Daily Devotion for Lent 2015, Day 22

Daily Devotion for Lent

Saturday, March 14, 2015, Day 22

Mark 9:2-13 (NRSV)

The confusion tour for Peter continues with this passage.

Transfiguration by Carl Heinrich Bloch

The transfiguration could be seen as a mystical experience shared by Peter, James and John.  Even this strange encounter (or at least observance) of Moses and Elijah leaves Peter giving the wrong answer.

He was terrified.

I don't blame him.

He just heard talk about denying oneself and taking up the cross.  In first century Judea, this was not so metaphorical as possible.  Who wouldn't want to just stay put?

When we've had such a spiritual encounter, why go back to the real world?

I think we see the weakness of Peter because we can often identify with it.

But Jesus continues to bring him along.  Just like Jesus continues to bring us along.

Life is often confusing.

It is sometimes terrifying.

But in the end, we find the reassurance of the risen Christ and it may be that we find ourselves transfigured.

Prayer of blessing:

May the rains sweep gentle across your fields,
May the sun warm the land,
May every good seed you have planted bear fruit,
And late summer find you standing in fields of plenty.




Prayer (c) John Birch, www.faithandworship.com

Picture by Carl Heinrich Bloch [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons