07/13/2020 – Day 043 – Matthew 17 -19
Just so much to choose from…
I think I will focus on Ch 17: 1 – 13 – The Transfiguration of Yeshua (Jesus):
And I am going to quote from my William Barclay, my first commentary as a boy:
“Further , Peter must have learned two lessons that night. When Peter woke to what was going on, his first reaction was to build three tabernacles, one for Jesus, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. He was always the man for action; always the man who much be doing something. But there is a time for stillness; there is a time for contemplation, for wonder, for adoration, for awed reverence in the presence of the supreme glory. ‘Be still and know that I am God.’ (Psalm 46:10) It may be that sometimes we are too busy trying to do something when we would be better to be silent, to be listening, to be wondering, to be adoring in the presence of Godf. Before a man can fight and adventure upon his feet, he must wonder and pray upon his knees.
But there is a converse of that. It is quite clear that Peter wished to wait upon the mountian slopes. He wished that great moment to be prolonged. He did not want to go down to the everyday and common things again but to remain for ever in the sheen of glory.
That is a feeling which everyone must know. There are moments of intimacy, of serenity, of peace , of nearness to God, which everyone has known and wished to prolong. As. A.H. McNeile has it: ‘The Mountian of Tranfiguration is always more enjoyable that the daily ministry or the way of the Cross.’
But the Mountain of Tranfiguration is given to us only to provide strength for the daily ministry and to enable us to walk the way of the Cross. Susanna Wesley had a prayer: ‘Help me, Lord, to remember that religion is not to be confined to the church or closet, nor exercised only in prayer and meditation, but everywhere I am in thy presence.’ The moment of glory does not exist for its own sake; it exists to clothe the common things with a radiance they never had before.”
Soli Deo Gloria!
Jimmy