And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. 3 And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. 4 And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” 5 He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” 6 When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified. 7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and have no fear.” 8 And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.

Mattthew 17:1-8

You are having an exciting, passionate conversation with Jesus when suddenly you and Jesus are overshadowed by a bright cloud, almost blinding in its brilliance. On top of that, an all-important voice comes from the cloud and interrupts you mid-sentence. Would you think, “Boy, that was rude?” Or maybe you would think, “I guess I’d better shut my mouth and listen.?” Peter has a reputation for opening his mouth and then engaging his brain.

I want to point out two phrases in this story that I believe are worth paying attention to; “listen to him,” and “they saw no one but Jesus only.”

Peter made a couple of big mistakes in this story. When he watched as Jesus was transfigured and accompanied by Moses and Elijah, who wanted to “have a little talk with Jesus,” he got all excited and wanted to memorialize this event. The appropriateness of building three tents as a general principle is questionable. I know there were times in history when God did allow or require memorials to be built. In crossing Jordan, the people placed a pile of stones in the water to commemorate the miraculous crossing on dry ground. Jacob built an altar at Bethel, where he saw “Jacob’s ladder” descending from heaven. So, maybe the impulse to build a memorial is acceptable.

But here is the big mistake, he wanted to build three tents. He made the mistake of placing Elijah and Moses on par with Jesus. Unless, of course, in his architect mind, Peter was designing a tent for Jesus that was larger and grander than those of Moses and Elijah. No, even that wouldn’t be acceptable.

Listen to Him

Moses was God’s mediator in bringing the law to the people of God. He was a unique messenger of God. The Jews consider Elijah to be the greatest of the prophets, another messenger of God. (Although Jesus said that John the Baptist was the greatest.) What was the message from God out of the cloud? “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” The Father placed the communication from Jesus above what they had heard from Moses and Elijah. They were messengers from God; Jesus was God, the one who would later send his own messengers to the ends of the earth.

When God says, listen, he doesn’t just mean clean the wax out of your ears; he means listening and obeying. His mother Mary seemed to grasp this when she told the servants at the wedding in Cana, Whatever he says to you, do it. Don’t argue, do it.

Obedience is a principle that we in the Western church need to learn again. For too many of us, the word of God is something to be studied and taught but not something to obey. In fact, Jesus indicates that the only way to understand God’s word is to obey it first, and then insight will come.

 If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.

John 7:17

Elsewhere Scripture says it is better to obey than to sacrifice.

Listen to the words of Jesus and do them. This applies to all Scripture, of course, and not just the red letter” words.

“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

See no one but Jesus

The Father was making a point when he said he was pleased with his Son, and we are to obey him. There was an illustrated sermon following this statement. When Peter, James, and John looked up from their prostate worship positions, Matthew writes that they saw no one but Jesus. This was obviously indicating that Moses and Elijah were no longer visible. The greater message is that the messengers (Moses and Elijah, the law and the prophets) are gone, but the true Word is here, Jesus, the Logos of God. In the beginning, was the word (logos) and the word (logos) was with God, and the word (logos) was God. All the messages of Moses and Elijah were pointing forward to this day and the fulfillment of all they had to say. That which is greater than Moses and Elijah is here. Focus on Jesus.

We need to heed the same message today. Jesus did say about the Pharisees, You study the Scriptures because in them you think you have life, but they testify of me. His point is that Scripture scholarship does not produce life and is not the goal; Jesus is. Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. To the extent that we are coming to know Jesus by reading, studying, and meditating on the Scriptures, they are valuable to us. If our use of Scripture is simply academic, then it is not only a waste of time; it is a source of damnation, just as in the case of the Pharisees, who thought academics and nit-picking obedience brought life when Jesus said they were full of dead men’s bones. They were whitewashed graves. They looked good but were dead.

I love the word of God. I love to read, study and meditate on it and hopefully obey Jesus because of it. Those are necessary disciplines for a person to know and love Jesus. Do you do these things to gain knowledge, or do you do them to know and obey Jesus, so you are being transformed into his image?

The Old Testament saints had Moses and Elijah, and many other messengers. Because I know human nature, some people held some of these messengers above others. There would be Mosesites and Elijahites, etc. But the point is that they and all the other messengers were pointing to Jesus. We fall into the same erroneous posture. We have more celebrity teachers/preachers than we know what to do with. What is your flavor? We have Reformed celebrities, Evangelical celebrities, Pentecostal celebrities, Charismatic celebrities, podcast celebrities, etc. Many of us choose sides and fight over which podcast celebrities we fight for.

We miss the point.

Regardless of how perfect or imperfect they are, all of these are supposed to be Ambassadors of Jesus. Don’t focus on a preacher or theologian; focus on Jesus. Build your personal relationship with Jesus. Follow him.