READ: Matthew 17:1-8; Mark 9:2-8; Luke 9:28-36
PRAY: Sing the familiar Christmas hymn, “Go Tell it on the Mountain” as you begin or end your devotional time.
DO: Sometimes our lives get so busy that it’s hard to hear what God is saying to us. Find time this week to spend one hour away from all the things that crowd and clutter your life (TV, telephones, computers, etc.). Begin and end your time in prayer, listening for God in your activities.
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Is there anything about this story that is hard to understand or accept? If so, what is it? How have you wrestled with this difficulty in your faith life?
British theologian, C.S. Lewis wrote,
“A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to." (Mere Christianity, The MacMillan Company, 1960, pp. 40-41.)
How does this message apply to the message that God gives the disciples on top the mountain. How does it apply to you? How can (or do) you live for Jesus as the Son of God?
How has Jesus “transformed” your life?
How does Jesus “shine light” into our world?
On the mountain top, Jesus meets Moses and Elijah. Why do you think these two biblical figures appear? What does their presence reveal about Jesus?
Some helpful links:
Hymn "Go Tell it on the Mountain"
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/g/o/gotitotm.htm
Parallels in Scripture and other texts written in between the old and new testaments "extra canonical":
http://wiki.faithfutures.org/index.php/184_Transfiguration_of_Jesus
"Memory Sites" - a contemporary commnetary on how we might relate to this text:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058/is_2_119/ai_82479095
Analysis of the "mountain" location as a symbol:
http://www.kchanson.com/ARTICLES/mountain.html
Big Idea: Jesus is God’s Son.
Historical Background
What is significant about Moses appearing on the mountain with Jesus?
(cf. Exodus 24, 32-34, especially 33:7-10; Deuteronomy 18:15, 34:5-6)
What is significant about Elijah appearing on the mountain with Jesus?
(cf. 2 Kings 2:9-12; Malachi 4:5-6; Matthew 11:12-14)
What does it mean that Jesus is transfigured – to what future reality does this point?
(cf. Romans 12:2; 2 Corinthians 3:18, 13:4; Revelation 1:16; Acts 1; Luke 21:27; Daniel 7:13-14)
Where else in Scripture do we hear this clear proclamation that Jesus is God’s Son?
(cf. Psalm 2:7; Matt 3:17, 21:33-43; Mark 1:11, 12:1-11; Luke 3:22, 20:1-20)
Peter (and, as spokesperson for the others, all the disciples) try to understand, but fail at several key points in this story (cf. Matthew 9:20; mark 8:29)…
• Calling Jesus “Rabbi”
• Wanting to build dwellings
• Being afraid
When in Jesus’ life/ministry does this event take place?
Application
How can we follow God’s command to “listen” to Jesus (Matthew 17:5; see also Deut 6:4, 18:15)?
What is different about this story from other Scriptural accounts of Jesus? What makes it easier or harder to relate to? Why?
What does it mean for us that our God is a God we can’t always understand?
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