Spiritual Cataracts

One of the most compelling stories (and one of the most important stories as well) is the story of the Transfiguration of Jesus. The Transfiguration is that extraordinary story of Jesus’ trip to the mountain with Peter, James and John very shortly after Peter’s confession at Ceasaria Philippi. In that moment on the mountain Jesus appeared before the disciples with his face and garment gleaming white “as no fuller could bleach”. With Jesus appeared Moses and Elijah and the voice from heaven, the same voice that spoke when Jesus was baptized, spoke clearly again testifying to the identity of Jesus. I’ve always heard this story from the standpoint that it was Jesus who was changed before the eyes of the disciples and when Jesus changed, Peter’s confession took on new meaning. There is a lot about this interpretation that roots deeply in our experience.

This week, however, I heard an interpretation that has turned my relationship to that passage upside down. What if it was not Jesus who changed on that incredible night? What if it was the disciples who had changed? What if the truth of Peter’s confession hit critical mass in that moment, quiet and separated from the group? What if, for the first time, the disciples, Peter, James and John, truly saw Jesus as he truly was and had always been? What if the scales that covered their eyes fell away and for the first time they truly saw their Lord and Teacher?

This interpretation has exploded in my spiritual awareness and simply won’t be denied. The powerful truth of that interpretation became more than an abstract idea this week. It became a living, breathing, even visceral reality.

I can see in recent weeks a movement in my spirit away from living in an abstract reality of Christ presence and to a more conscious awareness of Christ presence as a physical reality. What I’m finding is that this is affecting my daily awareness of the world around me. It is affecting my prayer. It is affecting my service. It’s not that I hadn’t before lived in awareness of a risen and present Christ. Just as a seed grows, matures, bears fruit and goes through its ongoing cycle of fruit bearing so has my awareness and understanding of Christ grown. But this is different! No longer is my understanding and experiencing of Christ hermetically sealed and tucked away as a curio in the dust free environment of my intellect. My eyes have been opened; my spiritual cataracts have been stripped away. I see Jesus now more clearly than at any other time in my life. What once was a dimmed awareness of Christ’s presence has exploded onto the terrain I walk each day.

Jesus was not the one who changed. It is my life and awareness that has been transformed. This transformation has been a gift from a patient Christ who has been waiting to greet me not in the recesses of a well reasoned theology, but truly right be my side. The incarnation of Christ, which we speak of at Christmas, is now so much more than a good idea. It is the fundamental truth of my life with God. In the Jesus who walks at my side I truly greet the God who created me, loves me and has forgiven and redeemed me. I believe this not because I can describe it in words in concepts. I believe this because I have experienced it in my heart, in my eyes, in my ears and in my hands.