The story is told of a woman who happened to be a big sports fan who was in a small shop one day when she spots a rather large, athletic man. She thinks he looks familiar \u2013 like he\u2019s some celebrity – but she can\u2019t quite place him. Maybe he\u2019s a professional football player.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
There\u2019s only one other person in the shop, a \u201csmaller weird-looking guy\u201d, but this woman decides to saddle up beside him and ask, \u201cDo you happen to know who the big, fit guy is over there?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n
The small man answered, \u201cYes. That\u2019s my bodyguard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n
The weird guy was Elton John.<\/p>\n\n\n
The woman completely missed the true celebrity in the shop.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
You get the same feel from the story of Jesus\u2019 transfiguration in Matthew 17.<\/p>\n\n\n
When Peter sees Jesus in the company of the biggest celebrities of Israel\u2019s history, Moses and Elijah, he wants to build three shelters to commemorate the moment.<\/p>\n\n\n
It\u2019s almost as if Peter is impressed that Jesus is in the same league as Moses and Elijah!<\/p>\n\n\n
The voice of God clears up Peter\u2019s mistaken valuation of the situation:<\/p>\n\n\n
\u201cThis is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n
It is Moses and Elijah who should be honored to be in Jesus\u2019 presence, not the other way around.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
Peter, James, and John all drop in terror, face down on the ground. Peter must be thinking, \u201cI\u2019ve made the mother of all social faux pas!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n
Jesus is way bigger, way more important than he had realized.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
It\u2019s healthy to come to the same realization in our own lives sometimes!<\/p>\n\n\n
And how does Jesus respond?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
He comes to where the three are lying trembling on the ground, and he touches them. What an incredible detail! And he simply says, \u201cGet up. Do not be afraid.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
My impression is that Jesus was not willing to waste time dwelling on their underestimation of him \u2013 he was already looking toward the job he had for them.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
These three would be soon laboring to build his Church.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The story is told of a woman who happened to be a big sports fan who was in a small shop one day when she spots a rather large, athletic man. She thinks he looks familiar \u2013 like he\u2019s some celebrity – but she can\u2019t quite place him. Maybe he\u2019s a professional football player.\u00a0 There\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4623"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4624,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4623\/revisions\/4624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}