March 24 | Until
Read Mark 9:2-13
Don’t tell anyone. Jesus commanded Peter, James, and John not to tell anyone what they had seen on the mountain until after he rose from the dead.
Why would He say that? I suspect the reason he told them to keep this secret was because everyone still had a really hard time understanding what Jesus’ Messianic mission really looked like.
Can you imagine what would have happened if people heard and believed what had happened? A political uprising! This guy is the real deal and we need to get him on the throne, right now!
But that isn’t why Jesus came. Jesus came to radically alter reality. To forgive sin. To tear the curtain that symbolized the separation between God and man. Not just to gain political power.
I wonder if we sometimes are like the people in Jesus’s day. In a country where we pride ourselves on the political ideal of democracy- I wonder if we forget that Jesus didn’t come for political power. I wonder if we need to pause, like the disciples, to see what Jesus is really after.
Today, let’s confess the ways our political culture has twisted our understanding of the mission of Jesus. Let’s ask for His help in pursuing His Kingdom, His way.