Title: Jesus the Transformer
Scripture: Mark 9: 2-9
“Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus, ‘Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwelling, one for you , one for Moses, and one for Elijah.’ He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!’ Suddenly, when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus.
As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had see, until after the Son of Man had risen from the Dead.”
Have you ever seen something incredible? I don’t mean “Oh look that kid just jumped over four barrels on a skateboard” incredible, or, “I got an incredible deal on my car insurance!” incredible. I don’t even mean “Dr. Bruce Banner just turned into the Incredible Hulk!” No. That is not the kind of incredible I am talking about.
We have a habit in our culture of overusing strong words, like awesome, ridiculous, or incredible, to the point where they all mean basically the same thing. By incredible, I don’t mean “really cool.” Incredible means “I just saw something that if I told anyone what I saw, they would think me a liar.” You would no longer be a credible source. If an event can do that to you, it is therefore, incredible.
Christians are not strangers to incredible events. Christ himself did many incredible things. He did things so incredible, that people today still have a problem believing that he actually did them. The more incredible the act, however, the more it drew people to him. The stranger the event, the closer he came to revealing his true nature, to revealing the fully divine aspect of a fully human messiah. Jesus did, in fact, reveal this nature fully to just a few disciples. This act was described in today’s scripture, and it is most commonly referred to as “The Transfiguration of Christ.”
Jesus was in the business of transformation. Every person he met, he changed in some way. Jesus was famous for his ability to physically change things that no other person could change until he came. But that wasn’t the reason he came. That wasn’t his mission. These actions were merely tools. His objective was to start a fire in the human heart. His mission was to change the physical conditions of human life by changing the spiritual conditions of the human soul, and bring about the
He started small. Jesus took three of his disciples with him to a very tall mountain. The very act of taking a small group somewhere else for a powerful experience is an old tradition. In fact we still do it today. Call it a church camp, choir camp, UM ARMY, Big House, Walk to Emmaus, Women’s Retreat, Men’s Retreat, it all amounts to the same thing. We go other places to find God because we sometimes lose God where we live. I’ve got hundreds of examples of this. When I lived in Seabrook, I was about forty minutes from
I like nature and solitude. Others like different types of experiences. I have a friend named David. He had a life changing experience at the Passion conference in
Mountaintop experiences come in all varieties. They go back to Moses on
The gospel goes right into it. “He was transfigured before them,” or transformed. What exactly does that mean? The only description of this transformation that Mark gives us is that his clothes are dazzling white. What we are meant to believe here is that Jesus finally revealed to humans his truly divine nature. We know that Jesus was wholly human and wholly divine, but this event is his proof to the disciples. As things unfolded, two of the most important figures in Jewish history appeared to them: Moses and Elijah. Mark says that Jesus spoke to them, but he doesn’t say what. But truly this is an incredible event. Not everyday do two legendary figures in Jewish history appear, but they begin to talk to a man, who only moments ago seemed fairly average.
Now the three disciples Jesus took with him were part of his inner circle, the core of their group, and among them was the most famous disciple, Peter. Six days before this event, Jesus asked the disciples who they thought he was. Peter opened his big mouth and blurted out “You are the Messiah!” Peter had a habit of being rather impulsive, which a lot of us can relate to. Jesus explained to his disciples what his being Messiah meant that he would suffer, be scorned, whipped, tortured, and dies the death of a criminal. He also said that he would be coming back from the dead three days later, but the disciples were shocked from the prediction of his trials. Again, Peter stuck his foot in his mouth. He did what anyone in his shoes would have done when given the news that someone he loved was going to die. He said, “Nah, you’re not going to die. You’re messing with us. Surely, God would not do this to you?” Jesus set him straight, but this is but a precursor to what would happen on the mountain.
Peter was moved by this new vision, this epiphany, this revelation of the true nature of Jesus, and he was terrified. “Rabbi!” he says (which proves to us that he had NO IDEA WHAT WAS GOING ON, because he just SAW Jesus transform into a heavenly being he Peter just calls him “Teacher.” Not Messiah, not, Holy One, or Son of God, TEACHER.) “This is amazing! This is unbelievable! We got to do something about this! I know, we can build three little churches here: one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah…” Peter can’t process this. Peter knows this is amazing, but he appreciates it in all the wrong ways. This is not such a foreign concept. We see signs of God all of the time, but interpreting them is always tricky. What Peter was attempting to do was separate the event into understandable chunks. To Peter, Moses represented the Law, Elijah represented the prophecy, Jesus represented salvation. God then felt this needed clarification.
Mark says that a great cloud came over the group just then, and he says to them—interrupting Peter in his misguided excitement—“This is my son, the Beloved; listen to him!” First off, whoa. God doesn’t speak up like this often. Adding terror to an already terrified group, God Spoke and confirmed that Jesus was, in fact, the Son of God. This was God confirming that Jesus was not separate from Moses and Elijah, separate from Jewish history, but the culmination of Jewish history, the culmination of the Law, the culmination of prophecy. Jesus was the one we are to listen to. And the Disciples were terrified. I can’t even imagine what the voice of God would sound like. Most often we hear it as the still quiet whisper in our souls. I’m sure if I was there, I would have some trouble standing up. This is a scary event.
To make things scarier, as soon as the voice of God stopped, the Moses and Elijah were gone. Jesus had returned to his fully human state. Everything was just as it was from the start of it, as if nothing had happened. The experience was over. The incredible had occurred. The mundane had returned.
Every time I have a mountaintop experience, I want to tell people about it. I want to shout it from the rooftops and make a joyful noise for the Lord! I can’t contain myself! Nobody I have met that has gone on a mission trip can shut up about the wonderful experience they had, the great things they have done, the incredible nature of an incredible experience they endured. We want to proclaim to everyone what we have witnessed. And so did the disciples. If they could not build a monument to their experience on the mountain, they sure as heck were going to talk about it.
So we are surprised to see that Jesus tells them: “No.” Jesus wants them to keep quiet about it. Keep the secret of this incredible event until he has undergone all of his trials and risen from the dead, proving that he is the Messiah. From then, they can say all they want. Because of the very nature of the incredible event. He knew nobody would believe them. He needed to show them his true nature so they could be prepared for his trials. But that didn’t stop Peter from denying Christ. That didn’t stop the disciples from hiding while their Savior was whipped, beaten, and crucified. We say sometimes “I’ll believe it when I see it.” Those three disciples saw it, but they didn’t believe it. Not fully. Not until Jesus came back. Not until God conquered death.
We still, to this day, want proof. We need to know. We need to understand. But don’t you see? Jesus already did that. Jesus proved to his disciples who he was. Jesus proved that he was God and God was in him, and we are saved because of it.
Now here’s what I hope you can take out of this. Jesus wanted his disciples to take their mountaintops with them. Live with it. Live by it. Let others know it. Don’t leave your mountaintops at the mountaintop. Don’t build a tabernacle at the top of the mountain and leave it there—Take it with you! By transforming himself, Jesus transformed the disciples. Our mission is to make Disciples of Christ, but how can we do that if we have not been transformed?
I will leave you with this. People will not want to listen to you, because the story of Jesus is incredible. It defies our preconceived notions of what life is supposed to be. But this is precisely the point of his message, and it is precisely why we are who we are. Jesus rescued us so that we may rescue others. It is his incredible love that makes us, in turn, incredible. And so, it is our task to make his unbelievable, incredible love a reality for those who don’t believe so that we can bring about the
