Listen to Jesus

I'm preaching this Sunday, all being well, on the transfiguration (Luke 9:28-36).

Imagine hearing the voice of God the Father himself. How few in human history have ever done that?

Yet Peter did, there on the mountain. One of the select few of all time heard the direct voice of the Father.

What did it tell him? What new and astonishing revelation did this select occasion contain?

Actually, none. It told him to listen to the one whom he had already been walking with; it told him to listen to Jesus.

And there's a great lesson. We scratch our heads, fret and worry, wondering what the will of God is.

Yet, if we opened our Bibles, then we could listen to Jesus. And if God himself were to rip open the heavens and tell us what to do next, that would be what he would tell us to do.

Moses and Elijah give us the same testimony. When they were permitted, for a moment, to come back from the world of glory and speak with the Son of God, what did they want to know about? About what Jesus would do at Calvary. Christ and him crucified. If you want to understand the world, and how to live to please God in it, that's where the law, the prophets, and the Father himself send you.

I think we can say from the Bible that it took a while for Peter to learn the lesson. It's certainly taking me a while. How about you?