That said, we are learning about how to be compassionate, how to listen and be fully present in the midst of suffering and hurt, and how to best be Christ's presence to those in need. So reading Sunday's gospel lesson is a little funny. It starts out well enough, Luke 9.28-36 talks about the scene of Jesus' transfiguration. Jesus has gone away to pray - he has performed miracle, taught, and people constantly want more and more from him. And he needs space. He needs to get away and he needs to get re-centered on what his purpose is, and how he is going to accomplish that purpose. So as he is praying, and as his disciples are fighting sleep, Moses and Elijah appear and have a little chat with Jesus about his journey to the cross, starting the moment he leaves the mountain. Peter babbles something about making homes so that they can just stay where they are - nice and neat, shining and basking in Jesus' glory. And then the cloud comes and overshadows them. For the early listeners, their minds would have gone straight to the time when Moses himself was on the mountain and God came to talk with him, to give him instruction and the law (and in fact it's the same word used here and in the Greek translation of Exodus. The voice comes, reaffirms that Jesus is, in fact, God's son, and that the disciples needed to listen to him.
This is all great and good. Lovely and fine. But there is a second portion to our gospel text this week, found in the very next verses: Luke 9.37-43. In this portion of the text, Jesus is confronted by a father who desperately wants his son to be well. He is possessed by a spirit that dashes him to the ground and causes the boy to convulse and foam at the mouth. The man has asked Jesus' disciples to heal him, but to no avail. They are unable. So, the man goes to the best of the best.
You see, prior to Jesus' transfiguration he has fed 5,000 people with 5 loaves and 2 fish. He has brought a girl back to life and healed a woman everyone counted as lost. Everyone wants a piece of Jesus' glory, and the man just wants his son to be well. Now, in my training this week, we would talk about how to listen to the man, how to be with him and show empathy and compassion, how to pray, and how to be Christ's presence. Except Jesus takes all that training and throws it out the window. Instead of having compassion, instead of seeing a father in need, hurting because his son hurts, instead of seeing a broken person in need of healing, Jesus sees just another glory hunter and responds in kind:
You faithless and perverse generation.
How much longer must I be with you and bear with you?
Bring your son here.
This is not what our Stephen Ministry calls 'compassionate caregiving.' This is a rant taken out on a man who was just asking for is son to be healed. Maybe Jesus is just a little on edge because he knows what is coming (the cross) and he just wants to get it over with. Maybe Jesus is just really tired because after a night of praying he didn't get much sleep. Or maybe it's just that he is so frustrated that people don't get it. They think he is there to save them - give them food when they're hungry, bring their dead back to life, heal people with spirits and other illnesses - they think he is the miracle-worker, genie-in-a-bottle, savior.
Except that's not who he is at all. Notice God's voice didn't say, "You are my Son, the healer." God's voice didn't say, "You are my Son, the military commander." God said, "You are my Son, the chosen." Jesus' glory wasn't in the healing, and it wasn't in the miracles. Jesus' glory wasn't in the visit from Moses and Elijah, and it wasn't in the majesty of becoming dazzling white. Jesus' glory was in the cross. And people just didn't get it.
Unfortunately, I am people. I don't get it. I always say how great God is when amazing things happen - when people's cancer suddenly goes away, when someone walks away from a car accident when by all means they shouldn't have, when someone's broken life becomes whole and healed. Except, according to Jesus, that's not where his glory is. His glory is in the cross, in the suffering itself. This leaves me pondering this week: where do I find glory?
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