Mountain Top Glory And The Descent Series

I guess we can sympathise with Peter over his unthinking outburst. It’s all too much for him. He’s overwhelmed by the situation. So he says the first thing that comes into his head. Let’s put up three shelters for the three of you. Or is he perhaps thinking of three memorials? Some way, that is, to capture the moment and preserve it. It’s a natural response of the human heart to the religious and supernatural to want to tie it down to something solid and visible, something that we can come back to later, something that’ll help us relive the moment. But as we read the account we realise just how inadequate such a gesture would have been. How could any memorial capture the significance of what was happening here?

Oh, and in case we were in any doubt about the significance of this event, a cloud now comes down and envelopes them and a voice speaks from the cloud: "This is my beloved Son. Listen to him!" Again we’re reminded of Moses on Mt Sinai, surrounded by cloud, with thunder and lightning and trumpet blasts sounding. Perhaps too, we’re reminded of the people of Israel going off to make a golden calf as a symbol of the God they were following, and of God’s response to that attempt. Well there aren’t the sounds of thunder and trumpets, but there is the voice of God, loud and clear; "This is my beloved Son. Listen to him!" This is the icing on the cake isn’t it. If we were in any doubt about the significance of all this, that doubt is removed by this word from God. Jesus isn’t just a healer. He isn’t just a great wonder worker or a great teacher, or even the greatest of the prophets. This is the very Son of God, come to bring salvation to all people and to be crowned King forever. And if you’ve got any sense, what will you do? You’ll listen to him.

And then, as quickly as it happened, it’s all over. The cloud lifts and they’re on their own. Only Jesus is standing there. Have they dreamt it? It all seemed very real, but was it? How would they know? Well, the truth is they won’t, until after the resurrection, when they see the evidence before their very eyes that this wasn’t a dream. That it was true. That God was giving them a taste before the event of what they would discover in the resurrection of Jesus. And so Jesus tells them to tell no-one about what they’ve seen until the Son of Man has risen from the dead. They of course don’t understand what he’s talking about. They wonder, in fact if perhaps he’s referring to Elijah rising from the dead to prepare the way for the Christ. A natural leap, having just seen Elijah on the mountain. But no, he explains, Elijah has in fact returned already. John the Baptist was Elijah and he’s experienced exactly what was foretold for him. He’s been rejected and put to death, just as the Messiah will be. //

Well, I wonder how the 3 disciples felt as they came down the mountain. Were they exhilarated by the events that they’d just witnessed? Events that hadn’t been seen in Israel for 2000 odd years. Were they perplexed once again by Jesus cryptic answers? Were they aware of the privilege they’d enjoyed of being present when Jesus’ glory was revealed in this way?