There is about a 400 (or so)-year time period between the Old and New Testaments. During that time, we know from world history that the Greeks took over the world. One of the most famous Greeks is Plato, and his most famous book is called the Republic. We were assigned to read it in graduate school, and, to be honest, I found it tough going. There was one part of it, however, that was very easy and exciting to read; it was called the “Allegory of the Cave.”
Most of us are familiar to some extent with this story. It presents a group of humans chained in a cave so they can only look ahead at a wall. Behind them a great fire rages, and in front of the fire, slaves carry objects carved of clay and wood and ivory, and the light of the fire projects shadows of those objects upon the wall. The people in the cave, there from birth, think the shadows they are seeing are the only reality there is. They can't see the fire or the slaves, so they assume that the shadows are what is real. Plato then asks his students to consider what it would be like for those people to leave the cave and see something real for the first time. The students reply, "They would say that the reality they saw outside of the cave would make the shadows on the wall look like foolishness."
In Luke chapter nine we have something like that going on with Jesus and his disciples. Peter figures out who Jesus is, and as soon as he does, Jesus takes him and James and John up on a mountain for a transfiguration. They are, in effect, led out of the cave to see the real thing! They are absolutely stunned by his glory and power.
Today we will look at why Jesus did this, and how important it is for those who are his disciples to be "on message" . . . that is, getting the point of what he expects his disciples to relay to the world.
Most of us are familiar to some extent with this story. It presents a group of humans chained in a cave so they can only look ahead at a wall. Behind them a great fire rages, and in front of the fire, slaves carry objects carved of clay and wood and ivory, and the light of the fire projects shadows of those objects upon the wall. The people in the cave, there from birth, think the shadows they are seeing are the only reality there is. They can't see the fire or the slaves, so they assume that the shadows are what is real. Plato then asks his students to consider what it would be like for those people to leave the cave and see something real for the first time. The students reply, "They would say that the reality they saw outside of the cave would make the shadows on the wall look like foolishness."
In Luke chapter nine we have something like that going on with Jesus and his disciples. Peter figures out who Jesus is, and as soon as he does, Jesus takes him and James and John up on a mountain for a transfiguration. They are, in effect, led out of the cave to see the real thing! They are absolutely stunned by his glory and power.
Today we will look at why Jesus did this, and how important it is for those who are his disciples to be "on message" . . . that is, getting the point of what he expects his disciples to relay to the world.
Mark
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