The importance of Jesus words...

Matthew 17: 1-13; Mark 9: 2-13; Luke 9: 28-36; 2 Peter 1: 16-21.

Matthew 17: 1-2

Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. ²And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white.

Jesus promised that there would be some that would see Him in His glory before their death (Matthew 16: 28). In today’s reading the writer of Matthew tells of a day when Jesus took a few of His inner group of disciples up a mountain and there Jesus was transformed in front of them in a blaze of light. They saw Jesus in a very different way; they saw a glimpse of Him in His pre-incarnational form. Two men appeared with Him and writers appear to know them with certainty; they were Moses and Elijah. Jesus of the Nazareth sermon is presented to the readers of the gospels and of 2 Peter as Divine and in conversation with two of the major characters from the story of ancient Israel. No wonder the disciples thought they would capture the moment and stay up the mountain and provide shelters for everybody present.  Let’s face it they wanted to hear what the two unexpected and very important characters from the story of Israel had to say. However, it was Jesus who was to inform them of what they needed to know and what Moses and Elijah were saying and meant. Jesus was to be heard; it was Jesus who was to reveal the part in the story of the revelation of God that Moses and Elijah actually plays. The early Christians clearly accepted that Jesus of the Nazareth sermon was the continuation and fulfilment of the story of Israel and that Jesus reveals the true meaning of the Law (Ethical and Ceremonial) and the Prophets. The glory revealed that day was not just the transfiguration glory of Jesus in overwhelming physical light but the transfiguration importance of hearing the words of Jesus and listening so closely that these words become our very life for living. Jesus is to be transfigured for all in His words and practices. The eternal Glory of God is revealed in the very words of Jesus and our participation in the story they reveal. Again we are being asked to be transformed in our thinking, relationships and practices by participation in the prophetic fulfilment of the story of Jesus of the Nazareth sermon. Jesus the Son of God is the pleasure of God the Father and is His revelation of Himself to you and me through the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21). Truly, we as His disciples have seen Him in His glory also if we hear the words of Jesus and put them into practice!