Transfiguration: it's not about me Matthew 17:1-9

I wonder reading Matthew 17:1-9 is the Transfiguration about Jesus or about me. My habit, as a sinner, is to make it and everything else about me. Rick Warren's greatest line, "It's not about you" still serves like a bell for me because it really isn't about me. God's different from me, and God's habit, as a redeemer of sinners, is to have it be about him but to give the benefits away. And because the transfiguration is about him but he gives the glory away sinners are made new. Because the one who is glorified will surrender his glory, dying and rising, we sinners (who are also saints only because we are believers) are the one's who are made new and better.

Peter thought for a flash that the transfiguration was about him. "It's good for us to be here." But it wasn't about him or the other disciples at all. It was about God the Father being pleased with his only begotten Son and wanting Peter and the others to listen to Jesus.

Peter and other sinners, by habit, think it's all about us: our wants and our needs are what matter. Jesus thinks differently. David Lose points to this as a call story. Looking again I see that there's something here that is fundamental to the nature of God calling sinners. God does it repeatedly. Jesus called for Peter to serve many times. I think God repeatedly calls us into service too.

We might rise to meet the call like Peter did. And just like Peter, after a time, maybe 6 days, maybe years, we fall away into sin, doubt, and denial of God's power. One of the true wonders of grace is that God calls again. We have fallen and come to God seeking to be made new and God has already extended the opportunity to us. God has redeemed us and made us ready even before we ask to serve for his glory.

The great news of Transfiguration is that God's glory is revealed in Jesus. The Good News is that we, and all believers, will be made new by the dying and rising of the one who God glorified at the Transfiguration.

Pax, John