Mark 9:2-9
Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John, and he led them up a high mountain, apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them and his clothes became a dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. And they saw there Moses, with Elijah, talking with Jesus.
Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He didn’t know what to say, for they were terrified. Then a cloud overshadowed them and a voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, the beloved; listen to him!” And when they looked around, they saw no one there except Jesus, himself, alone.
As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them not to tell anyone about what they had seen, until the Son of Man had been raised from the dead.
I’m a sucker for “Before and After” stuff. You know what I’m talking about. A good home makeover on HGTV where someone transforms a goldenrod and avocado-colored kitchen from 1978 into a stainless steel and subway tiled jewel for the 21st Century. Or a weight-loss reel where a poor, pudgy, picked-on high schooler becomes a ripped, muscle-bound college kid in just over a year. Or anytime those “where are they now” things pop up and you can see what child-stars from your favorite old TV shows look like as grown-ups.
But the latest iteration of this “Before and After” fascination had me thinking a bit about Transfiguration Sunday and Jesus’ experience up on that mountain with Peter, James, John – and Moses and Elijah, too. Sadly, thanks to the power of Tik Tok and the proliferation of meth, heroine, and other drugs in our culture, the last few years, these “Befores and Afters” are much harder to look at. They show the damage and destruction these drugs can do in less time than a team of contractors can remodel a kitchen or a teenager can reshape and rebuild his body.
I was going to show you what I’m talking about, but decided against it. It didn’t seem right to exploit that kind of sadness and struggle, just to make my point. So trust me when I say – if you haven’t seen them – these pictures (which are actually a series of an individual’s mugshots, over time) show that in just a few months’ time – or a couple of years, maybe – fresh-faces get covered with open sores; bright eyes become bloodshot and vacant; beautiful smiles become smashed-out window panes; otherwise healthy bodies lose their hair and more weight than seems possible. And all of that, of course, is only what we can see changing on the outside.
And, it may be odd, but the reason this made me think of Jesus – and the Transfiguration moment on that mountaintop we just heard about – is because of the first three words we heard from Mark’s Gospel as part of that story: “Six days later…” “Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John …” “Six days later…”
Even though this amazing, wonderful, miraculous thing happened up there on that mountain for and with those three lucky disciples, it didn’t happen in a vacuum. And if you check out what Jesus was up to six days EARLIER in Mark’s Gospel, it puts it all in a different kind of light.
See, we don’t know what happened in the meantime because that doesn’t seem important to whoever wrote Mark’s gospel. But, six days earlier, Jesus had had some pretty hard, holy conversations with his disciples. We’re told that, six days before today’s mountain-top experience, Jesus “began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.” We’re told that six days earlier, “Peter took [Jesus] aside and began to rebuke him.” We know that Jesus then rebuked Peter and said “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
And we know that six days earlier, Jesus called the crowd with his disciples, and gave them that hard, holy teaching: “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” And he said, “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life?” And so on…
In other words, the you-know-what is about to hit the fan. Jesus and anyone who followed him – really followed him – were about to find themselves in some deep kimchi, as my high school history teacher, Mr. Huovinen liked to say. According to Jesus, this discipleship stuff; this “following me and fishing for people” business can be hard. It isn’t always pretty, or easy, or safe, or for the faint of heart, either.
And it makes me think about this thing we celebrate in the Transfiguration of Our Lord, and the way it might prepare us for the season of Lent that’s on the way – and for life in this world, really.
Because what happened “six days later” – where we find ourselves this morning – is that Jesus revealed himself to his closest friends as the next, and the best, and as the end in a line of the great prophets of their faith, like Moses and Elijah – the ones who showed up next to him on that mountain. What happened was that Jesus revealed himself in some larger-than-life way as the Messiah and as the Son of God and all of it was in preparation for what was coming next.
And, what was coming next for Jesus was even more unbelievable than what happened on that mountain – even with all of those ghosts, talking clouds, and dazzling white laundry. What was going to happen was that Jesus would be crucified. Jesus was about to share a meal with the rest of his disciples; he would be arrested; he would be denied and betrayed by these very same disciples, Peter, James, and John, just to name a few and then he would die a terrible death – whipped, beaten, mocked, spit upon, crowned with thorns, and nailed to a cross.
And all of this was even more unbelievable than what happened on that mountain, really. Why would God suffer? Why would someone who could heal anyone of anything not simply save himself from all of it right from the get-go? And why would Jesus ask the disciples to follow him through all of this only to die and leave them to deal with the emptiness, anger, pain, persecution, and grief that were sure to follow?
I think maybe God did all of that, in Jesus, because God knew that we would know so many people going through it. Or because God knew we would find ourselves going through it, at some point along the way. And we do, do we not – know people suffering and struggling in so many ways? Cancer and cardiac emergencies. Ugly divorces and dangerous relationships. Financial crises; mental health concerns; legal issues; struggles with aging; deep, abiding, grief; relentless addiction; fears, anxieties, and stresses too numerous to name.
So, “six days later,” six days after his hard, holy conversation about his own suffering and struggle, when Jesus orders the disciples not to tell anyone about what had happened on that mountaintop until after the Son of Man had been raised from the dead, I think maybe he wants them – and us – always to see the mountaintop of his Transfiguration, and the one of Easter’s resurrection, too – in connection with the suffering and struggle of our lives in this world. I think he was showing that God is with us in all of it; that God is not afraid of any of it.
I think he might be saying, just wait until you – and they – can see that I’m going through it, too. That we’re in this together. That we’ll all find ourselves coming down from the mountain tops now and again – deep into the valleys of life in this world, more often than we’d like.
Because whether you’re in the throes of a deep, dark addiction, being rocked by a relationship in ruins, or staring death in the face, this is where God does God’s best work – not just in miracles and magic and mountaintop experiences – but by coming down from the mountain, entering into the broken places, and making them whole; by finding what’s lost; by turning shadows into light; despair to hope; sin to forgiveness; by transforming death into new life, even, by a grace that’s hard to believe until you’ve seen it for yourself – which we will – all of us, by the love promised us in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen
