Many of us who are gathered here have had what we call a “mountaintop experience” in our faith journey. Some of us have had several such experiences. Whether it was the Spirit of God moving through the crowd at a Billy Graham Crusade… or the witness of the Word of God in a powerful service of worship… or a transforming experience at a Youth Camp or a Cursillo weekend… or that life-changing moment when we first encountered God and knew we were loved for ourselves alone… we have experienced the euphoria of a time when God revealed God’s person to us in a new and different way. The joy that filled our hearts at that moment was a joy we wanted to capture forever. We were on the mountaintop and we never wanted to leave!
“Let us make three dwellings.” I love Peter at that moment. He knows that something extraordinary has happened. He knows he’ll never be able to describe it to anyone who wasn’t there. He knows he wants to capture that moment forever. But he hasn’t a clue how to begin. I’ve been there. I’ve had a mountaintop experience… and I’ve probably said something equally inane… equally absurd. For that experience… whatever it is… is ephemeral. It cannot be captured. It cannot be held. In one moment, the experience is as real as this pulpit… and in the next, it has vanished into memory… with all of its delicious and wondrous indescribability. “You had to be there.” Don’t you hate those words! “You had to be there.” There’s not a chance that you will even begin to understand it, unless you were there.
The experience of Peter, James and John on the mountain raises some questions in my mind… and perhaps in yours. And mine begin with the question “Why?” Why did Jesus reveal God’s glory… or vice versa… to these three disciples? Why now? This is the second time that the Gospel of Mark identifies these three as being “set apart” from the rest. The first time, they were with him when he raised Jairus’ daughter to life. This time, they witness the transfiguration of Jesus. The third… and last… time that Jesus pulls them away from the others is in the Garden of Gethsemane. Each time, they are witnesses… witnesses to something divine… some part of the mystery of God… of Jesus. In the first event, Jesus reveals the divine power of life over death. In the second event, Jesus reveals his transcendence… his divinity… how he exists in a state of being that surpasses… that is above and beyond physical reality. And in the third event, he reveals his immanence… his true humanity… how he exists within the framework of known reality.
What was the purpose of the transfiguration… beyond a revelation of the divinity of Jesus? Why was it important? I am going to suggest several different answers to that question for us to ponder in the days ahead. For we stand on the threshold of Lent… a time of reflection that is intended to bring us into closer relationship with God… a time, perhaps, when an greater understanding of Jesus’ divinity might help us to understand the importance of obedience… something that all of us… as humans…find challenging.
Purpose No.1: Jesus wanted Peter, James and John to see the Kingdom of God coming in power. In verse one of chapter nine… immediately preceding our sermon text… Jesus says, “Truly I tell you, there are some here who will not taste death until they see that the Kingdom of God has come with power.” He then takes these three up the mountain and reveals to them the power of God on earth in the person of Jesus Christ… the one whom Peter had confessed as the Son of God just six days earlier. Peter made that confession in faith… and yet, having confessed it, he then refused to listen to the words of Jesus as he spoke of what he would have to endure in the coming days. Was this new revelation a way of driving the point home? If this is truly God, should we not be listening to him? How can we confess Jesus as God… and then refuse to listen to him or to obey him? Do we think Peter got the message? Did we?
Purpose No. 2: Jesus wanted Peter, James and John to understand that, while he came to fulfill the law and the prophets, the Kingdom of God was also greater than either… and more than both. Moses, who appears with him at the transfiguration, represents the law… for it was through Moses that the law came to the children of Israel. Elijah, who also appears with him, represents the prophets, for he was one of the prophets… one of the most important prophets. But, in the end, the “law and the prophets” fade away and Jesus remains… the new covenant with the children of Israel… a more complete revelation. This is the only time that Moses and Elijah appear together in scripture… an event that is supposed to take place on the Day of the Lord… when Jesus returns in all his glory and the Kingdom of God is established forever and ever. Is this not another sign that the Kingdom of God has come with power?
Purpose No. 3: Both Moses and Elijah had “mountaintop experiences” of their own at times when they were struggling with the leadership of the children of Israel. Elijah fled to the mountain after executing the prophets of Baal when he believed he was the last living person who was faithful to God. God informed him otherwise. Moses returned to the mountaintop when his anger over the betrayal of his brother and the sight of the children of Israel worshipping a golden calf caused him to break the tablets of the law that God had just given to him. God provided a time apart… a time to be with God and to experience God’s majesty… giving renewed purpose and focus to their ministry. Does Jesus take this time for himself… or for Peter, James and John?
Purpose No. 4: The dazzling white robes of Jesus on the mountaintop emphasize the divinity of Jesus… his holiness and purity which set him apart from the imperfection of human reality… while at the same time, connecting him to the prophesy in the book of Revelation which says that the saints who have come out of the great tribulation will be dressed in dazzling white robes. When Moses came down the mountain from being in God’s presence, his face shone in such a way that he had to veil it so that others could look upon him. I wonder whether the faces of Peter, James and John also shone after this experience of the presence of God. Were they even aware that they had been changed by this experience? The answer has to be “Yes” and yet Jesus commanded them not to speak of it to anyone. Can you imagine how difficult that must have been? Have you known anyone who has had a mountaintop experience who has refused to speak of it in the days and weeks that followed?
Purpose No. 5: Jesus wanted to highlight, once again, the inability of the disciples to grasp what he came to accomplish. Didn’t God say through the Prophet Isaiah “as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts?” On the mountaintop, the disciples are unable to fully understand what's going on. Peter says, "It is good that we are here." Why is it good… simply so they can witness the glory of God? Is that why we come to worship on Sunday… because we want an experience that will take us to the mountaintop… so we can hang out with Moses and Elijah and leave the world behind? Do we come to only see Jesus in all his glory and then try to “save time in a bottle” as the old song says? What happens when we get back to the real world? As soon as the disciples and Jesus come down from the mountain, they run into an argument between scribes and the other disciples… an argument that arises because the other disciples could not exorcise an evil spirit. Doesn’t that sound more like what happens in congregations today than the glory that the three disciples experienced on the mountaintop? Jesus says… and you can almost hear his deep sigh of frustration… "You faithless generation, how much longer must I be among you? How much longer must I put up with you?" Have we progressed any further that that first century crowd, I wonder? Have we learned anything in our journey of faith?
There is always a place where the reality of everyday life confronts the dazzling ecstacy… the euphoria of our mountaintop experiences… a place where we are brought out of the wonder… the excitement of “Why can’t life always be this way?” to the harsh reality… the desolation of “It is what it is”… and it is in that painful reality… that anguish that we must live. Could Jesus have stayed on the mountaintop and communed with Moses and Elijah for eternity? Yes… he could have done so. But… if he had done so… then the story that we tell today would be a very different story… and the faith that we confess today would be a very different faith. Part of the wonder of Jesus’ life and ministry is that he did it at all… that he chose to live among us and deal with our issues. He doesn’t stay on the mountaintop and bask in the glory of his divinity. In a supreme example of obedience, he comes back down into the valley… right back into the mess of daily life… into the muck of our human frailty… and bumps into this argument. Could the disciples have cast out those demons? Yes… but only if they believed.
How many of us… I wonder… when we were children… ever had our parents stop us in our tracks… and then watched them sit down or squat down so that they could be at eye-level with us… and then tell us… in no uncertain terms… that we were to listen to them and to obey them... for they know more than we know. And, nodding our little heads, we agreed to do so… for we longed so much to please them. Can you see God doing that in this story? Wasn’t it God who led Peter, James and John to the top of the mountain? Wasn’t it God who then captured their attention with a sight they had never seen before? Wasn’t it God who then told them… in no uncertain terms… to listen to Jesus? Can you hear the same love… the same urgency… the same care… in God’s voice that you have had with your own children when you have tried to convey something important to them? Captured by the full impact of your attention and your love, do they not agree to listen and to obey? And how long does that last?
Jesus leaves the mountaintop and returns to the valley… knowing that he will… once again… encounter the reality of life in this world… the unbelief of his own disciples… the bickering of the crowd… disobedience of God’s people… and the endless need of the children he loves. Yes, we can go to the mountaintop… we can take some “time apart” with God… but the place of ministry is down in the valley with the sick and demon possessed… with ordinary people like us. The disciples were ordinary men… called to minister to other ordinary men. Their ministry was there… in the cold reality of daily life. It was there… in the valley… that there was work to do. They couldn’t stay on the mountaintop. Neither can we. It is here… in the valley… that we must listen… that we must obey… that we must believe… far from the dazzling sights of the mountaintop… far from the amazing euphoria of the revelation of the presence of God among us. We can’t stay on the mountain. Our work is here… down in the valley… not just today… but every day… listening to the voice of our Savior. Amen.
Mark 9:2-9