This week’s readings are of the Transfiguration, a story I confess I’ve never much understood. What I find most interesting is the little story that follows the part about what happened on the mountain.
It involves the healing of a boy with a nasty unclean spirit. When Jesus, Peter, John, and James came down from the mountain, a man called out to Jesus to see his son. The spirit seized the boy, convulsed him, mauled him, and would not leave him. “Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. And all were astounded at the greatness of God” (Lk. 9:42-43).
Here’s the part we tend to overlook, I think, and might like to forget. Right before Jesus healed the boy, he was confronted with the news that his disciples had tried and failed to do the same thing before he got there. He was not pleased and responded, “You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you and bear with you?” (v. 41).
Now that just doesn’t sound like the Jesus whose picture was on the Sunday school classroom wall. That Jesus was sweet, always nice, and never offensive. The Sunday school Jesus, however, bears little resemblance to the Jesus of the gospels.
We should not forget that it is the Jesus of the gospels, according to Luke, and not the Sunday school one, that revealed the greatness of God. The people present that day understood. I’m afraid we might miss it. It’s up to us to choose between the Sunday school Jesus and the real one. The revelation of the greatness of God depends on it.
Agape,
+Stacy
Bishop Stacy Sauls
Founder and President
Love Must Act