Listening! – Matthew 17:5

Matthew 17:5 While he was still speaking, a bright could covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”

We are not a culture that listens very well. This is one of the downfalls of the selfie generation. When it is all about you, what other people have to say just doesn’t matter. It is what WE say that matters. We push for followers and likes, and that becomes the value we believe about ourselves.

But life is not a solo endeavor. It is meant to be done together. And togetherness requires that we feel understood. And to feel understood, we must be listened to. Listening in the key to survival as a species. Isolation is the enemy.

One of the most striking events in Jesus’ life takes place with His three closest disciples right at His side. Jesus selects them for a journey up a mountain. Great things seem to happen on the tops of mountains. Moses received the Ten Commandments carved by the finger of God on the top of a mountain. The LORD spoke to His people from that same mountaintop.

But something happens when they arrive. Jesus is suddenly changed. His appearance goes from being that of a human being to something otherworldly. The text says that his face brightened to the point that no one could look at it because it was too bright, like the sun. And His clothes also become bright like light. He became a shining being.

We don’t know the exact nature of this brightness from the text. There are heavenly beings, like the Seraphim (a type of angel), that glow brightly. We also know that when the LORD shows up, He is bright like this. The brightness even rubs off on Moses, his face glowing after his face to face encounters.

And then Moses and Elijah show up. How did they know it was Moses and Elijah? Remember, pre-selfie. They had no photo albums, no portraits painted to commemorate the end of their leadership. This mystery will have to wait for another time.

I think there was a bit of Disney in Peter. He wants to make a more permanent exhibition so others could observe these three in their glory. If these three are going to make a habit of getting together, then let’s make them as comfortable as possible.

But Peter’s plans are interrupted when a bright cloud engulfs them all. And then the cloud speaks! The cloud confirms the identity of Jesus as the Father’s son, but then He says even more. And the ‘even more’ is really the message He wants to convey.

So what does He want to say? Listen! Listen! Listen!

Perhaps it is time we begin to listen to each other, to those who have different experiences, to those with whom we differ. Notice I didn’t say, make them listen to you. Listen to them. This can be pretty scary. We will want to interject our side of the story, but we need to listen.

And we need to listen to the LORD, to the Scriptures, to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. We must become Olympic Listeners. We must hear not just the content, but the spirit behind the content. True understanding comes when someone feels that the other person has connected to not just the content, but to the emotions and impact.