Shocked Beyond Words

I worked for C & P Telephone Company during summer breaks while going to college. One summer my job was to use a bucket truck to take some old wiring down. The bucket that took me up the pole to the wires had a drain in the bottom. One day I was standing in some water and got knocked out of the bucket. There were thunderstorms in the area, and lightning had apparently hit the wires I was taking down, and this energy traveled to where I was working. Surprised is not a strong enough word to describe this experience. I wasn’t seriously hurt, but I was “shocked beyond words.”

“Shocked beyond words” must have been how Peter, James and John felt on the day Jesus took them to the mountaintop. It was on this mountaintop that they witnessed a dramatic transformation. Mark 9:3 tells us that Christ’s “clothes became dazzling white,” and Elijah and Moses appeared. We know this event as the transfiguration.

Jesus told the disciples not to tell anyone what they had seen until He had risen (v. 9). Verse 10 tells us the disciples did not understand Jesus when He said, “rising from the dead.” The disciples could not understand what Jesus meant because they had no idea what the destiny of Jesus would be. They did not understand Jesus’ death and resurrection, but eventually, the resurrected Jesus would transform their lives. In II Peter 1:16, Peter described his encounter with Christ’s transfiguration as the time when the disciples were the first “eyewitnesses of His majesty.”

May you never be knocked out of a bucket truck, but I pray every one of us will encounter the power of Jesus. May you be “shocked beyond words” as you encounter Christ. The living Christ calls each of us.

Prayer – We deserve to be knocked out of our bucket because we don’t comprehend. Forgive us for taking for granted your Majesty! Amen.

 II Peter 1:16 – “We were eyewitnesses of His majesty.”

By the Rev. Tommy Herndon
Images: Ehmitrich/Unsplash, Canva AI & Evaldas Grizas/Unsplash