Listen to Him
Mark 9:2-9; 2 Peter 1:16-18
Transfiguration Sunday
[Imperatives in this sermon:
1. Listen to Jesus even if he is heading to the cross, even if he asks you to engage in risk-taking yourselves.
2. Do not settle for less than the adventure to which Jesus calls us.
3. Find the courage we need for bold living, by letting the Holy Spirit give us previews of the glory of Jesus.
For relevant mountain photos, see http://www.bibleplaces.com]
First Impressions That Don't Work Out
Our first impressions about people influence the ways we react to them when we find out who they really are. We thought that they were close to our ideals, but then we find out that our assumptions were mistaken. How dare they betray us like this! Sometimes we need a little time and help in adjusting to the shock.
Example 1: For my first example, any married person can explain this experience. Married couples who stay married learn to work their way past the shock into a mature covenant relationship.
Example 2: Take how people react to me. Wherever I go, I hear that I remind people of Mr. Rogers. The resemblance is strongest in the voice, but I also share his preference for cardigan sweaters, and, underneath my excess pounds is a resemblance around the mouth and nose and in gangly body-type. Plus, in character, I sometimes appear to be gentle, flexible, and accepting. The blessing of all this is that Mr. Rogers was a good, kind, and Christian man, and most people seem to enjoy the resemblance. But there is also a curse that comes with the resemblance: people expect me to be as nice as Mr. Rogers, and I just am not. When I turn out to be more lost in my own thoughts than aware, more absent-minded than considerate, more analytical than nurturing, more content-oriented than warm-and-fuzzy, more convinced than open-minded, more stubborn than flexible, more interested in competence than acceptance, people are offended. Mr. Rogers has just hurt their feelings, and that is hard for them to get over. For them, the pastoral honeymoon is over, and it is time for them to decide whether they can work through the disappointment. Some of my closest church friends are the ones who have persevered in that effort until we have arrived at a mutual respect and understanding. I am grateful to them.
Example 3: Simon Peter and his fellow disciples had heard the testimony of John the Baptist that Jesus was the Anointed One. They had left everything to follow him. They had listened to the wonderful teaching of Jesus about the reign of God. They had seen Jesus perform astounding miracles of exorcism, healing, provision, and protection. At least twice, they had seen him raise the dead. Jesus had even given the disciples authority to go out and minister in the power of the kingdom. Jesus looked like a winner to them. The evidence was persuasive, and they were impressed.
Jesus took the disciples on a long walking tour outside Galilee. They arrived at Caesarea Philippi, near what is now the border between Israel, Lebanon, and Syria. There Jesus drew forth from Simon Peter what the disciples had concluded about Jesus’ identity. Known to us as the Great Confession, in Matthew’s version, Peter said: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” So far, so good.
Then Jesus began to tell them that he would go to Jerusalem where he would be killed and raised from the dead. He also told them that they would need to take up their own crosses and follow him. At this point, the disciples suffered from “cognitive dissonance,’ which is a fancy way of saying that this just did not compute in their minds. Cognitive dissonance means that one known thing seems to contradict another known thing, usually that our experience is contradicting our assumptions. Jesus as the Royal Son seemed to contradict Jesus as the Suffering Servant; the crown and the cross did not seem to go together. The disciples thought that they had signed on with a winner, but what he was describing sounded to them like a loser. They did not understand that he was simply describing a strategy for winning a bigger, broader, deeper war than they had yet envisioned. And so they were shocked and confused.
The Mountain
About a week later, Jesus took them up on what we call the Mount of Transfiguration. There is much debate about which of three mountains this may have been. One tourist destination claiming to be the site is Mount Tabor, southwest of Nazareth, but that is unlikely.
Mount Meron, the highest mountain in Galilee, is possible.
Over half the scholars I consulted prefer Mount Hermon which sits just above Caesarea Philippi on today’s border of Israel, Syria, and Lebanon; it is easily the most impressive mountain in the whole region. I’ll vote for it just so I can put more pictures of it into my sermon Powerpoint.
The identity of the Mount of Transfiguration is not important. What happened on it is. In churches that observe the liturgical year, today, the last Sunday before Lent, is Transfiguration Sunday. Why is the event we remember today so important? The disciples had a crisis on their minds. They had left everything to follow Jesus, thinking that he was the Messiah, but now he was talking about dying. They needed some answers. That was why Jesus was taking them up the mountain. What answers were given to them on the mountain? Let’s read:
Understanding the Scripture
And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them. On the mountain, the disciples got a preview of the eternal glory that Jesus would have when he returned to judge the earth and to bring God’s triumph over evil to its culmination. This was meant to assure them that Jesus was truly the Messiah; he was truly a winner, and on a vast, cosmic level that they had not even imagined. They had been thinking in terms of Israel. He was thinking on a cosmic scale. Even though he would indeed die, he would also be raised. He would ascend into the place of authority at the right hand of the Father from where he would reign over his church. When the church’s mission was complete, he would bring all to conclusion, coming with his angels to judge the living and the dead, prior to the unveiling of the perfected new heaven and new earth.
And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. Moses, the lawgiver, and Elijah, the model prophet, represented the Law and the Prophets, in short, the Old Testament. They came to talk with Jesus in front of his disciples about how his death and resurrection would fulfill all the Law and the Prophets. This was to confirm to the disciples that what Jesus was saying to them was in keeping with all their scriptures, and that it was a necessary part of the victory that Jesus came to win. The glory on the mountain was a preview of that perfect future.
And Peter said to Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah." For he did not know what to say, for they were terrified.
The preview was so impressive that Peter, confused and frightened by the glorious events, thought that they were in the endtimes movie itself, not just the preview. Ignoring what Jesus had said about his coming death, he apparently leaped to the conclusion that the final days had arrived and that the coming last battle would be directed from this holy mountain. So, he proposed that the disciples construct makeshift headquarters for the three leaders.
And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, "This is my beloved Son; listen to him." And suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them but Jesus only. At his baptism, the voice of God had declared to Jesus, “You are my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased.” The message actually conveyed that Jesus was to be both the Royal Son of Psalm 2:7 and the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 42:1. That message is now repeated for the benefit of the confused disciples with the further injunction that they are to listen to him as he tells them what lies ahead. This is the point of the Transfiguration. Listen to Jesus even if he is heading to the cross, even if he asks you to engage in risk-taking yourselves.
And as they were coming down the mountain, he charged them to tell no one what they had seen, until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
Once again, Jesus reminds them of his coming death by speaking of its aftermath, the resurrection. Clearly, in spite of the experience on the Mount of Transfiguration, they do not understand the point at the time. The whole thing appeared to be lost on them, but in time it did some good.
Much later in his life, Peter writes about the preview of the future power and coming of the Son of Man:
For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased," we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.
Apparently, the point of the Transfiguration eventually found its way home to Peter and the other disciples. It sustained them through days of challenging mission, sacrifice, suffering, and death. Of the three disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration, James died first, killed by the sword of Herod Agrippa I in about 44 A.D. Simon Peter died during Emperor Nero’s persecution of the Christians in Rome, sometime between 64 and 67 A.D. A late second century report says that he was crucified head down. We last see John writing from the Isle of Patmos, where he was exiled because of his witness to Jesus. Most believe that this was around 96 A.D. There is a high probability that he died under the harsh conditions of his exile.
Being a Disciple is Not Cushy, But Is Wise
Being disciple of Jesus is not a cushy job. But becoming a disciple is nonetheless a wise choice.
Our daughter Carissa attended Wheaton College. She lived in Elliot dormitory across the lawn from Saint dormitory. The dorms were named after two Wheaton alumni, martyrs of the faith. Jim Elliot and Nate Saint were among five young Christians who attempted to establish a Christian mission with the Waodani Indians. The primitive customs of this isolated tribe demanded that the Waodani kill not only their enemies and outsiders, but their fellow tribespeople. Fueled by fearful superstition, they sometimes even buried their own children alive. The Waodani were the most violent society ever documented. Six of every 10 deaths of Waodani adults were homicides. They killed all five missionaries.
Jim Elliot is best remembered for his words that pre-figured his death: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” To translate, risking one’s life or one’s wealth or one’s popularity in this world for the sake of the gospel of eternal salvation is not folly, but wisdom, when we see it from the true perspective.
Adventure is not just for men or even just for adults. Shortly after the killings, Jim Elliot’s widow and young daughter and Nate Saint’s sister went into the jungle to live with the Waodani who had murdered their loved ones. Other relatives of the missionaries, including the child Steve Saint, followed. Two years later, their message of peace and forgiveness had transformed the tribe – the homicide rate fell by 90%. Nearly 40 years after the death of his father Nate, Steve Saint, who had lived among the Waodani as a child, returned with his wife and four children, to continue the work of Christian reconciliation. Today the grandchildren of the original missionaries are becoming acquainted with the Waodani. Several movies and books tell the story more fully, but my point in telling their story is simply to remind us that Christian discipleship is not a tame or safe thing in terms of this world.
Seeing the Cross and Seeing the Glory
When Jesus took his disciples up the mountain, he was preparing them to see beyond the risks and sacrifices of the moment, to see what they could not lose, to see the preview of the glorious goal that awaits the faithful.
We are mistaken when we sell the gospel as providing all sorts of worldly advantages and comforts. It may do so. But nearly every really committed Christian will at some time in life have to find the courage to face sacrifice and risk and loss for the sake of his or her Christian calling. We need to deal with that upfront.
Jesus did. Notice Jesus’ recruiting strategy, “So you believe that I am the Christ. Don’t put your hand to the plow and then look back. First, sit down and count the cost. Do you understand that believing in me means that you will need to pick up your cross and follow me? Do you understand that believing in me means that you may have no place to lay your head? Do you understand that believing in me may have at some point to give up everything that you have until now held most dear?”
Practical worldly folks tell us that an approach like that won’t sell. But it is exactly the approach that brought Christian faith to the world. People are still hungry for something big enough and bold enough to demand our all.
When we fail to present Christian life as a great and challenging adventure, we lose the people who have the most energy and creativity to offer. They walk away in boredom. In their place we gain those who are simply looking for the spiritual equivalent of a thumb and a blanket.
We are not talking about Christian bungee jumping here. Jesus turned down Satan’s suggestion of show-off adventure. No jumping off the temple and letting the angels catch him. Nor are we saying that everyone has to go to the jungles of Ecuador and face the likelihood of physical martyrdom.
Rather, we are talking about engaging in the real war for human souls. That war is just as real when we are engaging in reaching out to people who are trapped in chemical abuse, in sexual promiscuity, in modern witchcraft, in oppression in the workplace, in the false messages that go out through our entertainment and news media, in the intellectual battles on our university campuses, in the loneliness of a nursing home, and so forth.
There are enough varieties of adventure for Jesus to satisfy anyone. Jesus has a unique story to tell through the lives of each one of us. The point is that we must not settle for less than the adventure to which Jesus calls us.
To find the courage we need for bold living, we need to let the Holy Spirit give us previews of the glory of Jesus.
When that happens, listen to him!
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