Woodlawn Evangelical Lutheran Church           

Mark 9:2-9 – 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. His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.

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.) Then a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: "This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!" Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus. 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.

 Introduction – The days are getting longer. The sun is rising sooner each morning; setting later at night. For people who have what is called SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder), I would think there would be a hopeful optimistic feeling in their hearts. Although we are in many ways still in the throes of winter, we are over the hump. We no longer have to look past the darkest days of winter to see spring on the horizon. We have endured those days and come through to the other side.

            Did you ever have one of those mornings where you drowsily stumble out of bed, afraid that you might very easily stub your toe or knock your head, because only about 10 percent of you is really awake? You manage somehow to keep your footing as you walk out of your bedroom, into the bathroom, where the shower hopefully gets you to at least 80 percent awake. You dress and then maybe, if you haven’t already, you look out the window to see what the day is like. A peak out the window reveals a deep blue canvass without a single white splotch and even though you aren’t there outside you can tell that the radiant sunlight is melting away the cold and dark night. And just the sight of it brings joy and hope to your heart and you say to yourself, “Okay, I’m ready for another day!” You pull open the curtains and let the sun shine in.

            That is what we are doing today. We are bathing in the warmth of the Son. We are enjoying the light and the radiant heat after a long, cold, darkness. The Son, though, is the Son of God. The warmth is his love and forgiveness. The light shows us that we have been rescued, freed from prison, sickness, and death.

 Open Up the Curtains and Let the Son Shine In!

I. The Son shine gives peace to the restless soul

II. The Son shine gives strength to the weary traveler

            I. The Son shine gives peace to the restless soul

            They were words that would make anyone restless: “the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law . . . he must be killed and after three days rise again.” (Mk 8:31) Those words were probably still fresh in their minds when Jesus took three of his disciples – Peter, and the sons of Zebedee (James and John) – with him up on a mountain. Why those three? We’re not sure. Those same three had entered a house where Jesus raised a dead girl to life. Those same three would follow Jesus to his place of prayer on the night of his betrayal and sleep while he poured out his soul to our heavenly Father. They were the ones Jesus chose for these special occasions.

            Jesus’ forecast of his own death had torn Peter apart. "Never, Lord!" he said. "This shall never happen to you!" (Mt 16:22) Jesus called Peter “Satan” for saying such a thing, reminding Peter that he did not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men. I think that restless is a good word to describe someone who knows that a terrible event is about to happen. Anxious would be another. Fearful, uncertain.

            So they go up the mountain and there something happens that no one could have imagined. Peter, James, and John had seen Jesus perform incredible miracles of healing. It wasn’t just special effects. Dead people walked; blind people saw; skin disease was cleared up in an instant. They had seen Jesus turn off the force of nature. As though he had a remote control, he stopped angry winds and overwhelming waves. They had seen Jesus take a boy’s picnic lunch and feed a crowd that was large enough to fill a small stadium.

            But this. . . Who is this? When Jesus asked his disciples what people were saying about him, Peter boldly confessed his evaluation of Jesus: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." He believed it. He confessed it. He has seen the evidence of it. Now they got to see it for real as the curtains are pulled open and the Son shines. Blazing white. One gospel writer says, “His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.” (Mt 17:2) Another says, “his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning.” (Lk 9:29) Mark writes, “His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them.” (v. 3) You get the point. So white that your eyes probably hurt and you have to look away even though you want to stare in amazement. Did you ever stare at the sun? Well, don’t, because it’s bad for your eyes. But you can think of that when you think of what happened.

            The word that we translate “transfigured” is related to the word metamorphosis. He really morphed before their eyes. It wasn’t just that he looked different, he was different. Jesus is both God and man at all times and we can’t artificially separate him. But they were used to seeing Jesus in his humility, his nature as true God for the most part covered up. But Jesus seems to have wanted these three to gaze more deeply into who he really was and why he was really there. Jesus wanted to give these restless souls peace as they approached the end of their three years of schooling with him, their Rabbi, their teacher.

             Like Peter, James, and John we may be restless when the future we want is not necessarily the future God has in store for us. “Let’s build shelters for these great heroes of faith!” Peter said. It seems as though he wanted this moment to last longer than it did. But they weren’t going to stay on the mountain. They were going to continue on because Jesus had work to do and his disciples were going to follow. One thing we will never be able to do is stop time. We might like to capture a moment of our lives and enjoy it to the fullest, but that moment always passes even though we might capture it in a still photograph.

            When you face the future, God calls you to bring your restless life to him. Your sins that you never seem to be able to shake may make you restless about the future. Your concern for your family may make you restless about the future. Your uncertainty about your own career and health may make you restless about the future. Your uncertainty about our community and our nation may make you restless about the future.

            Some aspects of the future are certain: like Peter, James, and John, we will face temptations and we will sin, we will be in conflict with those who would lead us away from our Savior, our faith in God will be tested, it will be a challenge to live in this world of sin, having already seen the glory of our Savior. These things are certain. But there are other things that are also certain. In every restless moment, there is Christ our Savior with his love. There is the one who did not love his own life so much that he was not willing to give it up for you. There is the one who gives peace when all peace seems gone, peace through his death and resurrection, in which we have forgiveness and eternal life.

            John was there on that mountain. Remember what he says in the first chapter of his Gospel: “We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14) Through the gift of the Holy Spirit, the gift of faith, we have also seen the glory of Jesus Christ our Savior, God’s only Son, and when our souls that are often restless about the future see him, we have peace.

            II. The Son shine gives strength to the weary traveler

            We need the peace of Christ to live inside of us through faith. We need to be assured of that forgiveness every day of our lives. And that peace gives us strength to continue on. People often say that “Knowledge is power”. As Christians we can understand that correctly when we understand the knowledge of the Word is used by the Holy Spirit to create and strengthen faith.

            The disciples of Jesus were already familiar with the heritage of what we call the Old Testament. They had that knowledge of God’s revealed truth. And the knowledge they gained when Jesus was changed before their very eyes added strength to their faith. In addition to actually seeing Jesus reveal his shining glory, they had the testimony of two Old Testament disciples and apostles of God, Moses and Elijah. They appeared there on that mountain and talked with Jesus. How exactly this happened, we don’t know. But we take the words as they are, that those men truly were standing there with Jesus and in a miraculous way, easily recognizable by Peter, who was living centuries after these men walked the earth.

            In the gospel of Luke, we are told that that, “They spoke about [Jesus’] departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem.” This was further proof to Peter, James, and John that Jesus was the Messiah, the chosen Savior.

            And if those two pieces of information weren’t enough – Jesus’ glorified body and the appearance and conversation with Moses and Elijah – the cloud enveloped them and the voice of God spoke, “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!” God had guided the people of Israel with a pillar of cloud by day when they left their slavery. (Exodus 13:21) God had filled the temple in Jerusalem when it the Ark of the Covenant was brought there after being built in the days of King Solomon. (1 Kings 8:10) God often used the cloud to show his gracious presence among his people.

            And what more gracious words could there have been to offer strength for the weary traveler. “This is my Son!” That is knowledge from a reliable source that gives the greatest power in the entire universe. Knowing Jesus the only Son of God gives strength to overcome every adversity of life. And was there a hidden rebuke in that testimony of God in heaven? “Listen to him!” Did the disciples really hear clearly what Jesus had told them? They were upset about Jesus revealing that he was going to suffer and die. They were probably wary and cautious about the fact that they were going to have to carry their cross if they were going to follow Jesus and they would have to lose their lives if they were going to save them.

            But there were unbelievable promises that Jesus gave them that God the Father wanted them to listen to. Jesus said that after being killed he would rise again. Jesus said that some would not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power. Would be saviors had suffered and died before; that was nothing new. But none had ever risen from the dead. None had established the long awaited kingdom of power.

            Strength for the weary traveler comes from God’s sure and certain promises. The promises of Jesus were renewed and reinvigorated by the testimony of Moses and Elijah, of God himself, when Jesus was glorified in front of Peter, James, and John on that mountain. All was in God’s hands.

            But still, how often, like Peter, James, and John, do we know and not really understand. How often do we know and still have fears and doubts. Even though God reveals himself to us in simple words, his power and his majesty are so above our understanding.

            Strength is what we need when we are weary. The strength of God’s promises again and again and again, because we become so weak so fast. We need to digest God’s promises for strength for our soul, just like we need to digest good food for strength for our body.

            We can easily become malnourished if all we take in is the advice of experts on the economy, on our health, on our psychology. Without the foundation of Jesus and his promises, these things become cotton candy for our hungry souls that need more.

            Jesus has been changed in your presence by the power of the Holy Spirit. You don’t see him as another Mahatma Ghandi or Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. or even another Dr. Martin Luther. You see him as he truly is, the Son of God who came to offer his life as a ransom for your life. The Son of God who came to suffer God’s punishment so that you do not have to suffer God’s punishment. The Son of God who came to bring you eternal life where there was only eternal death. The Son of God who came to give strength to you when you are a weary traveler, because you do not have the strength to do as God requires of you.

Peter was there on that mountain. Remember what he says in his second letter to Christians: “We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain”. (2 Peter 1:16-18)

 Conclusion – Peter wanted to stay there on the mountain with Moses, Elijah, and Jesus. But that was not to be. It was just a peek into the true nature of Jesus, Son of Man and Son of God. They had to go back down the mountain and face what was yet to come. And the three who were there with Jesus weren’t supposed to tell anyone what had happened until after Jesus rose from the dead. Not even the other disciples? Maybe not.

But we are thankful that we can see Jesus on the mountain with Moses and Elijah.encouragement to come to Lenten service and walk with these three men. And we can walk with Jesus and his disciples to Jerusalem to see his betrayal, death, and resurrection. We follow his steps again, starting on Wednesday. 3:!5 and 6:30, we meditate on the purpose of our Savior’s coming. His purpose in coming was so that we would have God’s forgiveness and eternal life. Come walk with Peter, James, and John during this season of Lent. Walk with Jesus this season of Lent. See the great love your Savior has for you. Amen.