Thursday July 30, 2020
Today’s Scripture: Mark 9:2-10
2 Six days later Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and led them up a high mountain to be alone. As the men watched, Jesus’ appearance was transformed, 3 and his clothes became dazzling white, far whiter than any earthly bleach could ever make them. 4 Then Elijah and Moses appeared and began talking with Jesus.
5 Peter exclaimed, “Rabbi, it’s wonderful for us to be here! Let’s make three shelters as memorials—one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 6 He said this because he didn’t really know what else to say, for they were all terrified.
7 Then a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my dearly loved Son. Listen to him.” 8 Suddenly, when they looked around, Moses and Elijah were gone, and they saw only Jesus with them.
9 As they went back down the mountain, he told them not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. 10 So they kept it to themselves, but they often asked each other what he meant by “rising from the dead.”
Today’s Devotional
There’s been a lot of talk about monuments in the news lately. It’s stirred up some pretty passionate feelings and a lot of heated rhetoric. Why is this? What’s so important about monuments? Aren’t they just inscribed stone and marble? Why get so heated about them?
Humans are monument makers. We have been for a long time. The Old Testament is filled with individuals building stone monuments to remember or commemorate something important that happened. And of course, living in DC we see the effects of this human monumental tendency every time we drive into the city.
When something important happens – we want to memorialize it. When important people die we want to remember them. And so monuments are not just stone and marble public art installations. They are telling the story of what and who we think is important.
Peter is just like us in this story. Something amazing happened right in front of him so he wanted to build a monument. Who can blame him?
But God had a different plan. As soon as Peter outlined his memorial idea God, in a cloud, came over them and said “This is my dearly loved Son. Listen to him.”
Listen to Jesus. That’s the memorial that God wanted.
We must be careful that we don’t build monuments and neglect the very monument that God wants: that we listen to Jesus. If we are focused on listening to Jesus, then we will act as he acted, love as he loved, and serve as he served. THIS is the monument that we should be focused on.
How is your monument building coming today?
Today’s Prayer
God forgive us for those times we concentrate on the trappings of faith instead of faith itself. Reminds us to listen to the voice of Jesus and to follow that voice toward being living monuments to you and your kingdom.
Amen
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