Atop the Blue Ridge Mountains not far from where I
grew up in Waynesboro, Virginia there is a tourist attraction known as Humpback
Rocks. It is a rather large outcropping
of rocks that gives you a spectacular view of the Shenandoah Valley. The climb to get to them is one of the
steepest and most strenuous one mile’s you will come across, but it’s worth
it. If you get out on the edge you get
that “King of the World” sensation.
Unfortunately, since my 20’s I have found being out on the edge just a
little too terrifying. If you fall off,
it’s about a fifty or more foot drop just to get into the tree tops. It’s a place you need to be careful, but the
view is worth it. It’s good.
I’ve been up on Humpback a couple of times on
rainy-ish days when the clouds are blowing by.
It is quite a different experience to watch a cloud coming at you,
billowing its way along the ridges, engulfing everything along the way and
then…it engulfs you. I have been up
there when visibility was about ten to fifteen feet. If you’re not familiar with the rocks your
inclination is to sit right down and wait this one out. It is not “good”. It’s terrifying. I think of Humpback when I read this story of
the Transfiguration. Peter, James, and
John go up on a mountain with Jesus to pray and it’s good but then they find
themselves engulfed in a cloud and terrified simply because they have found
themselves in the presence of God. What
shall we say about that?
Well to start, what we have here in this story of the
Transfiguration is one of those rare moments in the Gospels when God fully
reveals himself as Trinity. There’s
Jesus the Son and the voice of God the Father and the Holy Spirit who shows up
here as a very foreboding cloud. This same
sort of thing happened at Jesus’ baptism when he began his ministry and now it
happens again this time as Jesus is beginning his journey to the cross.
Now to get a little theologically heavy on you, many
theologians like to talk about the Trinity as being the eternal relationship in
love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and, as Trinity is this eternal
relationship in love, there is always communication happening. In essence this is prayer. The book of Hebrews says that Jesus is ever
standing before the Father in the Spirit praying and more specifically
interceding on our behalf. Jesus is
always praying for us. So what does a
Triune God in all eternity do in his very self? Well, he sits there and talks in himself…he prays.
God in his very self as Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit is praying.
So, the first thing we have to say about prayer is
that it is this eternal communication that goes on between the Father and the
Son in the Holy Spirit. The next thing
we say about prayer is that when we pray, the Holy Spirit due to his abiding in
us, his bonding us to Jesus the Son, brings us as God’s beloved children into
that eternal praying of the Son to the Father and the Father’s answering his
beloved Son. Our praying is
participating in the praying that God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit does
within himself.
I bet you never thought of prayer that way. We are inclined to think of prayer as our
talking at God from a vast distance and God hearing and maybe from a distance
answering at us. But the truth is prayer is our
participating in the talking that goes on within the Trinity in such a way that
by the work of the Holy Spirit our prayers become Jesus’ prayers and his ours. When we pray “our Father, who art in heaven”
that “we” is us in Jesus and Jesus in us.
Now, your theological moment out of the way, let me
use that basic thought about prayer – that prayer is our participation in
Jesus’ own praying – let me use that to set the stage for what is going on here
in Luke because what we have here is a moment when certain of the disciples
enter into the “cloud” of Jesus’ praying.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke all tell this story of the Transfiguration, but
Luke tells it from a different perspective.
He is the only one to put the Transfiguration into the context of prayer. It happens while Jesus is praying and his
disciples are attempting to pray with him.
So, we have Jesus heading up the mountain to pray. Peter, James, and John are with him and as he
begins to pray of course they begin to fall asleep. Prayer would not be prayer if we didn’t fall
asleep. Do I hear an amen? But Luke says they manage to stay awake. Then suddenly, they find themselves engulfed
in the “goodness” of a bright light and Jesus’ face is changed and his clothes
become dazzling white. Jesus, glorified,
unveiled before them in his relationship with the Father in the Spirit.
Then, they see two more people with Jesus, Moses and
Elijah who themselves are no strangers to talking with God on the
mountaintop. On Mt. Sinai, Moses heard
the voice of the LORD and received the Commandments. He was also the great mediator. Up on the mountain he talked the LORD out of
destroying the Israelites for their idolatry in the Golden Calf incident and
convinced God not to abandon his people but to continue on with them, and not
just from afar but present with them dwelling in their midst in the tabernacle,
and leading them as a whirlwind by day and a pillar of fire by night. Moses intercedes for God’s people, so does
Jesus for us his beloved sisters and brothers.
Elijah also had a Mt. Sinai experience. On Mt. Sinai
he, the greatest of the prophets excepting John the Baptist, heard the “still
small voice of the Lord” while hiding there in a cave. Elijah was on the run, afraid for his life
for he had slaughtered the prophets of Baal and offended the very wicked King
Ahab. Elijah thought he was the only
faithful person left in Israel, but by that still small voice God assured him
he was not the only one and told him to go back to Israel for there were 7,000 still
faithful waiting for him. On the way he
was to anoint a couple of yet to be kings who would prove to be the downfall of
Ahab and to find Elisha who would be his successor. Elijah had served the LORD faithfully and he
would not die. As we know, he was taken
into heaven in a fiery chariot. Likewise,
Jesus was the only truly faithful one and he would die a death akin to the one
that Ahab threatened Elijah with and yet be raised and ascend into heaven. In a way, Elijah’s presence here is the still
small voice of assurance from the Father to Jesus that though the cross lay
ahead he will live.
Peter, James, and John find this experience of
praying with Jesus to be good. Peter’s remarks
about its goodness reminds me of the Creation story and God saying at the end
of each day of Creation “good”. There is
something “Creation-y” in the order of New Creation going on here in this
experience of being with Jesus in his praying.
Well, the moment is good and they want it to go on
forever but reality sets in, if I might say it that way. We could say that Peter, James, and John were
suddenly awakened from a dream-like state and confronted with God in his very
self. They are having their very own Mt.
Sinai experience. The cloud of the Holy
Spirit overshadows them. Things become darkened as they enter into the cloud. Their feelings of “good” turn to outright
terror. “Yea, though I walk through the
Valley of the shadow of death.” Then, God
the Father speaks to them just as he spoke to Moses and to Elijah. “This is my Son, my Chosen One. Listen to him.” And its over…and there’s silence. It’s time to go to Jerusalem. They kept this one to themselves.
We have to keep in balance the goodness of being with
Jesus in his praying with the daunting task of actually listening to him and
doing what he says. In the cloud of
Jesus praying is where we discover that God is with us and experience the
“good-ness” of his living presence, the Holy Spirit, present with us. In the cloud of Jesus praying is where we
discover Jesus is praying for us, that he is praying for things to work
together for the good for us. It is in the cloud of Jesus praying that we
meet Moses, so to speak, where we are awakened to our idolatry and discover
“forgiveness”. It is in the cloud of
Jesus praying that we, like Elijah, hear the still small voice of assurance,
that God knows our faithfulness and has a plan for us. This is especially “good” when we feel alone
and even abandoned in our faithfulness.
In the cloud of Jesus praying is where we find the strength and
direction to go on with Jesus ministry, his mission for us.
Being with Jesus in his praying is very good but…we
still have to listen to him and do what he says. Jesus tells us we have to deny ourselves and
pick up our crosses and follow him. He
tells us we have to love and pray for our enemies. He tells us we have to forgive rather than
hold grudges. He tells us we have to
love one another as he has loved us…unselfishly, without condition…to name a
few. These are difficult things to do
and not only to do but to have become who we are at the very root of who we
are. Impossible tasks if we were simply
left to them, but here’s your word of grace for the day. I gave you your word of theology to begin
with. Here’s your grace. As prayer is our participation in the
Trinity’s life of prayer, the more time we spend in prayer the more his nature
just naturally rubs off on us and we become more able to listen to Jesus and do
what he says. Prayer, my friends, is
crucial. Let us not neglect it. Amen.
