The mountaintop experience of the Transfiguration reveals something profound about human nature. When Peter witnessed Jesus transformed before his eyes—face shining like the sun, clothes radiating light—standing with Moses and Elijah, his immediate response was to build. "Let's make three tabernacles," he suggested, already planning the construction project before fully processing the divine encounter unfolding before him.
This tendency to institutionalize our spiritual experiences runs deep. We witness something transformative and immediately want to build a structure around it, contain it, control it. Yet the voice from heaven redirected attention away from building projects and back to Jesus himself: "This is my beloved Son... listen to Him." When the disciples looked up, they saw no one but Jesus alone—a powerful metaphor for where our focus belongs.
Throughout Christian history, this pattern repeats. After Pentecost, believers receiving the Great Commission to go into all the world instead settled in Jerusalem, organizing church life until persecution finally scattered them abroad to spread the Gospel. We still struggle with this today—rushing to build physical churches when perhaps our primary calling is to BE the church, to embody Christ's presence wherever we go.
The transformative message here challenges us to reconsider what it means to follow Jesus. Rather than constructing more tabernacles, we're called to become living temples of the Holy Spirit—God's hands, feet, and voice bringing hope to a broken world. When we grasp this truth, we move beyond the limitations of physical buildings into the boundless potential of being Christ's ambassadors in everyday life. Ready to stop building and start being? Join us on Faith Walk as we explore what it truly means to be transfigured by God's presence.
