The Transfiguration: a sermon

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to preach to a small local congregation. I was given the topic of 'The Transfiguration' from Mark9. It was a real treat to be invited and I hope to go back. Anyway, here's what I said (or thereabouts...)

Mark 9:2-10

New International Version (NIV)

The Transfiguration

 2 After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. 3 His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. 4 And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.

 5 Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” 6 (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.)

 7 Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”

 8 Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.

 9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. 10 They kept the matter to themselves, discussing what “rising from the dead” meant.

I can’t say I was thrilled when I was asked to speak on the transfiguration. It had never struck me as a meaty bit of bible, really.  I like those bits where Jesus says something controversial, and with clear life applications. I suppose I always wondered what the point of this is. It’s nice that God says “This is my Son,” but I already knew that, and I’m pretty sure Jesus did too. This passage had never really spoken to me, either about God or about me. Well, let me tell you, there’s plenty going on here, and some lessons for all of us. We’re going to look at them going up the mountain, what happens up there, and them coming down the mountain.

So, the passage opens with “six days later.” Two thoughts occur to me here. Six days after what? What had just happened. Mark’s putting these events in a context, telling us that they came JUST AFTER something else. Look over the page in your bible and you see what’s happened in Mark 8. The headlines in my bible actually do a pretty good job of summarising it. Peter declares that Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus predicts his death, the way of the cross. The disciples has realised that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ. Then he tells them that he is going to die and they are going to suffer. Pretty big news. They sit with that for a week or so. I don’t think Mark is telling us that this is exactly six days later, just not long. That six days IS significant though, and that’s my second thought. After six days, we have a Sabbath. After some big news, Jesus calls them away, up a mountain, to be with him.

Lent stared last Wednesday, and it’s a great time to reset spiritual disciplines that have fallen by the wayside. I don’t know what you’re thinking of giving up or taking up for lent. There are lots of good ideas and that’s not what I’m here to talk about today, but there is one thing I want to ask. How’s your Sabbath? Ours is ok, but it could be better, and I think we’ll take lent as an opportunity to invest in Sabbathing properly. I think I've been guilty of not taking it very seriously at times, but when you look at the old testament and all those laws, there only seem to be one or two that God really bangs on about. Idols (He really hate idolatry) and keeping the Sabbath. You just can’t underestimate how important God takes the Sabbath. Not just ‘not-working,’ although that’s very important, but retreating from the day-to-day world to just be with Him. Even if that day-to-day world is pretty holy. Look at what Jesus and the disciples had been up to: feeding 4000, preaching and healing. And that’s just Mark8! Still, in the midst of this, Jesus calls these guys aside and says, stop, come away with me. Are you heeding the call of God to be with Him, to be still?

Anyway, these guys are. That’s one thing they get right in this story. They listen and they go up the mountain with Jesus, and when they get there they are just blown away! He starts glowing! These guys are going to be seriously impressed. They know this is the presence of God! They aren’t going to miss the comparison with Moses in Exodus 34, you know, with Moses covering his face with a veil because the Glory of the Lord is literally shining from him. That couldn’t miss it, the clues are all there. Not only are they up a mountain, just like Moses, but Moses is there. And Elijah too! This is the fulfilment of major prophecy. Lets look quickly at Malachi 3 and 4. Wow. This is as big to them as the second coming would be for us! Just last week they had recognised that Jesus is the Messiah, and now they see him transfigured and looking all ‘divine’ and Moses and Elijah show up to confirm it!

At this point they get scared, I guess they feel out of control, and they start looking for practical stuff to do. Peter, for some reason, wants to put up tents. Now, I could do you ten minutes on tents and why peter might want to do that. For Jews at the time, that’s where the presence of God goes: in a tent. Why 3 and not 1 I’m less sure, but in his fear, looking to help out and muck in, Peter gets it wrong. You can see why. Surely, this is as good as it gets. First, there’s the white clothes, then this holy cloud which the KNOW is the presence of God, and then Moses and Elijah. WOW!! Lets hang on to this, it’s never going to get any better than this. Well, someone should have had a word with Peter about God. Admittedly, he had already blown Peter’s expectations out of the water, but then it gets EVEN BETTER.

God Speaks.

To them.

Would we do any better? Would we realise that God has brought us all this way. The presence of God is there. We are so close to Jesus it’s untrue. Would we be asking the right question: What does god want to say to me? Surely that’s what the disciples should have been looking for, some revelation.

The good news is that even though they’ve missed the point, God speaks anyway.

This only happens twice in Mark, here and at Jesus’ baptism. It’s similar script. Last time it was “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” He was talking to Jesus. Now it’s for the disciples. It’s for us. : “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”

I don’t want to give you any false impressions of how educated I am. I have frankly little Latin and less Greek, but I know someone who does know Greek. In the original Greek that’s not just ‘Listen” but more accurately “listen and keep listening to Him.”

How often does God speak to you? Me, well, not often. Let me tell you about my friend Jo. God speaks to her all the time. Generally stuff like : go and talk to that man on the bus about me. Not stuff I would necessarily want to hear all that much. I think she hears from God so much because she spends so much time listening to Him. She prays a lot. She reads her bible a lot. In the context of today’s story, she goes up the mountain a lot. I guess that’s something I can learn from this. If I want to hear more from God, I need to do the legwork.

This command, “Listen to Him.” It’s not like previous commands. There’s no list of do’s and don’ts. That’s what used to happen. That’s what Moses and Elijah represent, the laws and the prophets. Specific commands from God. That’s ended. Jesus is the fulfilment of that Old Testament way of doing business with God. Now we are to listen to Jesus, and keep listening to him. This section is one of the passages that underpins Christianity as we see it. It’s where Jesus’ divinity is revealed, and that salvation comes not from a list of laws, but from relationship with Him. It must be a relationship, as we are to keep listening to him. Along with other fundamentals of the faith, like loving God and talking to Him (as we would call praying), listening to someone is a hallmark of relationship. I can tell you, my relationship with my wife takes a noticeable step backwards whenever one of us feels the other isn’t listening!

One more thing before we make our descent. I don’t know why Peter was so keen to put up shelters. I guess we’ll never know, at least, not for a long time to come, but I do have a theory. He said that it was “good for them to be there.” Was he trying to cling on to a good thing? Trying to preserve a moment that was supposed to come but then pass? It’s important to follow God’s calling, and so rewarding when you do. Look at these guys; Jesus called them up that mountain and when they went they met two of their all-time Old Testament heroes, their Messiah started glowing and the Lord of the universe spoke to them. Awesome! And yet… it wasn’t for always. They had been so right to follow Jesus up the mountain, but calling can shift and change. They we called next to get on with a whole ministry, to follow their Lord to the grave and beyond, to start a world changing religion, revealing the truth to all nations. God had even bigger plans for them, but to access them they had to go down the mountain. They had to abandon the ultimate holy-huddle. I’m sure it was good up there, but there was at time to stay and a time to move on.

And then, they come down the mountain. They get a command, and it’s not the one I’d have been expecting…

‘Tell everyone, this is HUGE!”

Nope. Tell no-one. Not yet.

The world wasn’t ready for this. The disciples weren’t ready for this. None of this would make sense until they were in that intimate relationship with God themselves, after Pentecost when they were filled with the Holy Spirit. THAT Peter wasn’t missing the point, oh no, he was on fire! I suppose that’s one of the big points of this passage. Meeting Jesus, meeting God is awesome, but it’s not enough. You have to walk with Him, day to day, and you have to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Then, and only then, will you see the power of God at work.

Is that message for us, tell no one? I don’t think so. Lets look at the last instruction Jesus gives in Mark 16…

“Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”

That seems pretty clear to me, but is the subject of some other sermon, some other time.

What questions are there for us here? I would suggest the following:

-are we doing what we’re told with our revelation of God?

-go back to the beginning. What does this passage tell us.  Is it still pointless?

- are you following your calling? Has it changed.

Above all, get space, seek God, do your Sabbath. When you do, expect God to blow your mind, even when he already has. He won’t every time. They didn’t have encounters like this every mountain they went up, but don’t put God in a box.