"Listen to Jesus"

 

"While he (Peter) was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, 'This is my son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him.' "

            The transfiguration of Jesus was a very important marker in his life and in the lives of his disciples. The text indicates it was for their benefit. It says that Jesus took Peter and James and John; he led them up a high mountain; he was transfigured before them; and there appeared before them Moses and Elijah. From his baptism to this point Jesus has been making himself known to the world. The disciples finally are grasping his identity as the Christ, the son of the living God. Many people are drawn to him because of his healing ministry, his teachings and his Kingdom work. Now a voice repeats what was said at his baptism: "This is my Son, whom I love. With him I am well pleased."

            The disciples hear now this additional word, "Listen to him." Why are they now told to listen to him, after they have been listening to him for three years? Glen Wiberg says in a sermon on this passage, "Listen to him saying you must deny yourselves and take up your cross and follow him. Listen to him telling about the glory to come." The disciples need to listen to Jesus now, because from this point the life of Jesus takes a very different turn. He now moves to the cross. So the disciples need to be reminded of his identity, because the cross might cause them to question if Jesus is truly the Son of God. Now they need to listen to him, because now it is going to be hard for them to hear his words, and to grasp his mission, and to let him go on the way he must. We who know well the story of the cross and resurrection, and have been to many Easter worship services, may have a difficult time grasping just how hard it was for his disciples to hear the words of Jesus concerning his death and the cross.

            So this is an important event, as Jesus turns from manifesting himself to the world; to a journey to Jerusalem, to the cross. The transfiguration is a unique event; we don’t know quite what to make of it. Jesus was on the mountain with a few disciples and then his face was shining and his clothing turned bright like the sun. Then a cloud carrying the voice of God, and the appearance of Moses and Elijah with Jesus. R.T. France writes, "In the experience of the disciples, heaven has invaded earth and the glory of the Messiah has been revealed." Marva Dawn says that this is a meeting with the living God, on a mountain where "all heaven broke loose."

It is for us a strange event; it feels very "religious" in the sense of religious visions and miracles that people report concerning shrouds or bleeding statues or faces seen in potato chips. Some people are attracted to these types of events and long for them. Others are skeptical, feeling about the Transfiguration the way they do about reports of UFO’s or extraterrestrial beings. They might say, "These experiences are not part of my faith, which is practical and churchly. What emotion I experience comes from the liturgy, not from angelic visions."

Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote a poem, actually about Moses at the burning bush, but it applies here. Wiberg quotes it,

"Earth’s crammed with heaven,

And every common bush afire with God;

But only he who sees, takes off his shoes

The rest sit round it and pick blackberries."

So there are some who would long for such an experience, to see a bright cloud, to hear a voice from heaven. Others like to keep their religion safely bound in the church. Peter seems to be both. At first he is quite excited and glad to be there. "It is good that I am here! I can help!" He is ready to be the hero of the day, ready to put some leafy branches together and provide the honored guests some shade from the direct mountaintop sun.

            But the voice from the cloud cuts Peter off before he has time to act. "This is my son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!" Then Peter and the others are terrified. This is too much of God. They fall on their faces trembling.

Then comes the part I like best. Jesus comes over to them and touches them, and says, "Don't be afraid." You do not have to live in high mystical experience all the time. He grounds them. He brings them back to the ordinary. This is where they will live and listen to him. The presence of Christ is not limited to the mountaintop or the campfire. Christ grounds us in the ordinary, he shares our classroom, our workbench, our office and home and even our pew.

            The second half of the account is the walk down the mountain. We do not hear them talking about the voice or the cloud or the bright clothing. They talk rather about Elijah. France tells us that in the popular expectation of the time, and among the scribes, Elijah was expected to come to earth just before the Day of the Lord. (Malachi 4:5-6: "See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes.") So Moses and Elijah symbolize the coming of the Messianic age, and when the disciples see Jesus talking to them, they know once more that he is the Messiah.

            As they speak of Elijah, Jesus connects Elijah with John the Baptist. He was here, and yet the scribes, who waited for him, did not recognize him. John was brutally killed, and Jesus carries the weight of that action with him; he too will die at the hands of violent men. We are not told how the disciples responded to this conversation coming off the mountain. But in the very next section, Jesus once again says he will soon die and be raised to life. In verse 23 it says "they were filled with grief." I don’t think they could even hear the part about being raised to life.

            The disciples need to listen to Jesus. It would be hard for them to hear, but in difficult or fearful times you need to listen to Jesus. Walking down the hill, not knowing or understanding just what they would soon face, they needed to listen to Jesus. They needed to know that the cross was God's chosen way for their salvation. They needed to know that the resurrection awaited, though for a time it was hidden from sight in the shadow of the cross.

            To be prepared for the cross, the disciples needed to know who Jesus was, that he was the son of God, the long-awaited Messiah. Peter, sometime later caught in fear and denial, still knew who Jesus was.

            Listen to Jesus.

            On the way down the mountain.

            On the way to the Cross.

            When you are walking down the mountain, you need to listen to Jesus. We are moving through a hard time in our nation's and the world's economy. We do not know what lies ahead. We are beginning to feel its effect. What will happen? How will we find our way through? Now is the time to listen to Jesus. Now is the time to feel his gentle touch. "Don’t be afraid."

            Listen to Jesus. Jesus, who knew John, carried the weight of his death, knowing that he would be treated in the same brutal way. Yet as he came down off the mountain, he did not flee or hide. He walked to Jerusalem. He is the one who from the Mount of Transfiguration, from the experience of the glory of God, walked into Jerusalem and gave his life, bearing the weight of our sins. He is the one who on the cross won the victory over sin and death. He is the one who rose again on the third day.

           Listen to Jesus. He is able to guide you. He is able to save.

           Amen.