The Unseen World (Luke
9:28-36)
A week ago, I did a wedding, Carter and Rachel. In an effort to maintain tradition, they were
kept apart once Rachel was in her wedding dress. Carter would not see her in the dress until
she walked down the aisle. However, to
get from her changing room to the foyer at the back of the sanctuary, Rachel
had to walk down a hallway right next to where Carter and I were waiting. The door from the hallway was open.
Rachel’s
sister Sarah said, “She’s coming. Have
Carter turn away.” He turned, but he
could hear them in the hallway. Not
seeing one another, Rachel and Carter made small talk. Then, in those nervous pre-ceremony moments,
Sarah asked me if I could pray for the bride and groom.
I stood in
the doorway, straddling the door frame.
I extended my arms in a posture of blessing. One arm was on one side of the wall, toward
Rachel. The other was on the other side,
toward Carter. We all got a laugh out of
it, God included, I think. Prayer is
conversation with God. It is holy and
important and serious. However, God
loves us and wants us to have joy and laughter.
A pastor straddling a doorway trying to bless bride and groom without
them seeing each other is kind of silly.
But it is
more than that. The whole scene came
back to me five days later as I thought about how to conceptualize the Heavenly
reality all around us.
Consider
this account from Luke. Peter, John, and
James, feel privileged because they are invited into an intimate moment with
Jesus. There are 12 disciples, but of
the 12, these 3 are privileged to have this personal time with him. So, they make the exhausting climb to a
summit. It is literally going to be a
mountain top experience. It will also be
more than they expected.
As Jesus prays,
his appearance changes. He gleamed white. More than the color white, the words Luke
uses to describe the event clearly communicate that Jesus instantaneously had a
glow we would understand to be otherworldly.
Something else was there with these disciples and Jesus and somehow
Jesus was thoroughly aware of this and had always been. Yet, the disciples had been completely blind
to it prior to that moment.
Then, they
were blinded by it – by the realness, the glistening of that other world. As overwhelming as it was for them, Jesus
effortlessly stepped from one world to the other. Jesus stood in both worlds at once.
To call it
another world might not be the proper description, not if Dallas Willard is
correct.[i] He believes our physical location in Heaven
will be this universe; there is, in his estimation, no other universe; no other
plane; no other realm. I have been
saying “otherworldly,” but in truth what we are talking about is parts of this
world that are always present and quite real, but unseen. By “unseen,” I mean we are unable through
sensual observation to access this portion of the world.
It is here;
all around us. It is real and affects us
in numerous ways. But we are powerless
to control or even influence the unseen world.
We are affected by it but cannot affect it. This is what is referred to in Ephesians
6:10.
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. 11 Put on the
whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the
devil. 12 For our[b] struggle is not
against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the
authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the
spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore
take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that
evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. 14 Stand
therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the
breastplate of righteousness. 15 As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make
you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. 16 With all of
these,[c] take the shield of
faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil
one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the
word of God.
Most of my
dealings with this passage begin in verse 12 – “our struggle is against …
cosmic powers of this present darkness.”
We become sort of freaked out thinking there are demons at the dark corners
of reality messing with us, harming us in sinister, indirect ways. In fact, if this is correct, that is
absolutely true. There are dark forces,
agents of evil. Their success comes in
opposing God by injuring those loved by God.
We are the beloved of God they would damage.
But the
passage does not begin with “cosmic powers of this present darkness.” It begins “be strong in the Lord in the
strength of his power.” A moment ago, I
said we cannot access or affect the unseen portions of reality. God can because God created all the realities
of the world, every realm of the universe.
We have access to God in Jesus Christ.
In the
armor of God, we can stand in the face of the devil’s attack. We read in Ephesians of the belt, the
breastplate, the shoes, the shield, the helmet, and the sword. Those metaphors call us to truth as we
understand it in Jesus. In reading the
word, in our prayers and confessions, we must know him. When he is in us and we give him mastery over
our lives, we are covered in his righteousness.
The shoes of readiness: we are ready to share our faith when it is the
driving force of our lives and something we pay attention to in prayer and
devotions every day. To be ready, our
faith must beat at the very heart of our lives.
Salvation
is likened to a helmet and, as in other places in the New Testament, the word
of God is imagined as a piercing sword.
When Jesus was confronted by Satan in the beginning of his ministry, he
and the devil quoted scripture at each other.
Jesus’ living of the word was true whereas Satan’s was a diabolical manipulation. We have to know the word and live it. We have no authority in the unseen world, but
with truth, righteousness, readiness, faith, salvation, and the word, we are in
step with the God who has absolute authority.
I stood
there in the doorway, standing both with bride and groom as they prepared to
wed. Jesus stands astride two worlds
with the bride, His church, and the bridegroom, himself in glorified, divine
form. We are wedded to Him, but until
that wedding, at the final judgment and resurrection on the last day, we
wait. While waiting, we live in what we
can see, separated from what we cannot.
The great
temptation is to suppose that this waiting place is the only real place. Things that cannot be accounted for by
scientific observation may be important, but religion, spirituality, theology –
those are not real in the way the physical world around us is real. The world
around is explained by science. That is what we are tempted to believe.
The
experience of the disciples on the mountain with Jesus as He is glorified is
one example of testimony that there is more.
This does not negate science or lessen the importance of study and
research and observation. The work of
scientists is important; even divine.
Scientists, operating in the work of observation and discovery obey the
mandate of God to manage his world. But
they do not have the last word. We look
around and realize there is more here than meets the eye.
The
disciples were given a glimpse into the next room of reality one that exists between
where I am sitting and you are standing.
On that mountain top, when Jesus was suddenly aglow with a light few
humans have ever seen, the curtain separating the unseen world was pulled back
just a bit.
We can’t
know much by their experience. It was
too short and they were short on details in their later memory of it. They were amazed by the glorious shine of
Jesus. Then they noted that Elijah and
Moses were with him. I have always
wondered how they recognized these Old Testament saints. There was no photography back then. We do not have elaborate paintings of the
ancients as we do from later periods of history. Something about peering into the unseen realm
gave James, John, and Peter recognition.
They knew it was Elijah and Moses.
How did they know? I am sure they
could not articulate how, but when they were permitted to see, they knew.
They were
also overwhelmed to the point of exhaustion.
In that reality, powerless, using every ounce of energy to stay awake,
they heard these Old Testament giants allude to Jesus’ coming execution and
glory in Jerusalem. Moses and Elijah
anticipated crucifixion, resurrection, and the attraction of Jesus. The world would be drawn to God through the
salvation he brought.
Peter had
the temerity to speak, offering to make temporary shelters. He was not heard. Nor was he chastised. This was too much and he would have done
better to stay silent, but either way, it did not matter. God moved in, thundering from the thick of
the cloud that settled on them.
It is
similar to the experience Moses had in Exodus, receiving the law. Job too heard God speak from swirling, fierce
storm clouds. But Abraham experienced
God as three men, a very different encounter.
With Abraham, there was a great debate between God and the man, and the
debate was appropriate. In the case of
two disciples walking from Jerusalem to the village of Emmaus, Jesus sidled up
as a fellow traveler. He wasn’t there;
then he was. They did not recognize
him. Then he broke bread, their eyes
were opened, and they could see. And he
was gone. In Elijah’s case, God came not
in the storm, but in the silence.
God is not
bound by form. Your encounter will not
be Peter’s. Or John’s. Remember John, exiled on the island of
Patmos. The risen Lord appeared in a
frightful form and called John, in a vision, right to Heaven. For John Wesley, the 18th century
evangelist and founder of Methodism, God spoke as a reassuring warming in his
heart.
For me, it
was a physical, but unseen impossibly heavy weight lifted off my head. I had driven to Florida to meet a group of
friends. One, a young woman, was someone
I thought I would eventually marry. She
was not interested. It fell flat. And while it may seem small, that kind of
rejection hits a young man hard. I found myself driving back to Northern
Virginia alone. I thought, OK Lord.
Now I have 12 hours of driving to stew.
And for 45 minutes, I drove in a blind, disappointed rage. Then, I
physically felt an iron weight lifted off me.
No, I had not been wearing any type of headgear. My head physically weighed as much as it had
when the drive started. But, something
spiritual happened – something far more real than if all I had done was take
off a hat. The weight lifted as God told
me my story would not include marrying that young woman. God did not promise I would meet someone much
better. God never made that promise. God just drew me to himself.
I go on
with experiences of God worshipers in the Bible or believers through history or
stories of people I know or of my own experiences. The unseen world is real. It is terrifying for those who do not come
under God’s protection. Only God knows
who God will cover. But we know we can
turn to Christ and all who in Christ are under God’s covering. That is why the passage from Ephesians does
not begin with cosmic powers of darkness.
It begins commending us, the reading and listening church, to stand
strong in God’s power.
At the end
of the mountain top experience, the mighty voice in the cloud tells Peter,
James, and John “This is my son, my beloved; listen to Him.”
There is an
unseen world, one more real than we can take in with our five senses. Do we want to live in it in unrestrained
joy? We seek the Holy Spirit and in the
word of God we listen to and heed all Jesus has said. As elusive and possibly ominous as this all
may seem, it boils down to a simple truth.
Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. We listen to him. In Him the unseen becomes seen. Or as Paul says it in 1st
Corinthians, “Now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we will see face to
face. Now we know only in part. Then we will know fully even as we are fully
known.” For us to get from now to then,
we follow Jesus.
AMEN
[i]
D.Willard (1997),
Divine Conspiracy. I will attempt to summarize some of Willard’s
observations in chapter 10 of
Divine
Conspiracy.
