Matthew 17:6-8

Posted by DJL on Sep 22, 2014 in Daily Bread | 0 comments

When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.

Just one more note on this pivotal scene of the Transfiguration: when the disciples have their world literally rocked by the booming voice from heaven and confirmation that Jesus’ words about suffering do indeed testify to God’s will, they fall to the ground in absolute fear. Touched even this modestly by the hand of the divine, coming this close to perceiving God unveiled, they fall to the ground overcome by terror.

This is not a new theme in Scripture. Indeed, one of the regular affirmations of the Bible is that no one can behold God and live. Mortal cannot bear immortal. Finite cannot bear infinite. No one, in short, can bear to be in the unmediated presence of God. For this reason when Moses asks to see God, God places Moses in the cleft of a rock, as all Moses can bear is the reflected glory of the Lord as God passes by. When Moses turns around, in fact, all he can see – all he can bear to see – is the trail of the Lord’s glory or, to translate the passage more literally, all Moses can see is God’s backside.

Little wonder, then, that when they hear the naked voice of God, the disciples fall to the ground in fear.

What strikes me, though, is not this perhaps predictable response of mortals when they are touched by the immortal God, but rather Jesus’ response to them. Jesus does not scold them, or tell them that he told them so J, or ask if they heard the voice from heaven and would now listen to him. No, he reaches out and touches them in their fear and raises them up again.

So also with us: when we are overcome by fear, whether induced by encounters with other mortals or the immortal God, Jesus is always there to reach out and touch us, hold onto us, and raise us to new life. For Jesus comes as God clothed in flesh, the one who mediates God’s eternal presence in a way we who are finite can bear, the One who draws us mortals into relationship with the living God, now and forever more. Thanks be to God.

Prayer: Dear God, we thank you for your Son, the One who came that we might know your great love for us and all the world and knowing, have life in your name. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

 

Post image; Apse mosaic of the Transfiguration from Saint Catherine’s Monastery, Sinai (565-6).