“See Him, Hear Him” – A Trajectory

 

May I please share with you a trajectory found in Matthew 16:13 – 17:8?

 

Do you recall how John F. Kennedy, Jr.  perished? He flew in weather in which he was not qualified fly; he was not “rated” to fly using instrumentation – therefore when he became visually disoriented he perished. May I please ask how you are flying through the present storms of uncertainty with their wind shears and crosscurrents and darkness? May I ask how our congregations are faring?

 

I am reminded of the men and women who fly hurricane hunters, planes which fly into and through hurricanes in order to obtain data to help understand and predict hurricane behavior, information which can warn people on land and sea of danger, information which can save lives. Instrumentation is a way of life for crews of hurricane hunters.

 

The following is a flight plan, a trajectory, a way of life. I am going to sketch it out for you; it will be up to you, by God’s grace, to work the soil and water the seed. I promise you that this is not a quick fix, it is a way of living, it is the Way of Life – no quick fix, but rather a sure Way of Life.

 

“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” Matthew 16:16. As the Father reveals (16:17) Jesus Christ to us, we are called to confess Him – our lives are to be a confession of Christ in word and deed. Are we living lives of confession?

 

“Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, ‘God forbid it Lord! This shall never happen to you.’” (Matthew 16:22). Peter confesses Christ one minute, and the next he attempts to knock Jesus Christ off God’s trajectory – suffering is not in Peter’s conception of the Messianic Reign. What is our attitude toward suffering – especially suffering as a result of our confession of Jesus Christ?

 

“Get behind Me, Satan!” (16:23). Let’s make no mistake about where any attempt to spare us the Cross comes from – such attempts will nearly always appear concerned for our well – being; the truth of the matter is they come from Satan – and if there is any doubt whether or not we should spare ourselves or others consider what follows:

 

“If anyone wants to follow Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it…For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?” (16:24 – 26). Is this the motif of our lives? Is self-denial and following Christ a way of life for us and our congregations? Are we flying by this instrumentation?

 

Let us not fall into the deadly trap of thinking that living by the instrumentation of the Cross and God’s Word is only for the storms of life – in one sense it is especially for the times when the weather is perfect, when things are going well, for those are the times we tend to lose sight of the Cross, those are the times of the seduction of self. If we do not practice self-denial in good times it is not likely we will do so in dark times. A message of cotton – candy and a comfortable non-offensive cross is pastoral malpractice. The Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ must always be our Way of Life. No matter the weather we look at the “things that are unseen” and we “walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 4:18; 5:7).

 

So far in our trajectory we have Peter’s confession of Christ, then Peter’s attempt to separate Christ from the Cross, then Christ’s rebuke of Peter, and then Christ’s call to deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow Him. Can we see ourselves in this?

 

Now we come to the Mount of Transfiguration in Matthew 17:1 – 8. It must have been awesome and exciting for Peter, James, and John. Peter has gone from confessing Christ to being rebuked by Christ to now seeing Christ in His glory. All is well with Peter! You go Peter! You are the man!

 

But…Peter also sees Moses and Elijah, and Peter suggests to Jesus that three sacred tents be made; one for Jesus (let’s always put Jesus first!), one for Moses, and one for Elijah. This time Jesus does not rebuke Peter, this time, “While he [Peter] was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold a voice out of the cloud said, ‘This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well – pleased; hear Him!’ ”

 

At the voice of the Father “they fell face down to the ground and were terrified.”

 

First Peter confesses Christ, then Peter is rebuked for wanting to spare Christ (playing the role of Satan), then Jesus issues a call for self-denial and the Way of the Cross; then Peter, James, and John see the glory of Christ along with Moses and Elijah; then Peter wants to make three sacred tents, and then the Father rebukes Peter – pointing Peter to Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ alone.

 

“And lifting up their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus Himself alone.”

 

Can we see ourselves in this trajectory? What roles have we played? What role(s) are we playing?

 

Do we confess Christ when things go well, and seek to avoid the Cross when the hurricanes of life sweep upon us? Are we denying ourselves and losing our lives for Christ and the Gospel? Is this our Way of Life? When we experience transformative moments, do we forget that we are to worship Jesus Christ, and there is no one else and nothing else worthy of our adoration and contemplation?

 

Do we seek to spare one another the Cross? If so, what part are we playing, according to Jesus?

 

What other sacred tabernacles do we wish to build in addition to one for Jesus? Perhaps a tradition? Perhaps an experience? Perhaps a doctrinal “distinctive”? Perhaps a way of thinking about prophetic fulfillment? Perhaps a way of viewing economics? Perhaps patriotism? Perhaps politics? Perhaps an election? Perhaps a style of worship, or preaching, or “doing” church?

 

As we look around our own places of worship, within us (our hearts and souls) and without – what sacred altars have we built to compete with Jesus Christ?

 

Where are we on our trajectory of life in Christ?

 

If we are to fly through the present hurricane, and if we are going to help others through this – we must fly by the instrumentation of the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ; we must navigate by the Word of Christ, we cannot navigate by our senses, by sight, by peer pressure, and certainly not by avoiding the Cross. We must allow nothing to compete with Jesus Christ, nothing to share our love, our devotion, our passion.

 

Friends, the Great Commandment is that God is One, and that we are to love Him with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind, and all of our bodily strength. The Second is that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves (Mark 12:29 – 31). When God says “all” He means “all”. We may think that a bit extreme right now, but I promise you we won’t think it extreme when we stand before the judgement seat of Christ, so that we receive the results of the way we’ve lived this life (2 Cor. 5:10; 1 Cor. 3:10 – 15).

 

Are there sacred altars we’ve erected that we need to tear down? If so, let’s get it done. Let our lives be devoted to Jesus Christ and to Him alone…and let’s be God’s Presence, in Christ, in our generation.

 

Jesus Christ gave His all for us, are we giving our all for Him?