Up on the Mountain or Down in the Valley
Luke 9:28-36
February 25, 2001
The re-release of the Star Wars movies a few years ago created quite a stir among
movie goers all across the country. When those movies were first released about
20 years ago, those of us who went to see them were amazed at the special effects.
CP30 and R2D2 were hits with us all. But there was more to the movies than just the special effects. They also had a story and a theme that captured our imaginations.
Over the years the technology has changed, and now the movies are more like
what their creator, Stephen Speilberg had hoped they would be when he first filmed them. The special effects are 100 times better, and the story and the theme are just as captivating today as it was 20 years ago.
When it comes to special effects and wonderful displays of power and glory, everything that humanity can do has to take a back seat to what God can do. Our Scripture reading from Luke this morning gives us some insights into the power of God. We can only imagine what it must have been like for Peter, James and John to be on that mountaintop and to see Jesus changed before their very eyes as he stood there talking with Moses and Elijah. This scene is far more powerful and spectacular than the special effects of any movie out there.
But even more important than the visual effects which Peter, James and John saw on the mountain top that day is the message that God communicated to those disciples about Jesus. There are three things we can take from this text. First, this passage is a testimony of who Jesus is. God’s voice calls out from the cloud that surrounded them on top of that mountain saying, “This is my son whom I have chosen. Listen to him.” We remember God said a similar thing about Jesus at his baptism. “This is my son, whom I love.”
The second thing this text does is tell us of the preparation of Jesus’ death. Luke tells us that Moses and Elijah appear and “… spoke about his departure, which he was to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem.” This sets the stage for what will happen in the days ahead as Jesus begins his walk towards the cross in Jerusalem.
Finally, this portion of Scripture also gives us a glimpse of Jesus’ Eternal Glory. We are told, “As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightening.” Jesus was transfigured on top of that mountain right in front of Peter, John and James. What Peter, John and James witnessed on top of the mountain of transfiguration was a miracle.
This miracle of Moses and Elijah appearing on the mountain top and Jesus being transfigured, was a testimony to the fact that Jesus was truly the Son of God, just as most of the miracles that Jesus performed were used to convince others of his Divine authority. The account of the transfiguration is perhaps one of the greatest of God’s miracles and we can learn a great deal from it. However, today it is all too common for people to dismiss or explain away miracles. We are told that modern scientifically trained people can no longer accept the miracles of the Bible as factual accounts of something that really happened.
There are those out there who insist that any modern intelligent Christian has to give up the notion that Jesus healed ten lepers with the power of His word, that he fed thousands of people out of one lunch box, that he stopped the storms of a raging sea, that he enabled the lame to walk, the dumb to talk and the blind to see. We are told that we should regard these events as mere stories or myths. To that I say HOGWASH! BALDERDASH! POPPYCOCK ! I wonder if Jeffrey’s mother, (the boy who was seriously ill and near death last week with meningitis, and today has fully recovered,) will tell you there is no such thing as miracles. Miracles happen just as surely as you and I are sitting here today! Miracles happen just as surely as you and I will continue to pay taxes until we die, and just as surely as one day Christ will come again.
I will admit that it takes a lot of faith to believe in the miracles of the Bible. But I believe the problem today is that too many people can’t muster up enough faith to believe in the miracles. It’s a lot easier to think these miracles never really happened than it is to have the faith it takes to believe in them. I once had a business associate who would often ask me if I really believed all that “miracle garbage” as he called it and “foolishness” of the Bible.
He asked me, “Do you really believe that Jesus walked on water ? Do you really believe that Jesus healed all of those people ? Do you really believe that Jesus raised someone from the dead ? Do you really believe that Jesus spoke with Moses and Elijah on top of a mountain some 800 years after they died ?” I said, “Yes I do believe it, and don’t you wish you could believe it too !” It requires a lot of faith to believe the miracles of the Bible.
This story of the transfiguration is a miracle that describes to us what we sometimes call mountaintop experiences of life. We’ve all had mountaintop experiences where we’ve felt like we were on top of the world and in the presence of God. Perhaps you had a mountaintop experience when your child was born, when you were married, or when you received a special blessing or healing from God. Maybe your mountaintop experience occurred as you just sat quietly in prayer with God, or maybe you remember an experience in your life when God brought you to the mountain top and you felt God was so close to you that you could just reach out and touch the hand of God.
We remember the mountain top experience that Martin Luther King described to us in the famous sermon he preached on April 3, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. His sermon was entitled, “I see the Promised Land.” Martin Luther King said that he didn’t worry about anything because he had been to the mountaintop with God. He said he had no fear, “For my eyes have see the glory of the coming of the Lord!”
The next day, Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot to death. But that night when he preached, Dr. King was ready to face his destiny. He was ready to face the future because he had been to the mountaintop with the Lord. That’s what mountain top experiences in our life are all about. Mountain top experiences help us to get ready for the tomorrows. They help us to face the future in hope and assurance that God is there with us.
Mountain top experiences also prepare us for the valleys in our lives. We are able to make it through the valleys in our lives, because like Martin Luther King, we’ve been to the mountain top with God. When we are in the valley of joblessness, or in the valley of loneliness, or in the valley of sickness, or in the valley of depression, or in the darkest of all valleys, the valley of the shadow of death, we shall fear no evil for the Lord is with us. We need to remember our mountaintop experiences and remember that just as God was with us up on the mountaintop, God is with us in the valleys of our life.
Mountaintop experiences are beautiful, but there is also a danger in mountaintop experiences. It’s a danger that Peter faced. It’s a danger we all face. You see Peter was so enthralled with the mountaintop experience that he wanted to stay there and revel in it. Remember Peter’s words to Jesus. “Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters- one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” Peter didn’t want to come down from the mountain into the valley of life. He didn’t want the glorious event to end. He wanted to stay right there and bask in it.
The danger with mountaintop experiences is that they are so wonderful and so revealing that we don’t want them to end. Many people try to live out their life on the mountaintop. But, life isn’t lived on the mountaintop. It’s lived in the valleys below. When Jesus, Peter, James and John came down from mountain they found people who were hurting and in need. They came back to the reality of every day life.
As I read this story, I could not help but wonder how John and James felt and what they saw in this situation on the mountaintop. Sometimes the way we view a situation determines how we will experience it. Peter saw the wonder of this situation. However, we are told that they were afraid as the cloud came over them and they heard the voice of God. I have a feeling that John and James were probably like you and I. They were probably ready to run down the mountain in fear when they heard the voice of God. We all see things differently.
There’s a funny story I heard recently about how people see things differently. It seems as though there was a wolf pack that was causing havoc in the sheep-raising part of Nevada. So bad was the scourge and so elusive were the wolves that a bounty of $1000.00 was offered for every captured wolf.
This offer turned two brothers, Sam and Jed into fortune hunters. Day and night they scoured the mountains and forests looking for the wolves. But the wolves eluded them. Exhausted, one night they both fell into a deep sleep and didn’t even notice when their fire flickered out. Suddenly Sam awoke to the sight of 50 wolves with flaming eyes and bared teeth that had surrounded them. Sam shook his brother and shouted, “Jed, wake up, quick ! We’re rich!” Sam was like Peter, he saw a great opportunity in the situation where most of us would see something quite different!
Today we hear the account of our Savior’s Transfiguration and behold with the eyes of faith, we see his face shining as bright as the sun. We can see his garments whiter than all the bleach on earth could ever possibly make them. Knowing this, we come away our worship service today with the firm conviction that Jesus is our Lord and our Savior, the true Son of God. We come away from our service today better prepared to enter into the season of Lent, a season of preparation, a season that starts our with Jesus walking into the valley of his suffering and death on the cross, but a season that ends up on the mountain top of resurrection.
As we move from Epiphany to Lent, from the Mount of the Transfiguration to Mt. Calvary, there is a thought which we should carry with us from Epiphany into Lent: Jesus of Nazareth had valley of life experiences just like you and I have. Jesus suffered through the deepest and darkest of all valleys, the valley of crucifixion of the cross.
If the message of Jesus’ suffering and death is to mean anything at all to us today, we must realize that Jesus overcame that valley and went up to the mountaintop. The glorious vision of our Savior, which is reported in our text for today proves to us that we have the assurance that one day we will see what the disciples saw when they were with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. May God grant to every one of us that through our faith in Jesus Christ we may one day be able to say with Peter, Lord, it is good for us to be here. Let us build a house and let us stay! AMEN!
