Includes a suggested introduction to the lesson, text highlights and outline, illustrations you can share, discussion questions for your group, and spiritual life applications. A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:
INTRODUCTION: You could begin with this illustration/quote and then a followup discussion question — or one or the other:
ILLUSTRATION
One of the highlights of Mark Twain’s trip to Europe and the Holy Land in 1867 was seeing the Cathedral in Milan, Italy. He wrote, “We were dying to see the renowned Cathedral.” He was not disappointed:
“It was a vision! —a miracle! — an anthem sung in stone, a poem wrought in marble! Howsoever you look at the great Cathedral, it is noble, it is beautiful. Wherever you stand in Milan, or within seven miles of Milan, it is visible—and when it is visible, no other object can chain your attention. Leave your eyes unfettered by your will but a single instant, and they will surely turn to seek it. It is the first thing you look for when you rise in the morning, and the last your lingering gaze rests upon at night. Surely, it must be the princeliest creation that ever brain of man conceived.”
(Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad, pp. 144-147)
So Mark Twain was absolutely smitten by the glory of the Cathedral of Milan.
???DISCUSSION QUESTION???
“What would you say is the most ‘glorious’ thing you have personally seen in your lifetime?”
(For me it’s probably the Grand Canyon. We stopped there on way the back from the SBC in Phoenix a few years ago, and it was just magnificent! No picture I could take could convey the view you have when you’re standing there just off the rim of that canyon. It is absolutely glorious!)
All these things we can mention are glorious — but there is a greater glory than any of these! As the hymn says: “Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines purer than all the angels heaven can boast”! In our lesson for today three of Jesus’ disciples get a glimpse of His glory on the Mount of Transfiguration, reminding us that our ultimate destination, through the gospel, is to experience that glory forever!
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