"And he [Jesus] was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light." - Matthew 17:2
On the mount of transfiguration, three of Jesus' disciples had an amazing experience of seeing Jesus in all His glory. Such an experience is now something we only hope to enjoy one day in heaven. Yet even though we may not see such obvious evidence of Christ's glory in our daily lives, it is still possible to see Him.
Where do we see Jesus today?
We see Jesus first in the Bible, in stories like the one in Matthew 17 about his physical transfiguration. We see from this story that there is a beauty to our Lord, a beauty that we can strive to reflect (though rather palely) in things like art and music and poetry. Physical beauty can be used to honor Jesus and show Him to others. When it is created with the right heart, poured out with love towards our Lord, such physical offerings are not a waste. After all, when women poured expensive perfume on Jesus to honor Him, Jesus stood up for them rather than rebuking them for wasting money as others in His company had (Luke 7:36-50, John 12:1-8).
When we focus on this physical beauty alone, however, we miss the larger beauty of Jesus. This larger beauty is seen in how we love those around us. We ought to see Jesus Himself in those around us, both great and weak, from the powerful preacher down to the homeless single mother shivering in the cold. Jesus commands us to see Him in all of these people, and do for them what we would do for Him. Those who show love to the least of these may not even think about how they are doing good to Jesus, yet on the final day, they will stand before the Lord "and the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’" (Matthew 25:40)
The truly beautiful thing is that when we treat others like we would treat Jesus, they can see Jesus in us. We can follow Jesus' instruction: "you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." (Acts 1:8b) We are to be just like Jesus, heeding His command: "love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another." (John 13:34).
Jesus in all of His glory, as witnessed in Matthew 17, we can hardly comprehend. Yet if we reflect even a small fraction of that greatness though our words and deeds, we can light up the whole world with love and hope.
Where do we see Jesus today? We see Him in our hearts, in one another, and in our reflection of His love, as we learn from Jesus, serve Jesus, and become Jesus to those around us.
Inspired by the sermon "They Saw No One but Jesus" by Pastor Kevin Lentz at St. Mark Lutheran Church in Omaha, NE on Feb 26, 2017.
