Two weeks ago, we looked together at the events that took place at Caesarea Philippi, when Peter declared that Jesus was ‘the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ It was a key moment in the life of Jesus. His disciples up to that point had been admirers and followers, but no more. Now they had come to the realisation that he was the expected saviour, the Messiah, the person towards whom all the history of their nation had been moving.
But, what was in Peter’s mind, and in the mind of the disciples, as he made that confession? We do not know for certain. But we can be fairly certain that it was not the same as what Jesus thought being the Messiah was. The general expectation in those days was that the coming Messiah would bring about a renewal of the nation, such a renewal as would restore to them their national independence, get rid of the Roman occupation. It might be done by sheer spiritual force, or it might be done by armed revolt. But it would involve triumph over the occupying power.
That was probably what was in the mind of the disciples. But that was not what was in the mind of Jesus. After Peter’s glorious affirmation of Jesus as Messiah came the sobering words: ‘Jesus explained to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.’
And Peter objected. That was certainly not in his mind when he confessed Jesus to be the Messiah. And he said so. And Jesus put him right: ‘Get behind me, Satan. You are a stumbling block to me. You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of humans.’
Peter’s remark shows what a shock Jesus’ words were to the disciples. One more step – yes, he was the Messiah – but it took some adjusting to realise that it was all going to be very different from what they had imagined it would be. Not a successful preaching tour, but opposition, hostility, persecution and death. You can imagine how this threw them, how puzzled and disoriented they were. And for a week they must have tried to come to terms with this totally changed world which Jesus was encouraging them to enter.
That is the context of the transfiguration of Jesus on the mountain. He took Peter, James and John up a mountain, where they had a near incommunicable experience. Afterwards they attempted to put it into words and that is the background to the narrative that we have in our bibles. They had seen Moses, Moses, who had taken the people of Israel a great step forward from slavery in Egypt to settlement in the Promised Land. They had seen Elijah, Elijah, the great prophet who had taken the nation one great step forward from the worship of pagan gods to the worship of the one true God. And they had learned to see Jesus in a new light. He, too, was taking people one great step forward. It had been an overwhelming experience: they had been in time, yet out of time, having an overview of the great sweep of human history, and were seeing it all, Jesus included, in the light of eternity. They had come to see what Jesus was about, how he was going to take people even further than Moses and Elijah before him had ever done. ‘This is my beloved son, listen to him’ the voice from the cloud had said – not to Moses, not to Elijah, but to him. It was one more step in their advancing understanding of Jesus and his mission.
That series of events: Peter’s confession of Jesus as Messiah, Jesus’ surprise prediction of his suffering and death, and the transfiguration, all belong together. And they have something to teach us as we follow Jesus, day by day, month by month, year by year.
For, you see, it is one thing to accept Jesus as Messiah, to accept Jesus as your Saviour and Lord, and it is another to enter into a real understanding of who he is.
For many of us it is a lifelong process.
Very often, Christians find following Christ difficult. It is not what they thought it would be like. A local preacher said to me recently, ‘People think that when they become Christians, all their problems will be solved. In fact, their problems are only just beginning!’
And there can be all sorts of problems as we travel the Christian way. It is so easy to think that God will protect us from disaster. How do we come to terms with the premature death of someone close to us who still had so much to give, whether by accident or disease? It can jolt our faith.
Another problem is when a blow is struck at a belief we hold dear. Theologians, and sometimes preachers, can sometimes undermine our belief. I think particularly (although it dates me!) of the Honest to God controversy of the 1960s, when the Bishop of Woolwich said that we need to stop thinking of God as ‘up there in heaven’ and think of God rather as ‘the depth of our being’. Some people were furious, others hurt that he seemed to be attacking their faith, whereas he was in fact only attacking the way in which it was expressed. But it did create problems of belief for some, sowed seeds of doubt.
So, how do we deal with these problems on we go on our Christian way? They are not an indication that we are not really Christian, but they are things that happen to us as, after coming to faith, we follow the Christian way. They require the sort of readjustment that the disciples, or at least Peter, had to make after coming to see Jesus as the Messiah. They needed to come to a deeper understanding. And that deeper understanding was given to them at the transfiguration.
So, how do we reach that deeper understanding? Not, it must be said, always by a mountain top experience. But it can come. We need a transfiguring vision of Jesus, so we see him as he really is – the suffering Saviour, who is with us in our suffering. When we are hit by bereavement, by illness, by debilitating doubt, and ask ‘How can this happen to me?’ then we can come to see Jesus in a new light, just as the disciples saw him in a different light on the mountain. We learn to see him, not as one who organises our lives so that there are no problems, but as one who is there for us, alongside us in our pain and distress, suffering with us, knowing what it is like, because he too has suffered, more than we ever will.
It can be the same when doubt seems to be undermining our faith. It can be a sign that we are beginning to move to a more substantial faith, to a deeper understanding of God, of Jesus, of our place in God’s plan. As we have seen, the disciples had their doubts, but Jesus gently led them to a fuller appreciation of what he was doing. He can do the same for us.
The disciples heard a voice, ‘This is my Son, whom I love… Listen to him.’ Not to Moses and Elijah, who you have listened to up to now. Listen to him. Leave old insights behind. And as you follow you will enter into a deeper understanding of him.
May that be true of each one of us as we follow our Lord.
© A J Coates 2008
Sermon on Courage (Malcolm New)
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