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Listen to Him! Matthew 17:1-9 (Tagalog, English, & few German)
· 26.02.2023 · 23:22:49 ··· Sonntag ⭐ 0 🎬 0
📺 Bishop Ablon Media Ministry
Listen to Him!
Epiphany means manifestation, introduction, appearance or to let it be known. The season after Christmas introduces the born child in a manger, in Bethlehem is the messiah. Today the last Sunday of Epiphany is the most glorious introduction of Jesus. The church assigned this a Transfiguration Sunday, the last Sunday after Epiphany and right before the beginning of lent on Ash Wednesday.
The story of Jesus’ transfiguration is the peak of the season of Epiphany which introduces Jesus in a most glorious way. Dazzling white, His face shone like a sun, and a bright cloud overshadowed them on the mountaintop. Then the appearance of Moses and Elijah who were long-time dead but are great and famous personalities in the faith history of the Jewish people. What a great show! Or What a great description and introduction by Matthew and Gospel writers.
The appearance of Moses and Elijah means that Jesus is the completion and fulfillment of the law and the prophecies as Jesus claims in Matthew 5:17.
Not seeing the point and overwhelmed by this very glorious, dramatic, cinematic event they just witnessed and because of human tendencies, Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."
Immediately, however, Peter was corrected and redirected to the point of this glorious occasion. In verse 5, it says, “While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud, a voice said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; with him, I am well pleased; listen to him!’"
It was like saying, “Hey, Peter, Jesus, your master is really the Messiah that you and the Jewish people are waiting for so long and so, instead of clinging to that scrupulous idea of building houses here and staying and living in this mountaintop, what you must do is to listen to him.
Human nature leads people to not see the point.
Many people are trying hard to go and stay up above and do not want to go down- Then they have become ivory towers – the people in power in high positions and strata of society who are so privileged, in seclusion, and separated from the facts and practicalities of the real world. In everything they do, their motivation is the question of “what do I get out of doing something?”
These people unfortunately are also in the church individually and in running the church collectively. They run the church as an institution and their agenda is to defend it and its existence. So, they ended up defending the agenda of the institutional church agenda over and above the agenda of the people who is the church in the real sense. Yes, they have programs and funds for the poor and the needy, and everything they do is guided by the question, “what does the institution get in doing things?” They are using the poor and the malady of the people so they will get more for themselves – for their own interests.
Listen to him.
Listening is not only hearing. It is acting and responding to what you have heard. As the lyric of the song ‘sound of silence’, “people talking without speaking, people hearing without listening, people writing songs that voices never share.”
We do not need to repeat saying what we heard to prove that we are listening. As the saying goes, action speaks louder than words. Peter and the apostles proclaimed Jesus and the Gospel.
In the Acts of the Apostles, we can find them doing what they heard and learned from Jesus: 1) (4:32-35) 32 All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. 33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all 34 that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35 and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need. 2) (11:27-29) 27 Some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch during this time. 28 One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.) 29 The disciples, as each one was able, decided to provide help for the brothers and sisters living in Judea.
Today, we are also challenged to listen to Jesus. Listening not only through our ears but also by seeing the situation of the people and feeling their loneliness and poverty and hardships in life and acting in response to what we have listened to. Amen.
· 26.02.2023 · 23:22:49 ··· Sonntag
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