Theological Commentary: Click Here
The
transfiguration confirms the study from yesterday. Human beings – even devoted followers of
Christ – will always be caught between our desire to live in the predictable
world of logic and science and our need to live in the unpredictable world of
faith and God. We find comfort and
stability in science and logic. We find personal
fulfillment and genuine belonging in the realm of faith.
In the
transfiguration, Peter James and John are confronted with a vision. They see Moses and Elijah talking with
Jesus. Again, they have a choice to
make. Do they embrace the unknowing and
follow or do they try to bring it back into the realm of understanding and
science and logic? Peter, much like he
did in the last chapter, tries to bring it into the realm of
understanding. He suggests that they
build tents to stay there. He isn’t
doing this because he is rebellious, he is simply trying to participate in what
God is doing. He’s doing it in an
attempt to be proactive.
The problem,
though, is that he is actually acting out of his lack of understanding. Instead of waiting upon God in faith, he is
trying to act and show his faith. This
is where the issue resides. We should
act out of our understanding and wait upon the Lord in our faith. God cannot expect us to act upon our lack of
understanding, so when He wants us to act He will provide understanding. This is actually what we see Jesus do in
response to Peter’s suggestion. Jesus
gives Peter more information so he can see why His suggestion was wrong. Jesus tells Peter that this vision isn’t meant
to keep them there, it was meant to help them understand the future events.
This is a
deep concept with which human beings routinely struggle. Even people of great faith who want to be in
a deep and meaningful relationship with God often struggle with this. We prefer to act than to be accused of
inaction, which makes complete sense.
The problem, though, is that when we act without understanding we are
likely to choose an action that is not beneficial. Greater faith doesn’t necessarily help this
issue because even with greater faith we still do not fully grasp the mind of
God.
What do we
do? We learn that when we are in a
position of lacking understanding, we need to wait and inquire of the
Lord. We need to see conscious waiting
and calling upon the Lord as action. Those
who will be accused of inaction are not those who are actively trying to
discern the will of God.
<><
No comments:
Post a Comment