Invite to the Transfiguration

Armodoxy for Today: One Minute for Summertime

Words that triggered the Transfiguration, Day 4

The conversation that takes place before the Transfiguration, includes an invitation by Jesus.  “If anyone desires to come after Me,” he says, “Let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.  For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”

It is not necessarily an attractive invitation. In fact, it has a rather painful call in it: the cross. Here Jesus is calling us to a higher standard by which to live, a life of sacrifice, which can only be achieved once the ego is in check. With self-denial, we open ourselves to the joy of living. It might not have been an appealing offer for the disciples, but those who took him up on the offer saw in the Transfigured Jesus, salvation from the cares of this world.

In the context of the lessons of this past week, Jesus remarks, bring it all into focus: “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16)

Today’s one-minute for Summertime.