Fix your eyes on Jesus!!!

Reflecting on Mark 9:1-12

"This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!" (Mark 9:7)

Jesus says that some of them will see the kingdom of God come with power.
Here on this high mountain, Peter, James and John see something powerful.
He is transformed before their eyes in blazing glory.
In a sense, He has the same experience as Moses and Elijah.
Moses and Elijah represent the Law and the Prophets.
In other words, they are the Voice of God to be listened to.

Moses saw the glory of God on the mountain top (Exodus 34).
Elijah heard the glory of God on the mountain top (1 Kings 19).
But neither Moses or Elijah fully experienced God’s glory.
They saw and heard it, and were impacted it, but their experience was limited.
In their time, they served God’s purpose in the world.
Their recorded experience in the scriptures was to be honoured and listened to.

For this moment, the glory of God is revealed in Jesus.
“Dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them.” (Mark 9:3)
This is Mark’s way of saying this glory was ‘out of this world’.
This glory goes beyond anything this world can experience or imitate.
Peter mistakenly thinks this is the same as Moses and Elijah’s experience.
His suggestion of three shelters (literally ‘tabernacles’) is for shrines.
Peter wants to set up three shines equally for Moses, Elijah and Jesus.
As if Jesus is the same as Moses and Elijah.

But the Voice from heaven makes clear that Jesus is different.
Jesus is the fullest, clearest revelation of God on earth.
Jesus is a human mirror-image, an image or likeness of God in a human body.
Jesus is like God, living with us, overflowing with grace and truth.

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling (literally ‘tabernacled’) among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)

What we see in this moment is what Adam and Eve were first made to be.
In this moment, we see Adam, the God-like human made to rule the world.
We were made to reflect God’s glory like this, but we no longer do.
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)
Moses and Elijah, like all other humans, fell short of God’s glory.
But Jesus alone stands out, Jesus alone lives out God’s glory fully as a human.
Jesus is the fullest expression of the glory that Moses experienced.

“I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” (Exodus 33:19)

“Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord. And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, ‘The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love (grace) and faithfulness (truth), maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.” (Exodus 34:5-7)

Jesus is Adam restored, the glory of God imaged/reflected in a human.
As such, Jesus reclaims Adam’s throne, and is making this world ‘very good’ again.
Moses and Elijah did not and could not do this… only Jesus.
It is in Jesus’s glory and goodness that we see the kingdom of God in power.

Which brings me to the punch line of this reflection.
We do not listen to Moses or Elijah as God’s full revelation.
They are imperfect and incomplete shadows of glory, Jesus is the reality (Colossians 2:17).
God tells us to focus on, and listen to Jesus; only Jesus remains (Mark 9:8).
We mistakenly build our theological shrines for the words of Moses, Elijah and Paul.
We elevate their words to the same level as Jesus; they are not.
We are not to be Bible-based, we are to be Jesus-based.

Moses and Elijah, Paul and Peter point to the glorious, powerful goodness of God.
Their experience fades, but the glory of God in Jesus endures.

“Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. And if what was transitory came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!” (2 Corinthians 3:7-11)

We need to focus on Jesus, we need to listen to Jesus.
If we want to experience and reflect God’s goodness, Jesus is the key.
This is why I focus on the gospels, the Jesus stories.
As we contemplate the glory of God in Jesus, we are impacted, transformed.

“And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)

Churches and christians who do not focus on Jesus, will not reflect Jesus.
This, in my opinion, is why many people are disillusioned by churchianity.
It has made Moses and Paul the focus, and built itself around their shadows.
They themselves were not the light, but only witnesses to the light.
The spirit of Moses and Paul cannot save or transform us.
Their teaching, while inspired to help us, remain imperfect and incomplete.
They themselves would insist that we not focus on them, but on Jesus!

Here is the key to seeing God’s kingdom come with power.
“Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.” (Hebrews 12:2)
To ‘fix our eyes’ means to fasten to Jesus like glue, to grip firmly!
When we do, the Spirit of Jesus impacts and changes us.
The Spirit helps us to be full of grace and truth as well!

“This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!” (Mark 9:7)

PRAYER
Lord Jesus, we can only experience God and God's kingdom by experiencing You. Blind us with Your glory, so that we are not distracted by the shadowy reflections of other human witnesses, but only You remain.

I choose to contemplate on Your glory, and to listen to You. Transform me into Your glory with ever-increasing glory!