COMING DOWN FROM THE MOUNTAIN

2Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and led them up on a high mountain apart by themselves; and He was transfigured before them. 3His clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them. 4And Elijah appeared to them with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. 5Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah"-- 6because he did not know what to say, for they were greatly afraid. 7And a cloud came and overshadowed them; and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!" 8Suddenly, when they had looked around, they saw no one anymore, but only Jesus with themselves. 9Now as they came down from the mountain, He commanded them that they should tell no one the things they had seen, till the Son of Man had risen from the dead.—Mark 9:2-9 (NKJV)

We have come now to the final Sunday in the season of Epiphany. Light is the prominent theme of Epiphany, and Transfiguration Sunday is the climax of this church season. Notice that in Scripture, It all begins with the theme of light, as everything was void and in chaos, and out of the chaos came the voice of God, “Let there be light!” And at the end of the book, you will find that it all ends with light as well: “And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the lamb” (Rev. 21:23). And today we find that as far as the gospel writer Mark was concerned, the story is full of light in the middle as well. Mark intentionally places this event in the life of Christ directly in the middle, making it the pivotal point in his telling of the gospel story.

If you will recall, as we have mentioned since beginning in Mark’s gospel for this lectionary cycle, one of the prominent themes emphasized over and over is, “Jesus is the Son of God.” It is no accident that the events portrayed here come right after Peter has made his famous confession concerning who Jesus is. It is almost as if the Transfiguration is situated here as confirmation of what Peter has just declared. Further confirmation is given by the voice of God coming from the cloud, declaring this to be His Son.

One of my favorite cartoon strips of all time is Peanuts. I always especially enjoyed the ones where Lucy would be playing doctor, psychiatrist, or philosopher. In one such strip, Lucy declares to Charlie Brown: “Life is like a deck chair; Some people place them so they can see where they’re going; some people place them so they can see where they’ve been; and some people place them so they can see

where they are.” Charlie Brown stands there for a minute pondering what she has said, looks down at his own tangled mess of a chair, and says, “I can’t get mine unfolded.”(1)

Sometimes our lives feel exactly like that—a mess so tangled that we simply can’t seem to make sense of it. And yet so often we find that even in that mess, somehow we still manage to enjoy that “Top of the World” feeling, what we call “mountaintop experiences.” Andy Warhol, a pop icon of the sixties, saw this experience as one we all possess at one time or another in our lives, what he called our “fifteen minutes of fame.” And perhaps at some point in our lives, we do all have those moments when we feel we have reached the pinnacle.

But I have observed also that it is precisely these moments that can lead to some of the deepest moments of our lives as well. It is well to note that the highest mountains very often lead into the lowest valleys. Think about some of the mountaintop experiences we see in Scripture. Think about Abraham, who was given great promises of blessing from the hand of God—and yet, on the heels of the promise, was given the command to go and slay his son, the very son of promise given by God. Then, as he goes up on Mount Moriah, an angel stops him just before the sacrifice is accomplished, and Abraham sacrifices a goat instead, with the spot becoming a place of worship. Then, with these good feelings still welling up within him, he must come down from the mountain, and face the death of his wife Sarah.

Think about Moses, a man who knew God face to face like no other man, who held such communion with God, that once when he came down from the mountain his face was shining with the residual light of God upon him. Yet even Moses had to come down from the mountain after receiving the commandments of God, to find his people rebelling and worshipping a golden calf in the place of God. Think about Elijah, who on the mountain was involved in a great victory after putting the worshippers of Baal to the test. But when he had to come down from the mountain, a report came to him that Jezebel sought his life, and he became so despondent he sat under a tree wishing he could die.

The mountaintop seems to be a good image of some of the things we face in our lives. I think we can all identify with that deck chair image as well, depending on where we are on the mountain at any given point in time. Maybe you’re here this morning, and you’re on the top of that mountain, everything’s going good, and it’s an easy thing to maintain focus on where you’re headed. Or maybe your glory days are behind you, and you find yourself with fewer and fewer days ahead of you than behind you. It gets easier to look where you’ve been, and reminisce about the “good ole days” with nostalgia. Or perhaps you’re faced with difficulties that steal away any kind of focus you may have had, replacing it with strong anxiety, so that the best

you possibly manage is to see where you are, and to take it one day at a time.

One thing is for sure—the lower you are on the mountain at any given time, the harder it is to see your way. But no matter what the changes are in the circumstances of your life, there is one thing that never changes: the source of the light. In the valley, it’s easy to say “the light doesn’t shine like it did when I was on the mountain.” But it is not the light that has changed—it is your ability to perceive it. The light is actually still the same no matter which part of the mountain you’re on. You see, it doesn’t matter whether your focus is on where you’re headed, or on where you’ve been, or on where you are. Because Jesus Christ, who is our light, is, as the Word tells us, “the same yesterday, today, and forever.” You can trust Him--on the mountain, on the plains, or in the valleys—to give you the light you need to see the path.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.” (Pro. 3:5-6)

NOTES:

(1) Retold in “What Peter Learned on the Mountain,” by David E. Hall, sermon preached 6/25/00 at Eastern Hills Baptist Church, Garland, TX.

OTHER SOURCES CONSULTED:

Harry Emerson Fosdick, “Finding Unfailing Resources,” from On Being Fit to Live With, London: SCM Press, 1947.

Dr. Thomas C. Nolen, “Back to the Mountaintop,” online sermon.

Douglas I. Norris, “Up, Up, and Away,” online sermon.