Down from the Mountaintop

DOWN FROM THE MOUNTAINTOP 

Mark 9:2 Jesus took Peter, James, and John with him up onto a mountaintop to pray. And as he was praying, he was transfigured before them, his face began to shine, and his clothes became dazzling white and blazed with light. Then two men appeared and began talking with him—Moses and Elijah! They were splendid in appearance, glorious to see; and they were speaking of his death at Jerusalem, to be carried out in accordance with God’s plan.
As Moses and Elijah were starting to leave, Peter, all confused and not even knowing what he was saying, blurted out, “Master, this is wonderful! We’ll put up three tents —one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah!”
But even as he was saying this, a bright cloud formed above them; and they were in awe as it covered them. And a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.” Then, as the voice died away, Jesus was there alone with his disciples. He told them not to tell anyone what they had seen until after his resurrection from the dead, but they did not understand what he meant. 

The greatest show on earth
The account of the transfiguration of Jesus on the top of a mountain depicts what could be called the most spectacular phenomenon to be described in the Bible. It was a time and a place where Heaven was seen to touch the earth, where Jesus shone in glory as a kind of preview of his glorified resurrected Heavenly self in the presence of the Heavenly forms of Moses and Elijah. The Heavenly Moses represented the Law and Commandments which speaks of God’s wisdom to his people, while the Heavenly prophet Elijah speaks of God’s word of purpose for his people.
This was also an astonishing historical record of an event that confirms for all believers the truth of the word ‘Incarnation’ which means the joining of the Being of God with the being of humanity in the glorified person of Jesus Christ. To those standing by it affirmed that Jesus was from Heaven and that he was known by the prophet Elijah and by the lawgiver Moses as the one who was the destined Lord and King of Heaven and Earth. If ever any Jewish person were to take seriously this magnificent occurrence as an historical account of seeing Israel’s holy prophet Elijah and their revered Lawgiver Moses speaking with the glorified Jesus as their promised Messiah, they would fall on the ground and worship him as God. (And they all will in time!).
Three gospels recount this story. Matthew 17:1–8, Mark 9:2, Luke 9:28.

The background story
Just before going up the mountain Jesus had been teaching his disciples about his going to the cross and dying and being raised up again, which was difficult for them to receive, and he challenged them also about following him and that only by losing their lives would they save their lives – all difficult sayings. 
The final thing that he said in those teachings was a remarkable statement; ‘there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God come with power (Mark 9:1).
The simple truth of that statement is that after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus and the sending of the Holy Spirit the Kingdom Age was about to arrive on the earth, and then would begin the time for people to see the Kingdom of God and to live in its power. 
The Kingdom age of faith
The Apostle Peter was one of those people who would not taste death till he had seen the age of the new Kingdom and to enter into it. He also writes about witnessing the mountaintop transfiguration in the Scriptures. 
2Peter 1:10 For we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honour and glory from God the Father, and the voice was spoken to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” we ourselves heard this very voice spoken from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.

That mountaintop reality was the portrayal of everything Israel was and had been concerning their spiritual history and now it was to become the vision of humanity’s spiritual future in living a here and now Kingdom of Heaven life on the earth. And we are now living in that Kingdom age of God and experiencing it through our faith.
Luke writes an epilogue to the mountaintop event, when he shares in the next verse about what happened when they came down from the mountain.

Luke 9:37 The next day as they descended from the mountain, a huge crowd met him, and a man in the crowd called out to him, “Teacher, this boy here is my only son and a spirit has seized him… 
Luke is telling us that the next thing after the mountaintop experience was now the Kingdom work for Jesus to do on the ground, a life of getting in amongst the spiritual chaos and disorder of the world around him and bringing love and wholeness into the physical and emotional pain of the people. The same kind of Kingdom activity was waiting for the disciples to enter into, and the same kind of Kingdom activity is waiting for us to enter into as well. 

The Jesus model of mountaintop prayer
When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he modelled to them his way of exercising mountaintop prayer. That was always a place where Heaven touched earth in a very personal way, a time of inner transfiguration where the human heart of Jesus held the glory of God within himself.

Whenever Jesus went up onto a mountaintop to pray, he would mostly go alone, to be with his Father. That was the first of the three stages of his mountaintop prayer, climbing the mountain and leaving everything else behind. 
The second stage was being on the mountaintop in the presence of his Father.
The third stage was coming back down the mountain and engaging with the challenges of life below.

Jesus said to them ‘follow me’, and he is also saying the same to us in his modelling of mountaintop prayer to us.
The discipline of this personal devotional prayer is still a discipline that needs a willingness to attend to, but by following his guidelines this approach turns prayer into a rest and refuge for our souls rather than a struggle that wearies our souls.

The first stage of climbing the mountain is our willingness to take the trek towards the mountaintop while still carrying the struggles of earthly things to reach a higher place of being with God. It’s as though we have put all of our earthly burdens into a backpack that we are now going to lug up a mountain. And when we get to the top, we will place whatever we carried in our backpack into his hands as an act of surrender. Our minds will then be set upon him and not upon the problems. 
Colossians 3:2 set your minds on the things above and not on the things of the earth 
The more often our soul does that trek the easier it gets because we are exercising our souls into a more confident hope as we surrender those burdens to the Lord. We know that he hears our surrendered prayer, and we also know that he knows what is in our backpack before we even unload it onto him. It is the surrender that delights him, and it is the surrender that is our faith.

After placing all our cares upon him the second stage is completed by being on the mountaintop with the Heavenly Jesus as our brother and sharing time with our Father as his child. We now begin to have our souls transformed (metamorpho?? - transfiguration) by the power of the Holy Spirit as we sit and receive Kingdom of Heaven life from him. This is where the love and mercy of God captures our heart, and the wisdom of God orders our mind, and the purpose of God directs our way forward. This is where the Apostle Peter wanted to build three tabernacles for Jesus and Moses and Elijah and to stay there and not come back down, but there has to be a coming down from the mountaintop.

The third stage is coming down the mountain and finding faith to do the work of God in our simple everyday faithfulness to whatever task or whatever relational occasion will present itself. This is where we can allow his Heavenly life and love to bring words and deeds of meaning into the lives of those around us. 

A recollection process
If we start each day with a mountaintop time with Jesus and the Father and the Holy Spirit, we can have times of ‘recollection’ of this grace filled time of rest and refuge for our souls throughout the day for short periods of time. We recommit our surrendered prayer, and in this way, we maintain the flow of his kingdom purpose within our hearts. (It need only take a minute – twenty seconds reviewing the backpack trek up the mountain, twenty seconds receiving transforming grace, and twenty seconds preparing to re-enter the busy world while carrying his presence instead of a backpack of problems). Things will happen around us in the will of God that we could never have organized to happen by our own planning. 
But who qualifies for this kind of privilege? When I asked myself that question, I found the answer was a simple prayer.

A Kingdom Prayer
Dear Lord, 
I wish to see your Kingdom reality this day and to have entrance into your Kingdom activity. I believe I am qualified for this as I am an imperfect human being that you died for and rose again for and who is in constant need of your mercy. I delight to do your will O Lord but I need your help. I need the empowering grace of your Holy Spirit to do that. Thank you for hearing this prayer and attending to my cry at this very moment. 
I now surrender this day to you.
Your Beloved Child xo (see you on the Mountain)