Getting Job-ed
After six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain by themselves to be alone. He was transfigured in front of them, and his clothes became dazzling—extremely white as no launderer on earth could whiten them. Elijah appeared to them with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it’s good for us to be here. Let’s set up three shelters: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah”— because he did not know what to say, since they were terrified.
A cloud appeared, overshadowing them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my beloved Son; listen to him!”
Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus. Mark 9:2-8 CSB
This will be a relatively short article, but I wanted us to hit on something that I’ve seen in church culture for a while now. Making celebrity Bible superheroes out of the people in the Bible is a wrong move. These people were no better than you and I: they were saved by grace alone, through faith alone. That’s it. The stories that surrounded them were amazing, but the stories truly are not about them: they point to a better Person, a better Leader, a better King. If we get the view mixed up that there was something special about these people then we are in great danger of missing out on who they’re pointing to.
Equal to Jesus?
Read the text above. Peter, James, and John are with Jesus, and all of a sudden He transforms into this dazzling figure out of his 1st-century attire (robe and sandals probably). Then Elijah and Moses are standing there talking with Jesus! These two prophets from the Old Testament that Peter, James, and John had read about and heard about their whole life! That’s amazing! So Peter jumps up and wants to make a tent for each one of them: Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. The Greek word for ‘tent’ is “skenas,” which also means temple. Temples were a place where God dwelt with His people, and place people could be with God. Can you see the issue here? Peter did not make the distinction: Jesus is God! These other guys were merely shadows of what was to come and pointed to Jesus! They are not worthy of our worship… And I genuinely believe they would have said the same! They were pointing to something better: Not just a prophet, or magical superpowers- they were pointing to God Himself. God is worthy of all of our worship, and nothing else.
What’s this mean for us?
Oh how subtle it is to replace Jesus with the worship of other church topics and subjects. God steps up and says, “Get this right, this is about Me and My Son! Listen to Him! (my version)” We are so eager and tempted to replace Jesus with something inferior, with something that was actually pointing us to Jesus all along. We love the ‘superpowers’ we see in the Old Testament, they’re nothing in comparison to the beauty that Jesus holds in Himself. The issue is, is that these disciples had Jesus right in front of them this whole time (Literally God Himself) and they were missing it. This should serve as a wake-up call to us also. What have I replaced Jesus within my life that is far more inferior than God himself?
-Austin
Resources
https://biblehub.com/greek/4633.htm
