SUNDAY’S SERMON

                 Listen to Jesus

                            Matthew 17:1-9

 

  Pastor Robyn Hogue            March 2, 2014                Skyline Presbyterian Church

 

Matthew tells us that Christ was transfigured before His closest disciples. Matthew writes about the Master, “His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.” And it wasn’t the end of the story.

The disciples saw two others on that high mountain conversing with their Master, Moses and Elijah. Peter, who always seemed to need to make a comment said, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shrines: one for You, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” But while Peter was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”

When the disciples heard this, they fell face down to the ground, terrified. Then Jesus came up to them and touched them. “Get up,” He said. “Don’t be afraid.” When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.

As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, “Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

Later Peter wrote about this experience. How could he keep it forever to himself? Peter wrote two letters which are included in the New Testament. In the second one he wrote: “For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to Him from the Majestic Glory, saying, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.’ We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with Him on the sacred mountain” (2 Peter 1:16-18).

Peter, James and John saw Christ transfigured, they beheld Moses and Elijah who had been physically dead for hundreds of years standing there with Him, and they heard the voice of the Almighty. There could no longer be any doubt that this man whom they followed was the Messiah, the Son of the living God. And yet . . . just a short time later Peter would deny he ever knew Jesus and James and John would be hiding behind locked doors as if they had no knowledge of Christ’s power and purpose. How do we explain it?

We can’t explain it…except to say they were very much like us. They, just like us, had faith like yo-yos—sometimes up, sometimes down.

It was only about a week before the Transfiguration that Jesus had asked His disciples the question, “Who do people say that I am?” Who was it who answered Him? It was Peter, of course. “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

And Jesus praised Peter, “You are the rock upon which I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it . . .” And then Jesus began to explain to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things, that He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

 How does Peter respond to this? He takes Jesus aside and begins to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” Can you imagine that? He has just affirmed that Jesus was “the Messiah, the Son of the living God” and then he turns around and tries to tell the Son of the living God how to go about His business!

 Jesus turns and says to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns” (Matthew 16:16-23). One moment Peter’s the rock, the next he’s Satan’s stumbling block!

A week later, Peter’s up on a mountain offering to build shrines for Christ, Moses and Elijah. But very soon he will be standing in that courtyard where someone will ask him, “Aren’t you one of Jesus’ disciples?” And he will declare with an oath, “I am not!”

Friends, Peter is…us! We’re just as wishy-washy in our faith. One moment we feel so close to God that we are willing to give Jesus all that we are and hope to be and the next moment, in a time of testing, we deny we ever knew Him. How do we explain it?

We are full of good intentions, but poor in execution.

This is one reason we are so grateful for God’s grace. Everyone who is serious about faith struggles at some time in his or her pilgrimage. One of my favorite pieces of humor is that one about the man who woke up and reported he had a terrible nightmare. He dreamed he was right behind Mother Teresa waiting at the gate to get into heaven and he heard St. Peter say, “I’m sorry, Teresa, it wasn’t enough.”

Friends, if heaven were based on merit, Mother Teresa would be omitted, the Apostle Peter would be omitted, Saint Paul would be omitted. Heaven would be a mighty lonely place. As one fellow said, “If heaven’s based on merit, the only people who would be there are Jesus and apparently my wife’s first husband.” Everyone who has ever done their best to follow Jesus has struggled at some time or another.

As some of you know, Mother Teresa struggled with her faith during most of her great ministry. We only learned about her struggles when her diaries and letters were published after her death. From her letters we learned that she once wrote to a friend and priest: “Jesus has a very special love for you. As for me, the silence and the emptiness are so great that I look and do not see, listen and do not hear.” Mother Teresa gave herself as completely as anyone in our generation is likely to give herself, but still she struggled. She struggled like Peter, James and John struggled even after the Transfiguration in which they heard the very voice of God.

A successful businessman, Adam Johnson, once traveled to India to spend a month working in one of Mother Teresa’s shelters. He longed to meet her, but Mother Teresa was traveling, and it wasn’t until the day before his departure that she had time to talk with him.

When he was finally in her presence, much to his surprise, he burst into tears. All the times when he’d been self-centered, busy or focused on his own gain flashed before his eyes, and he felt an enormous sadness over so many opportunities in which he had failed to give of himself and his resources.

Without a word, Mother Teresa walked over to where he was seated, put her hands on his shoulders and looked deeply into his eyes. “Don’t you know,” she said, “that God knows you are doing the best that you can.”

We are all in constant danger of wandering away from God. If Peter, James and John were in danger after their experiences with Christ, if Mother Teresa was in danger even after all her good works, then we too are in danger of allowing our hearts to grow cold and our lives to become indifferent to Christ’s claims.

What can we do?

We can listen to Jesus. This is the importance of participating in worship each week; this is the importance of sharing in small groups with other Christians; this is the importance of immersing ourselves in the Scriptures—to strengthen against entropy of the soul, this natural tendency to allow the wonder of faith to slip away when we are away from the presence of God.

We love Jesus. And I believe we have each denied Him. What can we do? We can be grateful to be recipients of His grace…and then we can commit ourselves again this day to seek to be close to Jesus and listen to Him.