I have had several opportunities to go to the top of mountains especially when we lived in Colorado. We drove up in all kinds of weather, even when it was snowing. I have taken the cable cars and when I was a kid hiked.
It is interesting to me that going up has always seemed to take a lot longer than going down.
Sometimes you think you will never to get to the peak. Especially walking and you consider turning around before you reach the top. Sometimes when you are going up the zig zag road you may start to wonder if it will be worth the trip.
Usually on the way up, there is not a lot to look at. - Just trees and road, OOPs hard right. I can’t tell you how many times a trip up a mountain has causes me to have a pain in my right arm. The pain is immediately followed by a voice. One of the voices God uses sounds just like Renee, It says Watch the road!
I have found that if I kept going and get to the top it is usually worth it. You clear the trees and the view is more than you ever expected.
In our scripture today…Is about what appears to be a little side trip for Jesus and 3 of his disciples. They are going up the mountain to pray. The first verse is normally not connected to this block of scripture if your bible has section titles. To me it looks like the situation that Jesus described 8 days before, came true for Peter, James and John.
I wonder if it was a little like a day off for these men. If they stayed in or near town they would have been flocked by the crowds. If they are going up the mountain it was a little cooler. Maybe some trees to offer shade. A little time away from the hustle and bustle of the preaching and healing.
I wonder why Jesus picked Peter, James and John so often. May because the got along well. The had been in business together. That is one of those “When I get to heaven” Questions I have. Not that it is really important.
From other places in scripture we know that Jesus goes to quiet places to pray often. Sometimes he goes alone. When he goes he spends hours in prayer.
What do you think is the reason Jesus ask the three to join him this time? Does he need a look out? Could it be that he gets lonely? Will they find something up there?
We don’t know how long they were up there. It could easily have been well after dark because of the customs of Jesus prayer time. It might even be the middle of the night when Peter or James or John notice that the place is lit up brighter than a normal day. Walking or climbing up a mountain can be pretty tiring. I imagine that after a few hours of prayer you can get pretty relaxed.
If it were me my mind might slip into day dreams, not quite sleep but off of the subject. Evidentially, Peter James and John got finished a little faster than Jesus.
Then one of them notices the light and nudges or shakes the other two. Jesus face is changed some how. Maybe it is glowing, it is not described.
They do describe his clothes. White as lightning is the phrase that is used. If we saw this image in the movies there is no way that even with today’s special effects that could let you see that much light.
(Wisperig) Peter,…. Peter Do you see that? I am afraid I would have thought it was some wild dream. Peter…Who are those men…???
That’s Elijah and Moses…. John….. are you awake….?
The three disciples are sitting there, stirred from drowsiness looking at a most amazing scene. The two most famous represenitives of the old testimate are talking to Jesus, They are discussing departure and fulfillment in Jerusalem. Jesus and the two men’s clothes are as white as lightning. That is vivid image. White as lightening.
The event in today’s scripture is one of the hardest for people to grasp some personal meaning. I am afraid that most of the time we hear the story about Transfiguration and we offer a polite smile and we go back to looking at the travel brochures of the Holy Land mountain top lodges and the pictures of the rolling countryside.
This is one of the places in the bible that gets uncomfortable for Christians because It seems to cause more Questions than answers. What if a new Christian or a person that is seeking ask what all that means? Uh oh, we better stay clear of this topic. There are too many boulders that we can’t get our hands on.
So, if we can’t have it shown to us in a way we can understand it we just move on to something more interesting skipping over the tough stuff. I know this because it happens to me all the time. I am reading and I just skip over the big words and hope I figure out what they mean from the rest of the information.
For me to figure out what it means is a climb up a winding path, and I am not sure I will find it worth it. Some parts of scripture take a bit of work for us to gain an understanding of the event. I personally believe that John and Peter and James probably had a harder time with what they were witnessing because they had not seen anything like this. It is possible that we find faith sometimes much easier to us because we may believe in the impossible. We have the advantage of TV and movies showing us stuff that is impossible all the time.
This event is described in all the study materials as an epiphany. A moment in the bible where the divine nature of Jesus is described. It is a moment when people of the day say to them selves. OH, He is the messiah, the son of God.
Epiphany = The phrase - Light came on. I see and understand. As Christians we have had an experience similar to OH I get it now. I know Who Jesus is and what he did for me.
Just 8 days before Peter had called Jesus the Christ or Messiah. This event is another method of proving that Jesus is more than a man, more that a good teacher, more than a prophet. HE is the Son of God.
This event is the record of the witness the Jesus was the messiah. It is an exciting mountaintop experience. The Disciples must be shaking their heads and think they are dreaming. They view is stunning and the moment is important.
It describes the disciples waking to the point they realize this is not a dream, not a vision but something real.
Then Good old impetuous Peter, just has to say something. “ Lord it is good that we are here. “
Have you ever just said a little too much? Started out with a little polite conversation and just went a little too far and felt embarrassed?
I believe peter was just wanting to do something. Here he is a wittness to the Glory of heaven and he is excited with what he sees. He wants to do something to honor teacher.
Do you think he has a clue as to what is going on? What the meeting and conversation are about?
Peter’s first impression is that Jesus is even in importance with Moses and Elijah. These two men that acted as agents for God, one as the Law and the other as a prophet seem to be talking as equals. Peter wants to build booths, tents, some kind of shelters so that they can be comfortable and stay. Maybe just remain on the mountain top indefinitely.
Peter was ready for the mission that he imagined to start and what better sign than for Moses and Elijah to join in the ministry.
But peters vision was flawed. He did not understand that Jesus is not equal with Moses and Elijah; he is above them in the org chart. They were workers preparing for his arrival.
Peter was excited by what ever this meant. However, he did not understand the mission of the messiah. He did not know that departure and fulfillment were going to be so painful. I suspect that the disciples believe that it is the beginning of something great. This was a sign of the start of the new kingdom..
In a way he was right. But the Journey was not starting from the rocky mountain top, it had started 33 years ago in Bethlehem. This event was the sign post marking the exit ramp ahead. The prophesies were about to be fulfilled. The kingdom is nearing.
Jesus never gets the chance to respond to Peters excited stumbling for words.
The cloud descends and a voice is heard. "This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him."
Have you ever had the mountaintop experience and heard the voice of God for yourself?
I am grateful that God usually speaks to me in a whisper through the Holy Spirit. If I heard the actual voice of God I believe it would scare me out of my shoes. I wonder what the Disciples reaction was. It seems like no one is talking.
Peter James and John don’t share this story with any one for years. It was just too much. What they saw and heard was something to be considered.
I believe that there are two things that can happen when we get a message from God or Jesus or the Holy Spirit. One is that we think we must be crazy or that others would think we are crazy and we just stay quiet. We sit on the message and don’t share it or act on it.
On the other hand, we can feel just so filled with the comfort that God is with us that we share what God has put on our hearts or in our minds we don’t care what people might say.
I have a friend, that reacted the second way a few years ago. I did not know him, except as an acquaintance at the time. I was at the meeting of the exchange Club and at the end of the meeting he asked if he could have just a couple of minutes to say something.
He went to the mike in the front of the room of 100 business men and women and started to talk. He said that God had put a message on his heart that he thought the Club should sponsor a prayer breakfast. That God had told him that it was important that we do it right away and that he wanted a couple of volunteers to help him organize it.
That does not sound so scary sitting here in church. No one would say anything too you about that kind of language in church. He was at a secular event. A club open to all business people. He spoke boldly without hesitation.
I was talking to a mutual friend who was much closer to Jim than myself. He said that when they got into the parking lot that day, he asked Jim if he realized what he had said. “God put it on his heart, God spoke to him.” He said he had been shocked at Jim’s boldness. They had never even talked to each other so openly like that.
He said Jim seem a little surprised. He had not even considered his words. He just had to say it. They had the prayer breakfast and as far as I know Jim has never has had any problems related to listening to Jesus ad sharing what was on his heart.
Are you afraid of a rocky top experience? Are you afraid that if you respond with the wrong words that you will loose something maybe personal standing or respect? On the mountain that day the disciples received a simple message. Jesus is the son of God, Listen to him.
That is an epiphany, an apocalypse, the revelation of God .
Do you believe? Are you listening?
Just like Jesus and the Disciples it is time to leave the mountain and head for Jerusalem. They are headed to fulfillment of the law.
As of Wednesday we start the Christian season of Lent. We leave the time when we rediscover the messiah and enter a time when we review our lives and see if we measure up. To give you a little hint the measuring stick is not a human one. It belongs to the voice that was heard that day on the mountain.
Lent is a time we review our journey and look at it from the floor of the valley, we are more like Jesus than we are the disciples because we know where we are headed.
We are entering the time when we need to be listening to Jesus about our lives.
All glory be to God!
