Lent For Everyone Reading Plan
This is Friday of the third week of Lent. The reading is Matthew 17, with a focus on 21-28. (If you want to listen, scroll to the bottom of that page for the audio links.)
Wright focuses on the disciples left behind at the bottom of the Mount of Transfiguration, those who could not heal the boy brought to them. Jesus heals him effortlessly, but “Then he deals with the disciples. You couldn’t do it, he says, because of your little faith. He’s said it four times already (6.30; 8.26; 14.31; 16.8) and they still don’t get it. All it takes in fact, he says, is faith like a grain of mustard seed — an image he’s already used for the kingdom itself (13.31). Faith is like a small window through which you can see a vast landscape, and the landscape in question is the sovereign power of the creator God and the overwhelming glory of Jesus himself. We stand at that window, doing our best to wipe it clean from the condensation of our own unbelieving breath, and holding on, as we do so, to those for whom we want to pray.”
But in addition to all that, this is also the remarkable moment when the three disciples who go up the mountain see Jesus unveiled, in something of his glory, talking with Moses and Elijah about what will happen at Jerusalem.
Sufjan Stevens: Transfiguration
