This Is My Son

" After five days, Jesus took with Him Peter, James and John, the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain to be alone with them. Jesus was transfigured before them, His face shown like the sun, and His clothes became as white as light. And there, Moses and Elijah appeared to them and were talking with Him.  'Lord,' Peter said to Jesus, 'it's good for us to be here. If You wish, I will make three tents here, one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.'  He was still speaking when a bright cloud suddenly overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud: ' This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him'." [ Matthew 17:1-9].

My born- again friends always talk about how the first step in becoming a Christian anew, as an adult, is to proclaim that Jesus is their Savior. At times in my life, I have found this sturdy, confident proclamation  . . . well, kind of annoying. Okay, they ARE Christians, but do they have to go around challenging each others' depth of faith all the time?

Then, I think back to how my life was, as a child. My parents took me to a Protestant church. If questioned on a survey, my parents would have said, ' Yes, we are Christian.'

Okay, every Sunday we sat in church, looking cleaned up and dressed up. Our faces shone from the Saturday night's scrubbing, my father wore a tie and jacket, my mother wore a pretty dress and heels. If I wanted to as much as whisper, I was told to shush.

But, at home my father would come home from work and fall quietly into a sodden despair. Too often, he took that angst out on me.  My mother would desperately try to control her universe, by becoming ever more harsh and cold towards us.

It confused me to no end that we called ourselves Christian. My parents put material things first, but the Reverend's sermons always said, " It is better to give than to receive."

In church, I heard, " Love your neighbor." But at home, I was told that Christians are hypocrites; and that various ethnic groups were inferior.

When I left home to go to college, then to graduate school, I studied business law. After a time, I began to understand that Jesus would at some point in His life, have to go from upstart prophet to a Man of  God  -- with a lineage and authority from the Highest Power.

Gradually, as I have grown in my spiritual life, I have realized that it does not work to call myself Christian, without accepting Jesus' authority from God, to lead me. A Christian without Jesus' authority over us, is mere posturing.

And this was an issue from the very beginning of Christianity.  Then, as now, people ask, ' Who IS this guy Jesus, and what does He have to do with my life?'

Before His transfiguration, Jesus went into the desert, where Satan tempted Him. And Jesus, literally, passed many tests.

In Matthew 17, Jesus ascends a mountain, and God speaks to Him.

The earliest Christians would have been very familiar with the story of how Moses ascended Mt. Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments, from the very voice of The Lord. They would have known Elijah as a prophet recognized by God. [ This is the meaning of the Scripture, " I have come, not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it." Matthew 5. ]

In Matthew 17, Jesus comes in that great tradition, of the mountaintop blessing from The Lord.  We are told quite literally, " This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him."

We are confronted with the authority of Jesus, and His authority comes from the Father.

And so, being a Christian follower is more than a mere title. It is more than the act of ticking off  "Religious Affiliation" on a census form. Being a parishioner and attending church is not a pastime.  It is not a"calendar event".  Attending church is not a matter of keeping the kids busy and entertained for an hour, after Sunday morning cartoons.

Before the world knew Jesus,  " In those days, there was no King. Everyone did what he thought was right." [ Judges 21:25.].

After Jesus came into the world and God declared, " This is my beloved Son. Listen to Him." -- we were granted the awesome privilege to declare whether we would follow Jesus -- or not.

Jesus' authority comes from God. Will you follow? Or disregard Him and walk away?

[ Related posting, " Not By Bread Alone", March 9, 2014].

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