Mark 9.4 And
there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus. –
St. Mark
Moses represented the Law, and Elijah, the prophetic.
Both are necessary to some degree. Moses was revered in Jewish theology as the
one who put God’s stamp of approval on the Jewish nation, and the one who
instructed them how to live. Elijah represented the one who urged them to
repent and return to God (during the days of king Ahab).
Much of the conversation on the mountain that day was
lost on the Jewish men who accompanied Jesus to the top. Of course, Peter had
to spout off about what he thought he saw, but it is important for us to know, they
all recognized Moses and Elijah in the conversation they had with the Lord.
Law and repentance are important things to the Jew. The
Law instructed them how to live in God’s presence, and repentance afforded them
the opportunity to return whenever they strayed from those instructions. But
Law and repentance are not what Jesus came to espouse: Jesus came to open the
way for mankind to return to God by fulfilling the Law for them in His perfect
and sinless life given for them.
Without Jesus, all we have is law and repentance in an
endless cycle of failure and retrying… Next time, I’ll just do better…
But doing better
isn’t the point – because we can’t. What we need is infinitely beyond law and
repentance. What we need is the power to believe in Him who accomplished it all
for us. And that power helps us come back to Him in an endless cycle of grace
and redemption that we may model that for the world. Law and repentance teach
us what is right and wrong and what to do if we screw up. Grace and redemption
free us to live in fellowship with God and follow His lead.
What would you say to Jesus in your conversation with
Him? Do you have conversations with
Him? What could you say to the Lord that would be of interest or importance to
Him?
Conversations with Jesus are opportunities share what is
on your heart and to hear what is on His. Conversations are two-way; from and
to. What do we say to Jesus and how does He respond? It’s interesting what we’ll
hear from Him if we give Him half a chance.
Lord, Your desire is to be in close communication with
all of Your brothers and sisters. My prayer is that my communications with You
increase in intensity and frequency. May I simply set my mind to talk with You
and set my heart to hear from You. Thank You for Your word, and thank You for
holy thoughts and ideas. Teach me Lord to listen and obey and to allow You to
lead me and guide me where You direct. Amen
Since You are responsible for the creation of all
creation, getting Your message across to me should be no big deal…
No comments:
Post a Comment