Listen to Jesus| Mark 9:2-9
Mark 9:2-9
Listen to Jesus
I have heard it said that science teachers never tire of the moment when students first look into a microscope. Anybody remember the first time you looked into one? I will admit I had a little trouble getting the cover slip on there just right and the slide under the clamps and all (because I’m not a scientist)….but once I did, wow!
It really is something else. It will change your life. What before had just been a little speck of dust or drop of water out of a pond, is teeming with life, with movement and color and all kinds of interesting patterns. One look gives you the sense that there is a lot more going on around us than we just see on the surface of things.
And of course, what is true of microscopes is equally true of telescopes. Actually, you don’t even have to have a telescope to look up above us and see how wonderful the universe is. Anyone who bothers to take the time and look up, especially with a telescope is going to be amazed.
As Immanuel Kant has said, “Two things fill me with awe,” and one of them is the starry sky above us.
There are a lot of things in this world that enable us to see things in a deeper and fuller way. For example, when a truly gifted Shakespearean actor walks onto a stage and with one line takes your breath away and puts you in touch with a deep part of yourself you never knew existed.
In our text today, we have a description of an event that points beyond this world and to a whole new level of discovery.
The one thing that really stands out is that Jesus is transfigured, not transformed. There is a big difference. To be transformed is to become something you are not. Transformation comes from the power of the Holy Spirit and the grace of Jesus Christ. We are being transformed, as Paul says, “by the renewing of our mind.” We are being transformed from rebels and those opposed to doing God’s will to the children of God and those who seek to do God’s will. We are being transformed by the grace of God.
Jesus was transfigured. Jesus didn’t change. Jesus didn’t need to change, but the disciples could see him for who he truly is.
Let’s look at verse 2 again: Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them,
Those first 3 words are kind of important. “Six days later.” Some versions of the Bible translate that phrase, “one week later.” I don’t know about you, but I can’t hear that or read that and not think, “Six days after what?” “One week after what?” If we back up one chapter we can see what happened one week earlier.
Jesus and the disciples had left Capernaum as we saw last week. They had those huge crowds, the whole city was gathered around the door of the house where they were staying, but, after Jesus went to a deserted place to pray, they went on to other towns. They healed the sick and drove out demons. They fed the multitude, they preached the message of God’s kingdom, and then, while they were on their way to Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asked them, “who are people saying that I am?” They were hearing lots of good things. “Some say you are John the Baptist, or one of the prophets, or Elijah.” Not bad company to be in if you are in the Kingdom of God business. Pretty high marks.
Then he asked them, “who do you say that I am?” Before anyone else can answer or maybe even come up with an answer, Simon Peter blurts out, “you are the Christ!” Jesus tells Peter, “you’re right.” He goes on to tell them that his being the Christ wouldn’t mean what many of them thought it would mean. It wouldn’t mean he would live in a royal palace. It didn’t mean he would have a cabinet filled with governors and mayors and legislators. It didn’t mean he would lead an army and ride a white horse. It didn’t mean he would wear an earthly crown.
What it did mean for him to be the Christ was that he would be rejected by the teachers of the law and earthly rulers and, that he would be killed and raised again.
Simon heard all that. He liked the part about Jesus being the Christ, but he thought maybe Jesus had slid off the rails a little bit about what all that would mean and so he tried to get him back on track and to tell him nothing like that could happen to him because if for no other reason they wouldn’t let it happen.
Jesus then told Simon he didn’t know what he was talking about.
It was six days after that the things in our text today took place.
Jesus was transfigured before them. They saw things they would have never imagined seeing. Talk about a whole new microscope or telescope.
First, Jesus’ clothes were dazzling white, brighter than any dry cleaner or laundromat in all Israel could bleach them. Then there was the cloud and the appearance of Moses and Elijah who began talking with Jesus.
Don’t you wish we knew what they talked about? We have no idea. Was it like a clergy meeting where some preachers talk about their church members who give them the biggest headache or how to best track visitors and get them to return to church a second time?
We don’t know what they talked about there are lots of other things we don’t know about the things that took place that day, but we do know that good old Simon Peter continued to be Simon Peter, and I love him for it. Sometimes Simon Peter gives me a little glimmer of hope for my own walk with the Lord. He is as big a knucklehead as I can be sometimes.
Like the others up there, Simon Peter was terrified by what he saw. Moses and Elijah had been dead a few hundred years, it would terrify anybody. He didn’t know what to do or what to say, but that didn’t stop him from saying the first words that came into his head. He saw Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus, and he blurted out, “isn’t it great that we are up here? I’ll build some nice shelters. One for Moses, one for Elijah and one for Jesus. I know I’m a fisherman and not a carpenter, but we’ll get a contractor up here, we will get this thing going, it will be great.”
Maybe Simon wanted to keep that experience going. As terrifying as it was maybe he didn’t want it to end. It would be kind of amazing to hang out with the great Moses and Elijah up on the mountain top. Others, like N.T. Wright, have suggested, maybe what Simon Peter had in mind was the launching of a new religious festival like some of the other great religious festivals of Israel. That would kind of make sense, but it turns out there was something more going on than another religious festival could capture.
We don’t know what Moses, Elijah and Jesus talked about up there, but we know why they were there. We know that they connected Jesus back to all the hopes of all Israel. Moses, the great law giver was there to recognize Jesus as the One who fulfills the law. Elijah was there to confirm Jesus was walking in his footsteps as the one who cared for the widow and the orphan, the one whose presence marks the earthly return of the Messiah, which is why at every Passover there is a seat for Elijah.
Then there is the voice from the cloud that doesn’t say,” Let’s build some new shrines or establish a new festival.” The voice from the cloud says, “This is my Son, listen to him.”
We can laugh at Simon Peter and his impulsiveness and brashness. But he was up on the mountain. He was with Jesus. He did see Moses and Elijah and Jesus talking. He did see the cloud and he wanted to do something about it and you can’t fault him for that. Or, at least I can’t.
You might never guess by looking at me today, but at one time I was a bit of a religious maverick, an ecclesiastical rebel.
To cite one example, I got in trouble once with the administration at the seminary I attended. I asked permission to use one of the classrooms at our school for our Bread for the World meetings. Bread for the World is a Christian organization. It is bi-partisan and exists to encourage legislators to pass laws that will help feed hungry people, from domestic food stamp programs to international relief efforts. I am still a member, but my initial request to use a classroom in my seminary was denied. I just happened to mention that I was denied the use of one of our classrooms to a former professor who knew people in administration at my seminary and that professor who is a world renown scholar, flew into those administrators like a mother hen. Suddenly my access to one of the classroom was granted, but only after they made sure I knew I was in “trouble.”
That was a long time ago, since that time, I have become more of an ecclesiastical establishment kind of figure. I have served on the Board of Ordained Ministry and various conference committees and currently serve on the District Council on Ministries committee which means we interview people who are becoming pastors which means if we are not careful or not sensitive to God’s Spirit, we can do the kind of thing Simon Peter was tempted to do up on the Mount of Transfiguration. We can build structures we require people to conform to and live in, and try to control things in the church more than we should. Sometimes even the leaders of local congregations can try to control things more than we should.
One of the surest ways you can know that might be happening is when you hear the words “my church” a lot. When you hear it said, “I need to make sure ‘my church’ does this, or ‘my church’ does that…” The last time I checked the church isn’t my church or your church. The church belongs to the One who tells us to listen to Jesus. The church belongs to the One who enables us to hear and see things we could never hear on our own. The church belongs to the One who never tires of providing us with the opportunity to make new discoveries. The church belongs to the One whose voice from the cloud tells us to listen to Jesus.