Small Fish & Big Ponds

I wonder if there was a point at which the disciples wondered what they had been called into by Jesus. I’m sure there were a few moments when, overcome by wonder, they thought they’d hit the jackpot.

Those were the times when miracles of healing and new life were given by Jesus to those of their community and those without it. Widows’ sons, foreign demoniacs and centurions’ offspring all found life and hope at Jesus’ hands.

Gradually more was being asked. Jesus’ teaching was not just the parables which left them scratching their heads, but declarations about suffering, death and resurrection, which must have left them stunned, like they were at the heart of the storm.

Unfortunately, Jesus was not going to still this storm for them – they were being invited into a discipleship which asked as much of them as it asked of Jesus.

Lives lost and found? Most of the disciples would answer truthfully that they had sacrificed their former lives in order to follow Jesus, and it was being asked of them again?

And then, suddenly, a bright light, heroes from history and the voice of God. Perhaps it would all be fine. In the midst of all the calls and the miracles and the challenges and the prophecies, this astonishing moment of pure wonder.

There seems to be little sound, but everything “dazzling white”. One translation says Jesus’ clothes became “bright as a flash of lightning”. After all that had been said and done, they were participants in God’s glory. Perhaps God was declaring a different path to the one Jesus had mentioned last week?

Just like us. We have heard the call to discipleship at least once, and probably more often. We know what it is to ask for forgiveness and to begin the task of risking ourselves with Jesus. We know what it feels like to wrestle out our faith in our lives and how difficult that can often be. We have also had moments (and more than moments) of blessing and joy, of being in the presence of God.

Yet, each and every time we read this kind of story we hope that perhaps we have done enough and we can just rejoice in the light and wonder before us.

How quickly the light vanishes for Peter and James and John. It must almost seem like a fading memory, even as the cloud, redolent with the voice of God, swirls away.

The call is always before us. We follow Jesus, and this season ahead of us reminds us not only of our call, but of the faithfulness and sacrifice of the one we follow. The story in Luke 9, of Jesus transfigured in light and wonder, is a statement to those who first experienced it – and to us – that we are called into the world in which we live.

These vital and wonderful moments are not the entire story of discipleship; nor are the challenging moments of working out our faith every day. We are disciples of Jesus – crucified and risen. We are disciples of the one who lived and taught and healed and suffered and died. And was raised.

As we journey into Lent and the Easter which awaits us, let us listen to the one whom God has chosen. For in him alone is life.