The result of the suffering that Jesus, Moses and Elijah discussed would be seen in Isaiah 53:10-12, Luke 24:1-8, John 20:19-20, Philippians 2:5-11, Hebrews 12:1-3 et al. All the glories the disciples’ grieving minds never anticipated. Indeed, the result cast a glow over the Lord’s Supper that we often instead see as a pallor.
Consider but two lessons the Transfiguration teaches. One, the reason Jesus went 2 ½ years before speaking plainly to the Twelve about his death Mark 8:27-30. Why wait so long with Calvary so near? Perhaps because he knew that only confessing him as God’s Son proved them spiritually mature enough to bear the devastating news of his coming rejection and crucifixion. Bear, not Hear, being the key word. As the Gospels make clear, each time heard it distressed them. We understand. We don’t want to hear that loved ones have an incurable disease. But we bear it because we know the bottom of a grave isn’t soil, stones, dirt, air or finality, but the entrance into everlasting life through Christ. Our loss is always their gain and we bear the loss to rejoice in their gain. Two, the impact of Christ’s miracles could be misunderstood by onlookers. Luke’s account of the Lord’s exorcism of the demonic boy the day following the Transfiguration noted that “everyone was marveling at all that Jesus did” 9:43b. When Jesus heard it, and saw the faces of his Twelve glow with delight, he immediately corrected the impression. In reality saying, “Don’t listen to them. They don’t understand. That’s not the way it’s going to be. Listen to me, I know. And I tell you that I’m going to be betrayed into the hands of men” 9:43b-44. Like the disciples that day, Christians today continually hear the opinions of unbelievers: what’s going to happen, who’s going to be at fault, how it’s going to eventuate. Don’t believe godless people. They have no idea if God’s beneficence or judgment is at hand for this country. They have no idea what has caused the secularism that has burned like subterranean fires through our culture. And they have none at all how to counteract and destroy it before it destroys us. Never look at life or death from this side of eternity, as unbelievers do. They don’t KNOW. But Christians do! And we know that a lot of what is acceptable behavior in our depraved world is unacceptable to God. And we stand with God as his friends by refusing to make ourselves his enemies by supporting or tolerating anti-Biblical ideas, convictions and behaviors. Fini
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