The Holy Glows - Wild Heart: Mark’s Portraits of a Radical Messiah
We’re continuing our series Wild Heart: Mark’s Portrait of a Radical Messiah this morning.
Last we looked at the cost of discipleship and how Jesus puts us all in an awkward place where we have to confess who we believe He is. It’s not good enough to have a family background of faith, or even to have a religious background. Those things can help us come to the point of belief, but what ultimately matters is what we personally believe.
Today we arrive at one of those places in this journey with Jesus that is a great part of the story, I’d say even an important part of this story of Jesus, but one that is a little challenging to convert to helpful truth for our daily life.
It’s the story of the transfiguration of Jesus. Now with out looking at your Bibles (no cheating) I want us to re-tell the story of the transfiguration. Here’s how this is going to work (or not). I’m going to start it off then I want someone else to tell the next part, etc. etc. until we finish. Then we’ll read it and see how we did.
Jesus takes 3 of His disciples up on a mountain. The 3 disciples were………(feel free to make something us if need to.)
So let’s read Mark 9:1-13….
We don’t know much about this event but we do that…..
The Holy glowed….
So let’s cut right to the chase here, the most amazing thing about this story is that Jesus glowed. The word ‘transfigured’ come from the same Greek word where we get metamorphosis. If you remember j. high biology you know that’s the big word for what happens to a caterpillar when it goes into its cocoon and comes out a butterfly.
Something amazing happened on that mountain that we can’t quite explain but we know it happened. There were 5 witnesses. Peter, James, John, Moses and Elijah who saw it and since 3 of the 4 gospels mention it we have assurance that it happened. For a brief moment the divine glory of Christ broke through the human veil that was hiding it.
The holy glow symbolized the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. They saw Jesus talking with Moses and Elijah, and the gospel of Luke tells us the topic of conversation was Jesus’ suffering and death. In fact the word used in Luke means exodus, or departure from this life. The presence of Moses the law giver and Elijah the prophet conversing with Jesus about His death which fulfilled the penalty of the law was a picture of what Jesus came to do.
What the law was unable to do and what the preaching of the prophets couldn’t do, Jesus, is His death, accomplished. It was on the cross that Jesus said “it is finished” and the veil of the temple was torn revealing the Holy of Holies for everyone to see.
This moment of holy glow was a symbol of what was before and what was still to come.
Phil. 2:6-8 tells us that Jesus set aside His glory to take on human flesh and that in death He would be glorified.
The holy glow revealed the hidden glory of Jesus. The disciples saw the glory of Jesus in plain view right before their eyes. It’s no wonder that Peter wanted to build three tabernacles on the mountain. Once you’ve seen the glory you want to stay there and enjoy it!
But what we see here is that Jesus isn’t content with His disciples staying on the mountain because there’s still a mission to run in the valley. Jesus spent much more time with His disciples in the valley than He did on mountaintops.
We long for holy glow revelations of Jesus but we walk with Him in the valleys of life. The mountain top experiences open our eyes and hearts to fresh revelations of His glory, but the walks in the valleys are where the kingdom of God intersects with our daily life. Another way of thinking about this is that Jesus only reveals Himself to His followers then we reveal Him to others by the way we walk with Him every day.
When we walk with Jesus in the darkness His holy glow shines through us. That’s why Jesus made the disciples leave the mountain and that’s why He makes us leave the mountain. The mountain top limits the exposure of the glory only the followers of Jesus experience it, but the glory of Jesus is revealed through the lives of those who walk with Jesus in the valley.
Last we looked at the cost of discipleship and how Jesus puts us all in an awkward place where we have to confess who we believe He is. It’s not good enough to have a family background of faith, or even to have a religious background. Those things can help us come to the point of belief, but what ultimately matters is what we personally believe.
Today we arrive at one of those places in this journey with Jesus that is a great part of the story, I’d say even an important part of this story of Jesus, but one that is a little challenging to convert to helpful truth for our daily life.
It’s the story of the transfiguration of Jesus. Now with out looking at your Bibles (no cheating) I want us to re-tell the story of the transfiguration. Here’s how this is going to work (or not). I’m going to start it off then I want someone else to tell the next part, etc. etc. until we finish. Then we’ll read it and see how we did.
Jesus takes 3 of His disciples up on a mountain. The 3 disciples were………(feel free to make something us if need to.)
So let’s read Mark 9:1-13….
We don’t know much about this event but we do that…..
The Holy glowed….
So let’s cut right to the chase here, the most amazing thing about this story is that Jesus glowed. The word ‘transfigured’ come from the same Greek word where we get metamorphosis. If you remember j. high biology you know that’s the big word for what happens to a caterpillar when it goes into its cocoon and comes out a butterfly.
Something amazing happened on that mountain that we can’t quite explain but we know it happened. There were 5 witnesses. Peter, James, John, Moses and Elijah who saw it and since 3 of the 4 gospels mention it we have assurance that it happened. For a brief moment the divine glory of Christ broke through the human veil that was hiding it.
The holy glow symbolized the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. They saw Jesus talking with Moses and Elijah, and the gospel of Luke tells us the topic of conversation was Jesus’ suffering and death. In fact the word used in Luke means exodus, or departure from this life. The presence of Moses the law giver and Elijah the prophet conversing with Jesus about His death which fulfilled the penalty of the law was a picture of what Jesus came to do.
What the law was unable to do and what the preaching of the prophets couldn’t do, Jesus, is His death, accomplished. It was on the cross that Jesus said “it is finished” and the veil of the temple was torn revealing the Holy of Holies for everyone to see.
This moment of holy glow was a symbol of what was before and what was still to come.
Phil. 2:6-8 tells us that Jesus set aside His glory to take on human flesh and that in death He would be glorified.
The holy glow revealed the hidden glory of Jesus. The disciples saw the glory of Jesus in plain view right before their eyes. It’s no wonder that Peter wanted to build three tabernacles on the mountain. Once you’ve seen the glory you want to stay there and enjoy it!
But what we see here is that Jesus isn’t content with His disciples staying on the mountain because there’s still a mission to run in the valley. Jesus spent much more time with His disciples in the valley than He did on mountaintops.
We long for holy glow revelations of Jesus but we walk with Him in the valleys of life. The mountain top experiences open our eyes and hearts to fresh revelations of His glory, but the walks in the valleys are where the kingdom of God intersects with our daily life. Another way of thinking about this is that Jesus only reveals Himself to His followers then we reveal Him to others by the way we walk with Him every day.
When we walk with Jesus in the darkness His holy glow shines through us. That’s why Jesus made the disciples leave the mountain and that’s why He makes us leave the mountain. The mountain top limits the exposure of the glory only the followers of Jesus experience it, but the glory of Jesus is revealed through the lives of those who walk with Jesus in the valley.
Labels: Mark 9:1-13, transfiguration
posted by Jerry Stitzel @ 12:57 PM
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