Luke 9:28-43
February 27, 2022
When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen. (Luke 9:36, NRSV)
As I did a few weeks ago, I’m going spend a little time this morning imagining with you what all of that that was just described might have been like for Peter.
First of all, remember that, according to Luke, just a week or so before all of this happened, Jesus had asked the twelve disciples what people were saying about him, who people were saying he was.
And the answers had been varied: John the Baptist, Elijah, one of the other prophets from long ago somehow come back to life. (cf. Luke 9:18-19)
Then Jesus had asked THEM: “And you—what are you saying about me? Who do you say I am?”
And Peter answered, “You’re the Messiah.” (cf. Luke 9:20)
And Jesus didn’t say, “Ding ding ding! We have a winner!!” At least not in so many words. But he effectively did say that–as the NRSV puts it, “He sternly ordered and commanded them not to tell anyone…” (cf. Luke 9:21) It doesn’t seem like he would have reacted that way had their assessment of who he was been wrong…
So, Peter, I imagine, was feeling pretty good for having nailed it! Yes! I can imagine him thinking. I knew it! I knew he was the Messiah! I called it! I called it! Not James or John or Andrew… Me! I knew it! Ha!
Fast forward eight days. Jesus said, “Hey, Peter, James, and John–I need to go pray. Up on that mountain over there. And I want you guys to come with me. Come on. Chop chop.”
Again, I can imagine Peter thinking, Cool! He wants me to go with him! Awesome! Maybe it’s because I was the one who knew he was the Messiah…
Some feelings of secret pride, perhaps; some feelings of being special, set apart, chosen by Jesus for something special…
Absolutely I will go up on that mountain with you, Jesus! Lead the way!
And up they went…picking their way along the path, climbing over rocks, up some more…until finally Jesus stopped, looked around, and said, “This is good.” And went off by himself, just a little ways away, to pray. And Peter, and James and John, collapsed on the ground, exhausted.
I can imagine Peter thinking, as he closed his eyes for a few moments, Man, if I had known we were gonna go THIS far up the mountain, maybe I would have tried to get Andrew to take my place! I’m not even sure why we’re here, really…Jesus is over there praying by himself…
And then he opened his eyes, and looked over to where Jesus was, and–wait–what?! Jesus looked different–everything about him was glowing! His face, his clothes… What in the world…?!
And who was over there with him?! James and John were still there next to Peter, but there were two men over by Jesus! Suddenly, Peter somehow knew they were Moses and Elijah! But how…?!
What was happening??
I can imagine that Peter felt a little afraid. Maybe even a lot afraid! Maybe he thought he was hallucinating, or dreaming…He had been really tired! But no, they were really there–Moses. And Elijah. !!
And as the moments passed, I can imagine that maybe Peter’s fear turned into a little bit of excitement… Maybe he felt a little more of that feeling of being special, that feeling of secret pride, that feeling that he had been chosen for something really special by Jesus!
Suddenly he needed Jesus to remember he was there! He needed Jesus to remember that he, Jesus, had asked Peter to be there with him, to be part of this amazing thing that was happening, whatever it was! Peter needed Jesus to remember that he, Peter, had been specially chosen by Jesus to be there with him!…
Maybe they could all stay there for a while, together, all of these important people, this amazing group that Peter had somehow been invited to be a part of, that Peter had somehow been chosen, by Jesus, to be a part of…
But it looked like Moses and Elijah were leaving! No! This amazing thing can’t be over already! It’s just getting started!
And he blurted out, “Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah!” (Luke 9:33) This can’t be over already!
And then, before Jesus could even answer, this cloud appeared. Not even a cloud. More like a dense fog that overtook them all. Peter couldn’t see anything. He couldn’t see Jesus, or Moses, or Elijah. He couldn’t even see James and John, who were right next to him. They were all suddenly enveloped by this thick, dense, fog-like cloud. It was all Peter could see; he could even feel it, surrounding him…
And he was terrified! And again, he was wondering what in the world was happening?! And then suddenly, he heard something! There was a voice coming from the cloud! And the voice said, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” (Luke 9:35b)
And Peter knew–it was the voice of God.
It was Almighty God speaking! It was the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, speaking. It was the Holy God of Israel, the God of Moses, the God of Elijah, speaking about Jesus. Jesus–Peter’s master, his teacher–God was saying, was God’s Son. God’s Chosen. God’s Beloved. Jesus was the Messiah, just like Peter had said… God, the Creator of heaven and earth, had just said so.
And for perhaps the first time in his life, Peter was speechless. There were no words. There was no way to talk about what he had just experienced. There was no way anyone who had not been there would understand. He wasn’t sure even he understood what had happened!
Peter had experienced God naming and claiming Jesus as God’s own Son…
Peter had experienced God naming and claiming Jesus as God’s Chosen, God’s Beloved…
Peter had experienced God naming and claiming Jesus as God’s Word who needed to be heard…
Peter had experienced God–and he knew, with a certainty that he had not known before, that in Jesus he would experience God in a way that the world had not experienced before, and he was speechless.
What do you do after something like that? What do you do with all of that? How do you integrate all of that, into the rest of your life?
Not knowing how to talk about it, maybe Peter wasn’t going to talk about it. Maybe he thought if he tried to talk about it, people would think he was crazy… Maybe he wanted to keep it to himself–if he felt he’d been specially chosen by Jesus to be a part of all of that, maybe it wasn’t meant to be shared, maybe it was a special thing, just for him, to hold, to strengthen his own faith, to deepen his own sense of being chosen by Jesus…
The next day, I think he got a different answer.
The next day, after they had come down from the mountain and were already surrounded by a crowd of people, a man in the crowd shouted out to Jesus, and begged him to heal his son.
Jesus, who had just been in the presence of Moses and Elijah. !!
Jesus, who had just been on the mountaintop in the direct presence of Almighty God, and who had been named and claimed by God as God’s own Son, as God’s Chosen…
Jesus, the man shouted, please, heal my son!
Jesus, it seems, could have said, Sorry, that’s beneath me now. Or Sorry, God’s healing is not meant for your son. Or, Sorry, I just had a pret-ty amazing experience, and am not in a good head space to deal with your problems. Or any number of other things.
And he actually did say a few things. But those things were directed at the disciples, not the man.
With regard to the man’s request that Jesus heal his son, Jesus responded–by healing the man’s son.
Jesus had been on the mountaintop, in the direct presence of God, had been named and claimed as God’s own Son, as God’s Chosen One…and immediately lived more deeply into that identity by offering God’s healing to another one of God’s beloved children.
Earlier, I imagined that Peter might have responded to his mountain-top experience of the Reality of God, an experience that affirmed for him with certainty the identity of Jesus as the Messiah, by wanting to keep it to himself, by not talking about it because maybe he didn’t know how to talk about it, by being uncertain how to integrate all of that into his living so maybe not trying to…
And there’s a part of me that wants to say, Shame on you, Peter! Come on! You know better!
And then I wonder, how often have I done that kind of thing?
How often have all of us done those things?
I suspect that as people of faith, we have had experiences, whether big or small, that have convinced us of the Reality of God…but maybe we don’t know how to talk about them…so we don’t talk about them. Maybe we’re afraid people will think we’re crazy if we talk about them. Maybe we think our experiences are not meant to share, that God meant them just for us, so that our own faith might be strengthened, or so that our own sense of being chosen by God might be deepened…
But I think Jesus showed Peter, and us, something different.
I think Jesus, in healing that boy immediately upon coming down from the mountain, shows us that those experiences are not meant to be just for us. They’re meant to help us live into our faith. They’re meant to help us live out our faith.
I think the experiences we have, big and small, that confirm for us the Reality of God are meant to affirm for us our identity as God’s beloved children, so that we might step forward as people of faith with more conviction, living into our faith with more courage, offering the Reality of God and the identity as God’s beloved to the people and world around us!
There is much healing to be found in knowing oneself as God’s Beloved–not only for Jesus, but for each of us!
As we experience the truth of that for ourselves, may we share it more and more with the world.
The need is so great.
Amen.
Rev. Deborah Beloved Church (aka "Pastor Deb") 