Luke 9:28-32, 34-36 (NIV) 28About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. 29As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. 30Two men, Moses and Elijah, 31appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. 32Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. 34While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. 35A voice came from the cloud, saying, "This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him." 36When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. The disciples kept this to themselves, and told no one at that time what they had seen.
A mountaintop experience is a moment when we have an awareness of God that we do not normally have in our daily lives, when the God we serve becomes real and alive to us in our experience. Two points of this mountaintop experience are: Moses and Elijah, representing the law and the prophets, the way God had spoken to the people of Israel in the past; and, the voice of God saying, "This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him."
Do we listen? To listen to God is a daily, persistent choice to pay attention to what His Word might be saying to us. It is the discipline of taking time to do nothing but listen to God, in a time of silence, prayer, and reading from devotional material and the Bible. How important is listening to God to you? What are you doing that demonstrates how important listening to God is?
Luke is making the point that in Jesus God has chosen to speak and act in the world. Moses and Elijah fade into the background and Jesus emerges as the real and reliable Word of God. When we listen to God, to whom are we listening? Is our listening focused on the person of Jesus, or do we listen to the bit of faith and the bit of belief that we have picked up here and there? If we focus our listening on the God we see in Jesus we run the risk of falling into the sin of being narrow minded and intolerant. Listening to Jesus is not a risk free investment of time and energy. It is an act of faith.
I wonder. In this disoriented age, when so many are trying to work things out by themselves with the latest scientific discovery, the words of the latest guru selling the most books, or a hodge-podge of religious beliefs, what if there was a certain ancient Compass that had not outlived its usefulness after all and could lead us to a future that is life indeed? What if, after all the other instruments tried by humanity prove unreliable in the tempests of these times, we discover that there is a Compass whose needle always points in the direction of God’s gracious, loving will for human life? Peter and James and John were heavy with sleep, but kept awake. They kept awake and saw His glory. If you know the struggle you can also know the glory.
From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope February 22, 1998
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell
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