Eyes to See and Ears to Hear


Jesus on the mountain of Transfiguration meets up with gigantic heroes of old.  God’s voice comes out of the clouds announcing Jesus' authority and blessedness.  We, as the readers, see him as the new Moses as well as the new Elijah.  We see his majesty, the celebration, the hope . . . but Peter, James and John (despite being there) don’t. 

Peter manages to say something about building alters but mostly it's chalked up to incoherent rambling.  In reality, all three disciples struggle to comprehend.  It’s so bad that scripture says they descend from the mountain and say nothing to anyone for fear of what they saw.  The best thing that can be said about the disciples here is, “swing and a miss.” 

And I can’t help but wonder: why wouldn't they tell the world what they saw?

Sometimes people don’t know they’re experiencing the divine because they don’t know to look for it.  God can be staring us in the face and we’d look right past it.  I guess the disciples just don’t have the eyes to see or the ears to hear. 

I pray the same is not true for us. But it will be if we fail to recognize God’s interaction in our lives, if we fail to acknowledge a world full of pain and hurt and that we have the power to offer forgiveness and healing. 

Yet, if we did recognize the divine, then we’d see a world that stands waiting to be redeemed, a world in which God is actively participating and asking us to do the same – a world that needs our awareness and our grace.  

In the story of the Transfiguration, the disciples are less than heroes.  In our world today, we are too if we fail to see the power given to us to act and to serve, to grace and to give,
to love and to forgive,
to offer peace and instill hope,
to give meaning and identity,
to vindicate and help endure,
to build up and not tear down,
to empower and enliven,
to awaken and renew. 
And this only happens when we have the eyes to see and the ears to hear. 
  
May we see our lives as a journey towards God’s redemptive world.  It’s the message Jesus is trying to show us.  It’s why he takes us up on the mountain of Transfiguration.  The reality is we have the eyes to see and the ears to hear – we just need to use them.  Our journey as church depends on it.  

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