Daily Devotional • May 30
A Reading from Luke 9:28-36
28 Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. 29 And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. 30 Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. 31 They appeared in glory and were speaking about his exodus, which he was about to fulfill in Jerusalem. 32 Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep, but as they awoke they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. 33 Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here; let us set up three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah,” not realizing what he was saying. 34 While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. 35 Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!”36 When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.
Meditation
How much sleep did you get last night? The answer is probably: not enough. There are whole realms of our society who actually pride themselves on not getting enough sleep. In our industrialized, western, warped minds it makes sense: why spend all those hours being unconscious when you could get things done? And there are also seasons of life (sometimes stretching over years) when love calls us to sacrifice sleep: when a child has nightmares, for example.
Whatever the reason, we often go without this essential thing we are designed to need a lot of.
When we think of the disciples asleep, we probably first remember the night in Gethsemane when Jesus reproaches them for it. But here it also is tucked into the middle of our gospel today. Jesus has taken his inner circle or three up a mountain and they are “heavy with sleep.” No wonder! Life with Jesus must have been draining both physically and emotionally, and he’s just dragged them up a mountain! Here, Jesus doesn’t reproach them, he simply is transfigured before their heavy eyes. They probably weren’t sure if what they were seeing was real. Peter doesn’t know what he’s saying because he isn’t completely awake.
It’s easy to reproach ourselves for being tired and to reach for another cup of coffee. What if we didn’t? What if we honored our need for rest? What if, even in those seasons when sleep in the sacrifice of love and there’s no opportunity for catch-up rest, we recognized that Jesus isn’t hindered by the hamper on our productivity? What if we recognized that he can use even our tiredness to show us himself?
Elizabeth Baumann is a seminary graduate, a priest’s wife, and the mother of two small daughters. A transplant from the West Coast, she now lives in “the middle of nowhere” in the Midwest with too many cats.
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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:
The Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania
The Diocese of Mount Kenya South – The Anglican Church of Kenya