“As he was saying these things, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, ‘This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!’” – Luke 9:34-35
As the cloud presence of God, so familiar from the Old Testament, envelops Jesus, Moses, Elijah, Peter, James, and John, God the Father speaks. As He did as His baptism, God affirms Jesus as His Son, the Messiah, chosen to bring redemption to the world. He tells the confused and overwhelmed disciples simply to listen to Jesus.
It would be easy to just read that as a generic affirmation of listening to anything Jesus said, and there is truth to that. But we must also read carefully in context. At that time, Jesus was specifically emphasizing two crucial topics they (and we) need to listen to:
1. The necessity of His own death and resurrection. We must listen, understand, and never lose sight of the centrality of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Every aspect of our faith is built on this. His sacrifice was necessary to pay the penalty for our sins. It was necessary to crush the power of sin and death, so that all who put their faith in Him, turning from their sinful ways, will likewise rise from the dead. It was necessary to reconcile sinful man to our holy God. This is the central pivot point of all history, as the Kingdom of God was inaugurated in the power of Christ’s resurrection.
2. The significant cost of following Jesus. Followers of Jesus, both then and now, consistently misunderstand the cost of following Jesus. As incredible as the benefits of the Gospel are for us, following Jesus is not a matter of convenience and comfort. It is a call to ongoing, daily sacrifice to serve and obey Him. It is glorious and delightful, filled with rich significance as we fulfill God’s purpose for our lives. However, it is also a call to reject the natural self-centeredness of life we love and replace every aspect of it with a Christ-centeredness that calls us out of the comfortable and the familiar and into devoted and delighted sacrifice, suffering, and persecution.
This is Jesus, the Son of God. Listen to Him!!!