February 18, 1996 AM
Matthew 17:1-9
The Transfiguration "This is my Son ...listen to him!"
Mountains as Points of Reference
One Sunday afternoon, a long time ago, instead of taking the usual Nazarene nap, I took my four sons on a hike up Mount Beacon above the majestic Hudson River in Beacon, New York. We lived in Poughkeepsie where I was pastor at Vassar Road Church.
It was sultry and hot, and the thought of climbing in shady, cooler woods sounded like fun.
It was a twenty minute drive to a place where we could leave the wagon as far up the mountain as it could go. Then it was just over an hour's walk to the top where you could look up and down the river for miles.
On the way up the trail we heard the sound of a brook off to one side, and followed the sound and found a beautiful place where the water was falling through a U shaped place in a big rock into a shallow pool like a basin underneath it. It was hot, and the water was very cool.
The four boys stripped down to their shorts and into the water they went.
One of them would sit in the cleft in the rock and dam up the water it was that narrow until it spilled over his shoulders then he'd jump into the basin below with the wave gushing after him.
We stayed at that pool half an hour or less that hot Sunday afternoon and that was thirty years ago. I drove back to Vassar Road and preached and led the evening service. I haven't a clue as to what I preached it has been long forgotten. But every one of those four boys, now grown men with families of their own, remembers that day we climbed Mount Beacon. And somehow it has a good place in our family history. It was one of those defining moments that help give life direction.
We've all had those times, those defining moments, that we remember as we look back across the landscape of our lives to those mountains, literal or figurative, that show us where we've been, and to some extent, who we are and where we're going. Perhaps the day the story in our Gospel lesson began started out like just any other day for the disciples. But it was going to turn out to be a day they would never, ever forget.
Jesus called to Peter, James, and John. He often went apart to pray, and a prayer time was all they really were expecting. Up and up the mountain trail they went, until they reached the top. And there they stopped. Luke's Gospel says that Jesus began to pray, and he also tells us that the three disciples became very sleepy.
Peter, James and John were not expecting what came next. While they watched in awe something wonderful beyond description began to happen. The kindly face of the Galilean carpenter began to change in ways the evangelist has found difficult to describe. Later the three men tried to find words to express what they had seen: "Light streamed from his face, as bright as the sun. His clothes became whiter than white they shone with light."
These men knew Jesus well. They had been with him three years and had heard him speak, and heal, and raise the dead. They had even confessed their faith that He is the Son of God, the Messiah. But they were NOT prepared for this display of dazzling glory. They knew Jesus. But they also realized they hardly knew him at all!
(Our doctrines are good/necessary; they try to explain the mysteries of faith: Jesus is very God and very man, the Son of God and the Son of Mary. The Father in heaven helps us to confess our faith with Peter, and say with conviction: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God!" But NOTHING is as convincing and satisfying and thoroughly frightening as a mountaintop glimpse of Christ's glory!)
Then, as they watched, the three disciples became aware that two other people were present, talking with Jesus in the cloud of light. In some mysterious and wonderful way, they knew that these two glorious figures were Moses and Elijah, the Lawgiver, and the greatest of Old Testament prophets.
Moses on a mountain long before this great giant of faith, the meekest man who ever lived, had talked with God face to face, and had received the Ten Commandments, the holy Law of God by which all mankind is supposed to live, but especially the people of God.
Elijah on another mountain years later, but still a long time before, this rugged prophet had prayed fire down from heaven, and had defeated the false prophets and brought God's people back to Him.
Here were the Law and the Prophets in conversation with the Living Gospel, the Good News of Salvation. Here was a vision of the Law fulfilled, and of Truth triumphant, the whole Plan of Salvation, the whole Word of God represented in one glorious conversation.
Luke tells us something of what Moses and Elijah were discussing with their glorious Lord that mountaintop day. They were talking about another mountain yet to be climbed. They were talking about the hill we call Calvary.
Peter, James and John may not have understood the full implication in the dazzling light of the moment, but they were dramatically seeing portrayed before their eyes
Jesus as fulfilling the Law (Moses), completing the truth of Torah; and
Jesus as Champion over evil (Elijah), making sinners right with God, completing the Plan of Salvation.
The disciples were uncomfortable. Don't ever think that when God is manifested in power it is a comfortable, easy time. This was gut wrenching, frightening to the limit! Peter began to 'prattle' a bit. "Lord, let's build succoth booths right here on top of the mountain! We'll build three one for Moses, one for Elijah, and one for You!"
Then came a majestic, thundering, authoritative voice from heaven. The Father put things into perspective. He said, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Listen to HIM!"
The heart of faith is not Jesus AND Law, or Jesus AND Proclamation, or Jesus AND anything else.
The heart of faith is Jesus. That is the message this mountain top experience carried home to Peter, James, and John. Then it was over. Just like that.
As soon as they came down the mountain actually before they got to the bottom they were back at nitty gritty work. As far as we know they never had another Transfiguration type opportunity. (Oh, yes, John saw the glorified Savior during his exile on Patmos you can read about it in the first chapter of the Revelation.) But these men never forgot what they saw on that mountain that day.
They needed it in just a few weeks when their Master was taken from them and mocked and beaten and killed on a Cross. It looked like defeat. It looked like weakness. (But) They had been to the mountain. They had seen the glory. They could believe when the Resurrection came.
They needed it after Jesus ascended to heaven, and their own crosses became heavy, and they were tempted to wonder if it was worth it. But they had seen a glimpse of the glory. They knew that their Master was Lord of Moses and Elijah who are very much alive. They had been on the mountain. They could trust that God would not waste their sacrifice.
James was killed by the sword early in the first wave of persecution. Had the vision been wasted on him? I don't think so. Peter led the church in Jerusalem, and then Antioch and Ephesus and Rome. The vision sustained him, and he passed it on the Luke. John the Beloved outlived all the other apostles. As long as he lived the memory of that day of Transfiguration on a mountain in the north of Israel was a blessing and a hope.
We cannot live on mountain tops, or even live FOR that kind of experience. Don't forget, eight perfectly good apostles got word of this day second hand, just like you and I have.
What we can do is live in confession of faith in our Master. If truly the faith has been granted us to believe that Jesus is the Christ we can say with Peter, six days BEFORE this glory time, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God!"
What we can do if we have that faith is affirm from our hearts, "Jesus is LORD!" We can ask Him if we can follow Him around day after day. We can listen to Him pray. We can ask Him if we can come along when he cares for people who hurt. That is what we can do. And sometime when we least expect it there will be those loving times those tender times when Jesus lets us know He's pleased with us. Not Transfigurations, maybe. But mountain experiences. Defining moments. Moments we never forget.
And who's to say Oh well
Let's pray
Hymn No.66 Thou Art Worthy
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Dr. Russell Metcalfe is Pastor Emeritus of the Wollaston Church of the Nazarene. Permission to reprint or publish this material is GRANTED as long as the reprinting or republishing is not-for-profit.
You can access more of Dr. Metcalfe’s sermons at his scripturally indexed sermon archives web site. Now with MP3 audio sermons and audio bonus material. http://russellmetcalfesermons.nazarene.nl/Sermons/Sermons.htm
