Mountain Top View of the Journey

Luke 9:28-36

Transfiguration is a hard piece of scripture to understand. There is a lot going on and much of it seems super natural. Jesus is divine and performed many miracles, but he would defer the power to healed person’s faith. The miracles were quite physical and practical, healings, feedings, exorcisms, calming storms, and walking on water, this miracle was beyond these. Also, Jesus was the subject of this miracle which is very obvious when God says, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” In some ways this does seem straight forward in that it reflects Jesus’ baptism and the Creator God’s claim as the anointed one, his son. Read like this it seems like a great mountain top experience, but why would they keep silent about such an experience?

And there are many other questions and I am fine with accepting the mystery of God, but there must be more to this mountain top experience. The first place to look for more answers is when this occurred, which is highlighted in the beginning of the scripture with the statement “Now about eight days after these sayings,…” well what sayings were they? This must be a clue. Well in the three synoptic Gospels the scene prior is when Jesus asks the important question “Who do you say I am” and Peter answers the Messiah of God. Thus this mountain top experience was not about proclaiming Jesus’ divinity, that was already known to Peter and the Disciples.

This time God is telling Jesus about the journey ahead which Jesus suspected, since the first announcements were part of the sayings prior to this Mountain Experience. So this mountain top experience was not about the beautiful view, but the view of the work to come. I was reminded of a great backpacking trip with my wife in which we climbed four 4,000 foot mountains in three days. There was one mountain that we got to the summit and we enjoyed the view, on our second day, then I noticed the next peek. We were not going to go down completely but I could see all the rocks we would need to pass, and I also knew the way back was not an option. The view was magnificent but I knew there was still a lot to cover for our journey.

This also reminds us of Moses, who knew too well about long journeys. However, Moses was not going to make it to the Promised Land, and Jesus was to open the Promised Land to us all. Moses face shown because he talked with God when he was bringing the laws down to the people, and Jesus shown as he was the “law” with the people (Exodus 34). Yet it was not this mountain top experience we must witness but the cross and resurrection that he was journeying toward.

So when we have a Mountain Top experience of being close to God we must also look forward for to what our journey may include and while it is not a crucifixion we do need to carry our own crosses.