WEDNESDAY
When it comes to the folks who lived in Nazareth as Jesus was growing up there, I imagine they were probably jealous when they heard the stories of Moses and the prophets. As little children, when they heard about Moses speaking with God in the burning bush, as they heard the stories about Elijah speaking with God, about the fourth man in the fiery furnace, I imagine they often thought to themselves, “I wish I could have an experience like that. I wish I could stand before the presence of God like those men did.”
And yet, when it becomes clear to them that they are actually in the presence of God, when the Son of God is standing before them, the people of Nazareth are offended at the very suggestion that they should acknowledge it. Jesus? That Jesus? The one they grew up with? The one whose brothers and sisters they know? That just common, regular Jesus? No, absolutely not. If God is going to dwell with them, He’d better be amazing and explosive and terrifying and glorious. He can’t be just…ordinary.
And yet, this is the magnificent beauty of the incarnation and of the Gospel itself. When Christ becomes man, He becomes ordinary to show that He has come to save the ordinary, the inglorious, for the ungodly, the sinful, the fallen. So that’s the form our Lord takes, that of a common man from a hick town in Galilee. And then that common, ordinary Jesus lives an uncommon, unordinary life, a life of perfection and sinlessness. He lays down that life for you. He picks it back up for you. And because of this, He gives you the right to leave the realm of the ordinary and to live with Him forever in the kingdom of radiant glory. The One who spoke to Moses and Elijah, the one who appeared in the fiery furnace, He has clothed you in the purifying fire of His Father’s love and made you no longer common, but eternally precious in the eyes of your God.
THURSDAY
When Peter says to Jesus, “Lord, it’s good that we’re here. Let’s make three tents, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah,” he’s not in his right mind. He’s overwhelmed by the majesty of God that he sees shining from the face of Christ and he doesn’t know how to process it. So he hears Jesus talking with these Old Testament saints about his journey to Jerusalem, how He’s going to die for the sins of the world. And then Peter panics that all of this joy and splendor is going to go away, so out of his bewilderment and confusion, he tries to keep the majesty going. Confused, out of sorts, turned upside down. That’s how sinful men respond to the majesty of God. It’s how Peter does, how Moses initially does, how the prophets do as well. It’s how you would respond if you were to stare into the radiating awesomeness of your God’s nature.
And that’s important to remember because often when we get confused and disoriented by this world of sin, we often think we could find our way out if we just had some divine experience. If God would just appear to us and tell us what to do, then we’d get an answer to the questions we can’t figure out. If only He’d show us His glory, that would make us think clearly. But it wouldn’t. It would do the same thing to you it did to the apostles and prophets.
But because your Lord re-concealed His glory, because Jesus went down the mountain of the transfiguration and went up another mountain called Calvary, then the day is coming when you will stare into the face of God’s majesty and not be bewildered, not be out of sorts, not be terrified or confused. Because Jesus Christ destroyed your sins at the cross, because He has burned away everything wicked and evil within you and clothed you in His mercy, then He will lift you up from the grave on the last day. And with your perfected eyes, He will invite you to gaze upon the glory that is yours forever. On that day, you will keep your wonder. You will keep your amazement. You will keep your trembling joy. But your bewilderment will be gone. You will know exactly what you are looking at when you gaze upon the shining face of Jesus Christ. You will know “that is the face of my brother.”
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