In a YouTube video attorney and educator Randall Niles addresses the wonders of creation. He notes that on a clear night, with a full sky in view, you can count about 1,030 bodies of light with the naked eye. Think about that for a moment . . . 1,030 bodies. “It was that way 4,000 years ago,” says Niles, “and it’s the same today.”
Then about 400 years ago, Galileo invented the first telescope. At that point, about 3,310 bodies of light were visible--more than tripling the number of stars which could be seen.
“Today,” Niles continues, “the Hubble Space Telescope and various land‑based telescopes and radio antennas have [discovered] approximately 100 billion stars in our own Milky Way Galaxy alone!” Can you get your mind around that number--100 billion stars? “If you think that’s huge, astronomers now estimate that there may be 100 billion galaxies in our universe! That’s 100,000,000,000 x 100,000,000,000 stars!” (1) That is an amazing number. We stand in awe of the wonders of creation.
There is a story of a man who wanted to build a scale model of the universe. He began with a ball one inch in diameter, which he designated as earth. To his amazement he discovered that in order to be true to scale to the size of the universe, he would have to place a ball representing the nearest star, Alpha Centaury, 51,000 miles away. He concluded it would take a pretty big family room to hold a scale model of the universe.
It’s easy to be in awe of the wonders of creation. It’s also easy to be in constant amazement at the accomplishments of humanity. Regardless of the technological progress humanity has made thus far in the 21st century, our brains may be too tiny to even imagine the frontiers yet to be explored. To paraphrase Al Jolson’s great line, “Chances are we ain’t seen nothin’ yet!”
It is easy to have a feeling of awe about creation and amazement about the accomplishments of humanity. But what you and I may have difficulty experiencing is the sense of adoration that the disciples felt in the presence of Jesus.
Particularly three of the disciples--their names were Peter, James and John. Today’s story takes place on a mountain we have learned to call The Mount of Transfiguration.
On some occasions in the New Testament all of the disciples were present for events in Jesus’ life. But from time to time there were those occasions when only Christ’s inner circle accompanied him. This was one of those occasions.
Peter, James and John went with Jesus to the mountain to pray. It is evident that prayer was important to Jesus. If you and I were wise we would spend more time alone with God in prayer. Surely, if Jesus found need of such times, you and I do as well.
Luke tells us that, on this occasion, as Jesus was praying, “the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning.” Then something dramatic happened. Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. What did Moses and Elijah and Jesus talk about? Luke tells us. “They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem . . .”
This was obviously no ordinary mountain top experience. Moses and Elijah had been dead for several hundred years, yet here they were with Jesus on the mountain.
Peter, James and John had been sleeping heavily, Luke tells us--which seems to have been their custom every time Jesus went to pray. “When they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him . . .” As the men, Moses and Elijah, were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, “Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters--one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” Luke tells us Peter “did not know what he was saying.” The Master was growing accustomed to that with Simon Peter.
Peter wanted to stay on the mountain with his teacher and these two iconic figures. You can’t blame him for that. All of us want to stay on the mountain. And like Peter we want to build monuments to memorialize high sacred moments. Peter said to him, “Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters--one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” These were shelters, of course--not monuments in the traditional sense. But the intent was the same. It was to erect a building to capture the present moment as a place for rest and inspiration. But the kingdom is not about erecting buildings or monuments.
The pyramids of Egypt are the world’s most impressive man-made monuments.
The Great Pyramid of the Pharaoh Khufu is staggering in size. Nearly 500 feet tall, it contains about 2,300,000 blocks of stone, each of which weighs at least two tons. Many comparisons have been used to try to convey an accurate impression of the vastness of this pyramid. One scholar has suggested that within its base there would be room for the great Italian cathedrals of Florence, Milan and St. Peter’s in the Vatican, as well as St. Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey in London.
During the time of Napoleon it was determined that there was enough stone in three of the pyramids to build a wall ten feet high and one foot thick around the entire realm of France. (2)
We have the monuments, but who remembers anything about those who constructed them? The Christian faith is not a monument but a movement. It is a dynamic encounter with the living Christ.
Peter could not have been more wrong in his desire to build three shelters. He doesn’t have time to retract his hasty suggestion, though, because as he is saying this a cloud appeared and covered them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. And a voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.”
And when the voice had spoken, the cloud lifted, and Elijah and Moses were gone . . . and the disciples found Jesus by himself. Luke tells us that the disciples kept silent and told no one at that time anything of what they had seen.
No wonder! Who would have believed them? How can you make such an extraordinary event credible to an unbelieving world? But the experience of the transfiguration of Jesus is important because St. Paul tells us in Philippians 3 that there will come a time when we also shall be transfigured. He writes, “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (3:20-21).
The whole purpose of his revealing his glory to us is that we might catch a glimpse of the glory that awaits us.
The disciples viewed that glory in a deep and dramatic way, and it transformed their lives. That is what is important to us today. Before we can be transfigured, we must be transformed. Before we can put on his glory, we must take up his cross. Before we can be resurrected we must be willing to die.
But how does it happen? How can that transformation take place in our lives? There are three important steps.
First of all, we are transformed when we see Jesus as he really is. It is fascinating to watch the disciples as they slowly began to perceive the fact that there was something about Jesus that went beyond mere humanity.
Do you remember early in Jesus’ ministry when he and his disciples were on the Sea of Galilee and a storm arose and the boat was awash with waves? The disciples were terrified. They woke Jesus up on the front of the boat and cried out, “Lord, save us! We are drowning.”
Jesus chided them for their lack of faith and turned to the wind and waves and said, “Peace! Peace! Be Still!” Suddenly there was a great calm.
Now the disciples really were afraid. They were afraid of Jesus. “What sort of man is this?” they asked. “Even the wind and waves do what he tells them.”
Some of you may be familiar with the classic children’s book, The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908. The Wind in the Willows focuses on four animals--Rat, Mole, Badger and the preposterous Mr. Toad--who are experiencing a world of enchantment and adventure.
There is a scene in which Rat and Mole first hear the haunting, heavenly music of Pan, who in this fantasy is the god of the animals. As they draw near to the music’s source, “suddenly the mole feels a great awe that turns his muscles to water.” The feeling he was experiencing wasn’t panic. Indeed he felt wonderfully at peace and happy. Rather it was a sense of awe that came over him--an awe “that some August Presence was very, very near.”
That was the feeling that the disciples had at times in the presence of Jesus. If you catch even a glimpse of the glory of Jesus Christ, it will change your life.
C. William Mosley tells about a gripping scene in the movie, The Greatest Story Ever Told. He writes, “The camera looks out from the darkened tomb into the face of Jesus as he prays. Then it cuts to a long shot from the foot of the hill.” Then the crowd buzzes with excitement as they watch Lazarus come out of the tomb.
“Three people from the crowd get really excited and . . . begin running. As they run the short distance from Bethany to the walls of Jerusalem, we notice who they are; we’ve seen these folks earlier in the movie.
“One is the man born blind, [now] having no trouble seeing where he is going.” One is a man who was lame, but now he not only walks, he’s running.
“As they run on toward Jerusalem, we hear the music coming up from a whisper. It gradually gets louder, and we know this familiar music; it’s the ‘Hallelujah Chorus.’ The three runners breathlessly reach the city walls and, as the music pauses, each in turn shouts out to the sentries on the wall, ‘The blind see,’ [they shout.] ‘The lame walk.’ ‘The dead now live!’ And the music returns in a crescendo with its ‘Hallelujah!’” (3)
Such was the power and the majesty that the disciples experienced in the presence of Jesus . . . as they began to see Jesus as he really is.
They also began to see themselves as they really were. The disciples were continually responding to evidence of Jesus’ glory with fear. That is because in the light of his holiness they became aware of their own imperfection. You may think the trim on your house is white until a new fallen snow overlays it. Then you notice the yellowing process that has taken place as the paint has aged. So it is with each of us in the presence of Jesus.
No wonder that in the New Testament we so often read, “Do not be afraid.” Christ did not come to instill fear. He came to instill hope. He wants us to know that we are not worms that must grovel in the dirt, but we are children of the King. When we are slaves to sin, we are denying the purpose for which we were born--we are despoiling the image of God in which we were created--we are destroying the divine potential that is our birthright.
In one of his books, Robert Schuller tells the ancient Greek legend of Helen of Troy. You may remember that the beautiful Helen was kidnapped and taken to a distant land where she contracted amnesia. She didn’t remember her name or that she was of royal blood. In her desperate condition she became a prostitute on the streets of a city.
She was not forgotten in Troy, however. One admiring adventurer went to look for her. He never lost faith that she was alive.
One day on the waterfront of a strange city he saw a wretched woman with deep lines across her face and wearing tattered clothes. Could it possibly be Helen? “What is your name?” he asked. She responded with a name that was meaningless to him.
“Can I see your hands?” he asked. (He knew the lines in Helen’s hands.) She held her hands out in front of her, and he gasped. “You are Helen! You are Helen of Troy! Do you remember?” She looked up at him in astonishment. “Helen!” he shouted. Then the fog seemed to clear, and a sense of recognition came to her face. Helen discovered her lost self, and she put her arms around her old friend and wept. Then Helen discarded the tattered clothes and once more became the queen she was born to be.” (4)
My friend, that can be your story and mine. We were not created for sin but for salvation. When we see ourselves as God created us to be, then the possibility of transformation is ours.
We need to see Christ as he really is. We need to see ourselves as God intends for us to be. But one thing more. We need to see the world for which Christ gave his life.
Rabbi Abraham Heschel tells a parable about a kingdom in which the grain crop was poisoned. Everyone who ate the grain went crazy. But because there were few other food supplies, the people were faced with eating the grain or starving. Surveying the situation, the king said, “Very well, then, let us eat the grain, for we cannot starve. But let us at the same time feed a few people on a different diet so we will at least have some people who will know that we are insane.” (5) And that is what they did.
Friends, we live in an insane world--a world of terror and tragedies that defy comprehension. It reminds me of something the great animal tamer Clyde Beatty once said. He said that the moment in his act that he dreaded most was the one when the big cats that are natural enemies--lions, tigers, and leopards--discovered that they were close together in the same small cage. (6)
That is the kind of world we are coming to, and in this insane world there needs to be one group of people who are dedicated to sanity--to love and forgiveness and healing. In order to give the world that kind of sanity, Jesus died. The proof of our transformation is when we move out--as did those first disciples--to transform the world.
Transformation is possible in your life and mine. Let us behold Christ in all his glory. Let us behold ourselves as we may yet be. Let us behold the world for which Christ died, and let us pray that we, too, might awaken and respond to his call as did those men who accompanied him to the mountain 2,000 years ago.
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiB2K_BAyAk.
2. David Allan Hubbard, Beyond Futility (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.), pp. 39-40.
3. Contributed. Source: C. William Mosley, Emphasis, Nov./Dec. 2000, p. 15.
4. Self-Esteem: The New Reformation (Word Books).
5. Harold C. Warlick, Jr., Conquering Loneliness (Word Books).
6. George E. Sweazey, The Church as Evangelist (San Francisco: Harper & Row).