If only I could change! Looking at Jesus, the Key to Metamorphosis

The good news of  the Christian  message  is Christ came to set us free  from  bondage to our desires. We don’t set ourselves free.  It  is Christ who sets  us free,  it is the Physician who heals , not the patients. As Christ said, “whoever  practices  sin is a slave to sin.  If the Son  shall set you  free,  you will be free indeed.”  By the power of the Holy Spirit,  we can be free from  our desires.  The church calls this  apaqeia, dispassion.

Transformation, or metamorphosis,  starts by  having  a renewed mind  or spirit  yielded to God’s Spirit.  Paul writing to the Romans  said,  “metamorfousqai  th anakainwsei tou nooj umwn.”  Be metamorphasized  by the renewal  of your mind, nous.

But  how  is our mind  renewed?  How are  we changed,  metamorphed?

We see transformation  typified in the mount of Transfiguration.

“17 After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. 3 Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.

4 Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”

5 While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”

6 When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. 7 But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.” 8 When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus. (Mt.17:1-8)

Besides  falling asleep  on their watch,  the disciples did two things here.  First,  they were told  to  listen to the Son.  Secondly,  they  looked at the Son.

To  be transformed- transfigured to His image-  we must listen  to the Son.  God  speaks to us every day. “Today  if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts,”  Is the warning we hear.  He  asks us to  yield  our hearts to Him  every moment and thereby enter into communion with Him.

He also  exhorts us to  look at Him.  We are to “look unto  Jesus the Author and finisher of our faith.”

And, as we stare into  His face  we are filled with the warmth of His love,  of His grace.

For, “we all with unveiled faces beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are metamorphed  into the same image from  glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Cor.3:18)

  Nature teaches this!  Just like  looking at the Sun  brings warmth,  and can  burn,  so  looking at Christ,  casting  the eye of our soul to Him,  affords us a glance of the rays of His mercy  and love.  For He is the Sun  of righteousness (Malachi 4:2)

Our hearts are restless till we find the Face of God  and are filled with His grace.  Let us listen to the Son  of God, get up into the mountain alone,  away from the world’s desires and look for the Face of God, until  He have mercy on us.  In this way,  we celebrate  the Feast of Transfiguration this August.  Let us be transfigured,  radiant from  God’s glory.  So much  so that as the people had to hide from  Moses’ face when  he came down  from  Mount Sinai after seeing God’s glory,  people might also pause  because they see we are not the same, but changed by the shining of God’s glory.