Famed Alpinist George Mallory was once asked: "Why do you climb the mountain?" His answer has been the climbers' answer ever since: "Because it's there." The mountain represents a challenge. The mountain towers over the climber hostile, forbidding and immovable and when he looks at the mountain it is as if the gauntlet has been thrown down and somewhere deep in his being he knows he must conquer it. The climber climbs because the challenge must be met. But is that all there is to it? Is it just about being able to say, “I met the challenges of life successfully? That is what the secular world would have us believe. But is there another reason to climb the mountain? Is there a better answer than, “Because it was there?”
Years ago, my brothers and I spent ten days in the Adirondack Mountains, in what is known as the High Peaks region. We climbed mountains, mountains fairly similar in size and temperament to the mountains found in the Holy Land. It is hard work. After climbing uphill for several hours you are exhausted. And you don't have to climb Everest to experience danger. Mountain paths are often extremely narrow with a cliff above you on one side and cliff below you on the other. One wrong step can cost your life, even in New York state. And due to human limitations and the immense challenges a mountain presents you sometimes have to go to great lengths to accomplish a relatively short distance. Switchbacks often take you miles out of your way. Sometimes you can look over your head and see the summit right there, but you are hours or even days from achieving it.
Sometimes mountains are simply too big a project to climb in a single day and so sometimes real mountain climbers—not weekend warriors like my brothers and me—but the technical climbers who really know what they are doing, find themselves on the face of a cliff with daylight failing them and they are forced to tie themselves off in a bag and just hang from the side of the cliff, nothing between them and valley floor other than a thousand of feet of air. And there they remain suspended awaiting the return of the light of day. I would imagine that makes for some pretty long nights. An internationally renowned mountain climber was asked how he managed to sleep suspended in air like that. His response was classic. He said, “I sleep like a baby. I lie awake crying all night long.” Have you ever felt that way, when all your support systems have been taking away and you find yourself just hanging on waiting for some light to shine again?Mountain Climbing is physically demanding. A climber must be strong. Climbing is risky business A climber must be courageous. The work is tedious and the progress is slow. A climber must be determined.
In our Gospel reading this morning Jesus takes Peter, James and John and together they climb a mountain. Bible scholars don't know what mountain, or how high it was or any of that but any rock worthy of the name presents its difficulties. So the four of them climb a mountain together. And when they get to the summit they are greeted by Moses and Elijah. And that is an interesting pair to be there at the summit. Scholars point out that Moses represents the Law and Elijah the prophets and that is true and good and helpful. But there is something else that is usually overlooked. Moses and Elijah also climbed a mountain and each of them was met by the Lord's Presence on the mountain.
Why did Moses climb his mountain? He wasn't looking for a challenge. He already had a challenge. He went up the mountain seeking help. God had given him an assignment, “Lead my people.” But it didn't take Moses long to figure out that he simply did not have the strength, the courage or the determination that the job required. Moses needed God's help and so he goes up the mountain to get it. Here is the conversation Moses had with God. We are reading in Exodus chapter 33.12:
Moses said to the LORD, "You have been telling me, 'Lead these people,' but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, 'I know you by name and you have found favor with me.' If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people." The LORD replied, "My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest." Then Moses said to him, "If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?" And the LORD said to Moses, "I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name." Then Moses said, "Now show me your glory."
And so Moses went to the mountain because He was overwhelmed. He was called to lead God's people and he had already discovered that the task was beyond his own abilities. And Moses says to God, I'm not going forward unless your Divine Presence comes with us. Moses went mountain climbing because He was seeking God's promised Presence there.
Why did Elijah climb the mountain? He wasn't seeking a challenge either. In fact, Elijah was up to his neck in challenge. He had tried everything he could to lead God's people back from their wicked ways and he had failed. Elijah was at the end of his rope. Elijah climbed his mountain looking for God's help too. And like Moses Elijah found God's Presence on the mountain and he found the strength to go and complete his calling. It's worth looking at the passage again: “Elijah got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. There he went into a cave and spent the night. And the word of the LORD came to him: "What are you doing here, Elijah?" He replied, "I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too." The LORD said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by." Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.” (and God spoke in that still small voice)
God called Moses to the monumental task of leading God's people into the promised land. It was more than a man—even a great man—could accomplish. God called Elijah to preach and prophecy to a nation that had turned away from God and towards evil. It was an impossible task for any human being to accomplish. And so they went to the mountain where they found God's Presence, where they received from Him the power—the strength, the courage and the determination they needed to complete their assignment. What about Peter, James and John? What are they doing up on that mountain? Well, they too have been called. God has called each of them to a task. Look at what happened just before this Transfiguration passage.
Immediately before Jesus takes the disciples up the mountain Jesus has this interaction with the disciples. He asks the disciples who they say he is. Peter confesses that Jesus is the Christ. And you will remember that Peter's immediately argues with Jesus. It begins in Mark 8.31, “[Jesus] then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." Now pay attention because here is the task that the disciples and the rest of the crowd receive from God. “ Then [Jesus] called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.” Jesus speaks to both the disciples and everybody else who happens to be standing around. He places a challenge before them. He calls them to sacrifice their lives for the sake of the gospel. And as his own example makes clear, he is not speaking metaphorically. Jesus, for the sake of the gospel, is headed to Jerusalem where he will lose his life in order to save it...for all of our sakes. Like Moses and like Elijah the disciples are called to lead God's people into relationship with God through their own devotion to the gospel. Did Jesus call these particular disciples because they possessed the strength, the courage and the determination to accomplish the task? I don't think so. In fact, they would abandon Jesus at his greatest moment of need. Jesus takes the disciples mountain climbing and at the top of the mountain they are introduced to God's own supernatural Presence-Jesus illuminated before their eyes—and all of creation with Him.
When God revealed his presence to Moses it was veiled in thick dark clouds and Moses was only allowed to see a shadowy silhouette. When God revealed his presence to Elijah it was surrounded by a terrible wind and an earthquake and a fire and all that Elijah was able to discern was a small still voice. Moses and Elijah only got little glimpses of God's glorious presence but when Peter and James and John reach the summit and God reveals his Glory on the Mount of Transfiguration it is not in darkness and terror. It is in brilliant light. And it is not in a shadowy silhouette. God's Presence is revealed in all its glory in Jesus Christ out of whom beams supernatural light. Here is the fulfillment of the promise to Moses and Elijah that God himself would lead His people. Here is the Glory of God revealed in all its fullness. The light that shines forth from Jesus is so intense that the entire mountain is illuminated by it. And when God speaks he no longer whispers. He speaks out loud and clear and says, “This is my Son—listen to Him.” This is the one Moses and Elijah asked for. This is the One who the whole world has been crying out for. Here is divine Strength, Courage, and Fortitude made incarnate in order to complete God's kingdom. God makes good on his promise to Moses and Elijah and they are present for Christ's unveiling. God makes good to his people Israel as the disciples witness Christ's glory. And God makes good to all of creation on his promise to redeem it. All God's promises are yes, and amen in his Son Jesus Christ.
Life is full of challenges, full of mountains to climb. We are facing tough economic times. Some of us are losing jobs or facing shrinking investments. Some of us are facing some pretty intense health problems. We may very well lose our lives. Our church is in a major fight over 'the gospel' and there may be consequences for us for standing for the truth of the Scriptures. Sometimes we sleep like babies. We lie awake all night crying. There are lots of mountains to climb—but there is one challenge that rises above all the rest: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.” Christian, Jesus challenges you to the greatest ascend the greatest summit in life. He calls you to surrender. He calls you to abandon yourself to faith in Him. He is Lord and Savior. It is a tremendous challenge but if you will accept it...if you will climb the mountain of faith with Jesus you will find God's Presence, his awesome Power, his unlimited Courage, and his relentless Determination illuminating your life. And from that mountaintop all the other mountains will look inconsequential. Once you have abandoned your life to Jesus and surrendered your life to God's amazing grace somehow all of life's challenges become manageable. Jesus is able to make molehills out of even the biggest mountains.
Mountain Climbing is physically demanding. A climber must be strong. Climbing is risky business. A climber must be courageous. The work is tedious and the progress is slow. A climber must be determined. But a climber need not manufacture it out of his own broken heart. Come to the Mount of Transfiguration. Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior and let the Presence of God carry you through.
Amen.
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