FROM MOUNT TABOR TO MOUNT CALVARY
SERMON PREACHED BY FR. TONY NOBLE
ON FEBRUARY 22nd, 2009
Mark 9:9 “And as they were coming down the mountain, he charged them to tell no-one what they had seen, until the Son of Man should have risen from the dead.”
This is the third incident in Saint Mark’s Gospel, in as many weeks, that Jesus commands people not to reveal who he really is. Two weeks ago we heard how he cast out demons and charged them not to reveal he was the Christ. Last week he healed the leper and charged him not to say anything – though he didn’t have much success on either occasion in keeping them quiet.
The reason for this, I suggested, was that if those people had run around broadcasting that Jesus is the Messiah, people would get the wrong idea of who Christ is. It would be assumed that the Messiah’s purpose was to heal and cure. Jesus would be a wandering wonder-worker – perhaps just a man with magic powers or a gift of healing. And you can see where that would lead. People would never understand fully the purpose of Christ.
But today is different. It is not a healing miracle that Jesus wants to hush up. Jesus takes the three leading apostles, Peter, James and John, up Mount Tabor.
Mount Tabor is a rather beautiful mountain. It rises suddenly in the plains of Galilee. Like all the mountains known to the Jews it was considered holy – because God communes with his chosen leaders on the top of mountains: Moses on Mount Sinai, Elijah on Mount Horeb.
This day on Mount Tabor something wonderful happens. Saint Peter is so taken by it that he writes vividly of it in his second Epistle (2 Peter 1:16-19). He remembers it clearly, and was obviously overcome and impressed by the experience.
In fact Saint Peter is significant in this event of the Transfiguration. The key passage is the opening of the Gospel reading, Mark 9:2: “After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John and led them up a high mountain”.
What happened six days previously?
It was that day when Jesus asked the assembled apostles: “Who do you say that I am?” Peter replied: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God”. On that day Saint Peter understood who Jesus really was. That he was not just a man who could heal the sick and perform miracles. That he was in fact the Christ, the Son of the Living God. He had learned that through being with Jesus, listening to him, and learning, as well as seeing him heal and work wonders. So you see on this day Saint Peter was not going to misunderstand who Jesus was.
This experience of Transfiguration served to confirm to Saint Peter the truth of what he had proclaimed on that day the previous week: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God”.
It wasn’t to stop people thinking that he was the Christ that Jesus charged Peter, James, and John to say nothing. No, there was another reason why he told them to tell no-one what they had seen.
The reason was this. If Peter, James, and John had returned to the plain and told the apostles what they had experienced on the mountain, the apostles would not have comprehended that Jesus was to suffer and die. If you had that experience of glory and majesty, with the Father’s voice in the clouds – surely you would think that is the sort of Messiah who does not suffer, and certainly does not die?
The Messiah, now revealed in his transfigured glory, was the one who was to lead his people to victory. He was not to die a criminal’s death – condemned for blasphemy by the very people who believed that the Messiah was indeed coming. So you see there was a good reason why Jesus said to say nothing to anyone until the Son of Man has risen from the dead. It would have been too hard for the apostles to accept.
Indeed, on the one occasion when Jesus spoke of his passion and death, Saint Peter himself said: “God forbid, Lord, this must not happen to you”. The passion of Jesus was beyond their comprehension. And when it did happen what did Saint Peter say? “I tell you, I do not know him”. So much for having a glimpse of the glory of Christ on the mountain!
This transfigured glory only makes sense with the knowledge of Christ’s resurrected glory and his Ascension, yet to be revealed. Then they would understand. Today Jesus begins a journey by ascending this Mount of Transfiguration. At the end of the Journey he will ascend Mount Calvary. From one mountain to another.
Today he is strengthened for that final journey of journeys. Strengthened no less than by Moses and Elijah, the two great Old Testament Prophets. They not only represent the Law and the Prophets but are the ones who pointed to the coming of the Christ. Saint Luke tells us that these three spoke with Jesus of his Exodus – a word full of meaning. The Head of the Law and the Head of the Prophets have discourse with the Head of the New Covenant.
As Peter, James and John look on, they see something they had learnt as children – God himself communicating on a mountain in the clouds. And in the middle of this communication comes the voice – that same voice they heard at the Jordan when Jesus was baptised: “This is my beloved Son; listen to him”. No wonder they were afraid.
And as if this was not enough, Jesus talks at the end about his rising from the dead. They must have been so confused.
In the parish at the moment I am conducting two confirmation classes, one for adults and one for young people. During the week the homework question for the young people was this: “What would have happened if Jesus hadn’t risen from the dead – but just died and stayed buried?” It’s a question that hardly begs an answer to Christians of course. It’s designed to make them think and reflect.
Of course, if Jesus was only a wandering miracle-worker, and preacher-man, that’s exactly what would have happened. His death would leave Peter, James, and John and the other apostles thinking that Jesus had just died, and that was the end of his life, and he would stay buried.
But full revelation would come after he had risen from the dead. Then they would understand – hence his command to say nothing until then. Despite this command to the apostles, we have the benefit of hindsight. The Transfiguration tells us that, in giving a glimpse of Divine Glory, we see that glory is possible in this life, in creation.
Isn’t that why at Mass we first acknowledge our sins and failings, and confess? Surely because we believe ourselves to be capable, through grace, of something much better. That despite our sins we are called to a glimpse of glory. That despite our sins we are capable of being much better?
The Book of Common Prayer tells us that we become through baptism “A member of Christ, the child of God and an inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven”. So we already have the glory. But, being human and sinners, we tarnish the glory and are forgetful of God. The fact of our creation, and our re-birth in baptism, assures us that we do have a touch of glory, no matter how tarnished we make it.
We see that glory in the Resurrection of our Lord. Today we look out from the Mount of Transfiguration to the Hill of Calvary. Before us lies the Season of Lent – our own time to journey with Jesus from this mountain to that hill.
This requires us not just to make rules and some effort of discipline, as Lent challenges us. Nor to look again at our spiritual life and shake it up. It actually requires us to make time – just as Jesus took Peter, James, and John away and had time apart on the mount. It was only a short time – our season goes for forty days.
The story of Elijah on Mount Horeb (1 Kings 19:9-18) gives us the picture: Elijah was very busy for the Lord. There had been lots going on, and in the midst of mayhem he retreats to the mountain. There God speaks – not in earthquake, or wind, or fire, but in the still small quiet voice. Then he is commanded to return to the plain and be even more active and zealous for the Lord.
Such is the Season of Lent. May each one of us here experience that quiet voice of God as we retreat to the mountain – as we come apart with Jesus. And as we take time apart from our busy lives, and ascend our own Mount of Transfiguration – may the journey with Jesus be evermore meaningful and strengthening for us. And in doing so may we in confidence walk with Jesus from Mount Tabor to Mount Calvary.