Accustomed to the Darkness
David C. Myers
February 3, 2008
Transfiguration Sunday
Exodus 24:12 - 18
Matthew 17:1 - 9
Text: "The disciples fell face down to the ground, terrified." . . . Mt. 17:6
I suspect that if you are at all like me, you are, or least have been, troubled by certain parts of the Bible. Especially those parts that don't seem to happen in your everyday life - like where the dead are raised to life, where the blind are made to see, where some person walks on water, or people live to be hundreds of years of age, or sticks become serpents, or blowing trumpets at walls will cause them to come tumbling down.
Such things simply don't jive with the world that we know, and, . . . well, . . . we are, quite naturally, puzzled, troubled by them. At some point in our faith journey we have to come to grips with them - there have been a variety of ways. For example, some people will examine such problematic passages in the light of our enlightened times and make them fit. For example, the people Jesus healed weren't really sick, rather they were either hypochondriacs or they suffered some psychosomatic illness.
Well, of all the mysterious, magical passages of the Bible, today's reading for Transfiguration Sunday, is one that can be easily explained as natural phenomena; that is, we can make it fit. Seeing a cloud hover over a mountain like Sinai for six days is not particularly unusual. And the consuming fire that Moses walked into when the Lord called him could easily passed off as seeing the refraction of the sun's rays at sunset or dawn.
Likewise, when Jesus, along with Peter, James and John, went up onto a mountain for the transfiguration experience; the phenomena could easily be passed off in light of our superior knowledge not existent nearly 2,000 years ago. We don't know for sure which mountain the Transfiguration took place upon - it could have been Mt. Tabor or Mt. Hermon. Mt. Hermon might be more likely since it is near to Caesarea Philippi, where Peter's confession, which immediately precedes this event, took place. Mt. Hermon towers over 9,000 feet and is often enveloped in clouds. Climbing a 9,000 foot mountain fairly quickly would make people a little light headed, and hallucinating some would not be out of the realm of possibility, given the rarefied air they would encounter. So, if you are so inclined, it is not difficult to reconstruct such physical settings and make seeming incongruous situations work.
The problem is, when we have done all that, . . . so what?!? Trying to explain it all, to make it fit in our contemporary, scientific world misses the entire point! Because having done that we are still left with the fact that for nearly 2,000 years, despite the fact that people having raised these same questions, every year on Transfiguration Sunday the church still holds these passages to be extremely important to our faith. Why?
Well, as you probably know by now, I wouldn't raise that question in a sermon unless I were about to offer an answer - or at least attempt an answer in three parts. One has to do with the nature of the mysterious, another with why we don't know just where the Transfiguration took place, and the last has to do with our response to such an experience.
1.) Point one. The experience on the mountain with Jesus and the disciples are part of a great tradition that people of faith have experiences that move them deeply, but cannot adequately explain them. They are, ultimately, mysterious. What precisely happened may not make sense to anyone else, but may well change the entire direction of a person's life. To the outsider no amount of logic and rationalization will ever be adequate to explain what happened.
At a very particular point in time in my life when I was 17, I knew that God had claimed me. It was a very moving experience - happened on the night of a full moon at Mechuwana (the Methodist camp in Maine) as I walked past the chapel after brushing my teeth just before I went to bed. I didn't know what direction that claim by God would take me. I even tried to avoid that call. But intuitively I knew that I was forever claimed by God. God was now a monkey on my back that I would never be able to shake. Now, I can't really explain it in a way that you will understand how a full moon after brushing my teeth would totally transform my life. If I told you I was walking with a beautiful girl, and I fell in love with her and eventually married her, now, maybe that would make some sense. But for a 17-year-old boy walking to bed with clean teeth and seeing a full moon and somehow knowing that he would be forever claimed by God just doesn't make sense. But it happened, and it works for me!
2.) Point two. Despite the importance of the Transfiguration we don't know where it took place. Perhaps this disregard for the precise location is an important part of the account and explains Jesus' rebuke of Simon Peter at the suggestion of the three shrines to honor the event.
But for anyone who has had one of these life changing events knows that where it took place pales in significance to the importance of what happened there. Being apart with Christ, to catch a glimpse of the glory of God which was revealed in Him is a time to cherish. Our first reaction may be like Simon Peter, James and John who wanted to stay on the mountaintop and build three condominiums, . . . well, three booths. That was safe. Of course Jesus did not approve of their reaction. But then again, we are told that they were afraid, and didn't really know what to say. They were overwhelmed to be in the company, not only of Jesus, but also the other super stars of faith - Moses and Elijah.
But first things first. It was the overwhelming nature of the experience - being in the presence of Moses, Elijah and Jesus that caused Peter's confusion. Let us not forget that we must first have the experiences before we need to worry about being cautioned not to enshrine them. Or, in other words, remembering where they took place, trying to enshrine them forever is nowhere near as important as having such an experience that deeply effects us. Having the experience is far more important than knowing where it took place.
3. Point three. Such a mountaintop event is not to be recreated or preserved; but rather it informs how we are to respond to the world and the people we meet from that point henceforth. In other words, it prepares us to live out our lives, to walk through the hills and valleys we all must encounter. Such experiences give us meaning and purpose.
You see, what was revealed on the mountain during this most mysterious experience to the disciples was the discovery of Who Jesus really was. And when we find out Who Jesus really is, we - not only the person Jesus - but we are utterly transformed! It is then that we come face to face - for the first time - with the meaning of life and freedom. And that experience can be scary, frightening, terrifying and momentarily blinding - kind of like it was for Paul during his conversion experience. As is recorded about the disciples, "they fell face down to the ground, terrified."
Victor Frankl wrote about it in Man's Search For Meaning. Some of his fellow prisoners in the Nazi concentration Camp, Dachau, yearned so desperately for their freedom, but had been held captive for so long that when the eventually were released, "they walked out into the sunlight, blinked nervously, and then silently walked back into the familiar darkness of the prisons, to which they had been accustomed for such a long time."
Sometimes the darkness is more comforting and secure than coming face to face with the newness and uncertainty of freedom. As people accustomed to the darkness, it is hard to subject ourselves to the blinding light of freedom. In today's story, the disciples "fell face down to the ground, terrified."
When God invites us up the mountain as He did Moses, and as Jesus invited three of His disciples, we dare not pass up the invitation. If we are held back by fear, hatred, cruelty, poverty, or need; or, if we choose to be pulled down by appetites, addictions, attitudes and associations, after a while the upward invitation will no longer be heard, the light from above will not be seen or appreciated, and we'll choose the darkness, just as did the prisoners of the concentration camp.
You see, Transfiguration is not only about what happened to Moses on Sinai, or what happened to Jesus on the unknown mountain. No, what is even more important at the Transfiguration is what happens to you and me and how we respond to life afterwards. It gives our lives meaning and purpose.