What is true ? Philosophers tell us it’s all perception. Or it’s all a point of view. Well of course there is truth in both those contentions. We do perceive the world and filter what happens about us through our own preconceptions, prejudices, experiences. And it does depend on point of view. A poor person in a big city has a very different perspective from a rich person living on a country estate.
Perception and perspective are both part of the reality of this life.
But perception and perspective are in truth facets of the the whole. so the question is:
What does the whole look like ?
Well in the Christian world view – and you alone can come to a conclusion about its veracity – in the Christian world view, there is a superior and unseen spiritual dimension beyond the material and visible world we see.
And if you cannot accept or grasp that, then the entire message and point of Christianity will be lost to you.
We have reached chapter 17 in Matthew’s Gospel account of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.
Note there are 4 gospel accounts. Not just one. And there are differences between them. There are different approaches and perspectives brought to bear by the four different Gospel writers.
Matthew is very Jewish, starting with a Jewish mindset and referring time and again to the Jewish scriptures; Mark is very Roman, focusing on action; Luke is very Greek, concerned to put the whole account in proper order; John is very intimate and revealing.
They all speak of Jesus Christ as real and true. They simply bear witness of what they know, in the way they know it. They bring evidence and explanation.
Whether you accept or reject it, that is a matter for you.
The theme underlying the record in Matthew chapter 17 is this question of a superior and ulterior dimension of existence – the spiritual. A spiritual dimension which rules this physical world.
Now that is not an acceptable idea for intellectuals and people in power today because today’s world worships and idolises the material.
It’s all consumption and production. People are just cogs in a producing and consuming system.
No wonder some turn to violent extremes in religion or politics. They have no hope beyond a sickeningly shallow and pointless materialistic existence.
So let’s come back to Jesus Christ and Matthew chapter 17.
Strange events occur, such as the Transfiguration of Jesus. Jesus and his 3 closest disciples – namely Peter, James and John – meet with Moses and Elijah on a high mountain top. Moses and Elijah of course were long dead in the natural – but in the spiritual dimension very much alive, even several centuries after their natural death in this material realm.
What’s more, in experiencing this ‘higher’ realm, the 3 disciples hear God speaking audibly and clearly – no problems of communication here:
This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him.
And that is what we see repeatedly in this chapter. The spiritual breaking through on the material world about us.
That is why Jesus Christ came. To break in on our material world, and so restore us to awareness and life in the spiritual realm. And in being restored to life in the spiritual because of Jesus Christ, we can see and understand – we can perceive properly, we can see from the proper perspective. We see it all as it really is, for what it really is, the way it really is. And we perceive and understand that Jesus Christ alone is the truth, and that Jesus Christ alone can open our understanding.
Christian Preacher
Christianity 