The Spiritual World is Very Close

The spiritual world is very near--even now at hand--and all around, and yet it is also inaccessible to us by normal human actions. The spiritual world is invisible, but it is there. From time to time, God permits us to experience the spiritual world, but those times are rare this side of the grave, like seeing a snow leopard or Haley's Comet.

Peter, James, and John are given one of those rare glimpses of the spiritual world on the Mount of Transfiguration:

After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. ³Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.

Matthew 17:1-3

They see Jesus as he is in the spiritual world--glorious and radiant. When the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, he humbled himself and became as we are, but on the Mount of Transfiguration, his glory is unmasked.

Understand, though, that his glory is not in spite of his humiliation, but because of his humiliation:

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, 
who, though he was in the form of God,
   did not regard equality with God
   as something to be exploited, 
but emptied himself,
   taking the form of a slave,
   being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form, 
   he humbled himself
   and became obedient to the point of death—
   even death on a cross. 


Therefore God also highly exalted him
   and gave him the name
   that is above every name, 
so that at the name of Jesus
   every knee should bend,
   in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 
and every tongue should confess
   that Jesus Christ is Lord,
   to the glory of God the Father. 

Philippians 2:5-11

Today's Scripture

Matthew 17:1-13

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Jeff Bezos Is Getting Divorced

As I'm sure you have heard, Jeff Bezos is getting divorced. This is news because Mr. Bezos is--at least on paper--the world's richest man, and presumably his divorce settlement will have effects on both his company--Amazon--and maybe on the American economy itself. I am very sorry for this news; Mr. Bezos and his wife are real people with real feelings, and it must be humiliating to have your private details known all around the world. I feel sorry for them.

But this news just proves once again what virtually everyone who ever lived used to know, and what most people today have forgotten: our deepest problems are spiritual problems.

The spiritual is real, but it is not the material. The material can be experienced with the five senses; the spiritual can't be seen, touched, tasted, smelled, or heard. But it is definitely real.

For example, friendship is spiritual in nature. It has effects in the material world, absolutely--you might meet a friend for coffee and the mugs you hold are material--but the source of the friendship is spiritual.

If it were the case that our deepest problems were material, then money would fix our deepest problems. But they aren't, and it can't. Our deepest problems are spiritual. And so Jeff Bezos--world's richest man--is getting divorced.

If it were the case that our deepest problems were material, then money would fix our deepest problems. But they aren't, and it can't. Our deepest problems are spiritual. And so Jeff Bezos--world's richest man--is getting divorced.

In Matthew 9, Jesus first forgives a man of his sins, and then heals his paralysis. Why? Because the man needed both--spiritual healing and physical healing. Jesus clearly knew that if he had only healed the man's legs, the man would still be lacking. It would be false to say that our material needs don't matter--the baby would never have been born in Bethlehem if God didn't love the material world--but it is true that our deepest problems are spiritual.

The good news: the God who is Spirit entered into material reality and fixed our problem himself.

Scripture:

Matthew 9:1-8

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How to Subscribe

I’m blogging through the Gospels in 2019. Subscribe here to receive a weekday update on that day’s Gospel reading. (There is also an option to subscribe to non-Gospels posts as well through my plain ole Andrew Forrest Newsletter.)