As our text says, Jesus invited the three to accompany him to the mountaintop. People aren’t sure which mountain it was, but that isn’t the issue. Jesus invited his three leading disciples to go with him, leaving behind the nine other men.

Jesus often removed himself from his followers, and certainly from the crowds that followed him everywhere and made demands on him. Often he needed to be quiet and gather himself once more before returning to his ministry.

We can’t know what prompted Jesus to go to the mountaintop that day with the three men. We can read the scriptures leading up to the mountaintop, however, and see what was on his mind. Two big things were on his mind that day, I suspect.

In Matthew 16, the chapter preceding the transfiguration account, Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is? What are people saying about me?” And Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” And Jesus told Peter that because of his insight he would be the foundation of the church. Then Jesus went on to warn the disciples not to tell others about this disclosure...to keep it to themselves. This was the first time Jesus acknowledged that he was the Messiah.

But having acknowledged this, he said quite plainly that he expected to be put to death when he went to Jerusalem. And that must have floored the men. They had only begun to assimilate the first news and probably consider what advantage it held for their futures, when Jesus told them that he anticipated dying in Jerusalem. Imagine how stunned they were.

Peter, again the spokesman, this time said, “No way.” Like most of us, Peter didn’t welcome the bad news especially when Jesus warned them that if they followed him their lives, too, would be in danger. Their reward would not be an assignment as provincial governor but possible suffering and death. And Peter said, “No way.”

And so Jesus needed to withdraw to the mountaintop, to think, to pray, to be quiet, and he chose Peter, James and John to go with him. Whatever they had personally thought about Jesus as they followed him through Galilee, whatever they had hoped it would hold for their futures, it was clear now - painfully clear - and Jesus invited them to go with him to the mountaintop.

Jesus had called Peter inspired by God when he said you are the Messiah. Jesus called Peter inspired by Satan when he disclaimed the possibility of suffering and death. Peter, like the rest of the men, like most of us, did not want to hear that his Lord would die in Jerusalem and that in all likelihood, the same thing would happen to those who remained faithful to him.

And as the disciples tried to deal with the good news and the bad news, Jesus invited the three to go up to the mountaintop with him. There has always been something about a mountaintop. It removes you from clamor. It gives distance on the world...something about a mountaintop. It was on the mountaintop that Moses met God...that God sealed the covenant with Israel by giving Moses his law. It was time to return to the mountaintop. Time to escape the crowds. Time to take the long view. Did Jesus know it was time to be touched once more by God? Probably not. God usually surprises.

But at this moment, Jesus was in need of strength, and so were his followers. It was a time of transition. A time leading into a convulsive unknown. As the four men were on the mountaintop that day, Peter, James and John saw to their utter astonishment that change had come over Jesus. His face was shining like the sun. His clothes were dazzling white. Two figures appeared to be talking to him. And it seemed to the three that one was Moses, father of the Law, and the other the great prophet Elijah. Law and prophet talking with Jesus. In that moment, in the eyes of the three disciples, Jesus took his place in the scheme of God’s ongoing revelation to humankind. God’s revelation through the Law. God’s revelation of his will through the prophets.

God’s revelation of the primacy of love through Jesus. Summing up the whole revelation was a voice, a voice that issued from a cloud and said, “This is my Son, my beloved, with him I am well pleased; listen to him.” And whatever doubts the disciples may have had before, they were dispelled. Their Lord was Messiah. Their Lord would be called to suffer and die, and so might they. Overwhelmed, they fainted from fear. God had come too close, and what they experienced made them feel very small.

Over the years the church has used the transfiguration text as one more proof that Jesus was God’s Son. And certainly the transfiguration text, like the baptism at the Jordan River, were both events when the Spirit of God affirmed the man from Nazareth as His own, His Own in whom he was well pleased. The transfiguration scene, like the baptismal scene on the Jordan, are like book ends that contain and support the ministry of Jesus. On one end at the Jordan, God reaches out to Jesus affirming him as beloved son and in this way preparing and empowering Jesus for the temptations in the wilderness and three-year ministry to follow.

In today’s text Jesus’ ministry is drawing to a close, and foreseeing his end Jesus needs strength. It is clear to Jesus that there will be a clash, and he may well die. Once again the man from Nazareth needed to be made ready to face what awaited him. And on that mountain, as Jesus faced a perilous future, God embraced him once more, illuminating him in his embrace, calling Jesus beloved son and telling his followers to listen to him. The Spirit of God once more stepped into this world and gave Jesus the power, the authority. God gave him what he would need to go to Jerusalem. Whatever lay ahead, Jesus knew he did not walk alone. Whatever lay ahead, Peter, James and John could draw on this incredible day and know they would not walk alone - whatever lay ahead.

The transfiguration is an amazing story, but it would not be the last time that the Spirit of God would reach into our world and embrace and guide and comfort and strengthen a faithful servant. Rudolph Otto has written a classic about experiences of the holy. He uses the word numinous to describe the awareness of God’s presence in our midst...numinous. In the last century, the philosopher William James wrote a collection of God’s appearances to human beings. Varieties of Religious Experience he would call it.

And some of you have known God’s touch in your lives: an embrace when you felt most fragile, an insight when you were lost. God comes when we least expect it but need it most. He comes and disappears just as quickly. But you HAVE been touched. You HAVE been consoled. You HAVE been led. You HAVE been given the strength and enlightened, and things can never again be the same. Life has assumed a third dimension. A very real spiritual dimension. The voice, the vision, the feeling, unmistakably on target with your deepest need. Gone now, but it has left its indelible mark.

“Get up and don’t be afraid,” Jesus told his three friends and they looked up and they saw no one except Jesus, himself, alone. The normal was restored. The numinous filled the air but was gone.

This text used throughout church history to affirm Jesus as Son of God is to me yet more. It comes as one more assurance that in our world as we seek to be faithful to our God, as we seek to be Christ’s disciples in our daily worlds, we do not walk alone. When we most need enlightenment, when we most need assurance, God makes his presence known in, as William James discovered, a variety of ways, always appropriate to the need, never to be forgotten. Jesus and his followers would soon face the hostile authorities, religious and Roman, but how could they forget as they faced and walked through each new danger that moment on the mountain, that empowering affirmation on the mountaintop, that day when God embraced his Beloved Son.

Amen.