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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