Blinded
"Blinded" Phrases
What phrases can you think of that use the term "blinded"?
Blinded by darknesss...and light
The followers of Jesus in our text today find themselves blinded by both the darkness and the light. In both experiences, God was speaking to them.
Luke 9:28
Luke 9:28 CEB
About eight days after Jesus said these things, he took Peter, John, and James, and went up on a mountain to pray.
A Disciple's Job Description
Followers will need to deny themselves and take up a cross daily. Try to save your life and you will lose it. Offer up your life and you will save it.
Every Mountain
Every mountain has the potential as a place where God might be encountered again...We talk about mountain this way too. Every mountain holds possibility.
Weighed Down
The disciples climb the mountain weighed down by the prediction of what is to come. They stumbled up it in their darkness, eyes blinded by a terrible vision of Jesus suffering and dying.
Luke 9:30-31
Luke 9:30-31 CEB
Two men, Moses and Elijah, were talking with him. They were clothed with heavenly splendor and spoke about Jesus’ departure, which he would achieve in Jerusalem.
Using Darkness
Like those old master technique of using darkness to focus a spotlight on their subjects, God uses the darkness to make the light even more dazzling. Radiant light splitting darkness inspires even the hardest heart.
Luke 9:34-35
Luke 9:34-35 CEB
Peter was still speaking when a cloud overshadowed them. As they entered the cloud, they were overcome with awe. Then a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, my chosen one. Listen to him!"
Trying to explain...
We like to interpret mountain top experiences. We like to talk about the light. Yet, sometimes you just can’t. You can’t explain away the mystery. The Transfiguration of Jesus was a mystery, something that Peter, James and John spent a life time trying to figure out.
Luke 9:38
Luke 9:38 CEB
A man from the crowd shouted, "Teacher, I beg you to take a look at my son, my only child.
Not just in the bright moments
I think God is wants us to understand that revelation doesn't just happen in the bright moments of mountaintops. They can also happen in those tough moments of life when you are blinded by the darkness around you, when the vision of what is before you is so challenging that you are simply overwhelmed.
In the valley
Most of us however, live in the valley. This is where we must find our clarity and hear God's voice. Our valleys are named heartache and disillusion. Our gardens named grief and sorrow.
Isaiah 53:4
Isaiah 53:4 CEB
It was certainly our sickness that he carried, and our sufferings that he bore, but we thought him afflicted, struck down by God and tormented.
T.S. Elliot Quote
“I said to my soul, be still and let the dark come upon you, which shall be the darkness of God." -T.S. Elliot
Jesus' example of prayer
On “the mountain”, in “the valley” and even on the Cross, Jesus demonstrates a type of authentic prayer that does not avoid the shadows that come in our life.
A Savior who understands
How wonderful it is to have a Savior who understands this. He can sympathize with us in our fears, in our distress, in our pain, in our emptiness and in our loneliness. And he demonstrates a way of finding clarity by looking for it in the darkness.