Luke 9:28-43
“Demons Shriek and Sufferers Weep”
By: Ken Sauer, Pastor of East Ridge United Methodist Church, Chattanooga, TN
A friend of mine told me about a time, many years ago, when he and his family were tramping up Sharp Top Mountain in Bedford County, Virginia.
His daughter was a little girl, and about half way up the mountain she said she was too tired to go the rest of the way and wanted to either ride up somehow or go back down.
My friend’s son creatively told her that there was a Coke Machine up at the top.
She believed him and on she trudged!
My friends, we have a mountain to climb.
We have a hike to take.
And there may not be a Coke Machine awaiting us at the summit…
…but there is no doubt that we will be confronted and transformed by the REAL THING!!!
A colleague told me about his experience at Mount Tabor, a place that some believe the Transfiguration happened.
He said it was a difficult climb.
Others speculate it was on Mount Hermon that the Transfiguration happened.
Either way, both are steep mountains, and it takes a lot of work to get to the top.
But this is where Peter, James and John followed Jesus.
What I’m wondering is: why did the other 9 disciples not follow Jesus on this journey?
Were they not invited to come?
Or did they have other things to do that day?
Did some of them have relatives down in the valley that they wanted to visit?
Did one of them decide to go get a hair cut instead?
Did another decide it was such a beautiful day that he would rather go fishing?
Did they tell themselves, “We got plenty of time to follow Jesus up some mountain. Today I’m gonna do something else. I’ll go next time?”
The truth is, when we decide to put all other claims on our time and lives aside, and follow Jesus—amazing things happen!!!
In our Scripture passage, we are told that as Jesus was praying, “the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightening.”
Suddenly, two men were talking with Jesus--Moses and Elijah!
If we aren’t steeped in Jewish tradition, we really can’t understand just how dramatic this mountaintop experience was.
Moses and Elijah were two of the great “heros” of the Jewish faith.
It was like having a ring-side seat on heaven.
Or it’s kind of like…
…imagine that your third grade elementary school teacher took you to the top of a mountain where he or she was joined by George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.
Except this was much more amazing!!!
And they were talking about Jesus’ upcoming death.
Many have thought of this as a sort of “pep talk” for Jesus.
We don’t know how long they were talking and we don’t know exactly what was said, all we know is the basic theme.
It was to get Jesus ready to die the most horrible of deaths…for the salvation of all who will believe!
In verse 32 we find something very interesting.
We are told that the three young disciples were very sleepy.
Perhaps they were tired from the long hike up the mountain.
Maybe they had gotten bored while Jesus was praying.
Perhaps they didn’t really expect
much of anything to happen anyway.
And isn’t that sometimes the way we feel when we sit in the sanctuary during worship?
And when we are half asleep during worship, we miss out on a great deal.
It is when we are fully awake that we tend to have our conversion experiences.
It is when we are fully awake that God convicts us.
It is when we are fully awake that we are able to really hear God’s Word, and in this heightened state of consciousness, “when we are fully awake,” this is when the glory of God is most evident!
In our Scripture Lesson, we are told that it wasn’t until the disciples “became fully awake” that they were able to see Jesus’ glory and Moses and Elijah speaking there with Him!
You know it’s interesting…
…the crowds that followed Jesus marveled that Jesus could work miracles…
…and at the same time, Jesus marveled that people could be so filled with unbelief!
The crowds considered miracles as “out of the ordinary;” Jesus thought of unbelief as out of the ordinary.
Jesus saw belief and its results as our natural state of being!
And this is because you and I are meant to live “fully awake” to the glory of God!
The Grateful Dead sing a song where they say, “I need a miracle every day.”
My friends, miracles are happening every day…every minute…every second…
…are we awake enough to see them?
There are ways that we can help ourselves to be more awake spiritually, as well as physically.
You’ve, no doubt, heard the saying, “You are what you eat.”
And our society feeds us a constant diet of junk food!
We have to put forth some extra effort to find food that will nourish the deepest hungers of our life.
Part of the secret is regular attendance at worship.
This isn’t a commercial; it’s simply just a statement of the facts of life.
All of us are bombarded all week long by voices that dull our sensitivity to God and to the eternal; so we need desperately to take advantage of this special time each week when we can concentrate on hearing another Voice—God’s Voice!!!
But Sunday worship isn’t enough.
We need the lift, everyday, which comes from reading the Bible.
We also need the strength that comes through those Christian friends with whom we can share both our faith and our struggles.
This can happen in Sunday school, at Bible study, in one of the United Methodist Women’s circles, working with the United Methodist Men, joining the Youth group, choir, becoming involved in our evangelism projects—you name it!
God’s glory is all around us—are we awake to see it and experience it?
Once they became “fully awake” the disciples were overwhelmed by the transfiguration.
And then, of course, the over-zealous Peter blurts out something silly about putting up shelters for Moses, Jesus and Elijah to live in at the top of the mountain!
In parenthesis, we are told that Peter “did not know what he was saying.”
And we too, often find it completely bewildering to know how to understand all that God is doing and saying, both in our times of great joy and in our times of great anguish.
But the Word that comes to us, leading us on to follow Jesus even when we haven’t a clue what’s going on, is the same Word that came from that cloud on that strange day, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.”
No sooner had Jesus, Peter, John and James walked down from the mountain top than the demands of life were upon them.
A boy was desperately ill…
…so sick that the disciples hadn’t been able to cure him.
These things go together, you see…
…the mountain-top experience and the shrieking, stubborn demon!!!
Sadly, too many people prefer to live their lives without either.
But for those who choose to be “fully awake to God” dramatic visions and spiritual experiences are balanced by huge demands!!!
You see, the more we are open to God and the different dimensions of God’s glory, the more we are open to the pain of the world!!!
We need the mountain-top in order to defeat the devil!
We need worship, prayer, Bible study, daily devotions, quite time in order to be able to fully follow Christ!!!
And every time we step into the church, every time we open our Bibles, every time we get on our knees to pray, every time we tell others about the incredible story of Christ, every time we invite someone to come to church…
…we find our lives changing and changing as we come closer and closer to God…
…as we become more and more transformed into the likeness of Christ.
This is the rhythm of the Christian life.
We go to the mountain in order to gain our strength and then we move into the valley to serve those in need in the world; to the places where demons shriek and sufferers weep, to the places of death and despair!
This is what it means to follow Christ.
This is what makes life worth the living!!!
It is God’s desire to use us for God’s good within this needy world.
I know a young girl, who, one summer was invited to go to a Christian camp.
When she returned to our church she was a completely different person.
Her face shown with the glory of Christ…
…you couldn’t help but see it!
She was so excited about Jesus that she started reading the Bible every chance she got.
She had tasted the goodness of the Lord, and she hungered for more and more.
Over time, she came to know the Bible better than many of the people who had been going to church for many years.
What she had been told about Jesus all her life had been confirmed at that summer camp, and she brought many new people with her to church…
…her enthusiasm was contagious!
She has become a missionary and I’m sure God is using her in mighty ways!
The three disciples got to see something much greater than what was going on down in the valley because they chose to follow Jesus.
Their priorities were in place.
They knew that nothing can compare to following Jesus....nothing is more important.
We all need to go to the mountain top.
We all need to be transformed by Christ.
And Jesus is calling all of us to follow Him into the world where pain and death beg to be eliminated!
The Voice that came from the cloud on that strange day, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him,” are the same words that come to us…
…and if we heed God’s advice…
…we will be changed, as will the world around us!
