2 After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone.  There he was transfigured before them.  3 His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them.  4 And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.  5 Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”  6 (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.)  7 Then a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”  8 Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.  9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
- Mark 9:2-9, The New International Version, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House) 1984.

Dear Friends in Christ,

Historians and writers use different terms, but they all mean the same thing.  Whether they call it a "defining moment" or a "critical juncture" or a "watershed event" or something else, what they are trying to express is this:  There are certain events in people’s lives so significant that they can either alter or determine how a person’s life will go from that time on.

Sometimes these "crossroads" (if we can introduce yet another term) come into a person’s life without any choice.  Maybe it’s an illness or a medical condition or a sudden loss or some other such life-altering event over which we have no control.  The only option open to us at those times is, with God’s help, to work on acceptance of the fact that our lives may not continue as we originally envisioned them.

But there are also those crossroads in life where we do have a choice.  Maybe it’s a change of location or a change of vocation or something else which, depending on which path is chosen, will definitely have an impact on our lives and the lives of our families.  Those can often be difficult choices.  Because we know that when we look back on our lives from the perspective of time, things could have gone quite a bit differently had we gone down the other path…

Today we are marking an event in the life of Christ with which I believe most of us are familiar, because we observe yearly.  However, I’m not sure we always see the Transfiguration of Jesus as the crossroads it must have presented to our Lord.  There was choice involved.  And because of the path chosen, we will someday share in the glory on display that memorable night.  Turning to our text, let’s consider

Before we begin working through this text, a little background may be helpful… Jesus’ ministry was drawing to a close.  Soon He would go to Jerusalem for the final time.  He wished to prepare His disciples for what He knew would happen.

One week before, in answer to the Lord’s question "Who do you say I am," Peter came forth with a bold and beautiful confession of faith.  He called Jesus "The Christ" – the Savior, the Messiah.  Jesus wanted His disciples to understand what this really meant, so He talked to them openly for the first time about His impending suffering, death and resurrection.  From how they responded to these future events we know the disciples didn’t comprehend much of what Jesus meant.  Nevertheless, He kept on instructing and preparing them…  with the ultimate teaching tool being His Transfiguration.

After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone.  We know from the Gospels that Peter, James and John formed the "inner circle" of Jesus’ disciples, so it is not unexpected that He chose these three to be with Him.  In Luke’s account of this incident we are given the further information that Jesus "went up the mountain to pray."  Again, nothing unexpected here.  Jesus often spent time in prayer.  But this time something extraordinary took place…

There he was transfigured before them.  His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them.  In other words, Jesus changed.  He was transformed.  Suddenly surrounded by the whiteness and the brightness that belongs to Him as the almighty Son of God.  And if this wasn’t strange enough, something else happened:

And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.  Why these two?  Luke’s Gospel tells us they were talking to Jesus about "His departure, which He was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem."  Perhaps Elijah represents the Prophets and Moses the Law.  Taken together they are symbolic of the entire Old Testament and its testimony to the coming and work of the Messiah.  The completion, or fulfillment, of that work was near…

Understandably, the disciples found themselves caught up in this heavenly convocation.  Although they were all scared silly by what was going on, and in an attempt to perpetuate the moment, Peter makes an unusual (and unnecessary) request:  Peter said to Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here.  Let us put up three shelters – one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah."  (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.)  That fear would only increase…

Then a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud: "This is my Son, whom I love.  Listen to him."  In the Bible a cloud often indicated the presence of God.  For example, we think of Mt. Sinai, or the dedication of Solomon’s temple, or the pillar of cloud that led the Israelites in the wilderness.  Here we have another instance.

Added to this was the voice of God.  Similar words had been spoken at the baptism of Jesus, which marked the beginning of His ministry.  Now they are spoken again as Jesus enters its final phase.  We can only surmise that originally the voice of God was for the sake of the three disciples.  But certainly the important information given to them is for all people at all times:  "Listen to Him."

Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.  In other words, it ended as quickly as it began.  As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.  There would come a time when the disciples would share this with others, but not just yet.  Jesus told them to wait until after the resurrection, when this and everything else would fall into place for them…

So far the text.  Let’s now consider what this event meant for Jesus Christ.  Remember the timing.  This was a transitional point.  Jesus was entering the final phase of His redemptive work.  In theological terms, we talk about the work Christ did to save us as falling into two categories.  We speak of His "active obedience" being the fact that Jesus actively carried out every command of God.  God tells us to be perfect and keep His commandments perfectly.  We cannot do this, because we are sinners.  But what we cannot do, Jesus did for us as our substitute.

We then speak of Jesus’ "passive obedience," meaning that part of His work as our Savior that He let happen to Him.  A just and righteous God has proclaimed in His Word that man’s sin and disobedience cannot go unpunished, and that the wages of sin is death.  Jesus, again as mankind’s substitute, willingly took that punishment and death upon Himself.  This meant the cross.  And that was what Jesus knew still lay ahead of Him at this point.

As true man, He was not looking forward to His passion any more than we would.  Recall the soulful time He would shortly spend in the Garden of Gethsemane.  As true man, Jesus was at a critical juncture in His ministry.  This was a defining moment.  There was a choice involved.  Christ was at a crossroads.  One path led to self-preservation; the other led to the cross.

It’s important for us to realize this choice, because unless we do, we can never fully understand the depth of Jesus’ love for each of us.  Jesus was not a robot.  He was not some kind of heavenly machine mechanically programmed to unemotionally and painlessly go through the final steps needed to save mankind.  No, Jesus was and is true man.  And He was in need of encouragement.

Consequently, the conversation with Moses and Elijah, the reassuring voice of His Father, and the taste of the glory which He had voluntarily given up but which He would once again assume after the passion – all served to strengthen Him for the road ahead.  Because the road would be difficult.

How about the disciples?  What did this event mean for them?  For them this was also a defining moment.  First of all, it was further proof that Jesus was indeed "the Christ." It also provided them with strength and encouragement for the journey ahead of them as pillars of the early church.  We know the Transfiguration had a profound influence on Peter; he speaks of it in his second letter.  John alludes to this event both in the Gospel that bears his name as well as his first letter.  As for James – he was the first of the Twelve disciples to die for the cause of Christ; which made him the first to enter the glory he had a foretaste of on that mountain…

What the Transfiguration did for these disciples was to motivate them and encourage them in continued service and perseverance.  They knew what they had seen.  They knew they would someday share in that glory.  They knew what had been momentary on that mountain would someday be theirs eternally.  And that knowledge made a difference in their lives.

It does in ours, too, when we take the time to think of it.  One of our Lenten hymns talks about key events in Jesus’ last days, beginning each verse with the question, "Were You There?"  The answer for the Christian is, yes we were there.  Through the eyes of faith, we were there.  So we can say that through the eyes of faith and the revelation of God we were there on that Mountain, just like the disciples.  And the Transfiguration likewise strengthens us in our knowledge that Jesus is no ordinary man, but "the Christ" – our Savior and our Redeemer.

That knowledge confirmed in the Transfiguration then triggers a transformation in us. Listen to the words of 1 John 3:1-3:  "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God!  And that is what we are!  The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.  Dear friends, now we are children of God and what we will be has not yet been made known.  But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.  Everyone who has hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure."

Because we know what we will be, we want to purify ourselves now.  Because we know what lies ahead in the future, we have the desire to live for our Lord in the present.  And because we know what eternally awaits us, we can also endure that which temporarily besets us…

Some of us may remember a popular song of a few years back which surveyed life, came to the pessimistic conclusion that it isn’t all that great, and then repeatedly asks in a lilting refrain, "Is that all there is?"  It’s a rather pessimistic outlook.  Is there nothing more to life than simply depleting a lifetime’s worth of oxygen and then, after an unsatisfying existence, dying.  No.  There is eternity that awaits us. 

Are there going to be hardships and disappointments in life?  Certainly.  But that’s not all there is.  The Apostle Paul put it this way:  "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us."  In other words, the present – as good or as bad as that may be – doesn’t compare with the future.  And the Transfiguration gives us a glimpse of that future…

The American evangelist Dwight L. Moody told the story about a Christian woman who was always bright, cheerful and optimistic, even though she was confined to her room because of her illness.  She lived in an attic apartment on the fifth floor of an old, rundown building.  A friend decided to visit her one day and brought along another woman – a person of great wealth.  Since there was no elevator, the two ladies began the long climb upward.  When they reached the second floor, the well-to-do woman commented, "What a dark and filthy place!"  Her friend replied, "It’s better higher up."

When they arrived at the third landing, the remark was made:  "Things look even worse here."  Again the reply:  "It’s better higher up."  Finally they reached the attic level, where they found the bedridden saint of God.  A smile on her face radiated the joy that filled her heart.

Although the room was clean and flowers were on the windowsill, the wealthy visitor could not contain herself about the stark surroundings and blurted out:  "It must be very difficult for you to be here like this!"  Without a moment’s hesitation the shut-in responded:  "It will be better higher up."  She was not looking at temporal things.  With the eyes of faith fixed on the eternal, she had found the secret of true satisfaction and contentment.  She had been transformed because of what she knew was yet to come…

That’s what the Transfiguration does for us.  It provides us with strength and motivation for life and service now because of what we know will be…  In the Transfiguration of Christ we are given a glimpse of the glory, the company, and the essence of what it’s like "higher up."

So, it really is a significant event, isn’t it?  Like it was for Jesus and His disciples, we might consider it a defining moment for us.  It defines that which will someday be ours eternally.

Therefore, may the essential message of the Transfiguration – Christ is God; He is our Savior and Redeemer; through His choice heaven awaits us – serve to strengthen and comfort and motivate us to live for our Lord until we fully taste the glory that will be ours.  Amen.