193 The Go-figuration

   (Note: This blog entry is based on the text for “The Go-figuration”, originally shared on February 24, 2022. It was the 193^rd video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.) 

   Jesus was transfigured on a mountain and manifested some of his heavenly glory. Peter and James and John, who he had taken with him, had to go-figure what they had seen. Today, we’re going to do the same.

   I was standing the other day on a road on top of a hill next to a house that was built in the 1950’s with a 360-degree-view rooftop patio. We had several sunrise services there when I served a church in San Dimas. On a clear day, you can see quite far, all around and to downtown LA.

   One day during his public ministry, Jesus took three of his disciples, Peter and James and John, to a mountain top where he was transfigured before them. Moses and Elijah, who had been dead for hundreds of years, representing the Law and the Prophets, appeared with him. He spoke with them about his coming death in Jerusalem.

   The three disciples Jesus took with him couldn’t fathom what they were seeing with their own eyes. Go figure.

   They would have about four months to process what they had seen before Jesus was crucified and then rose from the dead, and even then they couldn’t fathom it. Go figure. 

   It wasn’t until about 50 days from then, on the Day of Pentecost, when they received the Holy Spirit and 3,000 people were saved in a single day, that they did understand it. OK, that figures.

   Here’s what happened on the mountain. It’s also recorded in Matthew and Mark, and there are references in 2 Peter and possibly John, but today we’re going to take a look at Luke 9:28-36, starting with the first two verses,

²⁸ Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. ²⁹ And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white.

   It was eight days after Peter had said for the first time out loud, when Jesus asked him who Peter said that he was, in Luke 9:20: Peter answered, “You are the Messiah of God.” and now Jesus is transfigured into something of his heavenly appearance, and we see Peter terrified in the presence of God. Go figure.

   The traditional site for the Transfiguration is Mt. Tabor, about 9 miles from Nazareth. It’s not much of a mountain, but it stands out on the plain near Nazareth. I climbed it when I was a student on a semester abroad in college and it’s no big deal. I climbed it in the rain, though, and when I got to the top, the Greek Orthodox monastery there was not taking in tourists. So, I climbed down in the rain. I did not have a mountain top experience. Peter and James and John had one, but they didn’t get it. Go figure.

   We continue with Luke 9:30,

 ³⁰ Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. ³¹ They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

   What, was he catching a flight? What departure was he to accomplish? He was to die. He was to take his life back again, and he was to ascend into Heaven. He was going to depart this earth, and his trip was not going to be delayed or canceled. He was talking about it openly with Moses and Elijah. We continue with Luke 9:32,

 ³² Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. ³³ Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah”—not knowing what he said. 

   It’s interesting, isn’t it that Peter and James and John were tired, but since they had stayed awake, they saw Jesus and Moses and Elijah in their glory. But when Jesus told them to stay awake on the Mt. of Olives on the night he was arrested, they fell asleep! Go figure.

   They were awake on the mountain of the Transfiguration, but they were not thinking too clearly. Peter suggested they make everybody comfortable. Luke was not too kind toward the disciple and included the detail, “not knowing what he said”.

   Now it was about to get better, and worse! We continue with Luke 9:34,

³⁴ While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. ³⁵ Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” ³⁶ When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.

   Just like on another mountain, Mt. Sinai, a cloud came and overshadowed them. The disciples were terrified. They knew what it meant. Then a voice came from the cloud, and it was the voice of God!

   And when God had finished speaking they looked again, and Jesus was standing there without Moses and Elijah. “Jesus was found alone.”

   I’ve had mountain-top experiences. Like Mt. Tabor, they don’t have to be huge. They just have to stand out from the plain. They stand out from ordinary life because they allow us to see the bigger picture of things.

   But, like Jesus showed his disciples, we can’t live in those mountain top experiences. At least, not yet. And we can’t really commemorate those events. They are, by definition, singular experiences.

   That is the way it should be, I think.

   I look at the mountains near us and I know why. Nothing grows at the top of the really tall ones. Growth takes place in the valleys, where the fertile soil is.

   Mountain top experiences give us a vision of the big picture and what is to be in the Kingdom of God. Change, transformation and growth happens in the here and now down in what often seem like the valleys of life, the places where God makes things grow.

   Jesus was not just a prophet or a teacher or a moral example. Jesus was God. And Jesus went to Jerusalem to die. Could the message be any clearer?

   And yet, when the events in Jerusalem began to unfold, the disciples acted like nothing had happened on the mountain. Go figure.

   We see the disciples at the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ, and we respond with a lot of “Go-figuration.”

   The Holy Spirit, the streams of living water welling up from within us, finally enlightens us and empowers us to share what we have seen and know.

   In the end, like those seemingly dense, and imperfect, disciples, our “Go-figuration” ends with the commission of Jesus on yet another mountain with just “Go”, as in Matthew 28:16-20.

¹⁶ Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. ¹⁷ When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. ¹⁸ And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”