  He would “go before” them into Galilee, only a first of many encounters we would all have with a risen Lord.  It is important to understand Jesus as our creator, because as our creator, He is able to recreate a real life in us.  Once we allow Him to make that change, the path to real understanding begins.  It may not be instantaneous, but it is certain.  It begins with letting go.  Letting go of the “life” we think we have built.  And accepting that His offer gives us “life” we could not have even imagined before.  It is trading the fake wealth of this world, for the poo it really was, and finding the real treasure of this world, in the hearts of others.

But Peter saw none of this.  He had yet to be transformed.  He had yet to allow it.  So he answered in verse 33 saying … “Peter answered and said unto him, Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended.”  Peter said in effect, even if all these other bums are offended, I won’t be, cause I am special.  Here is where pride took over reason.  Pride a symptom of original sin and capable of making us blind to what is truly important.  Only moments before in the last supper Jesus told them one of them was going to betray Him, and ALL of them, including Peter, was forced to ask, “is it me”.  Now having seemed to escape that prophecy we run head long into opposing the words of Christ, for nothing more than our ego.  While at the same time, essentially saying, I am greater than these other guys, even if “they” fall, I WILL NOT.  And how many times have you gotten up from your sin, begging the Lord for forgiveness you do not deserve, and then make the empty promise that “YOU” will not sin anymore.  A promise history will demonstrate YOU have broken, every single time.

It is not His forgiveness that is broken, it is your ability to keep any promise you make.  Stop it.  Quit making the presumption of arrogance that you are able to choose to sin no more.  Instead, in humility accept that only Jesus can take the desire of sin from you in the first place.  It is the victory of Jesus in you, that can remove your sin, NOT what you do or don’t do.  It is what Jesus does.  You need only to get out of the way, and let yourself slip away, let Him decide “who” you are to be.  Let your sinful desires die in the hands of Christ, and let your new desires be reborn or re-created.  Peter has decided here, in error, that Peter will decide what Peter will do in the future.  And Peter will not be offended no matter what the Savior of the world has just said.  Imagine the arrogance of such a statement, in defiance of what Jesus has said.  Instead of this proclamation of false victory Peter was sure to experience.  He might of said, “Lord forgive me”, and take this thing from me.  But alas, reason is blinded by the disease of pride.

Jesus responds in verse 34 saying … “Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice.”  Peter thought his devotion to Christ was beyond question.  It was not.  While Peter clung to the ideas of “who” he was, he allowed sin a foothold in him, that led to this unfortunate series of events.  The real price of absolute devotion to Christ, is to put our lives in His hands, no matter what happens to our lives.  But by far, NOT just our physical lives – rather more importantly, the lives we think we have built – the core of who we are – our characters.  Letting our character die in the hands of Christ, letting all sin go, not just some of it, or part of it, but all of it – even if that means I will not recognize who I am anymore.  That is rather the point.  The point is to not recognize who you are anymore, because the new version of you that Jesus creates will be so enormously better.  And the current you cannot understand that, until it is willing to let go, to die, and to be reborn for real.

But Trump and Peter have more in common than we might have first thought.  Matthew continues with Peter’s response in verse 35 saying … “Peter said unto him, Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. Likewise also said all the disciples.”  Peter doubled down.  If Trump could only read these passages, how much better might his presidency be.  But alas Peter doubled down, because his pride was now in question, and pride blinds us to reason.  Instead of being humbled by this further pronouncement of Jesus, Peter decides to argue with it again, and this time to raise the stakes.  Peter is now pledging his physical life, long before he has allowed Jesus to remake him fully.  How can you promise to sacrifice your physical life, if you have been unwilling to sacrifice even the life of your character which does not require you to physically die to do it?  You make promises against human nature, despite being aligned with human nature.  Only the transformed heart understands the true nature of “life” and could ever be comfortable with sacrificing it here, to preserve it in the world to come.  The death of “what” we are, is not what our Lord asks, He asks for the death of “who” we are.

And as I imagine what must happen in Trump’s cabinet when he makes a decision, the others follow suit, also proclaiming that they support this very same idea.  The other disciples also pledge upon pain of death, that they too, will not be offended.  None of them broken as yet, but all of them heading towards that end.  For their own pride’s have arisen in them to blind them to humility, and to walk a different road.  What might it have been like if instead of this outrageous mumbling against the Word of the Lord, they might have dropped to the feet of Jesus and begged forgiveness for this thing, begging to have it taken from them as ONLY Jesus could do.  To be wiling to have no pride, to be willing to embrace humility in front of those you love, and those you don’t.  That is the mark of a transformed heart, and the evidence of what true devotion might look like.  But Matthew condemns himself in his own writings, that he too, was unwilling to submit, but rather when it counted the most, stood against our Lord and His counsel.

So many of us modern Christians claim devotion to Christ.  But that devotion is built upon our own ideas of what devotion means.  We are like our disciple forefather before their transformations.  We are devoted when it is convenient.  When we sacrifice for the cause, we see it as sacrifice, not as opportunity to serve.  When asked if we would give our lives for Christ, we say with pride “yes”.  But the life we mean is our physical life, as the life of our character has yet to be put upon His altar.  We have not allowed Jesus to change who we are yet; and despite this, we pledge to give Him what we are.  Some of us have mild experiences with Jesus, perhaps the removal of one sin, or impact in one problem area.  Yet despite the example of how it works, we keep plugging along fighting our sins ourselves, declaring our promises not to do it again.  And finding ourselves on our knees after we fail just one more time.  And then again.  And again.  Until our sins are beyond counting.

It is our promises that need to die.  It is our certainty we should let go.  Instead, we should turn to Jesus and in humility, ask Him to take this thing from us.  And watch what He does, when you get out of the way.  Jesus did not come, so that your personal knowledge of sin, pain, and death, would remain eventualities for you.  He came to change your paradigm.  He came to disrupt who you are.  He came to take from you, the disease that keeps you mired in pathetic existence; and instead offer you life, and life more abundantly.  The price of devotion is no “price” at all, when transformation is what you experience.  You may not see it clearly yet, but you can, you will, you need only go to Jesus in humility and ask, Lord forgive me, take this thing from me, and then sit back, let go, and watch what happens.  Become witness in your own testimony to what Jesus does for you.  Afterwards you will understand, what for now, your mind may not comprehend.  But it can begin here, begin now, and you can finally see what life looks like.

 

Saving Faith [part 3 of 3] ...

All that matters is results.  If you promise a thing, you must deliver a thing, or your promise is worth little.  With humanity, we are used to disappointment.  We promise outcomes, and make commitments, and over time we deliver almost none of it.  It jades the thinking, until the cynic expects nothing, and is usually not disappointed.  But where a matter of salvation is concerned, it is an all-or-nothing game.  Being “better” sounds good.  Being better perhaps avoids some of the pain that being worse brings with it.  But none of us are looking for a heaven filled with “better” people.  We are looking for a heaven filled with people who no longer even consider killing, or stealing, or lying about it.  We are looking for a heaven where we can have absolute trust in our neighbors, not have to lock the door, re-rig up the security system, consider moving to a better subdivision, and train the dogs for protection (again). 

A heaven where just one unapologetic sinner gets in, is a heaven where the crime rate will never be zero.  And it is not even about the apologetic aspect of sinning.  The fact that the killer feels bad about killing does not stop the pain he causes.  Heaven is not supposed to be about a criminal justice system, nor is it a place for rehabilitation.  The rehabilitation is (or should be) happening now.  Now is the time for a prep, in order to be able to re-enter that Garden of Eden without fear.  Now is the time, for us to be getting made ready for a bite from the tree of life.  If I am that sinner, that somehow slips into heaven, I will mess it up from everybody.  When I get there, it will only have been from the mercy of God.  A mercy that does not end with forgiveness but with reformation until I am something entirely different than I am today.  Something else, and something better.  But not just better, better is not enough, something perfect.  For without perfection, how will I ever be ready?

Jesus did not die, just to forgive “some” of our sins.  Nor is Jesus content to just leave us in the lives of sin we have figured out how to live.  Forgiveness is a baseline He offers, a ground zero from which to build.  But mercy cannot look at someone in pain and just leave them there.  Mercy was meant for something more.  We were meant for something more.  Not just life after death, but real “life” even when we are surrounded by death.  Perfection then is not a pre-requisite, it is the result of a continued encounter with Jesus Christ.  Perfection slips up on you unannounced while you were paying attention to Jesus.  You cannot explain how it comes.  You can explain from where and why.  It comes because Jesus wants it for you, and creates it within you.  It is Jesus who changes how you think, as soon, and as much as you let Him do it.  It is Jesus that changes how you love, and who you love.  It is Jesus who brings passion for others, and a seeming disinterest in yourself.  “You” becomes less and less of a priority to you.  “Others” become more and more of a passion for how you live.

It may not be instantaneous.  But it is certain.  And its results are demonstrable over time.  So what is the difference between stupid faith, ridiculous faith, and saving faith?  Consider the end of Matthew’s snippets in act three beginning in chapter nine picking up in verse 23 saying … “And when Jesus came into the ruler's house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise, [verse 24] He said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn.”  Jesus arrives and affirms the reason the angel had to guard the Tree of Life so many millennia ago.  The girl who is dead, is sleeping the sleep of death.  Consider for a moment that if the girl had died, and her ‘immortal’ soul simply is freed from her body, and went to heaven; then why on earth would you pull her out of perfection and back to the hell that is our world.  Her perfect character would revert to her sinful one (or at least expose her to daily risks of reversion).  Even with the love of her father, her life would be full of hardship.  The leadership of the Temple were now certainly out to get her father, for declaring for Christ, they would not simply ignore a risen example of Jesus’ authority over life itself.

If her character had been made perfect in order to enter heaven, then pulling her back would now do what, undo that reformation?  Imagine the unkindness of pulling her back.  If she died and went to a hell of fire and flame, then by Jesus offering her a chance no one else down there gets, is that not completely unfair?  In either scenario, the interests of the girl are not served, only the selfishness of the love of her father.  But, if she did sleep the sleep of death, and knows nothing; if all she does is rot in the earth unaware of time or consciousness; then pulling her back does her no detriment to her.  That act restores the love of her father without causing the girl undo harm.  The sleep of death we practice each night is the state from which we will all one day be called.

Consider too, the audience for what is about to happen.  There is a large crowd still following Jesus eager to know if this request is going to be honored.  His disciples are there every bit as curious.  But the mourning party at the home is not curious, or amused.  They are there to perform a time-honored tradition of showing proper respect for the dead (who if you are a Sadducee are not ever coming back).  History supports the side of the mourners.  Once you die, you die.  There are no second chances.  So to end this funeral tradition early is like slapping the family of this little girl in the face and stating we don’t care about your pain.  But Jesus is consumed with our pain.  He is not looking to exacerbate it, He is looking to extinguish it.  The mourners don’t see it.  So when He states she is just sleeping, they change their wailing to laughing Him to scorn.   

And here is where only results matter.  Matthew continues in verse 25 saying … “But when the people were put forth, he went in, and took her by the hand, and the maid arose. [verse 26] And the fame hereof went abroad into all that land.”  Jesus brought life to one who was dead.  There was certainty of her death.  The mourners knew it.  The father knew it before he left to get Jesus.  The only thing that mattered here was saving faith.  The kind of faith that saves from death, that conquers death.  It either happened or it didn’t.  Your Bible is either real or it is not.  But if Jesus is real.  And if your Bible is real.  Then what happened is real.  Death was conquered by life that ONLY Jesus could, and did bring.  This is true of our physical condition.  This is true of our spiritual condition.  We need not fear sneaking into heaven as the last sinner God pities.  We will be changed in the twinkling of an eye, in a moment.  And we will enter it with no thought of sin ever again.  Our choice will be made.  The same choice we make today.  To trust Jesus Christ more than we trust ourselves.

In order to save us, only results matter.  Jesus is our results.  He brings them, or creates, or inspires them, or they simply do not occur.  We do nothing, but have faith in Him to save us, from … ourselves.  Whether that seems stupid, or ridiculous, or the sensible way that humanity will be saved, is immaterial.  It is how it happens.  Or it does not happen at all.  In a game when all that matter are results.  I know of no other way than the one Jesus offers us all, it is ALL or Nothing …

 

The Incessant Need to Know When [part one] ...

Imagine if you could know with 100% certainty, the exact moment of your death.  But with this knowledge would come a complete inability to alter the outcome one iota.  Would you prefer to know, or not know?  Most of us would rather be surprised.  Knowing makes every moment between now and then a countdown clock, a constant ticking of wasted time, and wasted opportunities.  Between now and then, we must still work, still function in our communities, still be the people we were before the knowledge of our death.  That knowledge could work as a huge depressant to our lives, ticking away at it.  We might either waste that time between now and then, or maximize it.  Not knowing on the other hand, which is how we all have it today, offers us hope that what we do might somehow impact when we die.  It gives our prayers even more meaning, as hope in God can change any outcome.  So it would appear our God has chosen not to share with us, “the when” of every bit of information in our lives.

But what if a prophecy could have meaningful impacts from a change in our behavior.  What if the purpose of prophecy was not simply to depress, but to warn, and thereby avoid depression or evil outcomes?  This kind of knowledge would become invaluable.  This kind of information would be priceless.  And so, Jesus having just foretold the destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem, would face the inevitable human question of “when” it should come to pass.  I suppose the question in itself represents a level of faith.  The disciples were not going to plead for the Temple’s continuation, or ask if it could be somehow avoided by what actions they would take.  Instead they were all resigned that if Jesus said it would happen, it would surely happen, and the most pertinent information they could know is simply … when.

Peter continues his recollection to John Mark in chapter thirteen of his gospel picking up again in verse 3 saying … “And as he sat upon the mount of Olives over against the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately,”  This text begins with setting the context, Jesus and His disciples have left the Temple.  They have traveled over to the Mount of Olives, and now they have a fairly good view of the Temple from their location.  This venue only serves to stir up the memories of Jesus’ words, and four of the disciples want to know more.  Perhaps all the disciples did, but only four of them sought to ask Jesus in whatever privacy they could muster.  Peter, James, and John, seemed always to be the top three disciples when missions of privacy or importance came up from our Lord.  But perhaps that is only because they were the only three who sought out to do these things.  Andrew joined them here, and he was not excluded at all.  Maybe this is a lesson to us.  The wisdom of Jesus is not confined to the pastor, head elder, and head deaconess in our churches, it is available to anyone who asks, even one so lowly as you and I.

Mark continues in verse 4 saying … “Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign when all these things shall be fulfilled?”  It is important to note context once again.  Jesus had just prophesied the destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem.  He was not talking about His own second coming.  Often we flip back and forth between the other 3 gospels and conflate this questions about “when” with signs of His second coming, mostly because the language is very similar.  But Peter is clear.  There is no conflation.  Jesus had just prophesied about the Temple at Jerusalem’s destruction, and that is what the disciples were interested in knowing when it would occur.  Further, they were asking for signs, or warning conditions, or actions that would precede this event, in order that they would know it was coming soon.

Jesus answers them picking up in verse 5 saying … “And Jesus answering them began to say, Take heed lest any man deceive you:”  The first concern of our Lord was not answering them the calendar date of 70 AD when due to a Roman retaking of Jerusalem the Temple would be destroyed again.  Those were the facts as history would demonstrate them.  But to Jesus there was something more important, and that was a connection with Himself, not with false human alternatives.  If you do not stay connected to Jesus, and allow humans to influence what you believe, you can be talked into all kinds of fallacies.  Deception comes from listening to anything other than Jesus.  Whether that makes sense to you or not, is irrelevant.  Doing it is what matters.  Abraham would never have attempted to sacrifice his only son, if he listened to humans that would have told him he was crazy.  That the voice in his head was a hallucination, and that God never orders a murder.  But Abraham maintained his connection and did what he was told.

Jesus continues in verse 6 saying … “For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.”  The days of the Messiah were not at an end for those who rejected Jesus.  Pharisees and rebels against Rome would promote their own versions of a Messiah, in order to bring the people to their own way of thinking.  Satan would stand behind every one of them, working his own supernatural power to make a pretend Jesus nearly as good as the real Jesus.  Satan always offers a counterfeit for what God creates in perfection.  Each imposter of Christ would have special backing from Satan in order to counterfeit the real ministry of Jesus Christ.  For those who did not want to hear truth, for those who were content to be placated by what they wanted to believe, the voice of false Messiah decrying the Roman empire would ring true, and deceive many.

Jesus continues in verse 7 saying … “And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet.”  Christ then addresses what can strike fear in the heart of a man.  War in the days of Jesus was something that left little prisoners, and little left alive.  Invading armies killed all the men, took the women as slaves and concubines.  Butchered children or only increased the slave count.  Homes were completely wiped out.  Crops were burned.  Commerce was ended.  Rumors that a great Assyrian army was set to invade, or a great Egyptian or Ethiopian army was to invade leaving only a scorched earth, could strike fear into the heart of a man.  But Jesus wished for us to leave our fears behind, and focus our security in Him.  He foretells that wars will exist, and rumors will persist, but these do NOT declare the end of the Temple at Jerusalem.

Jesus continues in verse 8 saying … “For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.”  The sorrows of our world are in fact, NOT signs of the end, nor of the end of Temple at Jerusalem.  They are declared by Jesus Christ as only the beginning of sorrows.  The idea that man could bring about the end of the world in our day by his military actions or his political policies is laid out as false by Jesus Christ.  All we could ever do, is add to the sorrows our world already has to deal with.  The changes in our climate and the calamities that are ever increasing in our world, are also NOT signs of the end of all things, they are only a continuation of the sorrows identified by Jesus Christ so long ago.  They may get worse, but they do not represent His soon return.  For after all, if these signs did not mean anything against the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, why would they be of significance in the end of days?

Jesus continues in verse 9 saying … “But take heed to yourselves: for they shall deliver you up to councils; and in the synagogues ye shall be beaten: and ye shall be brought before rulers and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them.”  This is very clearly counsel given to the disciples and apostles of Christ and largely in their day or generation.  Synagogues are no longer a threat to the Christian faith, and in most of the world Christianity does not have to defend itself in the courts of monarchs who can persecute and take life arbitrarily.  But it was so in the days of Jesus.  In His day, and in the days of the disciples, this was a real threat, and a real concern.  But Jesus says, only know that this is coming.

Jesus continues in verse 10 saying … “And the gospel must first be published among all nations. [verse 11] But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost.”  Jesus makes a seemingly disconnected series of statements here.  Verse ten establishes the need for the gospel to be “published” among all nations.  Peter and his compatriots surely could have translated the gospel into the popular languages of the day, that would have touched the limits of the world they knew.  But it would not have reached the limits of the world we know today.  So this statements seems to have another relevance to the disciples.  It took Peter and the others a good long while, before they were willing to reach out to gentiles, and others with the gospel.  Paul would be the biggest ambassador here.  It would take long argument to get the church at Jerusalem to see the value in ALL in humans, beyond just Jews.

Verse eleven, becomes a promise to the disciples, as well as one we can rely upon today.  When taken in to defend our faith, we do not need to prepare.  This is something that runs counter to our nature today.  We rarely believe any speech is worth anything without preparation.  Particularly if that speech is a legal brief, or one upon which heavy circumstances could rely.  But Jesus tells His own disciples that even when brought before kings who could have them killed, to purposely avoid preparation.  They are to trust the Holy Spirit, who will tell them what to say, when they have need to say it.  Imagine what our pastors might say if they ALL took the same approach with the same faith.  Imagine what you might say.  Could our world become a better place if instead of attempting preparation, we simply trusted in the wisdom and love of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus continues in verse 12 saying … “Now the brother shall betray the brother to death, and the father the son; and children shall rise up against their parents, and shall cause them to be put to death. [verse 13] And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.”  The conditions Jesus describes begin with the earliest faith, and are maintained until the end.  In the early days, the disciples were hated by the upright Jews who rejected Christ.  Those families who still sided with the Pharisees would turn over new believers unto death.  And now in our day, in perhaps the last days, those believers who look to trust Jesus with our salvation, turning away from the idea of self-salvation, may engender the hatred of those who do not want to hear, they are unable to save themselves.  This hatred may grow, as transformed hearts begin to stand in stark contrast with Christians who do not love, can only judge, and offer condemnation for other people’s sins.  The Christian who remains untransformed by the Love of Jesus Christ will eventually use scriptures to justify his hate of those who are truly changed.  That hate will grow until it reached the levels of persecution of old.  For those who have no love, have no resistance to killing in the name of God.

The dangers Christ enumerates are not limited to those outside of the faith looking inwards at it.  They are as real for those inside the faith, looking at each other in it.  The text begins by listing “brother shall betray brother”.  Why should Christians believe they are immune to this idea?  The Pharisees were willing to kill Christ the author of their very religion and scriptures.  Through the ages, crusades mark the willingness of Christians to kill other people in the name of our God.  Today in modern politics, American Christians believe their faith is under attack, and think they must defend it, with lethal means if needed.  The idea of shedding blood in the name of God is not a new one.  It dates back as old as Satan is.  Our God tells us to love each other, and to love our enemies.  One cannot kill what one truly loves.  But therein is the rub.  Christians do not truly love each other, nor do they truly love their enemies.

We talk about loving others, and the need to do so.  But our feeling, motives, and actions reflect something else entirely.  We tolerate each other, and less so, our enemies.  Our language betrays us.  Our lack of converts betray us.  No one is motivated to find and follow the Jesus Christ many of us represent.  For that Jesus is cold, unfeeling, and uncaring.  Why would any non-believer, or sinner, come to find a Jesus who means only to burn them for what they do, not redeem them from the pain they are in?  The transformed heart views the world differently.  But few submit to Christ to actually be transformed.  They offer lip service to love, and reflect nearly none of it.  One of the first signs of a truly transformed heart is passion.  A great passion about the lives and needs of others (no matter if family, friend, or self-declared enemy).  The transformed hearts begin to empathize as if what happens to another is happening to themselves.  They cannot bear to remain silent, or still.  They must do something.  They must do anything.

The contrast of those kinds of Christians, with the kind who spew only judgement and condemnation will one day reach a point, of persecution.  Those who have no feeling, have no compassion, have no love; will be all too willing to kill those who do.  Redemption is the not the primary goal of the Christian who has not been transformed.  A call for justice is.  Christians without love believe themselves forgiven, and therefore saved.  They want others to admit their guilt, beg for forgiveness, and then join them in a hunt for those who do not yet believe.  But forgiveness is not enough.  Being sorry, or pretending to, while still craving the same sins we did before, reflects no real change in our lives.  Seeking out the sins of others, in order to feel better by comparison, is the not the standard our God uses for perfection.  It is fallacy.  It is deception.  And it is what Christ was warning about all those years ago.

Only through submission to Jesus, that allows Him to recreate who we are, will we finally be able to love others like He loves others.  Only then will we ever be truly sorry for who we used to be.  Only then will our actions reflect new motives that are in harmony with the Law.  Only then is obedience possible.  All of the things the judgmental Christian calls for, are found only in the transformation submitting to Jesus will accomplish.  Which side of persecution will you find yourself within? The side of brother who betrays brother unto death?  Or the side of those who know Jesus so intimately that their passion remains even for the one who would betray them unto death? 

Jesus was not done just yet …

 

A Preview of His Kingdom and Power ...

A preview is not the same thing as the main event.  In our world, we use “warm up” acts in live musical concerts, or stand-up comedian acts to get the audience in the mood for what will come next.  In boxing, there is such a thing as the “under-card” which is usually a series of fights that take place before the main event bout.  Obviously these previews are not what we paid to see or were most looking forward to, but there have been a fair number of musicians, comedians, and fighters who transitioned from being the warm-up act to being the main act because of the exposure they got during their entertainment previews.  And the previews themselves do serve to get the audience properly prepared for what comes next, in order to heighten the experience of the main event.  No one knows how far back this practice dates, but given that Jesus had one, we can say at least 2,000 years.

Peter records how it all started as he recited it to John Mark to transcribe beginning in the gospel of Mark chapter nine, and verse 1 saying … “And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power.”  In these words, Jesus is talking to His disciples.  He has just given them a sort-of salvation tutorial in the previous verses.  That was a detailed explanation of what it means to be able to be like Christ is, to follow Jesus where He was going.  Now Jesus is taking that idea a bit further, He is telling them, that at least some of them will not die until they have seen Him as God, and His Kingdom coming here with power.  Of course our human minds, which live nearly 2,000 years since those words were spoken, immediately “wants” to interpret them as being a promise of a quick second return by Christ to take us all home.  But as 2,000 years has passed since then, we know that is not the case.  Further, since the laws of aging were not suspended for the disciples (allowing them to live until now without getting old), we can further conclude that the “main event” of His return was also NOT what He was talking about.

So what was Jesus referring to?  The answer can be found in the texts immediately following these remarks and continuing this story.  Mark continues writing in verse 2 saying … “And after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them up into an high mountain apart by themselves: and he was transfigured before them.”  Note this is the very next verse following the lead-in written above.  You don’t need to search through scriptures to find an event that may somehow fulfill the words of Christ, it is the very next thought.  What happens in only six days, is that Jesus takes Himself, Peter, James, and John up into a high mountain in order to be alone with them (out of the reach of the crowds).  He then “transfigures” Himself before them, or in other words, He reveals the “God” portion of who He is.  He takes the mask of humanity off for a few moments and reveals the God side, the infinite side, of who He really is.  Up to now, this has never happened.  Up to now, and since His birth, there have only been a few incidents where God the Father’s voice was heard acknowledging Jesus as His son.  Even when Jesus performs miracles for us, it is always with Jesus cloaked in humanity, never showing anyone what is under the veil.

Imagine the brilliant light that emerges from Jesus when Peter sees more God than man standing before him.  Imagine the purity of Christ’s love and brilliance of the Creator now shining through in this lonely place high on a remote mountain top.  I can imagine that even here, Jesus must hold back the fullness of who He is, or the disciples would perish at the sight.  But I can also imagine that for these 3 men, who will ever be only human, the plain sight of His divinity would have overwhelmed them.  They may well have prostrated themselves on the ground at His first revealing.  This was no small event, and it was not one that would be repeated often or with casual regard.  This was an epic event.  This was the true revelation of God underneath the human form.  The power that emanated from that purity was beyond our words to relate.  But yet here it was.  None of us could ever do this.  No other wanna-be Messiah could come close to doing such a thing.  This distinction between man and God was forevermore marked here.

Peter tries to describe what he saw to John Mark in verse 3 saying … “And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them.”  Perhaps doing his best to look at Jesus once the God identity has been unveiled, Peter can only see his robe which up to now, has been a home spun garment, full of the dirt and sweat that comes from climbing a high mountain.  Up to now, the robe of Jesus was not especially different from Peter, or James, or John.  But look at it now.  It is a brilliant white, a white more white than anything Peter has ever seen.  It shines.  The robe now gives off a light Peter cannot explain.  This brilliance is not something mankind is possible of duplicating or making.  Peter takes special note to call out that no “fuller” (a profession of clothing cleaner) could ever make a robe as white as this one is.  Indeed the beginnings of the Kingdom of God are being revealed, for this is clearly a picture of God being revealed to His three disciples.

Then comes the fullness of a kingdom’s description as John Mark continues in verse 4 saying … “And there appeared unto them Elias with Moses: and they were talking with Jesus.”  And thus the remainder of the kingdom appeared: mankind with God.  That is what the Kingdom of God was all about, reconciling mankind with God.  Here were both groups of mankind represented in this first preview of the coming of Christ in His second return to earth.  Elias or Elijah had never died but was fully transformed in character before his earthly death and taken to heaven by angels pleased to carry out that job.  Moses had died, and was raised from the earth fully transformed in character, ready to greet his Lord in the air, carried to heaven by angels glad to have been assigned that task.  Mankind was here now, in the form of both of these saved groups, talking plainly with Jesus.  These were not ghosts, or disembodied spirits, they were men like you and I.  They were there right now, united with their Savior.  This was the first preview of the Kingdom of God, beheld in power as was promised by Christ only six days earlier.

As usual Peter is not quite sure what to do, or say, but as usual Peter has to say something.  That boisterous personality cannot just keep still at the sight of something that overwhelms the others.  So he recalls to John Mark his best efforts at the time picking up in verse 5 saying … “And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. [verse 6] For he wist not what to say; for they were sore afraid.”  No human had ever experienced what was going on at this moment, nobody, ever.  There was no basis in scripture to have studied.  There were no stories handed down from father to son.  In the 4,000+ years of earth’s history, nothing like this had ever occurred.  So Peter tries to make conversation by offering to build 3 tabernacles on that ground one for Jesus, Moses, and Elias.  A normally flattering offer, but none of them are interested in the attempted flattery of Peter.  There are no ego’s here to stroke, only a continued united mission to redeem mankind from itself.  But there was still one thing missing from the definition of His Kingdom, a unity between God and man.

John Mark continues transcribing in verse 7 saying … “And there was a cloud that overshadowed them: and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him. [verse 8] And suddenly, when they had looked round about, they saw no man any more, save Jesus only with themselves.”  God the Father had come, He masked Himself in a cloud, for even here in this preview event, He could not reveal His glory to those who were still marked by sin lest He destroy the object of His love.  But God the Father had a message for those three disciples, that Jesus was indeed His only Son, and that they should hear Him.  Almost as quickly as these events began, they were ended.  As the disciples looked around they saw only themselves, and Jesus as He had been before.  His robe was as dirty and sweaty as theirs.  No Moses, or Elias, just the four of them.  At this point, each disciple must have wondered if they were hallucinating.  But then how could all 3 of them have seen exactly the same thing at the same time in their respective hallucinations.  No, it had to have been real.  It was after all the preview event Jesus had promised that some of them would see.

In the aftermath of this event Jesus charges them with a familiar charge.  John Mark records in verse 9 saying … “And as they came down from the mountain, he charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of man were risen from the dead. [verse 10] And they kept that saying with themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean.”  Jesus again asks for secrecy, but this time only until He is risen from the dead.  This is a new condition, and the disciples have no idea what it means.  They still cling to a false idea of the role of the Messiah.  Having seen Him transfigure and get the support of Elijah and Moses, only deepens the false idea they cling to.  If Jesus has access to all this power in heaven, surely He will use it to accomplish creating His kingdom here on earth.  The preview they just got, must be a prelude to an anti-Roman paradise, what else could it be?  So they decide to change the subject slightly and see if they can get more information out of Him.  They ask a different question.

John Mark continues writing in verse 11 saying … “And they asked him, saying, Why say the scribes that Elias must first come? [verse 12] And he answered and told them, Elias verily cometh first, and restoreth all things; and how it is written of the Son of man, that he must suffer many things, and be set at nought. [verse 13] But I say unto you, That Elias is indeed come, and they have done unto him whatsoever they listed, as it is written of him.”  The disciples ask why the Pharisee leadership and scribes think that Elijah must come before the Messiah fulfills His role.  Jesus answers that again they have a mistaken interpretation (how like us), but if you examine it … Elias just did come in the flesh, and in the message of John the Baptist.  Both in person and in truth has Elias come ahead of the fulfillment of the Messiah’s role, albeit, not the role the disciples wanted Jesus to fulfill. 

When we read scripture, we do what the disciples did.  We read it from a preconceived set of traditions, and personal hopes.  We read the scriptures that support our ideas, and ignore the texts that do not fit them well.  We, like the disciples, cling to our ideas and views of the role of Christ, despite what He directly tells us that we simply do not understand.  This is all because like our Pharisee forefathers, we do not seek Christ to lead us to truth, we instead attempt to tell Jesus what our truth is and expect Him to conform to it.  If we are even to read rightly, we must learn to submit ALL our ideas to Jesus first.  We must read through the lens of Jesus where loving others is the primary concern.  Only after full submission, and being led by Christ, can we begin to understand what was written, and what it means to each of us.  To distinguish between previews and main events, and to understand what Jesus asks of us, we must read through the lens of Jesus Christ and after submitting our will to His.  And there will be far more Peter has to say to us …