This weekend’s story of the Transfiguration of Jesus (Luke 9:28-36) is the biblical equivalent of a movie night out.
We get to see previews of movies yet to be released. The Transfiguration is a preview of what it would be for Jesus in the resurrection. Jesus’ face shines like the sun and his clothes become dazzling white. Jesus is glorified right before the very eyes of Peter, James, and John as he communes with Moses and Elijah.
Previews, unfortunately, don’t last long by their very nature. If they did, they wouldn’t be called “previews.” They would be full-length movies. This is one of the Bible’s true mountaintop experiences, and as we all know, mountaintop experiences don’t last very long.
God never meant for us to live on the mountaintop. We don’t often read about the Transfiguration and include the story immediately after it, but we should. Because the next story is the key to the Transfiguration story.
The disciples and Jesus came off the mountain and they came right down to the bottom of the valley. There they found a boy who was having epileptic seizures. The mother and father were enormously upset and worried about their desperately sick boy. And the little boy had fallen into a fire and burned himself.
In other words, the disciples came down off that mountaintop right into the problems of real life. Home from a mountaintop vacation and into the real world at home. So the disciples discovered that God is also down in the valley and does not live only or even primarily on the mountaintop.
You and I experience the valleys of life. You and I both know what happens the next day coming down from the mountain. It is the real world and the real life. After the Sundays of life, there are always the Mondays. But Jesus is always there with us on the Mondays.
Thanks to Randy Hyde and Edward Markquart for sharing these ideas.
How do YOU feel about Jesus being with YOU on YOUR Mondays?
I’m in Los Angeles with my 88-year old brother Tom who is in critical condition. Please keep Tom and myself in your prayers. Thanks so much…..Fr. Med Laz
JESUS….JUST THE WHISPER OF YOUR NAME BRINGS THE POWER OF YOUR PRESENCE!
