“JESUS' SNEAK PREVIEW”
Matthew 16:1,13-9; 21, 27-17:9
We're in a series exploring Jesus message about the Kingdom of Heaven. Everywhere he went he talked about it, told stories to illustrate it and performed miracles to demonstrate it. Not too sur-prisingly people began to wonder who he really was. How did this Nazarene carpenter know so much?
One of the things I love about Matthew is how often he quotes the questions people were asking. I love that because it reveals that it's alright to have questions.
Growing up, my mom asked a lot of questions. Some of them were real head scratchers. For instance she'd walk into my messy room and ask, “What is this? Did a tornado blow through here?”
I wondered what happened, and you guessed it, Mom!
Another time she caught me drawing targets on the walls in the basement with a majic marker, “What in tarnation do you think you're doing?” They're not tarnations – they're targets!
She was not amused. She also asked pointed questions like: “Have you been gallovanting around....?” What's a gallovant? Isn't that a kind of dance? “Didn't I tell you not to dilly-dally? And why are you lollygagging?” Lollygagging? Isn't that when you choke on a sucker....?
Her classic, though, when she'd had it up to here with all my gallovanting, dilly-dallying and lollygagging, was to to ask me that classic identity question: “Donald Andrew Pieper, who do you think that you are?” Uh, well, Donald Andrew Pieper, I guess. Is that a trick question?
Back to the question of Jesus' identity. Over and over again people are raising the issue. When Jesus forgives the sins of the man flat on a mat, the religious teachers ask: “Who does he think he is? Does he think he's God?” (Matthew 9:3) When Jesus healed the demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, in the text Jamie unpacked a couple of weeks ago, “The crowd was amazed and asked, 'Could it be that Jesus is the Son of David, the Messiah?” (Matthew 12:23) Last week we read that when Jesus calmed the stormy sea, his disciples asked, “Who is this man?” (Matthew 8:27) Even John the Baptist is asking: 'Are you the Messiah...or should we keep looking for someone else?'
(Matthew 11:3)
It's as if Matthew is pressing the question to us, to wrestle with Jesus question: “But who do you say I am?” (Matthew 16:15) It's in this context that Jesus takes his inner core group up to the mountain where he provides them with clarity and the ultimate mountain top experience.
Imagine the conversation on the way up. “You guys ae going to love what you'll find at the top of this mountain.” The first responds cynically: “What? Another scenic vista?” The second scoffs, “Better cell service?” The third: “Maybe we'll meet a prophet who'll tell us the meaning of life. 'You know – you do the Hokey Pokey, and you turn yourself around. That's what it's all about.'”
Jesus had told them to turn themselves around, to repent, the Kingdom of Heaven is near! Now he was about to bless his core group of three with a sneak preview of what that ultimately looks like.
Four fun facts leap off the pages. One, it's about location... Jesus is transformed on the mount-ain. Why there? The mountain is historically, biblically, where God's power and presence is revealed.
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It's on the mountain that God revealed himself to Moses and gave him the Ten Commandments; its on the mountain that God passed by Elijah and spoke to him and it's on the mountain that Jesus articulated his vision for those who recognize their need for him. Matthew notes that this event didn't just happen to occur on the mountain, Jesus made sure it did: “Six days later, (after asking his identity Q), Jesus took Peter, James and John, and led them up a high mountain.” (Matthew 17:1)
So one, location; Two, reputation. It's not just anyone who appears with Jesus on the mountain, its Moses and Elijah! These two guys are the greatest heroes of Israel. They were and are pillars of the Jewish faith. That these two men are seen talking to Jesus reveals their compatibility and the nature of Jesus' significance. They represent the law and the prophets, verifying something Jesus said of himself and his: “I have not come to abolish the law and the prophets but to fulfill them!” (Matthew 5:17)
One location; two, reputation, and three, mission. This event shows Jesus at work training his inner core of disciples for the mission ahead. Throughout the gospels Jesus invests in the twelve, and in particular, this core group of three. To them he gave the keys to the kingdom of heaven. “Upon you I will build my church..., and I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven.”
(Matthew 16:19)
It's no coincidence that he'd just told them this and now gave them a sneak preview of heaven. It brings to mind a key that's been sitting on my desk. It's Ann Louise's church key. It represents to me the way she embodied Jesus' mission among us. She had access through the Spirit to the church, which is not so much a building as it is the people therein. Like Peter, James & John, she was entrusted to the key to the kingdom of heaven, to help others gain access to it' king, filled with & walking in his Spirit.
Back in chapter four Peter, James and John were his first disciples called to follow him. Later when Jesus raises a little girl up from the dead, “Jesus wouldn't let anyone go in with him except Peter, James and John, and the little girls' father and mother.” (Luke 8:51) And again, when he prays in the Garden of Gethsamane just prior to his arrest, “Jesus took Peter, James and John with him to the olive grove called Gethsamane where he became anguished and distressed.” He gave them access to his heart, the key to the kingdom of heaven here and yet to come! (Matthew 13:37)
Their mission ahead is made clear here at his Transfiguration. “As they went down the mount-ain, he told them not to tell anyone what they'd seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.” (Matt 17:9) Why weren't they to tell anyone yet? Because A) no one would understand, B) at that moment they didn't understand, obvious in Peter's silly idea... & C) because it was only after Jesus had risen from the dead that they'd come to understand and be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit for the purpose of telling others. As he later told them: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere...!” (Acts 1:8)
So one, its about location; two, reputation; three, mission; and four, illumination. Matthew tells us that in that moment on the mountain, Jesus’ face and clothes became supernaturally bright with light! As Matthew puts it: “As the men watched, Jesus' appearance was transformed, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.” (Matthew 17:2)
It was a sneak preview of Jesus' glory. In his book, Imagine Heaven, John Burke shares a number of near-death experiences and what they have in common, one of which is an encounter with a being of intense light: “I met a being who was pure light! His brightness was before me, around me, and in me. He's brighter than the noonday sun but we can still look at him in Heaven. Jesus is more beautiful, wonderful and glorious than I can explain and his love is so personal, it just lights you up!”
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In his Revelation vision, John, one of the three on the mt, wrote this: “The city in heaven does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.”(Revelation 21:23) Likewise when the apostle Paul encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus, he said, “It was about noon when a very bright light from heaven shone down around me..., and I heard a voice saying to me, 'I am Jesus the Nazarene, the one you are persecuting...” (Acts 22:6)
Imagine what that was like to have seen Jesus in this way. It was the ultimate mountain top experience! It confirms Peter's declaration:“You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God!”
(Matthew 16:16)
Jesus confirms that, not with mere words, but with an otherworldly revelation. It must have made quite an impact because this event is the only event in Jesus' ministry, other than his death and resurrection, that Peter makes reference to in the two short letters he later wrote to the early church.
Listen to the passion in his witness: “We were not making up clever stories about Jesus. We saw his majestic splendor with our own eyes when he received honor and glory from God the Father as he declared: 'This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy!' We ourselves heard his voice from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain. Because of that experience, we have even greater confidence in the message proclaimed by the prophets. Their words are like a lamp shining in a dark place – until the Day dawns, and Christ the morning Star shines in your hearts!”
(Peter 1:16-19)
Jesus' transfiguration illuminated Jesus' character. He was indeed the Son of the Living God as Peter had confessed and as confirmed by the words Jesus' Father spoke over him on the mountain, just as he had the day he was filled with the Holy Spirit at his Baptism. All three synoptic gospels record this event, emphasizing its significance in illuminating Jesus as the Light of the world.
What Jesus gave to Peter, James and John as a sneak preview of the future kingdom of heaven, he seems now to be giving to people around the globe through NDE's.
Heidi, whose chest was crushed, when a 700 pound Arabian horse fell on her reports: “I was suddenly above the barn, but could see everything happening in the barn. I prayed, 'I wish my sisters didn't have to see me die.' Instantly I noticed a light over my right shoulder. The light was a golden light. Not the sun, which was behind clouds. I turned to look and saw man of light. He smiled and so did I. I recognized him immediately. This is the man, God, who'd been at my bedside when I was little.
This man of light was Jesus, or Yeshua, as my mom called him.I'd never been allowed to say his name but here he was smiling at me, every bit as happy as I was. It was so joyful! I became aware of how much he loved me, though I didn't deserve it. I'd never prayed to him, yet here was, loving me!”
(from John Burke's Imagine the God of Heaven)
Then there's Santosh who was raised in a conservative Hindu family In India. Santosh clinically died after being put into a medically induced coma. “I always thought that once you die, your life is finished, but I thought to myself, I'm not dead. I'm still thinking. As I did so, I could see my body lying on the hospital bed when a bright light approached me. The Light was so bright and I knew that it had superior authority. When the Light came near me it engulfed me with His radiance. I immediately fell in love with this Divine Light. After traveling down a tunnel together, He showed me a wondrous city that I realized was the Kingdom of Heaven. Nothing in this world could ever come close to its beauty. I kept thinking, 'How do I get into this beautiful place? Where's the entrance?'
Then the Lord spoke to me in a deep, commanding, yet loving voice, and told me that I was being sent back as I had unfinished tasks, all of which had to do with loving people in my life.
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When I came back, I was very troubled. I was wondering why I didn't encounter any of the Hindu gods and goddesses. Who was this I witnessed? He is not like them. Who was that?”
(from John Burke's Imagine the God of Heaven)
Jesus' transfiguration brings illumination! One day we'll all travel down that tunnel and encoun-ter this wondrous being of Light & love. Jesus came that when that happens we won't be strangers. He comes that we might know the heart of God – how good, and kind and loving He is. On the mountain-tops of life, and through His inspired love letter to humanity, you too can discover his true identity, and learn to love as he loved, and to live your life with the great confidence of which Peter wrote.
“Because of that experience, (of Jesus' transfiguration on the mountain), we have even greater confidence in the message proclaimed by the prophets. Their words are like a lamp shining in a dark place – until that Day dawns, may the Christ, that morning Star, shine in your hearts!”
(Peter 1:19)