Peter, James, and John had no idea what was coming when Jesus took them up to the mountain top to pray. In what seems to be a common occurrence, the men are sleeping while Jesus is praying. They awaken to find Jesus transfigured, radiating glory in his face and clothes, and Moses and Elijah speaking to him about the exodus he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem (Lk 9.31). Peter, speaking for the other two, suggests that they should erect three tabernacles for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah.
Peter’s response was wrong, but it wasn’t wrong in the way that many people think. Peter was working out a Scriptural theology of glory and applying it to what he saw at the moment. When glory appears, you build a house for it. This was true for the Tabernacle, the Temple, and was involved in the Feast of Booths every year. Peter wasn’t wrong to want to house glory. He was wrong in his timing.
Jesus explained eight days earlier (Lk 9.28) that “the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” (Lk 9.22) Jesus’ mission necessitated entering his glory through suffering. Moses and the Prophets witnessed to this, a truth that Jesus explains to two other disciples even after his resurrection. (Lk 24.25-27) Peter sees glory and thinks that this is the end. He didn’t interpret what he was seeing through the words that Jesus spoke to him a few days earlier. He was looking at the events through a pair of glasses that caused him to misinterpret what was going on.
A cloud overshadows the mountain and engulfs Jesus and the three disciples. A voice comes from the cloud. Up to this point Luke emphasizes sight: the appearance of Jesus’ face, “behold” two men, they “appeared” in glory. Peter’s sight fails him. A voice, a word, must be spoken to give him new glasses to see the situation properly. The voice says, “This is my elect Son; listen to him.” (Lk 9.35) This looks back to what Jesus said as well as looks forward to what Jesus will say. Jesus is Word of God made flesh, the one in whom and through whom the world was created and is sustained. Only through him do we understand the world that we see. If we are not looking at the world through Jesus, we have lost touch with reality and are misinterpreting everything.
As Christians, we see how this happens with many unbelievers who claim to be atheists. We look at the world in all of its beauty, the intricacies of how so many diverse aspects of the universe work together in unity, and we see the indelible print of the Divine Designer and Sustainer. No matter how many of these beauties we point out to someone who has on the glasses of a godless evolution, they will always interpret what they see as happenchance. There will always be another explanation because they have on a different set of glasses as they look at the “facts.”
Although Christians don’t fall into that trap, we, like Peter, fall into the trap of looking at the world apart from Jesus’ word at other points. There are wars, governments are in chaos, Western culture is deteriorating. Jesus tells us that “all authority in heaven and earth has been given to him” (Mt 28.18), that he is even now seated at the right hand of the Father, ruling the universe until all enemies are put under his feet. (Mk 16.19; 1Cor 15.25; Heb 1.3, 13; cf. Ps 110.1) “Do you see what all is going on around us? That must mean that Jesus is not presently ruling everything in heaven and earth. Jesus wouldn’t rule this way, because we know how Jesus would rule.” Will you believe Jesus, or will you believe your eyes?
It looks as if everything is spinning out of control. Sinful anxiety is the result of not seeing the world through Jesus’ word that he is in control. Will you believe Jesus, or will believe your eyes? This relationship feels right, even though it is outside the boundaries God has set up. Will you believe Jesus, or will you believe your eyes? I am nothing, worthless. Will you believe Jesus, or will you believe your eyes? On and on we can go.
The words of Jesus are reality. To see the world through any other lenses is insanity. Believe Jesus, not your eyes.
