Shown Another Way
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Last week we heard the parables about the kingdom and this week we jump over to the stories of carrying our own cross and the transfiguration. In order to get the most out of these stories we need to know more of what has just happened. We hear Jesus ask the disciples who people say that he is and they say what they’ve heard people say which includes John the Baptist and Elijah. Then Jesus asks who they think he is and Peter responds that he is the Christ the son of the Living God. Then Jesus tells them that he must suffer, die and rise on the third day. Peter rejects that idea and Jesus tells him that he is acting like Satan and he needs to focus on divine things not human things. It is in that context that we hear Jesus tell them that they must say no to themselves take up their cross and follow him.
And as much as I don’t want to admit it, I am probably like Peter. What I mean by that is that while I am sure that part of Peter was concerned about Jesus and his not dying, I am also convinced that Peter was concerned about his own life and the state of the world if Jesus were to leave it. If he is the Christ and the son of the living God, just think about all the things that he could do, and had been doing to fix and make the world a better place. If Jesus dies and leaves the world, how is it going to get any better? What is Peter supposed to do? What are any of the disciples supposed to do after he is gone? Sure on the surface Peter seems concerned about Jesus, but when you really think about it Peter is focused on himself and what Jesus death means for him. He doesn’t seem as concerned about what that might mean for Jesus and what Jesus death really means for the world. To cut Peter some slack, he doesn’t really understand the reason and meaning behind Jesus’ death and resurrection. Yet at the same time I think I and probably you and many other people are often concerned with how something will affect us personally instead of how it might affect the person who is actually going through it.
Which is why when we pick up in our reading today about Jesus telling the disciples to say no to themselves, take up their cross and follow him, it is almost certainly a direct comment on the interaction between him and Peter. Peter is so focused on what the world needs from Jesus, what he needs from Jesus that he doesn’t want Jesus to die. Jesus then says that he and everyone else who is following him needs to reevaluate what it is they are focusing on in their lives. Peter, and probably the disciples, as I said were so focused on themselves, their own lives, that they were losing sight of what was most important. They were losing sight of what Jesus was really trying to show them, teach them, and have them live lives like. Sure their lives would have seemed grand and wonderful and it probably would have felt like the whole world was theirs if Jesus lived a full and long life, but while they gained the world they had known and become comfortable with, what was were they actually losing and missing? And what would the world be missing if they had convinced Jesus not to go through with his journey to Jerusalem?
I already said it, but I think it bears saying again, I do the same thing and I am sure we all do it. We focus on ourselves and what is best for us and while it may seem like the world is going great, we may be missing out on real life, real faith, and becoming the most faithful follower of Christ, if we didn’t let some things go in our lives so that we can be challenged and grow in the ways that Christ would have us grow. And if it involves inserting our lives into someone else’s for our benefit not only are we preventing our growth, but we are preventing the growth of the other person as well.
To help Peter, along with James and John, to better understand what it means for Jesus to be the Christ, to suffer and die, and to rise again, Jesus brings them up a high mountain. There he is transformed and stands before them with Moses and Elijah. While it is powerful seeing Jesus with the epitome of the representation of the Law in Moses and the same in Elijah for the prophets, there is still more that is happening that can help Peter and us understand Jesus’ path and our own. Moses represented the introduction of faithful living through the covenant, and Elijah represented renewing that living into the covenant. Jesus represents the fulfillment of both of those things. In those lives of Moses and Elijah though we also see lives that were riddled with the burden of responsibility of bearing those things to the people. Moses endured being the voice of God to a people who were constantly rejecting him for 40 years. Elijah was rejected by people, the king and queen, faced off against false prophets and so much more.
I feel as much as Moses and Elijah were there to support Jesus, I feel they were also there to help the disciples understand that the path of following the will of God is difficult. Sure they represent the greatest figures of faith, but their paths met staunch resistance and hardship along the way. In the end Moses didn’t see the promised land and Elijah was carried off into heaven. If Jesus is standing with these figures of faith perhaps his life is meant to be like theirs and if that is the case then perhaps when Jesus tells them that they need to live lives that focus on the good of others, perhaps they should listen to what he has to say. Perhaps trying to stop Jesus is actually the easy and selfish path, not the hard path. Perhaps losing one’s self really is the path to living a full and meaningful life guided by the Holy Spirit.
If seeing Moses and Elijah with Jesus didn’t convince them of the life Jesus and they need to live and the need to really listen to Jesus when he says those hard and difficult, but important things, then perhaps the very voice of God telling them to listen to him would do the trick. Hopefully God places in them and in us that which we need to really hear. Whatever goes on in our lives, whatever other things happen, whatever other voices we hear (even our own), the voice of Jesus is the one that leads to life and true happiness. It is the life that, though is bound to be difficult at times, is the life that is worth living, and a life that allows us to be authentically us, and more importantly authentically who God created us to be. Children of God living our lives for the sake of others so that all may know the love and sacrifice that Christ made for us all. Amen.