The Great Understatement

"As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, “Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” (He did not know what he was saying.)" Luke 9:33

So Jesus took three of His disciples with Him (Peter, James, and John) on a little trek up a mountain to pray. Once they got there, and while they were praying, something pretty amazing happened. The rugged and plain visage of the earthly rabbi Jesus was visibly and physically altered right before the eyes of the disciples. Jesus face changed and His clothing shone and flashed like lightning. In short, Jesus fully revealed His heavenly glory to these 3 disciples. What was previously covered and hidden by the limitations of human flesh, beautifully spilled out of Jesus for the disciples to gaze upon. Their eyes beheld the full glory of God - an incredible gift.

Now, to make this moment even more amazing - long gone heroes of the Jewish faith, Moses and Elijah miraculously appeared before them also shining majestically. They proceeded to speak with Jesus about His impending life, death, resurrection and ascension. Moses, and Elijah! This is the American equivalent of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln showing up at your backyard Barbecue. Yet there they were, right before the eyes of the now mouth agape disciples, frankly discussing Jesus end game.

So, in light of this incredible, never happen again situation - the full glory of Jesus shining like the sun before them, and the very real presences of Moses and Elijah there joining Him - Peter makes his great understatement...

"It is good for us to be here."

Now, I don't know if He was trying to play it cool, or if he didn't really get the gravity of the situation, but whatever the case, here was this incredibly awesome event unfolding before him, and Peter utters a statement that might have been more appropriate for someone attending an exciting football game. "Boy, this is a good game, we should stay til the end." This seems to me to be a real underwhelming response to an overwhelming event. I'd like to think that if I was blessed to have been in Peter's shoes that I would have been immediately thrown to the ground prostrate on my face in worship of Jesus, instead of looking for tents.

What if I told you, that as Christians, even though we can't physically see Him, we are in the holy and glorious presence of the fully glorified risen Lord Jesus. I often like to think of this when I attend worship on Sunday morning. How often is our response to Jesus' glorious and real presence in worship really a great understatement. More often than not, we say even less than Peter - "it was not good to be here, I would rather be somewhere else." And far, from putting up tents and staying longer, we impatiently check our watches when the service goes one minute past the regular dismissal time.

The glorious Jesus deserves more than our great understatement. May your life be filled with the reality of the presence of our awesome King, and may your response be nothing less than awe and worship.

Be God's, Scott (ps. next post will be on Mon. - meeting all day tomorrow in Syracuse)