In Jesus Holy Name February 13, 2021
Text: Mark 9:2-4 Transfiguration Redeemer
“Pilgrimage to a Holy Place”
God speaks loudest on mountains. Think Mount Moriah, Mount Sinai, Mount Zion, The sermon on the mount. The Mount of Transfiguration. Mount Calvary.
(Jesus Speaks Leonard Sweet p. 72)
Years ago I was privileged to lead a tour of the Holy Land. One of the stops on the tour was the Mt. of Transfiguration. There was a small building near the top of the mountain. I remember stopping at the remains of the 12th century Crusader church, long since destroyed. Only a rusty cross remained. I remember kneeling there for prayer. I knew that thousands before me had prayed on this same mountain. My father who was along picked up several small pebbles from the top of the mountain and took them home with him. A time to remember a moment with God.
Today we find Jesus on the mountain with three disciples. Jesus is glorified. For just a moment, He is transfigured; a blinding radiance pours from Him. He becomes what He was before He came. For one brief, shining moment, the burden of His humanity is lifted. He is elevated above earth’s horizon and escorted into the eternal. He is home again. Familiar sounds surround Him.
(In the Eye of The Storm p. 174 Max Lucado)
Moses and Elijah appear. They too are aflame with eternal robes, standing beside their King. Moses the Lawgiver, whose grave no man knew; Elijah, the prophet who heard the voice of God, not in the thunder storm, but a still small whisper.
Peter said, Lord this is such a great moment….can we stay? Let us build three
tents...” He wanted to stay. For thousands of years Christian pilgrims and Christian tours have made their own pilgrimages to holy places, seeking to hear the voice of Jesus. Peter knew it was a special moment. Lord, can we stay. It was a moment of intimacy with God. They could not stay. In those moments, neither can we… Jesus is always on the move. A vibrant, vital relationship with Jesus is at the heart of knowing God and hearing Jesus speak into our daily lives.
There is a story from a fellow pastor about a cousin of his who was caught in an elevator during a power outage. He told about the sickening jolt when things stopped. He and his companions were thrown into pitch blackness. Then the seven people started shouting for buttons to be pushed. Calling for the emergency phone and jostling to make sure they didn’t touch anyone, or get touched. Then, one of the passengers remembered the tiny flashlight he carried on his keychain.
With the flick of a switch, a small amber light filled the elevator car. Just a child relaxes when a nightlight is turned on in his bedroom, so too, these adults, helped by the most insignificant of lights, found their fears fleeing. For the next 45 minutes they laughed at their fate, shared stories and a little history about themselves. That is the power of light in the physical world. People do not normally like being in the dark. Yet so many live in spiritual darkness searching for a moment of light seeking to understand their eternal destiny.
(Story from a sermon by Rev Klaus 2003)
We are told that Peter James and John followed Jesus up the mountain. That was not unusual. For three years, Peter, James and John followed Jesus just about wherever He went. If He said, we’re going on a boat, they followed. To Jerusalem, they followed. To Samaria, they followed. To a mountain, they followed. Following is what disciples did. But you never knew for sure what was going to happen next. One day, Jesus would talk to a storm. That is not the surprise. The Surprise is that the storm listened. (Mk4:37) Another day, Jesus walked on the water. (Matt 14:25) There was the time He brought a dead person back to life. (Luke 17:11) Following Jesus was almost always a surprise.
Nothing prepared them for what they experienced up on the mountain. First, Jesus started to glow, not with a reflected light coming from the setting sun. No, the light was brilliant, shield-your-face kind of brightness. The light was not confined to His face. His entire body glowed.
Then the disciples see Jesus talking with Moses and Elijah. How did they know? They knew. They knew these men were two of the greatest and long ago leaders of Israel. Suddenly a cloud appears. From the cloud a voice spoke. These men had gone to Hebrew school. They knew voices coming from clouds was what their ancestors had heard on Mt. Sinai. The voice was clear: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to Him.”
This mountain top experience was a moment of intimacy with God, the Lord and Creator of the Universe. Jesus is the human face of God. Jesus is how God finally made “face time” with the world. The bible is our Faith book that reveals God’s face. The arrival of Jesus is God’s voice telling you: I love you”, You are special. Listen to my Son. The words of Jesus brings light to souls who live in the dark without hope for eternity.
We all know that’s Valentine’s Day is coming. …. Even the secular culture is telling you…it’s a good thing to say… “I love you.” People who are in love want to put their best face forward, don’t they?
No matter how beautiful you may be, your face reveals what is in your heart. Yes, there are some people who have what’s known as a “poker face”. That is, you can’t read their face. But as parents and grandparents, you already know that a baby can perceive emotion from facial expressions long before he or she can understand words.
Your face is a communication tool that transcends language and cultural barriers. You can communicate emotional content, you can communicate acceptance in a split second. Unfortunately the “masks” we are required to wear can hide your facial expression. It is something the culture misses.
On the mountain of Transfiguration Jesus radiated with God’s glory. The disciples saw and experienced the glory of God’s “face”. It was a moment of intimacy. And so we pilgrims try to return to those holy places in our lives were Jesus met us face to face. The Mount of Transfiguration, Gethsemane, the garden tomb. At our morning coffee and devotion. No wonder Peter wanted to stay.
You know the bible never tells us Peter, James and John returned to that sacred mountain. They did not need too. Why? Because Jesus replaced his physical presence with His Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, the presence of the living resurrected Jesus now dwells within each believer. Our moments of intimacy with our Savior now happen in our own moments of silent contemplations, our reading of His word, and prayer.
1) Intimacy is the experience of knowing and feeling that you are accepted. “God created man in his own image, he created male and female in His image. God saw all that he had made and it was very good.” Genesis 1:27,31
Today, as human beings one of our greatest needs is the need to be accepted. Visitors to a church want to know… “Will they accept me?” One of the major responsibilities of parents is to help their children know that they are loved and accepted for “Who” they are and not for “What” they do.
2) When we experience acceptance then we are reassured of love through pleasurable contact.
This happens with parents and children all the time. A parent reaches down to hold a hand of a child… there is a hug
Every time one of us would reach down and pick up the 11 month old baby what happened? First you smile… then they smile. Every child is looking in your eyes… a smile tells them they are accepted. Have you ever picked up your grand child and not smiled? What was their reaction? This is critical. What happens if children are never hugged or no one smiles at them when they are picked up? They become emotionally crippled. Without a connection to Jesus people become emotionally lost, spiritually crippled.
A smile. I accept you. A hug. I love you.
1) When we feel acceptance through friendship, nurture and care, we begin to understand what it means to be in “harmony” with one another and to be at “peace.” Jesus came to restore our broken friendship with our Creator. He brings harmony and peace our soul needs.
2) Intimacy and friendship with people and for that matter with God, means that we are in an “expansive” or growing relationship over time. Falling in love takes time. Companionship, friendship with others or with God, takes time.
Perfect love, harmony and peace are now things people in our world only hope to possess. Even with one in every two marriages in California ending in divorce… people still come to the church to be married. There is hope, a longing for intimacy and acceptance. Marriage is the ultimate statement of “acceptance.”
People today are in a constant search for acceptance and affirmation. We hope to find peace and harmony and intimacy.
People simply want to know that someone accepts them.
God spoke only a few words to these three disciples on the Mt. of Transfiguration: “This is my beloved Son, listen to him.” It was a moment of intimacy. The disciples experienced the presence of God. No wonder Peter said: “Can we stay.” When God speaks he asks us to listen to the words of Jesus.
The Transfiguration event reminds us that Jesus was the sacrificial Lamb of God who restored me and you who have been alienated by sin, to intimacy, friendship, harmony and peace. This week begins a time set aside for intimacy with our Savior. It is a period of 40 days we call lent.
Our staff has prepared a devotion and a video of a hymn that will provide you with that moment of connection, a moment of intimacy with your Lord. Each week the devotion will be on our web site. I encourage you to seek a moment of silent contemplation.
Then on Easter Sunday you will be invited to stand before our Lord’s empty tomb and know that Jesus defeated death, so that all who believe can be saved. On that first Easter the Pharisees could have stopped the story of Jesus and His resurrection. All they had to do is to produce His body. The enemies of Jesus could not come up with a corpse. There was none to produce. The disciples knew that Jesus had risen. You and I could not do that. Only the Son of God can do that.
It is He who has given each believe His Holy Presence. Listen to Him.
