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Listen!


 While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” (Matthew 17:5)
 

         Do you like roller coasters? I don't. You spend forever climbing a hill. You get to the top and have half a second, then you race down to a low point. Sometimes the racing down involves tying your insides into knots. At the bottom, you either have to be dragged up another hill or you get off the ride. Peter's life was a roller coaster from the time he met Jesus. There would be miracles, and then Jesus would teach things that didn't always make sense, and then they'd go out and perform miracles, and return to be taught. Peter was praised for giving the right answer to "Who do you say that I am?" Jesus said that said answer came from God. Peter was at the top of the hill.
            Then Jesus started talking of going to Jerusalem and dying. Peter had rebuked Him. Can you blame him? Here was his best friend, the Messiah who was supposed to overthrow Rome and free Israel, the Son of the Living God, talking about dying. In return, Jesus had called him Satan. He was at the bottom of the hill.
        Then, Jesus took them up a physical hill and was transfigured before Peter, James and John. Talk about top of the hill. Why wouldn't they want to stay there, especially if staying meant that Jesus didn't go to Jerusalem and die?
       We're the same way without even as much motivation. When we get to a "mountaintop" experience, we don't want to go back down. We especially don't want to race back down to a low point. Like Peter, we might suggest building shelters and sticking around, instead of asking God what He wants especially if we didn't like the answer the first time we heard it (before having the experience.)
           Peter raced back down the hill without leaving the peak. God reminded them and reinforced what Peter had said a short time before. He took it further by saying that He was well-pleased with Jesus, the same Jesus who was talking to Moses and Elijah about going to Jerusalem and dying.
         There are time when we don't want to listen to Jesus because He's telling us something we don't want to hear. Sometimes, we pretend we didn't hear. Sometimes, we pretend He didn't say it, that the part of the Bible in question isn't God's word. Of course, the parts we like are. Sometimes, we argue with Him about it. And God's response to these times is, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”
 

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Birthday of Bedrick Smetana

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