The Last Word
If you could leave your closest friends with one last experience or word before you went away, what would it be?
Final encounters and speeches are important. What would you want your friends to encounter or to know?
In the encounter with God at the transfiguration of Jesus, Peter, James, and John were taken to a high mountain, they were enveloped by a great cloud of glory, they saw Moses and Elijah, and heard from God the Father concerning listening to Jesus.
Luke’s gospel tells us, “And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, ‘This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!’ And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and told no one in those days anything of what they had seen.” (Luke 9:35-36, ESV).
In this magnificent encounter on the mountain top, God gets the last word and it is “listen to Jesus.” Moses and Elijah who appear on the holy mountain, the law and the prophets, are of essential importance, but Jesus is their complete fulfillment.
God reserved this encounter on the mountain of transfiguration for his son, and to assure his three closest disciples.
We can also be assured in our faith in this mountain top experience and in these last words of God on the mountain as we listen to Jesus.
May we experience God and listen to his last words as we listen to Jesus.
A Collect for the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 13): “Almighty and merciful God, it is only by your grace that your faithful people offer you true and laudable service: Grant that we may run without stumbling to obtain your heavenly promises; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.” (Book of Common Prayer, 2019).
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Photo by John Adeoye on Unsplash.