“As Moses and Elijah were starting to leave, Peter, not even knowing what he was saying, blurted out, ‘Master, it’s wonderful for us to be here! Let’s make three shelters as memorials – one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.’ But even as he was saying this, a cloud overshadowed them, and terror gripped them as the cloud covered them. Then a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is My Son, My Chosen One. Listen to Him.’ When the voice finished, Jesus was there alone. They didn’t tell anyone at that time what they had seen.” (Luke 9:33-36 NLT)
Is it safe to say we can only begin to imagine what Peter, John, and James experienced on the mountain that day? Earlier in the above passage we’re told that the purpose of their trip up the mountain was to pray, and as they prayed Jesus’ face was transformed and, the Bible says: “His clothes became dazzling white.”
That’s when Moses and Elijah appeared and the three disciples’ lives were changed forever. This was still early in Jesus’ ministry, and while I’m sure they were convinced Jesus was special in many ways, my guess is they didn’t yet understand just how powerful and special He was.
That’s where we meet the disciples on the mountain today. It’s very likely that few, if any of us have had a similar experience in our lives, but if we focus on that we’ll miss the point. The context of the whole scene was prayer. The voice of God and the Transfiguration grew out of prayer.
Perhaps Jesus was thanking His Father for such great men of God as Moses and Elijah when suddenly they were present with Jesus and the 3 disciples. It’s interesting the Bible tells us that they didn’t tell anyone about this until later. But why? There could be many reasons, but a couple that occur to me are first, it would be hard for anyone else to believe them, but, secondly, perhaps the Lord didn’t want them to focus on miraculous occurrences like that as the essence of prayer.
The goal of prayer is intimacy with God, not external feelings or anything else. Yes, the Lord speaks through visions and dreams, but those are not the essence of prayer or the reason we pray. Lessons, instructions, visions, ideas, goals, dreams, those are byproducts of prayer, not the primary reason we pray.
The miracles on the mountain were present before Moses and Elijah ever showed up. My sense is the Lord allowed them to come to get the Disciples attention, but the focus was always intended to be on God’s Son, thus the reason for God’s affirmation. He’s the miracle, He’s the One to whom our prayers should be directed and upon whom they should focus.
It’s out of our closeness with Jesus that everything else we need to be effective warriors for the Lord, will flow. If we’re weak and wavering in our commitment, it’s because we’re slipping in our commitment to prayer. Prayer is the glue that keeps us on track. We want to recite the Lord’s Prayer or whisper a few: “Bless me, O God’s” and call it a day. What if the only time we spoke with our spouse was when we wanted them to do something for us? What if the only time we spoke to our children, co-workers, or friends was to tell them to do something for us or to get something from them. Dr. Albert Mohler said: “There is no true intimacy with God without prayer.”
Prayer isn’t only about us, it’s about Jesus. The goal of prayer is to know Him, love Him, and align ourselves with Him in order that we might be equipped to be better examples of Him in every area and dimension of our lives.
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 