Matthew 17:4..."Peter said to Jesus, ‘Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.’ "
One day long ago while up on a mountain top in the midst of a tremendous and amazing spiritual experience Saint Peter said to Jesus: “This is great - let’s stay here! In fact I can build three places of worship, three booths or tabernacles. Nice places for you to dwell, here with us! Yes, that’s the right thing to do – one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah. Then we can worship and bask in your glory and be safe and secure! How about it? Let’s get started, James you gather the supplies, John why don’t you look for three good places to build, and I’ll just begin to – What’s that’s cloud?!?! So bright!!!”
Immediately interrupted was he. Nope. Not the way it’s going to be, Pete. This euphoria, the excitement, the plans he’s making to camp out and settle in is upended with this two-part reality:
1. The reality of the horrors to come.
2. The reality of what true discipleship, true following, requires.
It doesn’t seem as though Peter wants to accept the reality of the situation.
One of the greatest gifts is being able to seeing things as how they really are. We value clarity and knowledge. How many times do we only see a shadow, or a part, of the whole? To see the truth of a person or a situation – it can be quite unsettling and unnerving; but it is very important and essential.
I never want to watch that extra stuff on a DVD showing you how a movie was made. One of my reasons for that is I prefer to think – and this is going to sound a little weird – that the people on the screen, the places they went to and the things they did, were real. I don’t want to be reminded that they are just actors and that the scenery is fake and that it’s all just special effects. Seeing how they did it, seeing the truth, kind of ruins it for me.
I don’t think that Peter doesn’t want his picture of Jesus ruined either. It’s better to simply keep the image that he’s created in his mind rather than to embrace the reality. And there is so much truth about Jesus of Nazareth – too much truth...