Who Do You Listen To?

Who do you ask when you need advice?

Parent or other relative

Friend

Child

Pastor or counselor

Most of us seek out help when we need advice about a big decision. Hopefully, the people we turn to are wise and will give us good advice. But, they can be wrong, even if their intentions are good. And if we are completely honest, sometimes we tend to seek advice from those who we think will agree with what we want to do anyway. Guilty!

More than looking outside ourselves for advice, the trend now is to look inwardly. We hear repeated in songs and movies that we should just “follow our heart”, as if our hearts would never lead us astray. All I can say to that is that my experience shows me that when I just follow my heart, I often end up in a mess. My heart isn’t capable of being the perfect guide I need, because my heart is still sometimes swayed by sin or fear or worry, and may lead me wrong. So where can we safely turn when we need advice? Who CAN we listen to?

The story I want to read addresses these questions. You may have heard it before. It’s the transfiguration of Jesus.

Matthew 17:1-8

When we modern people read this story, I think we often focus on the wrong part. We are interested in the transfiguration part. I mean, that’s pretty amazing. Jesus’ appearance all the sudden changes. He’s shining! And not only that, but two long-dead guys show up and start talking to him. Who wouldn’t be blown away by that??

Obviously, Peter was pretty blown away. He does a curious thing. He offers to make three shelters. Maybe think of this, not so much as places to sleep, but more like memorials. Some backstory might be helpful. For Jews, Moses and Elijah represent the two greatest prophets in the OT. Moses is the one who God spoke to and gave the Law. Elijah was seen as the greatest miracle working prophet. No one is more esteemed by Jews than these two people.

So when we offers to make THREE shelters, Peter probably thinks he’s being pretty generous. Moses is great. Elijah is great. And Jesus, I’ll make you equal with them. I’ll do for you what I’m doing for them. So Peter is acknowledging that Jesus is as great as Moses and Elijah. I mean he is shining after all.

But looks what happens next. As he is blabbering about making some shelters a cloud comes over the mountain. So anytime in the Bible you hear about a cloud, it rarely has to do with the weather. Clouds were symbolic of God’s presence descending on a place. And this is what is happening her. God the Father descends and speaks from the cloud: “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased;”. Those words have been spoken before over Jesus, haven’t they? Remember when? His baptism.

But now something else is added. “Listen to him”. The point being made is that it is not enough to raise Jesus up to the level of Moses and Elijah. His authority now surpasses that of Moses and Elijah. Again, we modern people are drawn to the flashy part about Jesus glowing. But any Jew reading this account back then would understand exactly what is being said. Jesus is the one we must listen to even about that of what Moses or Elijah said. He is the One who most clearly reveals the Father to us.

It’s like this: we’ve probably all be stuck at home at night during a thunderstorm when the lights go off. We stumble around looking for a flashlight. So we don’t run the battery down, we maybe light some candles. And with the candles lit we can see a little bit, right? At least in the area near the candle. But what about the rest of the room? It’s in shadow, isn’t it? And so this goes on for several hours, when all the sudden the lights come back on. And immediately everything is clear. The shadows are gone.

This is what Matthew is trying to tell us about Jesus. Up until him, God’s revelation through Moses and the prophets - though good and true - was incomplete. Now Jesus has appeared, and his revelation brings perfect clarity about who God is. The lights have turned on and the shadows have fled.

And so it makes perfect sense for the Father to now say, “Listen to him”. He is the one who brings perfect clarity about God’s heart and will. About his love and mercy and goodness and what he wants for us.

Parent, friends, and even pastors - and especially our own heart - can lead us astray. God has spoken that the one who never will lead you astray is his Son, Jesus. He wants better for you than what you want for yourself. And even if he tells you something you don’t want to hear or not the answer you’d like, you can always trust that he has your best interests as his highest priority.

John 10:27 “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.” Jesus tells us that we can know his voice above all the other voices that compete for our attention. We can have a relationship with him where we learn to recognize when he is speaking. Just like any relationship, it takes time to learn to recognize him speaking. But as we read the Bible, as we pray, as we bring our questions to God and sit and listen, we can begin to discern his voice. And Parents, friends, and pastors can we wonderful counselors when they are helping us to hear Jesus better.

In the end, Jesus wants to do more than save your soul. He wants to be your guide through life. I’d like to just pray over us that we would grow in our ability to hear Jesus voice for ourselves and that we would listen to him alone.