The Last Sunday of Epiphany
February 22, 2009
St. Andrew’s Anglican Church
The Rev. M. Anthony Seel, Jr.
Mark 9:2-9
“Listen to Him”
“No one has the right to an activity that can cause so much suffering and pain to others just so they can do something fun.”
Those are the words of Karl Purnell who lost his 28 year-old son Chris to an avalanche when Chris was ice-climbing in Canada. You can hear and maybe even feel the anguish of a father at the loss of his son.
Chris Purnell has been described as “an obsessive climber,” and Karl his father became “obsessed with finding out just who Chris was, to know his secrets and why he chose to climb.” The 65 year-old writer, playwright and former journalist developed his own climbing skills and visited some of his son’s favorite places – Yosemite, the French Alps, and finally the Himalayas.
[Amazon.com book reviews, A Mountain Too Far]
75% of all mountain climbers are injured during climbing and 20% of American climbers end up in a hospital. Karl Purnell was enjoying a rainy New Year’s Day in his study in Mifflinburg, Pennsylvania when he received a phone call from his ex-wife informing him of Chris’ tragic death. It was in his quest to understand his son that Karl discovered the “awesome and terrible beauty of mountains” (New Horizon Press).
There are about 500 references to mountains and hills in the Bible. According to the Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, “mountains are sometimes a symbol of refuge and security and sometimes a threatening place of military strength” (p. 572). Sometimes, mountains are places of significant religious encounters, like what happened on the high mountain of transfiguration in the Gospel of Mark.
While there are a number of sites suggested for the transfiguration, with a 9100 feet peak, Mount Hermon best fits the description of a high mountain near Caesarea Philippi where Jesus last met with His disciples. Six days after Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, Jesus leads Peter, James and John up a high mountain. Before these three, Jesus is transfigured and His clothes become dazzling white.
The Greek word for transfiguration is metamorphuomai and it is used four times in the New Testament. It is used in verse two of our gospel lesson, in the parallel passage in Matthew 17:2, in Romans 12:2, and 2 Corinthians 3:18. The transfiguration is included in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke and is alluded to in our second lesson from 2 Peter. The transfiguration is understood in the New Testament as an unveiling of Jesus’ divine glory.
The six days prior to the transfiguration mirror the six days that the glory of God covered Mount Sinai in a cloud prior to Moses going up the mountain to receive the law from God. Exodus 34 tells us that after Moses came down from Mount Sinai a second time, “the skin of his face shone because he had been talking to God” (v. 29). The radiance of Moses face terrified the Israelites, including his brother Aaron, so much so that “they were afraid to come near him” (v. 30).
The glory of Moses face was reflected glory. It was divine glory manifested to Him. Jesus’ glory was not reflected glory – it belonged to Him as the divine Son of God and it terrified Peter, James and John.
Moses and Elijah appear with Jesus on the holy mountain and this further terrifies the three disciples. Peter is so overcome by this mountain top experience that he blurts out, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah." Mark explains that Peter didn’t know what to say following these sights. Peter, James and John see Jesus transfigured and then the appearance of Moses and Elijah. Sometimes it’s best just to remain silent.
As if a transfiguration and a supernatural experience with Moses and Elijah are not enough, a voice from heaven declares, "This is my beloved Son; listen to him." This time the voice is speaking to Peter, James and John. The voice says listen to Jesus.
Pull out your Bible or the Pew Bible and turn to Mark, chapter eight. We’ll begin at verse 31. Prior to climbing the high mountain, Jesus had spoken to all the disciples. “And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.”
Peter wouldn’t listen to this – “And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “
Jesus had a strong reply for Peter - But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man."
After Jesus strongly rebukes Peter He calls to the assembled crowd and His disciples to offer another difficult teaching – “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels." [Mark 8:34-38]
These are hard words, but they are also true words, the way of true life.
In 1972 a book was published that has since become a modern-day classic among those who study the church. Dean Kelley’s Why Conservative Are Growing was written about high-demand churches. As Mark Galli, managing editor of Christianity Today magazine reports,
“Sociologists of religion note that high-demand churches – usually
evangelical and charismatic churches – are attracting more and more
people, and that low-demand churches are losing members” (p. 132,
Jesus, Mean and Wild).
Isn’t it possible and even likely that the reason high-demand churches grow is because they are more faithful to the high-demands of Jesus? Jesus had high expectations for all of God’s children, but that’s not the whole story. As Galli comments in his book, Jesus, Mean and Wild,
We look at the top of the spiritual Everest that Jesus expects us
to climb, and our hearts sink. We didn’t bring the right boots.
We don’t have enough water, nor a single oxygen tank, nor ice
picks, nor climbing rope. We have no idea how to scale steep,
icy slopes. And we’re so out of shape, we can barely walk
back and forth from the campfire to our tent. [p. 136]
Climbing mountains with Jesus is hard work. It’s an arduous journey. But Jesus goes before us, He leads us, He goes with us, and He gives us His power for the difficult pilgrimage. Galli comments further on this, saying,
This mountain-climbing image, however, gets at only part of
what’s going on. For Jesus’s demands are made not simply to
get us to a holy destination or to make us better people. In the
end, all these high demands are about love. [p. 137]
Karl Purnell had a heart full of anger about his son’s death. He was angry at the whole idea of mountain climbing. Yet, he learned how to do it, he strapped on the equipment and he did it himself. He did his own mountain climbing in order to better understand his deceased son. He went to all this trouble because he loved his son.
Mark Galli makes a personal observation as he grapples with this mountain climbing metaphor. Galli writes,
At various times in our marriage, my wife and I have had to do
the difficult, demanding, and scary work of deepening our
intimacy. There are times when we realized we’d reached a
plateau, and we could either coast to retirement and death at
that level or we could decide to go deeper. So far, we’ve always decided to go deeper. [ibid.]
Are you on a plateau in some area of your life?
Peter takes Peter, James and John up the high mountain of transfiguration because these are the three out of the twelve, these are the three out of all His followers that He wants to go deepest with. On the mountain, Jesus is revealed in His stunning glory and only three are there to see it.
“And as they were coming down the mountain, he charged them to tell no one what they had seen, until the Son of Man had risen from the dead” (v. 9).
Mark adds in verse ten,
“So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what this rising from the dead might mean. “
The messianic secret comes into play here. Unlike those whom Jesus healed, Peter, James and John do hold onto this experience - they don’t tell anyone about it as they ponder what it means.
We know what it means. It means that Jesus is the Christ, the divine Son of the living God. It means that the voice from heaven that Peter, James and John heard is also for us.
“Listen to Him.”
In these three days before the start of Lent, what is Jesus saying to you?
He does still speak. He speaks through His Scriptures and through His Spirit that is alive in every Christian. He will speak into the experiences of your life.
“Listen to Him.”
What is Jesus saying to you?
There’s no telling what experiences of God you will receive if you will listen and obey. If you need a lesson on listening to God, reread and meditate on our first lesson today (1 Kings). God did not come to the prophet Elijah by way of a strong wind. Nor did God speak to Elijah in an earthquake or a fire. It was a low whisper that Elijah understood to be the voice of the Lord – a still, small voice. And look at all that God said to Elijah. Do reread our first lesson. The kind of sensitivity to the voice of God that Elijah displays takes time to cultivate. You’ve got time – the rest of your life.
God is speaking. Listen to Him.
