Sermon in English January 31st 2021 German Church Atlanta
On the Mountain Top with Jesus Matthew 17, Verse 1-9 17 After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. 3 Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus. 4 Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” 5 While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” 6 When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. 7 But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.” 8 When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus. 9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, “Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”
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Dear Congregation, This is probably the story of one of the happiest moments in the Bible: The three disciples with Jesus on the mountain of transfiguration. Thereby you need to imagine the three disciples at the beginning of the story as rather confused and upset. No long ago Jesus told them for the first time that he will soon have to suffer, in Jerusalem, and that then he would be killed there. Peter responded: “Never, Lord!” “This shall never happen to you!” But Jesus rejected his words strongly. “Go away” he said “if you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” And further he said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” This means that suffering and sadness would be part of their life, and life would put a spoke in their wheels at times. They would not be spared these experiences on the way they wanted to walk with Jesus. However, this is not how they had imagined their walk with him. But he told them. And he also said “This and nothing else will be the way that leads to life. “For whoever wants to save their life”, for whom the protection of their own life and possessions is the most important “will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.” “How is that? The disciples were confused. How should they understand this tension? Which feelings were more justified: the fear of what would come- or the trust in him who promised them in everything true and full life? These questions need time. They need to go through one’s ears into one’s head. And from the head they need to go down into one’s heart – and also into one’s gut…until the whole person is filled with what Jesus is talking about. And that needs time. We humans need time to understand. And this is how six days passed. However, then, this is how our story today begins: “After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James” Jesus just chose them out of the group and took them out of the depth of their shock and fear and out of the deep ambivalence of their
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thoughts and feelings, “and led them up a high mountain by themselves.” What might they have thought in this moment? In any case they went with him. And maybe they noticed soon: This feels good. Just walking. Silently walking with Jesus. Leaving the valley further and further behind. Climbing higher. Noticing how your view enlarges. Finally you reach the top that is higher than any other mountain around. You have the endless sky above you. Yes, our story is about change of view, however, it is about even more than that. The story reads: “There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. 3 Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus. Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” And this, dear Congregation, is the moment of which I said in the beginning it was probably one of the most joyful moments in the whole new Testament. Jesus, on whom they built their life, Jesus who just recently shocked them so much with his prediction of suffering; Jesus who they loved and who they felt so close to – and who they at other times experienced as foreign and hard to understand: This Jesus was transformed in front of their eyes. And there was now no darkness anymore – only bright light. There was nothing anymore that they did not understand – only shining clarity. There was no prediction of death in the air anymore- there was only life! And yet, it was the same Jesus. The same that a few moments ago had appeared so dark and not understandable. And then two great figures from the Old Testament appeared, Moses and Elia. Moses who lead Israel out of captivity in Egypt and who brought the Ten Commandments to the Israelites as guides towards life. And Elijah the prophet from the early times. Moses and Elijah, those two of whom people expected they would return one day, and then the peaceful Kingdom of the Messiah would begin.
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The whole story of God’s people of Israel and all their hopes those were now present in these two figures on the mountain top. The two of them in trusting conversation with Jesus, and the three disciples very close by. That is when suddenly everything was at peace! All was healed, all longing had been satisfied. The disciples understand what is offered to them like a dream right in front of their eyes. They want to prolong and celebrate the transformation. “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” This perfect moment shall stay, preferably forever, and they want to be there, watch and be joyful. We probably would have felt similarly and might have said the same words at this place – in this moment of deep joy! Especially after the six days that were behind them and with the prospect on the journey that Jesus had predicted, now even more than before. And yet they won’t get to build shelters on the top of the mountain. As justified as the disciples’ joy is, at the same time this joy is not meant to settle down in. Time does not stop, the story continues, the most important is yet to come: “While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” “Listen to him!” with these words of the voice from the cloud Jesus is introduced to the disciples as the one empowered by God. Everything that they need to hear about God, about meaning and aim of their lives, everything they need, they hear from him. And beside him there is no other voice that has equally important to say. “Listen to him!” That is more than watch and be amazed. Listen- here it is about the disciples themselves. Listening – that aims at their trust, at their faith, and at their actions. What they have seen and heard there on the mountain top that lasts long beyond the moment of deep happiness and joy. They are meant to take it with them when they descend down again into the plain and back into their daily life. And what is it that they are supposed to listen to? Probably those words that he told them a few days before: “I will need to suffer and die, and this is supposed to happen like that. I walk this journey aware 4
and trusting while listening to God. And you, too, can walk this walk with me. That what is awaiting me and also you, that will not separate me from God and from the life that he promises us. Quite the contrary. And that is being proclaimed here on the top of the mountain in this way: ““This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” Some people call this scene on the mountain an anticipatory resurrection story. On his way to the cross the disciples are allowed to see Jesus one time already transformed into the light figure of the resurrected. This is how they should listen to him. This is how they should follow them – already now with this image in front of their eyes. This is what they should take with them as an assurance: “His journey will not be lost in death, it leads to life. When they hear from Jesus, everything has to do with the resurrection and whatever he says always some of this light is illuminating. When they hear him that is when death does not have the last word. If you understand what is happening this way, it should make the joy of the disciples even greater. Were they happy before, when they were watching as mere spectators - now it is being promised to them for their own life. This experience is meant to bring clarity into the confusion of their circling thoughts and their opposite feelings, between trust and fear, between helplessness and assurance. However, now as they are being addressed so directly, the react very differently: “When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. Joy and bewilderment are close connected. This experience is so much bigger than themselves. How can they translate this into their life? I think we can be glad to also hear about the disciples’ fear and trembling. This makes the story accessible also to us. What is being told here, is really something immensely great. Who could just take it and simply believe it for oneself? And yet the story does not leave the disciples in their fear. It also does not just leave us with ourselves and with the things that frighten us, that bind us or tie us down. The story continues with a soft touch and with personal words. But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.” 8 When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.
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I believe at that moment the three disciples also were somewhat transformed. Now that what they had seen and heard seemed like a dream that had reached into their reality. Such touch and such words can solve the spell that is upon us, under which we can only see our very own limited possibilities, the spell of fear, of insecurity and hopelessness. Such touch and such words can make us free for the next step and for that what is next and that will need to happen. “Get up”! That is resurrection in small. Resurrection that not only awaits us at the end of our life, but that wants to be real already now in our present life. “Get up” out of those things that push you down “and do not be afraid”. Do not be afraid of those things that life brings towards you, of those daily moments of resurrection in your own life. And do not be afraid of what you have seen and heard here on top of the mountain. Do not be afraid to take this image with you as something you can remember and as something that wants to shine within you and that again and again lies ahead of you. “Get up and do not be afraid!” 8 When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus. No Moses anymore, no Elijah, and no shining cloud. They saw Jesus – in his care for them, how he began walking back the path they had climbed earlier. Back from the mountain top down into the plain. They surely saw themselves and the friends beside them. And after coming down from the mountain they saw all the other people who belonged to their world. And most of all they saw Jesus. With eyes that had seen all that happened. And so they must have seen each other also with new eyes. With eyes that had caught the light that they saw on top of the mountain. And so they were able to see Jesus and themselves as well in the perspective of this light. However dark it might have been otherwise. And when they in the midst of it listened to Jesus who called all people his sisters and brothers and who did not give up on anybody, then this transforming and renewing light had to shine also on all the others. We, dear Congregation, weren’t there on top of the mountain. However, today we joined the disciples in our imagination on their journey, all the way to the top. We experienced with them the moment of deep joy and returned with them to the reality of life. 6
And there, into our daily life we can take this story. I wish that we all have eyes that receive their light from within. I wish us a way of looking that can imagine the transformation of people. A way of looking that does not lock the other person into the image we had made of him or her. I wish that we will have the courage to see in others those moments of resurrection. Everybody – yet not at last also for ourselves. “Get up, and do not be afraid” Jesus also says to us. He is the one that the voice from the cloud called “This is my beloved Son”. And so that voice also says to us: “You are my sisters and my brothers, God’s beloved children. “Get up” come with me, follow me on the path that I am walking. “Do not be afraid”! Whatever will happen on your journey of life: Allow me to talk to you and listen to me. Allow me to touch you, to lift you and transform you. Find me on your side. Recognize me, as I have walked before you, and follow me. This is the way to new life. Amen And the peace of God that transcends and transforms all our understanding may keep your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen
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