Come Down the Mountain

Mark 9: 2-9

“2 After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. 3 His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. 4 And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus. 5 Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” 6 (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.) 7 Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!” 8 Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus. 9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.”

Have you ever been on a vacation and had such a good time that you hated to leave?  In fact you may have toyed with the idea of staying an extra day or two?  And you may have done it, but you still had to come home. You still had to “go down the mountain” to the real world.

Jesus and three of His disciples had a wonderful experience on the mountain. You might say it was a mountain top experience.  Peter wanted to build shelters and  stay on the mountain for a longer period of time. 

But, they had to go back down, where people were waiting for them; where they put into practice what they had learned on the mountain top.

In our spiritual lives, God will call us to the mountain top, where we will have a keen awareness of God’s presence; where we will learn things about God we never knew.  And, God also calls us to go back down the mountain to live out our faith.

Go up the mountain.  Have a wonderful spiritual experience that changes you in some way.  

But then come down the mountain... and change the world.  

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)