View From the Pew

I was sorta excited to get the flier in the mail from the Alumni association about Br. Richard Neitzel Holzapfel coming to Indy to do a Multi-Stake Fireside. I thought it would be fun to go see him in person. I figured he would be exactly the same as when I worked for him. I was right. He was a knowledgeable and dynamic speaker, well acquainted with his topic.

What started out as an evening alone with Chris visiting a little peice of my past became an intellectually and spiritually stimulating experience. His topic was the Mount of Transfiguration, which he discussed from a New Testament-first-century-jew perspective. It was fascinating to get insights based on language, history, and customs. I particularly enjoyed them, I think, because they were things that no matter how many times I had read those verses, I probably wouldn't have gleaned that information for myself. I love learning new things.

One of the things I hadn't realized was that Jesus never refers to himself as the Christ or the Messiah, but always as the Son of man. When Peter tells him that they know he is the Christ, he admonishes them to to tell no man. Why? Because Jesus knew what type of Messiah the jews were looking for and that He would not be fulfilling their expectations of a political/military leader. Instead, his mission was to overcome physical and spiritual death. Even after He taught them, his apostles did not understand that He would suffer and die and be resurrected. They had the same expectations that all jews of the time had. Remember their surprise when it was reported that the tomb was empty? When he appeared to them he reminded them of the things He had taught them but had not understood.

I won't bore you with all the things I enjoyed from Br. Holzapfel's talk. Afterwards I went to say 'hi' fulling expecting that he wouldn't remember me from years ago. And while I think he didn't remember my name, he did recognize my face and told me that I "hadn't changed a bit" and "looked exactly the same." He made my day!