Biblical Text

You can read Mark 9.2-13 here.

Sermon Video

You can watch the sermon video here.

Sermon Transcript

[Note: The actual sermon will differ somewhat from what I had typed.]

Ever since Jesus mentioned the yeast of the Pharisees, which we looked at two Sundays back, he has been revealing things to his disciples that were new, unprecedented and quite frankly unacceptable to them.

Think about it. Jesus has driven out evil spirits, has healed people of various ailments, has taught with wonderfully picturesque parables, has calmed the unruly sea, has raised a girl who was dead, has healed a woman who was perpetually bleeding, and has even fed thousands of people with barely enough food to feed one adult.

Can you imagine being in that group? Can you imagine what an adventure it must have been? None of them would have known what dilemma they would face on a given day. But they knew that Jesus would find a way through it. Whatever the obstacle, Jesus would overcome it and they would be witnesses of his wonders.

They would have begun to believe that Jesus is the answer in much the same way that we Christians do. Discipleship was easy. All you had to do was follow Jesus as he went about healing and teaching. If there were any opposed to him, he would put them in their place with a witty saying or a penetrating parable.

And then suddenly, “Beware! Watch out!” With those words, Jesus burst the bubble of trite faith that the disciples had, as he exposed them to the detrimental effects of the positions that proposed a safe, comfortable, predictable life of faith.

And Jesus did not stop there! He went on to tell them that the idea of the Messiah that they all had was completely wrong – that he was not going to be an all-conquering king or an all-seeing prophet or an temple-restoring priest, but the victim of a Judeo-Roman conspiracy that would see him nailed to a cross, shamefully exposed to all his mockers.

What a dramatic change! It must have felt as though Jesus had completely knocked the air out of their lungs. But even as they struggled to regain their breath, Jesus continued by saying that even his disciples would have to be ready to lay down their lives. All their dreams of holding positions of authority and being given cabinet seats and prized portfolios in the messianic kingdom would have gone down the drain with this revelation of what on Sunday I called the cruciform life.

Mark picks up his narrative six days later. Why? Since the beginning of chapter 2, we have hardly had a break in activity from Jesus. It has been one whirlwind of healing and teaching. And then after these shocking revelations we have six days of silence. Why this silence in Mark’s narrative? And why does Jesus wait for six days before taking the three disciples up the mountain?

So why does Mark have this silence in his narrative? Was Jesus teaching his disciples the same things during this time and Mark, ever conscious of not wasting space, decides to skip over these repetitions? Surely we cannot think that the disciples remained silent for this long after Jesus had made his alarming disclosures! They would have had questions after hearing such world altering things. So why does Mark not tell us what happened then?

Two reasons. First, as I mentioned, Mark is particular about not making his Gospel longer than it needs to be. If Jesus and the disciples simply discussed the same things, then Mark saw no reason to include it. Second, and more importantly, Jesus waited for six days to pass before taking the three disciples mountain climbing. This six day gap was important to Jesus and Mark shows us this by giving us this six day gap in his narrative.

So why did Jesus wait for six days. The period of six days itself is quite suggestive of the opening chapter of Genesis. We must recall that, according to this opening chapter of Genesis, God created everything in six days. Six days, therefore, is symbolic of a creation cycle. Jesus was, in those six days, creating something new in his disciples. He was planting the seed of a new kingdom in his disciples – a kingdom in which the leader is a servant, a hope in which suffering precedes glory, a perspective in which death is but a doorway to new life.

And once he had created this new world view in his disciples, after six days, that is, on the seventh day, he ventures out with his three disciples to show them the Sabbath rest of glory that awaited him.

While preparing for this message, I asked myself why Jesus took only these three disciples. The traditional answer is that they belonged to a supposed inner circle, closer to Jesus than the other nine were. However, David Guzik, pastor at Calvary Chapel, Santa Barbara, suggests something different – something that I can relate to well. He says that perhaps these three – Peter, James and John – were more likely to get into trouble and Jesus took them to keep a close eye on them.

While there is no way of deciding, this is an intriguing suggestion because it does take into account the impulsiveness that these three demonstrate in the Gospels. Or perhaps these three were the ones most opposed to what Jesus had revealed about his suffering and death and they needed to witness the transfiguration so as to allow them to stay the course.

On that mountaintop, Jesus undergoes some sort of metamorphosis and his appearance changes. His clothes become exceptionally white and begin to dazzle. What was happening here?

Author Warren Wiersbe draws a contrast between metamorphosis – the word used by Mark and translated as ‘transfigured’ – and metaschematizo – the word used by Paul in 2 Corinthians 11 while describing Satan and translated as ‘masquerade’.

Metaschematizo is a pretense, an outward change of appearance that does not reflect any real change on the inside. Metamorphosis, however, is used to refer to the change of a tadpole to a frog or a caterpillar to a butterfly. It is a complete change in which there is barely any similarity between the two forms. It is a change from the inside.

Satan, as a deceiver, and Jesus, at his transfiguration, both have the appearance of light. But while Satan’s light is a sham and a pretense, Jesus’ light is true and from within.

And as a consequence of this change, Jesus’ appearance is metamorphosed and his clothes begin to appear dazzling white. Charles Spurgeon says that the this is not a new miracle, but the suspension of an ongoing miracle. The ongoing miracle was Jesus’ ability to not display his glory, for him to appear merely human. But here that miracle is suspended temporarily and the three disciples get a glimpse of the glory of Jesus.

While I think Spurgeon was correct, I think it is unfortunate because, for the Gospels, Jesus’ crucifixion is the ultimate sign of his glory. The fact that here Jesus has to pull the curtains back to give the disciples a glimpse of what they wanted to see is an indication of their lack of faith. And indeed, those of us who are not convinced that Jesus’ crucifixion is his glory would do well to ask ourselves what faith we possess.

As Jesus was metamorphosed, Elijah and Moses appear to him and begin talking with him. Mark and Matthew paint a very different scene than does Luke. In Luke, the disciples are sleepy and Elijah and Moses talk to Jesus about his death, making it seem that, for Luke, the reason for the transfiguration was to reassure Jesus about his mission.

But in Mark and Matthew, the absence of all these details leads us to a different conclusion. The transfiguration was to reassure the three disciples about Jesus’ mission. The appearance of Elijah, who had not faced death, and Moses, whose body was never found, served two purposes.

First, it revealed to the disciples that Elijah and Moses were very much alive and that therefore God was able to raise Jesus after his death – something that Jesus had predicted. Second, Elijah was the quintessential prophet, and Moses was the one through whom the law was given. Their appearing and talking to Jesus served as the endorsement by the law and the prophets of his mission.

The three Synoptic Gospels have a different perspective on Peter’s response. Matthew simply tells us what Peter says. According to Luke, “He did not know what he was saying.” But Mark tells us, “He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.”

So, according to Mark, Peter spoke out of fear. But what was he afraid of? The clue is in what Peter says to Jesus. His request to put up shelters must be related to his fear. He did not know what to say, but out of his fear, he made the request to put up the shelters. So what was he afraid of that the shelters would ward against?

A shelter, whether temporary or permanent, has a purpose. And the purpose is to keep a person or a group of people at a particular place. To longer one plans to stay at a place, the more permanent the shelter one builds. Hence, nomads did not have even tents because they were constantly on the move. Semi-nomadic people had tents because they would move seasonally. Sedentary people, on the other hand, build more permanent shelters – houses we call them – built of wood or brick or stone and now cement.

Peter suggest building a ‘skaynos’, which is basically a tent, a semi-permanent shelter, one in which a person could live for an extended period of time.

The vision of glory was so alluring, so safe, so comforting, that Peter, responding without reflecting, wanted to remain there. The alternative was to descend the mountain and re-enter the world in which Jesus said he would suffer and be killed.

The mountaintop was better, safer. If they remained at the top of the mountain, the bad things Jesus had predicted would not happen. He would remain in this transcendent state of glory. Nothing would touch Jesus and his disciples. They would be safe. They would be in a state of a perpetual religious high.

Who would not want that? And that is what religion promises. Come, do this, experience that. Have you experienced the second blessing? Have you been baptized by the Spirit? Have you been slain in the Spirit? Do you speak in tongues? Have you been healed? Have you been delivered from this or that evil spirit? Did you go forward at the altar call? Have you surrendered your life to Jesus?

I could go on! the litany of mountaintop experiences is endless. And the call of organized religion is to have a series of mountaintop experiences, one after the other, until one’s life of faith is simply a long list of such experiences.

And we have the examples of, strangely enough, the three persons here – Moses, Elijah and Jesus – all of whom had powerful mountaintop experiences.

There is nothing wrong with wanting such a powerful, exhilarating, transforming experience. What is dangerous is what Peter suggested – staying on the mountain. Moses, Elijah and Jesus did not stay. In fact, their most trying times came after they had descended the mountain.

On that mountain, Peter, James and John witness the intrusion of heaven. The curtain is pulled back, the veil withdrawn, and they see how things really are. And they like it. They want it to last. That is why Peter says what he did. The intrusion of heaven reveals a safe place of ecstasy. But without the hard work of discipleship, without the willingness to lay down one’s life for Jesus and the gospel, this is simply a spiritual drug.

For no sooner had Peter suggested building the shelters than the Father tells him and James and John what they are to do. The words spoken privately to Jesus at his baptism are now repeated for the hearing of the three disciples. “This is my Son, whom I love.” Heaven has intruded into the lives of these disciples in order to convince them of Jesus’ identity and place. He is God’s Son. And he is in the Father’s heart.

But heaven has intruded so as to drive them from the mountain. For the voice continues, “Listen to him.” At the mountain Jesus was silent according to Mark’s account. The mountaintop is a place of delight and ecstasy. But the place of discipleship is in the plain and the valley.

Heaven intrudes into the lives of these three disciples to give them another lesson about discipleship – following Jesus happens in the mundane moments of our lives, not in those special moments that we are told to long for and that we may somehow cherish. Following Jesus happens in the midst of the routine of life and in the midst of life’s challenges. For it is not the special moments that reveal we are following Jesus, but the fact that we are following Jesus that makes the common moments special.