OUR FATHER WHO IS UNSEEN, SEES IN SECRET

The Lord and His three closest disciples returned down the mountain after the revealing of Jesus in His glory. Mathew chapter 17 verses 9 - 13 continues the narrative this way;

9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, “Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

The Lord told the three men to be silent about what they had seen and only to reveal it to other people when He was raised from the dead. This request revealed the discreet nature of the kingdom of God. Many of the spiritual experiences that are part of the kingdom of God are to be kept in secret and only if explicitly instructed to reveal them should  they be described to other people. This is a mirror of what is said in Matthew chapter 6 verse which describes God as one who operates in the unseen and sees in secret.

But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Thus the interactions that we have with our Father in heaven should be held close to our hearts unless instructed otherwise.

10 The disciples asked him, “Why then do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?”

11 Jesus replied, “To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. 12 But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.” 13 Then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist.

As they walked, the disciples, curious and puzzled about what had just happened, tried reconcile their vision of Elijah with what the religious teachers  had been teaching them about him.

Jesus clarified for them that the Elijah did come first and they saw him in the person of John the Baptist but the establishment had him eliminated by killing him and that is why they saw him standing with Moses and Jesus.

Ominously, the Lord told them that He too would suffer at the hands of the religious and political establishment.

Lord have mercy on us.

Amen.

1