Mountaintop Experiences

Our last study revealed that the section of Mark from 8:27-10:33 is the crossroads, the watershed, of the gospel of the kingdom. There is a distinct change of direction as seen by the explicit and new teaching concerning the necessity of Jesus’ passion, i.e. sufferings.

In Mark 9, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up a high mountain. What they see there changes them, not immediately, but eventually (after the Day of Pentecost) forever.

The plain language of Jesus in revealing to his disciples the “divine must” of the sufferings of the Servant before his being crowned as King, shocked and shattered their Messianic theology. (Mark 8:31: “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.”)

So for his own sake and that of three of his key disciples, he takes them to the top of a high mountain (probably Mount Hermon instead of Mount Tabor) to pray. They fall asleep but awaken to behold the glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father.

But this passage isn’t just about what happened to them. It’s about the Father’s encouragement for His one-of-a-kind son, and what happens to them and us when God reveals who Jesus really is. Let’s walk up the mountain with them.

We’re going to see how Mark superimposes three images on one another in this mountain experience to give us one big picture: (1) The Image that Frames the Majesty of the ONE! (2) The Image that Frames the Message of the Two (3) The Image that Frames the Ministry to the Three.

I. The Image that Frames the Majesty of the ONE!

Mark 9:2, “And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them”. Luke 9:43a, “And all were astonished at the majesty of God.”

“And he was transfigured before them.” The word transfigured (metamorphoō) means He was changed in appearance, in form. Not changed in essence - changed in visibility. Jesus did not become something He wasn’t. He revealed what He had always been. His clothes became dazzling white - Mark says, “whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them.” That’s Mark’s way of saying: This isn’t earthly brightness. This is heavenly glory.

For a brief moment, the veil of His humanity was lifted, and the disciples saw the radiance of divine majesty. This is the same glory John later speaks of: “We beheld His glory…” (John 1:14) Never forget, Jesus is not merely a teacher, a moral guide, or a prophet, He is the radiant Son of God. And here’s the powerful truth: The One who will suffer in Jerusalem is the same One who shines in divine glory. The cross does not diminish His glory. It reveals it.

I believe the transfiguration of Jesus had a double purpose: reassurance for Jesus as he faced the road to Jerusalem, his passion and crucifixion; and a revelation to the chosen three disciples that Jesus that was the predicted Messiah of the Old Testament, and was the fulfilment of all its the expectation.

Dr. A.T. Robertson states: “The purpose of the Transfiguration was to strengthen the heart of Jesus as he was praying long about his approaching death and to give these chosen three disciples a glimpse of his glory for the hour of darkness coming. No one on earth understood the heart of Jesus and so Moses and Elijah came. The poor disciples utterly failed to grasp the significance of it all.”

Jesus, knowing that he was headed to Jerusalem where he will be rejected, abandoned, beaten, and suffer and die a cruel death on the cross; where he will sweat what appears to be great drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane and pray, “Father, take this cup from me” (14:36), goes to the mountain top to pray for clarification and full confirmation that the cross was the only way of accomplishing the will of his Father. And for a moment there happened what Celtic mystics called a “thin place” a place or moment where time and eternity overlap. Jesus inner form is allowed to break through his body with a radiance that terrifies the three disciples. In addition, God sends Moses and Elijah to strengthen him and prepare him for what is soon to happen. Luke summarizes their conversation for us: “They spoke of his departure (exodus), which he was to accomplish in Jerusalem” (Luke 9:31).

The transfiguration is also for the disciples’ benefit. They were being called to take up their own cross and follow Jesus.    They had in mind a different type of Messiah, but they receive a glimpse of the Son of God. Peter writes for us many years later: “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).

1. The Star of the Story is Jesus Only! Mark 9:7-8, “And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.” And suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them but Jesus only.”

The transfiguration story sums up typically Jesus’ unique mission. From the heights of unimaginable glory, honor, riches and majesty, dwelling in unapproachable light, He descends into the deep valleys of our world's harshest realities. He comes down from heaven’s glory - down to earth to meet us head-on in our dilemma. He steps down to distract us from our futile debates over who is to blame and why we can’t fix our world’s problems, to overcome evil in heart-to-heart combat. He comes down from the Mount of Transfiguration to carry our sins up a small hill called Mount Calvary. From the hill of the skull, He went down into death, and three days later He came out the other side of death into resurrection glory, giving all those who get their little story connected to His Big Glory Story, a part in a future that works - a peace about our past that is forgiven - and a power in the present that equips us to model the life of the world to come NOW!

A. Because He is the Star of the Story, We Must Hear Him Clearly and Obediently – 9:7, “a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.” 

God the Father speaks out of the glory cloud. Luke adds concerning the cloud that overshadowed them that they were terrified as they entered the cloud. This cloud was a token of God's manifest presence. It was in the glory cloud that God moved into the tabernacle and temple, and, when the cloud covered the tabernacle, Moses was not able to enter (Ex. 40:34, Ex.40:35), and, when it filled the temple, the priests could not stand to minister by reason of it, (2 Chron.5:14). It was no wonder that the disciples were afraid to enter it.

B. Because He is the Star of the Story, We Must See and Savor Him Only - Mark 9:8, “And suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them but Jesus only.” Father’s game plan is totally in His Son! Christ is the ground and goal of everything in the Scriptures in general and the Old Testament in particular.

Eternal life is good news, not just because I live forever in the new heavens and the new earth with loved ones who have died in Jesus, but because this is eternal life, Jesus said, that they know me and him who sent me. In other words, 2 Corinthians 4:4 and 6 tell us what the highest, best, ultimate good of the gospel is: the glory of God in the face of Christ, that is, the glory of Christ who is the image of God.

Father God commands that we see Jesus as the one and only man who fairly and fully represented humanity as the last Adam; that represented Israel as the ultimate Israelite, the Messiah. Father intends that we see Him only as the One who took the sins that separate us from God and forever settled the issue. See Him as the only One who was capable of taking the judgment the world's rebellion deserved and draining it of all its accusations and condemnation. See Him only as the One who invaded death's dark cavern and kicked a cross-shaped hole at the backend so that we go in and through death and come out on the other side with resurrection bodies. See Him only as the One who ascended back heaven to sit on the throne reserved for the king of God's people on earth. See Him only as the One who sent back One just like Him without a body – Holy Spirit – and has promised that He will never leave His people alone and never abandon them. He has guaranteed that since he gave them initial faith to trust him for salvation, He will always give faith for any and every circumstance.

II. The Image that Frames the Message of the Two

Mark 9:4, “And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus.” Luke 9:30-31, “And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure (exodon=exodus), which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.”

The most obvious reason for Moses and Elijah’s appearance is because Jesus' story, or mission, is inextricably joined to the story of Israel. Moses and Elijah represent the beginning and the end, the law and the prophets, in the Old Testament story of Israel as God's people, chosen to bring the light of salvation to a world darkened by sin and despair.

You will recall that Israel's story was forged in fire and smoke on the mountaintop of Sinai. This burning and holy glory of God later made the face of Moses shine with great brilliance when he met God in the Tent of Meeting and finally flooded the completed Tabernacle as a glory cloud. The story that was launched in this way was widely expected to end in a similar way, with the re-appearance of Elijah and the return of the self-same glory cloud. Intertwined now with the Jesus story, this is the story of Israel with a difference, a story radically transfigured.

Israel’s past and future converge on Jesus. Moses never set foot in Canaan during his lifetime. Moses now steps out of the past history of Israel and into the Promised Land for the first time. He lives 'inside' the fulfillment of the promise because he stands within the radiance of the Messiah. Elijah departed this life by being taken up into God's heaven without seeing death. Now, Elijah steps out of the future of Israel, to talk of Jesus' death on which all hopes are pinned. Moses and Elijah are both eager to discover how Jesus' suffering and death might be a new 'exodus' and a 'new departure', not just for themselves but also for the world (Lk. 9:31).

The gospel writers blend the story of Jesus with the story of Israel and by so doing the Holy Spirit is shouting – In Messiah - Promise is transformed into fulfillment, prophecy into realization, hopes into reality, word into flesh, and the future has invaded the present with the kingdom that has come, is coming and will come – and it works. What God has already done in Jesus Christ is enough to make us confident of the final outcome.

A. The Message of the Two Says the Final Exodus is Under Way

Luke 9:31, “who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.”

The Greek word translated "departure” here and “decease" in Matthew’s account is the Greek word “exodon” from which we get our word “exodus”.  They were talking about His death on the cross as an “exodus”- a departure. Just as the exodus under Moses delivered the people from the bondage of Egypt, so the exodus of Christ's death would deliver His people from the bondage of sin.

A major theme of Luke’s account of the transfiguration is that of Jesus as the “new Moses” who leads a “new exodus” from the bondage of the covenantal curses. Implicitly in his Gospel and explicitly in Acts, Luke describes Jesus as the “prophet like Moses” foretold by Moses himself (Deut. 18:15; Lk. 7:16; 13:33; 24:19; Acts 3:22; 7:37).

B. The Message of the Two Says Death Cannot Destroy Identity or Personality

The experience that the disciples of Jesus had on the Mount of Transfiguration was one of those brief, shining moments in which we get caught up in the ultimate reality of the world that Jesus brought with Him – the ultimate reality of the kingdom of Heaven.

Moses had been dead 1400 years and Elijah 700 and Peter, having no earthly pictures of them, awoke from a nap and immediately recognized them both! In the appearance of these two is the assurance that there is life after life and that it can be enjoyed ONLY in fellowship with Jesus!

Whatever happens at death, irrespective of the decomposition of the physical bodies, in the ultimate reality of the final state, we will recognize one another and know each other.

One faithful Christian was asked why he seemed to have no fear of death.  His reply was, “Why should I fear crossing the river of death?  My Father owns the property on both sides of the river!” 

Let us take comfort in the blessed thought that there is a resurrection and a life to come. All is not over, when the last breath is drawn. There is another world beyond the grave. But, above all, let us take comfort in the thought, that until the day dawns, and the resurrection begins, the people of God are safe with Christ. There is much about their present condition, no doubt, which is deeply mysterious. Where is their local habitation? What knowledge do they have of things on earth? These are questions we cannot answer.

III. The Image that Frames the Ministry to the Three

Mark 9:5-13

A. There is an Authentication of Christ’s Person -

InterVarsity Press put out a Christmas card once. It had pictures of various world-renowned leaders on the front like Hitler, Genghis Khan, Lenin, Buddha and others. It said, "History is full of men who would be gods . . ." On the inside there was a simple nativity picture with the words, ". . . but only one God who would be man." His authority to forgive sins, his unequaled power to give orders to powers of darkness and the unexpected occurrences around this God-man - occurrences such as suddenly being transformed before there very eyes - dumbfounded his disciples but eventually confirmed His identity as God come in the flesh.

When the Lord Jesus Christ, the True Tabernacle and the True Temple went up onto the Mount of Transfiguration, the record tells us that a bright cloud overshadowed them and a Voice out of the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased”. That Glory-Cloud which left the defiled material Temple under the Old Covenant (the Old Testament) now descended upon the New Testament Temple or Tabernacle; the Lord Jesus Christ.

B. There is a Participation in Christ’s Purposes -

They were taken up the mountain to be blessed with His presence. The disciples got to enjoy the participation in an eternal plan with the God-man in the company of the greatest of men in scripture. They savored the atmosphere of another world, that of the age to come in the now. They heard the voice of God and felt the personal touch, comfort and ministry of the hand of Jesus. Then they were brought down the mountain so that they could be a blessing!

The transfiguration officially identified the “kingdom” of which our Lord Jesus and His apostles spoke with the “kingdom” of which the Old Testament spoke, and for which the Jews were eagerly waiting.

The climax of God’s Big Glory Story is played out on the stage of human history as God’s Son, the True Israel, the Greater Moses and David, goes up on a mountain – not as Lawgiver, but as the perfect Lawmaker and Keeper. There He sets forth in Matt 5-7, the terms of the New Covenant. He then begins the New Exodus that will take Him down from the Mount of Transfiguration through the River of Death on Mt Calvary and out the other side in Resurrection victory. He then goes to the top of the Mount of Olives and gives the Commission Mandate. This mandate charges us to go down and out into all nations instead of expecting to go up and out of the world! Down from the mountain with the whole story, which is to be taken to the whole world as the only true story that can make men whole.

By faith in Him our little story places us in Jesus’ Big Glory Story of a New Exodus > a New Covenant > a New Kingship > and a New Creation! He established His kingdom and sits now on the only throne He will ever occupy – the throne of David, where He will rule until all His enemies become His footstool! The Seed, the Son, the Sovereign Shepherd has brought us to the ultimate State – the kingdom of God! We are God’s people in God’s place under God’s rule!

As we close part one of this great story, I want to challenge us with this reality – “When they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.” Moses is gone. Elijah is gone. The cloud is gone. Only Jesus remains.

And He is enough.