Listen!

 

Based on Mark 9:2-9

    The experience, I don’t know what else to call it, that we hear today in the gospel of Mark is called the Transfiguration. It is an experience some of the disciples had with Jesus that is hard for us to fully comprehend. Jesus, Peter, James, and John go up a mountain. At the top of the mountain, Jesus was transfigured before them. By transfiguration is meant that Jesus’ form shifted. He morphed. The Greek word translated as transfiguration is the same word in which we get the term “metamorphosis.” The best way Mark could describe this transfiguration was that Jesus’ clothes became dazzling white. Why did this happen? Was Jesus giving the disciples a glimpse of who he really is? A pulling back of the veil if you will? And then, Moses and Elijah appear and strike up a conversation with Jesus. How did the disciples know who they were? Were they wearing name tags? Did Jesus say, “Hello, Moses. Hello, Elijah.”? Wasn’t Moses and Elijah dead? Well, it’s not clear. We know of the famous story when the fiery chariot came down and swept up Elijah, taking him directly to heaven. And there was a common belief in the days of Jesus that Moses also was spirited up to heaven and never actually died. At any rate, here they are having a conversation. Then comes a thick cloud that obscures everything. And they hear a voice, the very voice of God saying that this is his son, the beloved, and they are to listen to him. Then, it’s all over. Jesus looks like he did when they went up the mountain. And as they go down the mountain, he tells them not to tell anybody what they just experienced. Who would believe them, anyway? Imagine what Peter, James and John were like when they all gathered around the dinner table that evening. They would be looking at each other and thinking to themselves, “What just happened? Who is Jesus anyway?” It is just a crazy experience on top of that mountain.

            It’s also interesting where this experience takes place in the telling of Mark’s gospel. It is situated at the center of the gospel. That gives this Transfiguration an added boost of significance, like it is some kind of turning point in the telling of the gospel story. It is also the second of three times that Jesus is called the Son of God. The first time is at his baptism, when God says, “You are my Son.” Here, God’s voice speaks again, saying, “This is my Son.” And at the end of the gospel, after Jesus dies on the cross, a centurion says, “Truly this man was God’s son.” So, there is a lot to unpack and ponder in this account of an amazing experience on a mountain top.

            One way we can get a handle on what is happening is to look back at what happened six days earlier. Jesus and his disciples were together. They were heading to the Roman town of Caesarea Philippi. And Jesus asked them what people were saying about him, who they thought Jesus was. The disciples reported back that some people thought Jesus was John the Baptist. Others thought that he was Elijah, who was prophesied to come back before the end times. Or maybe, they thought, he was some other prophet. And then Jesus asked who they thought he was. Peter, no surprise, was the first to open his mouth, saying, “You are the messiah.” Then Jesus started talking about how the son of Man will undergo great suffering, be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, be killed, and then come back to life three days later. The disciples, as is often the case, were befuddled about what Jesus was saying. Of course, Peter had something to say. He pulls Jesus aside to rebuke him. Not a gentle, “Jesus, are you sure about that?” but a genuine rebuke. Jesus, who is not meek or mild, yelled right back at Peter, calling him Satan. It was getting pretty hot right there. After that brief, heated exchange, Jesus pulls a crowd together and tells everybody, “If you want to be one of my followers, you are going to have to deny yourself, take up your cross, which is a painful instrument of torture that leads to death, and follow me.” And then, after all that, Jesus says, “Truly, I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.”

            Sure enough, six days later, some who were standing there with Jesus got to see for themselves the kingdom of God with power. Jesus, transfigured, had a conversation with Moses and Elijah, on the top of a mountain. They got a glimpse of what is really going on. They got to see for themselves a glimpse of what the kingdom of God looks like. The same Jesus they would later see getting beaten up and nailed to a cross, whose body is then taken to a tomb, is actually full of power. There is something about Jesus behind how he appears that is of much greater power than the one they will see when he is crucified. There is more to Jesus as the messiah than what meets the eye. The kingdom of God is with them, a kingdom where Jesus has conversations with Elijah and Moses, and where God’s voice can be heard. But it is all hidden, under wraps.

            But then, there is something else. As the transfiguration experience unfolds, Peter does what he does best. He opens his mouth and says the first thing that comes to his mind. He suggests they build three shrines on this spot. By shrines, maybe he is thinking about what others have done in the past. On those sacred places where the divine is encountered, people would build shrines in honor of the gods or goddesses that were met there. Those shrines marked those sacred spots where people could go to burn incense, offer sacrifices, lift up prayers. They would be places of pilgrimage. Maybe that’s what Peter was thinking. But, whatever his thoughts were, they were met with silence.

            Instead, a heavy cloud settled over all of them. Have you ever been in a fog that was so thick that you had no idea where you were? Maybe you could make out a few feet in front of you and that is it. But you have no idea which way is north. I remember one time attempting to drive through that kind of fog, in which I literally could not see more than ten feet in front of me. As you can imagine, I was not driving very fast. And the whole time I would tentatively glance up at my rear-view mirror and be praying that a semi-truck was not plowing toward me. Being in a thick fog is very disorienting and can be a bit frightening. The disciples were probably terrified. And then, in a space where they didn’t know which way was what, they hear a voice that says, “This is my Son, listen to him!” Now, that’s interesting. In spite of all the mind-blowing, even terrifying sights of this experience, the disciples are told to do only one thing. It was not to look at Jesus. It was not to go tell anyone about Jesus or what they had experienced. They were commanded to listen. Jesus reinforces that message as they descend from the mountain top and join everyone else. They are not to tell anyone about what they experienced until the son of Man has been raised. All they need to do is listen to Jesus.

            So, what can we take from this amazing story? For many of us, we have high points in our lives, “aha moments” in our spiritual development, that we sometimes call “mountain top experiences.” Maybe you were literally on a mountain top, looking out over the glorious expanse, and felt a deep connection with God. Or you were at church camp or a revival meeting and had a powerful experience of the presence of God. These are experiences that stick with us our whole lives. But we don’t stay there. We have to go back down the mountain. We have to leave church camp. We have to get in our cars and go home. We have to go on with our lives. It’s just like when Jesus and the disciples came down the mountain after that transfiguration experience. Peter, James, and John will never forget what they witnessed that day. And it was an experience that they perhaps had difficulty explaining to others. But they couldn’t stay there, reflecting on their experience. Jesus was on the move. He had to continue his mission, and then have happen to him all he said would happen, the arrest, the beating, the trial, the brutal death. The mountain top experience was a real gift. But they had to keep moving. Trials and great suffering awaited them.

            But the invitation I want to offer you today is to focus on what God said in this experience. In spite of all the flash and splendor of this amazing vision, God instructs the disciples to listen. Listen to what Jesus has to say. Pay attention, not only to his teaching but also what he says about the suffering he will endure, and the resurrection that will come. Jesus is the living word of God. His message needs to be heard.

            Easter is about two months away. It’s always a glorious time that we anticipate every year. These barren trees will be budding, our lawns will be green, flowers and the smell of warming earth will scent the air. We will see people wearing their Easter best, children running around hunting Easter eggs, churches filled with lilies and hyacinths. But before we get to the sights and smells of Easter, we have to go through Lent, a time of introspection, of an increased emphasis on spiritual disciplines. Lent is a time when we are invited to listen to what God may be trying to say to us.

            This is my challenge for us as walk through the season of Lent, as we confront our sin and our mortality, perhaps take on greater discipline and abstinence, that we proceed through these next seven weeks keeping the vision of the beauty of Easter and the anticipation of our own resurrection experience, to keep that vision in our minds, just as the disciples never forgot that experience on the mountain top. And as we keep these hopeful visions in our minds, let us pay attention to our lives in the here and now, and listen for what life might be trying to say to us, especially in the suffering and struggle that we will face in the weeks ahead, assured that Jesus is walking with us through it all.