Scripture: Luke 13:31-35

​In 2003, our space exploration program, NASA, was badly in need of a win.  This is because the organization’s last two exploration missions to Mars had ended in disaster.  In 1998, a climate monitoring satellite was lost due to an embarrassing math error and then in 1999 an expensive polar lander failed to survive the landing.  Hoping not to get a third strike, the highly ambitious Mars rover Opportunity was launched in 2003.  The rover landed successfully and began its ninety-day mission.   After completing this mission, the rover was still operational, so NASA scientists extended the mission.  They then found ways to smartly conserve the power of the rover to keep it going.  Opportunity was the little rover that could, and it kept on keeping on.  Opportunity finally went offline due to a massive dust storm in June of 2018.  When this happened, Opportunity had operated for 57 times more than its designed lifespan and exceeded it’s initial mission by fourteen years and 47 days.  Opportunity is a testament to human ingenuity and teamwork.  The team of engineers and scientists had to work together to overcome a variety of challenges to keep the rover going thousands of miles away on a completely different planet. 

The Opportunity rover is a shining example of keeping to the mission and pressing on in the face of adversity.  While the context is completely different, this morning’s scripture gives us another example.  The gospels give us small glimpses of Jesus’s ministry which about three years.  While we have a lot of snapshot stories, we do not get a lot of details.   This morning’s scripture gives us a glimpse at some of the adversity and struggles that Jesus faced.   We also get an authentic view at how the pressure and enormity of the mission Jesus had weighs on him in his melancholy lament for Jerusalem.  In this morning’s scripture we read of Jesus’ commitment to his mission in life, and how he was determined not just to keep to the mission but to do so with compassion.   In this morning’s scripture Jesus gives us an example of how we can keep on keeping on and be faithful no matter what we face.

This morning’s scripture is one that does require a little bit of context to understand. For instance, the political situation in Israel was complex.   By the time of Jesus’ ministry Israel was divided up.  Large parts of Israel, including Jerusalem and the coastal regions were part of a Roman province administered by Pontius Pilate the Roman Governor.  Other regions were client states, small kingdoms that were ruled by the descendants of Herod the great.   The Herod mentioned in this morning’s scripture is one of those descendants.  The kingdom of Herod Agrippa consisted of the regions around the Sea of Galilee and the Eastern side of the Jordan river.  In other words, Herod Agrippa ruled the area that Jesus spent most of his ministry. 

There is debate among biblical scholars why the Pharisees warned Jesus.  Some point out that this is proof they were not all bad.  They may have disagreed with Jesus, but at this point at least they did not think he deserved death and were trying to protect him.  Others have a less generous reading of the scripture and think that the Pharisees were trying to intimidate Jesus into leaving this region and heading to neighboring Judea where Herod would have no jurisdiction.   No matter what the motivation was, the Pharisees had a point.  Herod could have been perceived as a threat to Jesus.   The gospels already established that Herod did not like prophetic truth tellers because he had arrested and executed John the Baptist.   The gospel of Luke foreshadows this threat before this morning’s scripture in chapter 9.  There it is recorded that Herod hears about the miracles that Jesus is doing, the crowds that Jesus is gathering, and how people were whispering Jesus might be a prophet of old.   To this Herod replies in Luke 9:9, “But Herod said, ‘I beheaded John.  Who, then, is this I hear such things about? ‘ “

The threat to Jesus was real, but Jesus was undeterred.  He boldly stated he would keep on with what he was doing.   He told the Pharisees he would continue to be faithful to proclaiming the good news, because Jesus knew that his appointed time had not come.  Jesus knew that when he did eventually go to Jerusalem it would not be to save his life, but to lose it.  It is as if while making this proclamation, that Jesus realizes what his eventual sacrifice would mean for the people of Jerusalem.  Jesus wanted to save them.  He uses the lovely image of a mother hen protecting her chicks, but he knows that is not possible.  He knows that the people he wishes to save are going to crucify him and turn their back on him.  The gospel of John states it most plainly in verse 1:11, “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.” When I read this morning’s scripture, I cannot help but hear heart break in Jesus’ voice.  Jesus had the power to do miracles, to raise the dead, and ultimately Jesus displayed the power to defeat death itself.  Yet, Jesus could not make the people accept forgiveness.  He could not force them to say yes to God’s yes of grace and acceptance, and that is why Jesus expresses such sorrow for Jerusalem. 

 Even though Jesus was under threat, and even though Jesus knew that there would be people who reject his message and the forgiveness he offered, he did not give up.  As he stated in this morning’s scripture, “In any case, I must keep going on today, tomorrow, and the next day.”  Jesus knew he had a mission to fulfill, he knew that he was going to make all things new, reconcile people with their creator, and defeat sin and death once and for all.   In a similar way, as followers of Christ today we also have a mission to fulfill.  This is because our Lord and savior commanded us to love our neighbors as ourselves, he urged us to do for the least of these, and he commissioned us to make disciples of all nations.
 
In our United Methodist tradition, we have taken the directives given by Christ and we have summarized that our mission is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.   It is our mission to share the life changing, good news of Jesus Christ with people who do not yet know him so that they too may be his disciple.  It is our mission to work together to transform this world to be a more kind and loving place that better reflect the kingdom of God.   In this morning’s scripture we see Jesus is fully committed to keep on keeping on fulfilling his mission despite the potential resistance he faced and despite the weight of what he was doing.   When it come to living into our mission to make disciples of Christ for the transformation of the world, we can look to the example of Jesus to overcome the obstacles that we face.

 In this morning’s scripture, Jesus is distressed and saddened by the state of Jerusalem.   There is a sense of urgency and a longing to see the city saved.  One of the obstacles that we face is that we often lack the same sense of urgency.   Perhaps, we should feel a little bit more pressure to live into our mission to make disciples.  In 2007 16% of people in the United States claimed to have no religious affiliation.  Seven years later that number had risen to 20%.   Today 28% of Americans claim no religious affiliation. These are people who do not know God’s love, they do not know Jesus, and most of them do not really think much about that.   We do not need to go to the nations to make disciples, there are plenty of people right here in Rensselaer who do not know Jesus.  Our mission, as followers of Christ, is to make disciples.  It is to let these people know that Jesus loves them.  

The reality is we do not lack for people around us that we can share the good news with.  However, research shows that as American Christians the lack of urgency to do so is a real obstacle.  According to a study done by Lifeway research in 2019, over a quarter of regular church attenders do not even pray for opportunities to tell others about Jesus.   The same study found that less than half of all Christians have had a conversation about Jesus with a non-Christian in the past six-month time period.   There seems to be an especially steep lack of urgency within the United Methodist church.  In their book “Get Their Name” Bob Farr, Doug Anderson, and Kay Kotan’s research showed that the average member of a United Methodist church invites someone to come to worship with them only once every thirty-eight years. 

I understand, we are all busy.   We all have too much pulling us in too many directions.   We all have our own problems, and we all have dozens of concerns that take up all the mental bandwidth we can manage.   And yet, people need Jesus.  Rensselaer needs Jesus, and friends it is our mission to share the good news.  In this morning’s scripture, Jesus feels like he must keep on, he longs to gather people to know him.  If we are being honest, we all know that our to-do list is never going to get finished.  Things are never going truly slow down in a little bit.  If we want to make disciples, at some point we have to choose just do it.  I am not saying that we need to be going door to door, but we need to be more willing to share Jesus when God gives us the opportunity to do so.  In the very least, can we all please (please) agree to invite someone to come to church with us more than once every thirty-eight years? 

When it comes to the transforming the world part of our mission statement, one of the other obstacles we face is the enormity of it all.  It is not hard to look around and begin to identify things that are wrong, to see ways that our world is deeply broken, and see problems that desperately need someone to fix them.   However, it is a much more difficult thing to do anything about it.  When we look at the ways that generational poverty impacts people, that systemic sins like racism continue to rear their ugly head, or the ways that global exploitation and inequality causes problems it is much hard to figure out how we can do anything about it.  In the face of such big problems, under the shadow of such incredible darkness, and staring down so much evil it seems anything that we could possibly do is so inconsequential it would not even matter. 

Jesus came to change the world.  This morning’s scripture gives us a hint that he faced some stiff opposition, but he still kept on.   Even if we cannot fix the world’s problems we can still transform it through our actions.   There is a story that speaks about this.  It is an old story that has been around for a while, so you might have heard it before, but it is a tale that resonates deeply with me.  Along a coastline a strong storm blew in and greatly churned waters.   The next morning the beaches were littered with whole hosts of sea creatures that the waves had stranded on the sand.   Several people came out to gawk and see the spectacle of the debris.  They were surprised to notice one young boy walking the beach, finding star fish and throwing them back into the ocean.   One man went down and asked this boy what he was doing, he simply replied, “Saving star fish.”   The man, not really satisfied with that answer asked, “Why?”   The boy, not quite sure what the man was not understanding replied, “Because they need saving.”   Perhaps this man was just having a bad day, but he did not find this boy’s naive outlook very endearing.  He bluntly stated, “Why bother?   Look how many have washed up on this beach there is no way one little boy can save all of them.   Even if you do, they are just starfish.  What does it matter?”   The young boy reached down, grabbed a washed-up star fish, through it back in the sea and replied, “It matters to that one.”  

In this morning’s scripture we get a glimpse at the opposition and struggles that Jesus faced in fulfilling his God given mission.  We see how the weight of what Jesus was doing, was pulling on Jesus.   Yet, we also see how Jesus was committed to keep on keeping on.  We also have our own mission to make disciples and transform the world.  We face obstacles, but may we be willing to keep on today, tomorrow, and the next day.   May God give us a sense of urgency to share the good news and may we be willing to help people, because even if it is just one person- it matters to that one.   Trinity United Methodist Church, as followers of Jesus it is our mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.  So may we keep on keeping on.   
 

When the very first modern Olympic Games were held in 1896, fencing was one of the sports included and it has been part of every Olympiad since.   Fencing only really coalesced as a sport shortly before those first Olympics.   The first officially recognized fencing tournament was not held until 1880, and it was not until 1894 that an internationally agreed upon rule set for fencing was adopted.  Starting in 1894 three different forms of fencing were recognized: foil, epee, and saber.   However, in 2019 the road was opened for a new fencing style. In 2019 The French Fencing Federation, which is one of the more influential international federations, formally recognized lightsaber as an official fencing technique.  With this recognition they created standards, rules of play, and all the other trappings that are part of international fencing.   This means in France, lightsaber dueling is an officially recognized sport.  It also means that over time more national fencing federations around the world might also recognize lightsaber dueling so that someday it could even be an Olympic sport. 
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There are fencing clubs in Indiana that will teach lightsaber as a technique (sadly not any that close to here).  It does not matter if the fencing technique is lightsaber or something much older like saber, the basic concepts are the same.   One side attacks, the other side attempts to block which in fencing is to parry, and then the blocker attempts to riposte which is striking back quickly after a parry.  This riposte is a new attack that must now be parried.  This continues until one side scores a hit or one side pulls back and disengages.  Attack-parry-riposte is the basic flow of all forms of fencing, including lightsaber.  It is also the same pattern that we see in this morning’s scripture.  The devil attacks, Jesus parries, and there is a back and forth with the devil trying to find a weakness in Jesus.

This morning’s scripture is a well-known one.  The temptation of Jesus appears in some form in the gospels Matthew, Mark, and Luke.   By the traditional lectionary, this story in some form is the gospel lesson during the first Sunday of Lent.   In all versions of the scripture right after being baptized Jesus is taken away by the Spirit to the wilderness. It is commonly assumed that this wilderness is the area between Jericho and Jerusalem.  This is a dry desert reason.  While Jesus was in this region he fasted for 40 days.  He would have been hungry and weak.  In this morning’s scripture it states, “for forty days he was tempted by the devil.”  The gospel of Luke alone implies that Jesus faced temptations throughout the forty days, but all three gospels that have this story contains the same three temptations. 

While none of us have ever been offered power over all the kingdoms of the world Like Jesus was, that particular temptation shares elements with more common temptations.  If we take the three temptations that Jesus faced and break them down to what is really behind these temptations, then we can see that they are like the temptations we face.  We can learn from how Jesus handled these temptations so when we are confronted by the desire to act sinfully, we can parry and riposte successfully. 

The first temptation that Jesus faced was to turn stone into bread.  This does not seem like a big deal.  After all, Jesus endured a fast longer than most of us could handle.  He was in real need of food.  It does not seem unreasonable for Jesus to use his power to keep himself nourished.  Except it was by the leading of God’s spirit that Jesus was out in the wilderness.  The long fast was clearly a directive from God.   The temptation here is to obey God or meet his physical needs.  The first temptation of Jesus was one that asked him to prioritize himself over obedience to God.   While none of us would have faulted Jesus for making stones into bread, the general temptation here is one of selfishness.  All the temptations Jesus faces in this morning’s scripture are dialed up to eleven and are the most extreme examples.  Yet, we face similar temptations as this one.  When we are just a little uncomfortable, we are much likely to focus on ourselves than pay attention to others or be obedient to God. 

Many of the temptations we face daily are ones that are selfish in nature.  Many of the temptations we face regularly are ones that center ourselves at the expense of others.  We face these kinds of temptations so often; we sometimes do not even properly recognize them as being tempted to sinful actions.  This is because we are all amazing at justifying our actions.   It does not matter how selfish or self-centered someone’s actions are, People tend to be really good at coming up with reasons why it is OK this one time to do whatever it is. A small example we have all encountered is the person with a nice car who purposely parks so that they take up multiple spots to keep anyone from parking close to them.  It seems this never happens during down times when there is a ton of space, and these people never tend to the back of the parking lot.  They seem to always do this closer to the front and the park so that their car effectively takes up at least three spaces.  Even though it is a jerk move, the person who does this has likely rationalized in their mind why it is acceptable for them to act that way.  They see their actions as perfectly justifiable, because they are putting themselves above all else.   Whenever we have a self-centered want it is not hard for us to succumb to the temptation to perceive that want as a need and then justify our actions as to how we meet that perceived need.    This first temptation is one of selfishness, to put ourselves first.  We regularly face temptations to do things that put ourselves first above loving our neighbors or loving God.   

The second temptation that Jesus faced is perhaps the most straightforward.  Devil offered Jesus power.  We all know the proverb: “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”   We have all seen this.  From the school yard bully who pushes around smaller kids because they can, to the middle manager who terrorizes employees because they can, to the international dictators who invade other countries because they can.  We have all seen and unfortunately many of have suffered the consequences of someone else’s sinful acts motivated by a desire for power.  Think of all the lies, the people hurt, and broken lives that have been created in human history for the quest of power.   Jesus was offered more power than any one person has ever been offered, so he understands the alluring temptation that power offers.  Yet, Jesus once again  parries the devil and quotes scripture.  Jesus once again focuses on God, and Jesus shows us that instead of seeking power to rule our petty little kingdoms we should worship and serve the one and true Almighty God. 

The final temptation Jesus faced was more of a dare.  The temple complex in Jerusalem was built on a hill overlooking a valley.  In the time of Jesus, it had been thoroughly developed and at one place from the top of the wall to the bottom of the valley would have been about 450 ft in the day of Jesus.  This is the spot the devil took Jesus, dared him to jump and have the angels catch him.   This was an appeal to Jesus’ pride.   Like Jesus was here, we are also tempted by pride regularly.   This temptation comes in the form of a challenge, and often that is how we are tempted into pride as well.  We feel challenged, and we are so convinced our rightness we refuse to back down no matter the cost.  Pride is when we think too much of our own selves.  Pride is when we refuse to admit we might be wrong, refuse to apologize, or when we refuse to consider the position or feelings of others.   It is the opposite of humility and pride is one of the great catalysts of sinful actions.  C.S. Lewis points this out in Mere Christianity.   He wrote, “A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.” 

We do not face the exact temptations that Jesus faced but we face the same kinds of temptations.  If you think about all the wrong in the world, then many of the ways that people are mean and unkind to one another can trace back to selfishness, lust for power, or pride. These are temptations that all of us face.   The particulars might look different for each of us, but we are tempted in much the same way Jesus was.  We face temptations daily, and they can often be hard for us to parry. Temptations have a nasty way of turning into bad habits which can become lifestyle choices or crippling addictions.  It can feel like we are bombarded by cultural messages, peer pressure, and our own personal demons to give into temptations.  It can all be so much that it can seem impossible to block, much less riposte and push back.  Jesus being fully God and fully man, knows the temptations we face and Jesus showed us how to deal with them.  

It is worth noting just how little Jesus engages with Devil in this morning’s scripture.   Devil is attempting to tempt Jesus, and Jesus barely gives him the time of day.  We do not see Jesus arguing with Devil, we do not see him trying to put the devil in his place or fighting in anyway.  It is less an epic duel, and more Jesus swatting away an annoyance. In fact, the only thing that Jesus says to the devil are quotes from scripture. 

  By quoting scripture, Jesus does more than just say “no” to the devil’s temptations. Every time Jesus is tempted in this morning’s story, he quotes scripture so that he focuses on the right thing.  He quotes scripture, but notice the scripture that Jesus quotes.  Each one connects to his relationship with the Father.   Jesus resist temptation by leaning into his relationship with God.   Jesus says no to the darkness by clinging to the light.  This is an example we should follow.   When it comes to the temptations, we face we tend to overcomplicate it.   We constantly are thinking of ways to justify our behavior.  We are constantly looking for reasons why this time it is OK, because it is an exception. Or we create arbitrary lines so that our selfish or prideful behavior is excusable because at least we did not go across that line.  Following the example of Jesus though cuts right through all of these games we play with ourselves. 

 Instead of making how we wrestle with our temptation complex, we can make it simple.   Every time we are tempted we face a choice, and we can boil that choice down to the most common denominator.  The choice is to say yes to temptation and take a step away from God or we say no to temptation and take a step closer to God.  We either say yes to what tempts us or we say yes to God, we cannot do both.   So let’s follow the example of Jesus and lean into our relationship with God.  

We will not always get it right.  Instead of parrying the temptation and riposting into our relationship with God, the temptation will land. There will still be times where we fall short where we say yes to something else other than God.   When that happens, we also face a choice.  We can fall into guilt, we can allow temptation to gain a stronger foothold as we continue to give in.   We can be weighed down by the weight of our shame and guilt or we can turn back to God.   We can confess or sins, we can repent, we can believe the gospel and we can be forgiven again.  The blood of Christ is strong enough to break every chain.  Even if we have wandered down a dark path, God the Father will always accept us back with open arms.

This morning’s scripture is a hopeful reminder that like Jesus we too can resist sin, but this morning’s scripture is a realistic reminder that all too often we miss the mark.   Perhaps that is why the story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness is traditionally read at the start of lent.   May we not lust after power or in selfishness focus on ourselves in prideful ways. Like Jesus may we be quick to turn to scripture and may we strive to keep our focus on hearts, our minds, and our souls focused on God.   In this season of lent may we fully to commit to repent and believe the gospel.   
 
 

Scripture:  Luke 9:28-36

 Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers of this country and third president of the United States, might be best known for being the author of the Declaration of Independence.   The foundational document famously contains these words: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.”  In the Declaration of Independence, we get a glimpse of Jefferson’s faith.  However, the faith that Thomas Jefferson held is one that deviates greatly from the Christianity that many of us profess and believe today.   We know this, because Thomas Jefferson created his own edit of the gospels.  The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, commonly referred to as the Jefferson Bible, is a work that he composed.  He did this by literally cutting sections out of the four gospels and piecing them together to create one document that Jefferson believed capture the essence of Jesus’ life and teachings.   In doing so Jefferson left out a lot, specifically anything that seemed supernatural, including the resurrection.   Jefferson did this because he personally did not believe in the truth of those elements of the gospel, so he literally removed the parts of the bible he disagreed with.   Needless to say, this morning’s scripture did not make Jefferson’s cut. 

Thomas Jefferson believed that the miracles of Jesus like walking on water were based in superstition not in reality.  His edit of the gospels was his attempt to create what he believed to be a more factual or authentic view of Jesus.  Jefferson is not alone in this.   Since the time of Jefferson there have been scholars who have strived to capture the historical Jesus.  Even to this day, there is a steady trickle of academically minded books that are published to further explore and define the historical Jesus.  A lot of this work focuses heavily on the culture and time that Jesus lived and how these forces shaped Jesus as a man.  Much of the work focused on the historical Jesus defines Jesus only as a person in a particular time and place.  Like Thomas Jefferson, the majority of it discounts the more supernatural elements. 
I do think there is a lot of wisdom to considering the historical context and we can learn a lot from serious scholar inquiry into the culture of Jesus’ time.  However, this morning’s scripture is a reminder that Jesus is more than just a historical figure.   Jesus is more than just a man, and the only way to ignore this is to cut out whole parts of the bible.  This morning’s scripture reminds us that Jesus is the son of God and this morning’s scripture helps us realize how we should relate to Jesus the Christ, when his glory is fully revealed. 
 
 The story of Jesus’ transfiguration is found in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.  While all three gospels have minor differences in the details they emphasize, all three gospels agree on the major details.   All three gospels have Jesus taking Peter, John, and James up a mountain to pray.  While there have been some historical disagreements about where this took place, most biblical scholars today agree that the mountain in question is Mount Hermon.  This is the largest mountain in Northern Israel, reaching over 9,000 feet, and the summit is snowcapped.  This was not just a brief hike.  This morning’s scripture implies that the event of the transfiguration happened at night and woke the disciples up.  So Jesus and the disciples had journeyed aways into the wilderness as they ascended the mountain. 
 
In all three gospels, the story of the transfiguration takes place about one week after Jesus ask his disciples “but what about you?  Who do you say I am?” and Peter answers, “God’s messiah.”   It is then in the transfiguration that Jesu’s glory is revealed.   Jesus meets with Moses, the keeper of the covenant that makes God the God of the Israelites and the Israelites the people of God.   Jesus is revealed as the fulfillment of the covenant.  As God’s messiah it is through Jesus is through him that all people can become God’s people.   While transfigured Jesus meets with Elijah as well.  The prophet Malachi declares that Elijah will come before the day of the Lord, the day that God deals with sin and evil once and for all.  As the messiah, Jesus did this.  His atoning sacrifice defeats sin and death and reconciles us to God.   Just in case Peter, James, and John missed all of this, God the Father even declares this “This is my Son, whom I have chosen, listen to him.” 

It is truly a remarkable scene.  It is a story that is included in these three gospels to explicitly make the point that Jesus is not just another man.   It is a story that confronts us with the divinity of Jesus.   It must have been an incredible sight, and one that was overwhelming.  This morning’s scripture records after it was all over “the disciples kept this to themselves and did not tell anyone at that time what they had seen.”   The gospels make it clear that Peter is not afraid to talk, yet even he is stunned into silence by what he witnessed.  Perhaps, if we put ourselves in the disciples’ shoes it is easy to see why they felt this way, and we get a glimpse of how we can best relate to and interact with Jesus. 

 I can only begin to imagine what witnessing the transfiguration must have been like for Peter, John, and James.   They were woken up by a bright light and a lot of commotion.  I wonder if they were confused at first, unsure if they were dreaming or if this was real life.  All three gospels struggle to convey what the disciples saw, and they all choose different imagery to get the idea across.  Here in the gospel of Luke, the description is that the clothes of Jesus became as bright as a flash of lightning.   One of the details that I wonder about, is how did the disciples know who Jesus was talking to.  The implication is that they must have heard something of the conversation Jesus was having with them to deduce that the two people Jesus was talking to were Moses and Elijah.  Again, I must wonder what was going through the minds of the disciples when they realized this.   Moses is a person they would have been taught to look up to and emulate their whole life.   It truly must have been incredible for them.  It is no wonder they were silent; how could they begin to find the words to describe something so amazing and beyond explanation?

Despite how just awe-inspiring it must have all been, Peter had to say something.  As I already stated, Peter is not afraid to talk, so he interrupts this divine moment to offer to build three shelters, one each for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah.  I especially like how in this morning’s scripture reading, Luke adds a parenthetical comment of “He did not know what he was saying” to drive home the absurdity of what he was offering.   Yet, perhaps we should not be too hard on Peter.  He was likely thinking back to the stories that he had learned in the bible.   Multiple times in the Old Testament, when someone had an encounter with God they would build a structure and give it a special name.   One example of this in Genesis, after Jacob encounter God in a dream, Jacob builds a pillar of rocks and calls the place Bethel, meaning house of God.   Perhaps, that is the kind of thing that Peter had in mind.   Peter wanted to commemorate this event, freeze it in time, and make it a moment of great importance that could be celebrated and venerated for years to come. 

Honestly, we probably are not that different from Peter.  This was a profound, spiritual experience for Peter.  He saw before him the heroes of his faith, and he saw the glory of God messiah fully revealed.   Today, when someone has an encounter that has immense spiritual importance to them or when someone feels the presence of God in a powerful way it is referred to as a mountain top experience.  Often these mountain top experiences become formative in the lives of people.  They become moments that they look back on with fondness and they often hope to recrate that same feeling in the future.  We may not build little monuments to commemorate these moment, but in our memories we certainly enshrine these holy encounters.   In this morning’s scripture Peter wanted to do the same when he had a literal mountain top experience with Jesus.   However, in doing this he kind of missed the point in a couple of ways.  

First, Peter wanted to build these structures to memorialize the transfiguration.  He wanted a lasting monument to the time that Jesus was transformed before him and radiated as brightly as the lightening flashes.  He wanted this spot to be remembered where the glory of the messiah was fully revealed.  The point that Peter misses here, is that for Jesus this was not necessarily anything special.   What changed is how Peter saw Jesus, who Jesus was did not change.  The bright and radiate messiah, chosen by God is who Jesus always has and always has been.  Peter saw Jesus as he is in this morning’s scripture, but that does not mean Jesus was transformed or changed.   The bright, glowing Jesus and the regular Jesus at the beginning and the end of this morning’s scripture are the same person.

This is where I think the quest for the historical Jesus misses the mark.  Jesus the historical man and Jesus the son of God are the same Trying to only focus on the humanity of Jesus while ignoring Jesus as the glorious messiah is an attempt to keep Jesus manageable.   If he is reduced to only a man who managed to have a large influence on history, then Jesus can be just another remarkable historical figure.  A smaller, less magnificent Jesus is easier for us to handle.  It is easier for us to keep Jesus in a nicely contained box in our lives, instead of being overwhelmed by his goodness, his glory, and his grace.  When people take the Thomas Jefferson route and cut out the parts of the bible that point to Jesus’ divinity, then it makes it so they do not have to bow down and worship Jesus as Lord and God.  

There is danger in going the other way as well and only focusing on the divinity of Jesus.  This gets closer to how Peter specifically missed the point.  When we only focus on the glorified version of Jesus, then we overly spiritualize Jesus.  We make Jesus a person that we can only meet in holy places and the only response we can have is one of awe and worship.   However, doing this means we forget the very first thing Jesus said to his disciples- the first thing he said to Peter.   He did not say worship me, he said follow me.   When we focus only on the divine and spiritual side of Jesus, we run the risk of making Jesus a place we come to worship and not a teacher to follow.        

 The second way that Peter missed the point is in how he tried to honor Jesus.   His whole idea of building shelters was misguided, but his heart was in the right place.  He suggested it because he wanted to honor Jesus.  Like Peter we should want to honor Jesus.  We should want to honor him because Jesus is fully God and fully man.   He is the glorious messiah shining like the brightest light and he is the Son of Man who was obedient to the point of death on a cross.  He is the King of kings, the Lord of Lords, the living water, and the Great shepherd.  He is savior who defeated sin and death and he is the great rescuer who brought about forgiveness for each one of us.  He is the son of God whose glory has been revealed.  

We should seek to honor Jesus but building monuments to commemorate a moment is not the best way to honor him.  We do not honor Jesus by building taller steeples or putting religious monuments in public spaces.     Fortunately, in this morning’s scripture we are told the best way to do this.  In fact, it is God the father who tells us this.  The best way we can honor Jesus, as God says, is to “listen to him.” We honor Jesus by listening to him.  

Jesus told us to love God with all of our being and to seek the kingdom of God above all else.  Jesus gave us a new command to love one another, so that we may best learn to care for the needs of the world.  Jesus told us to love our neighbors as ourselves and set an example of love that is sacrificial.  He pointed out the people we should be extending this care and kindness to are the least of these, those who are most in need of care and inclusion.   If we want to honor Jesus then we listen to him and we actually do it. 

 So may we not put Jesus in a box by trying to define him too narrowly.   May we not seek to turn Jesus into a memorial that we only come to when we want to find or relive a mountain top experience.  Instead, may we see Jesus as he truly is, the messiah, the son of God, the savior of the world.   And may, please, listen to him.