”A mountaintop experience”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Sunday, August 6, 2023
Luke 9:28-36 (Forward, p. 8) CEV p. 1071
It is curious—and somewhat revealing—how our common English expressions can sometimes ‘capture’ happenings that are long rooted in our collective history—the idea of a ‘mountaintop experience’, for instance. Interestingly, though this very phrase appears to have come directly from the Bible, the phenomenon of mountain tops as being regarded as holy places predates this considerably. The Mesopotamians, for instance, constructed their ziggurats as places of worship to artificially replicate high places, and the ancient Mayas did the same. The Canaanites typically worshipped in ‘high places’ and even our own First Nations peoples, for instance, the Blood or Kainai Nation of southern Alberta, revered certain mountains—like Chief Mountain—as being sacred.
So, it is not entirely surprising that we see this pattern being replicated in the Bible, with Mount Sinai, Mount Nebo and Mount Zion in the Hebrew Scriptures, and the Mounts of the Temptation, the Beatitudes, the Transfiguration, the Ascension, and Calvary in the New. Mountains have long been regarded as special spaces, as special places where we can encounter the Divine.
And so, it is with a certain appropriateness that the three disciples, Peter, James and John, have this encounter with the ‘holy’, this glimpse of the divine nature of Jesus. Now, there are several aspects of this particular episode that are well worth noting, lest they escape our notice:
-firstly—of course—is the actual transfigured nature of Jesus, which
would have reminded them of the unearthly glow that Moses
manifested when he descended from Mount Sinai;
-secondly, there is the cloud, reminiscent of the cloud that enfolded
Mount Sinai when Moses met up with God and of the Shekinah
glory of God that enveloped the Temple in Jerusalem;
-and likewise, the instance of the voice from heaven: this too was
something the Hebrew people knew from Sinai. And likewise, this
was quite an otherworldly affirmation of who Jesus was and of His
mission here on earth;
-and then, there are the two heavenly witnesses, Moses and Elijah,
two of the most renowned and revered figures from the Hebrew
Scriptures, symbolizes the Law and the Prophets. Returning to
earth and meeting with Jesus in the flesh, it was as if they were
putting ‘their stamp of approval’ on Jesus’ ministry and the direction
it was taking.
-indeed, there was one little thing that the three of them spoke on,
Jesus ‘exodus’—as it reads in the original Greek—that He would
accomplish in Jerusalem, that would have ‘flown entirely over their
heads’ at that time, but that they would understand more fully later
on. By that one word, certainly the original Exodus from Egypt,
that original act of deliverance, would have been conjured up,
but later, Jesus’ death and ascension as well.
All in all, this experience on the mountain gave those three disciples a powerful insight to the true—and original—nature of Jesus as God. And, it would have solidified their faith in Him, in His words and in His mission. And well, they would have needed all this in the rather tumultuous times ahead. They would have needed such a reminder of this when the goings got tough, as they invariably would. And, so this particular mountaintop experience is a great reminder to us today as well, to keep on keeping on, that is, remaining faithful to Jesus no matter what.
Forward notes: “And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white” (verse 29).
“On this day long ago, Jesus went up the mountain and light erupted, filling the world with glory. On this same day, in 1945, a bomb created by nuclear fission exploded above Hiroshima, Japan, filling the world with death. This will always be a day of light, a day of glory, and a day of shadows. For those of us who trace the promise of God in the shining of Moses’s face, in the shifting shapes of light on the mountaintop, it is a day of solemn remembrance and a day of hope.
“It always seems to me that light is seen most convincingly by the shadows it casts. On Jesus’s day of light, the shadows stretched down the mountain to Jerusalem and the glory of Jesus on the cross. In the light above Hiroshima can be traced the shadow of war, hatred, and destruction—and
hope for a world to be alight by the brightness of God’s goodness. Let this day, now and forever, be filled with more light than shadow. And let our faces, like Moses’s, shine with the light of God.”
Moving Forward: “How can we fix our eyes on the light, not the shadows?”