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Friday, February 28, 2020

The Lone Savior

The message given in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on Sunday, February 23, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 17:1-9.


            Do you ever get lonely?  I think probably most of us do, sometimes.  Lonely, after all, is not the same thing as being alone.  We can be surrounded by people and still feel lonely.  Lonely is a feeling that no one cares about us.  Lonely is a feeling that no one knows what’s really going on in our lives, and that no one would care about it if they did know.  Lonely is feeling like there’s no one who understands us, no one who knows what it’s like to be us.  Lonely is feeling like no one is there for us and no one is going to be there for us.
            It’s one of the worst feelings in the world.  And it can be a powerful motivator.  Humans will do all kinds of things to avoid that feeling of loneliness.  Some of the things we’ll do are good, and some of them are bad, but either way, we human beings will go to all kinds of lengths to avoid the pain of loneliness.
            If you feel lonely now, or if you ever do, know that Jesus understands.  Jesus understands what it’s like to feel like nobody understands you, because Jesus went through that himself while he was on earth.
            Think about this--while Jesus was on earth, he was unique.  And I mean that in the literal sense of the word--Jesus was unique.  Jesus was fully human, and yet he was fully divine.  He was the Savior, the Messiah, the Son of God.  Part of the trinity--God the Son--and yet, at least temporarily, separated from the rest of the trinity.  
            There was quite literally no one on earth who knew what it was like to be Jesus.  No matter how hard they tried, they could not do it.  No one could know what it was like to be who Jesus was.  No one could know what it was like to be able to do what Jesus did.  No one could know what it was like to be to feel what Jesus felt.  Even if they tried, they could not know that, and I really question how hard they tried.  It seemed like, most of the time, the disciples had their own agenda, had things they wanted Jesus to do, a lot of the time had things they wanted Jesus to do for them.  
            And even when Jesus was trying to tell them what was going to happen, and why, and what it all meant, they still could not understand.  And in fact, they tried to argue with him.  Right before the passage we read, Jesus was telling the disciples about how he was going to be killed and would be raised on the third day, and Peter started arguing with him.  He was saying, no, Jesus, that’s not going to happen to you.  And Jesus finally says, get behind me Satan!  Peter could not understand.  None of them could understand.
            Jesus had to be terribly lonely.  I suspect that’s why there are so many times in the gospels where we read that Jesus went off by himself to meditate and to pray.  We don’t know what happened at those times--Jesus never said, or at least if he did it’s not recorded--but I suspect at least part of it was just an attempt to reconnect with God the Father.  It was an attempt to get rid of the loneliness he felt on earth, the feeling that no one understood what it was like to be him.  It was an attempt to feel the closeness with the rest of the Trinity that he had felt when he was in heaven.
            And so we come to our passage for tonight.  What we call “the transfiguration”.  Jesus takes Peter, James, and John, and they go up a high mountain.  There’s no one else there, just the four of them.  And suddenly, Jesus is transformed.  He’s changed.
            Try to imagine seeing that.  I mean, yes, Peter, James, and John believed in Jesus as the divine Son of God.  But as far as we can tell, he had always looked, well, pretty normal.  The Bible does not tell us anything about Jesus’ appearance, and so most people assume there was nothing particularly remarkable about it.  But now, all of a sudden, they see Jesus change, right in front of their eyes.
            Think about this description of Jesus:  “His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.”  You would not even be able to look at that, right?  You cannot look at the sun, at least not for more than a fraction of a second.  You have to either shut your eyes or turn away.  The disciples may have seen the countryside it up by the light coming from Jesus, but they would not have been able to look at Jesus himself, not for very long, anyway.
            In that moment, Jesus was no longer bound by his human form.  He was no longer bound by the restrictions placed on him by the fact that he was fully human.  He was, simply, fully divine.  We don’t know if his appearance was actually what it is in heaven, but the disciples at least got a glimpse of some of what Jesus looks like in his true glory.  And Jesus, for a little while, actually got to feel some of his true glory again.
            Can you imagine what that must have felt like for Jesus?  It must have been incredible.  Think of it this way--very few of us are fully and completely just who we are most of the time.  Maybe you are, I don’t know, but most of us have some part of ourselves that we keep concealed from the rest of the world.  It’s not necessarily that we’re trying to be someone that we’re not, although it can be.  It may be that there’s something about us we think people would not like.  It may be that there’s something we’re ashamed of.  It may be that there’s something we think people would not understand.  Or, there may simply be things about ourselves that we want to keep private, for whatever reason.  But most of us have those things, those things about ourselves that no one else knows about.
            But then, you get into a situation where you can totally be yourself.  Maybe you’re with the right person, the person you know will accept you and care about you no matter what.  Maybe you’re with a bunch of strangers who you don’t care what they think of you.  Maybe you just reach a point in your life where you say the heck with it, I’m going to just be myself and not worry about whether anybody likes it or not.
            If you’ve ever been in that situation, you know it’s an incredibly great feeling.  To just be who you are, who God created you to be.  To be one hundred percent of who you are, with no shields, no filters, no nothing.  Just to be totally and completely yourself.  That’s an awesome feeling.
            And that’s what Jesus was feeling at the transfiguration.  For that moment, he could be himself again.  And he was with Moses and Elijah.  Now, Moses and Elijah are not on the same level as Jesus.  Great as they were, they were still human beings, not the divine Son of God.  But still, they were people who could understand Jesus.  They were people who fully understood who Jesus was.  And Jesus could be fully himself with them.
            It did not last, of course.  We don’t know how long Jesus was with them, but eventually Moses and Elijah left, and Jesus was back to being fully human, as well as fully divine.  And he had to go back down the mountain with the disciples, and go back to his life on earth.  
I have to think, though, that this made things easier for him.  Because it reminded him--not that he did not know it, but it reminded him that his loneliness would not last forever.  His need to not fully be who he was would not last forever.  Yes, he was going to have to go through some really hard things.  Arrest, beatings, mockery, finally death.  Then, resurrection.  And then, in the end, going back to heaven.  Being reunited with the other members of the trinity.  Again being fully who he was, with none of those human restrictions any more.
So here’s the point.  If you feel lonely, if you feel like no one understands you, if you feel like there’s no one else like you, know this:  Jesus understands.  If you feel like you cannot truly be yourself:  Jesus understands.  Jesus knows what you’re going through.  Jesus knows exactly how you feel, because he felt it himself.
And because Jesus understands, you can always go to him.  You can go to him in prayer.  You can tell him exactly how you feel, and he will understand.
And sometimes, that’s the main thing we need--just someone to understand.  But the chances are that we’ll get more than that.  I mean, we probably won’t get to see Moses and Elijah, but we will get something.  We’ll get encouragement.  We’ll get strength.  We’ll get the knowledge that what we’re going through will not last forever, even if it feels like it will.  A day will come when we no longer have to feel lonely.  A day will come when we no longer feel we cannot be by ourselves.  It may not be today.  It may not be tomorrow.  But it will come.
If you feel lonely, please know that.  And if you don’t feel lonely, look around you.  Try to see people who do.  Because the chances are, they’re around you.  They’re around all of us.  They won’t tell us.  Nobody walks up to you and says, “I’m lonely.”  No one comes up to you and says, “I feel like I cannot be myself.”  But there are signs.  There are signals.  And we can see them, if we take the time to look.  And we’ll be more likely to see them if we ask God to help us see them.
Jesus knows what it’s like to be lonely, because he felt it.  He knows the pain loneliness can cause, and he does not want anyone else to have to feel that pain.  If you are lonely, Jesus will help ease your pain.  If you’re not lonely, try to ease the pain for someone who is.  It will help them.  It will probably make you feel better.  And you know what?  I think Jesus will be proud of you, too.

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