Explosion of Light! I Saw Jesus on Top a Mountain

from Matthew 17:1-9, Mark 9:2-8, Luke 9:28-36, 2 Peter 1:16-18

Imagine you’re taking a hike, high above the waters of the Galilee, following a narrow trail through bends and turns and twists and rises.

You are climbing amidst the tall rugged rocks upon a mountainside, following after Jesus as He climbs higher and higher. He had turned to you and two of the others earlier today and invited you “up” with Him – “up” to where you didn’t get the chance to ask. And, ever since, you have been silently following after Him: struggling and straining as He climbs higher and higher up this narrow trail.

Where in the world are we going? you wonder to yourself. The late-day sun feels hot upon your face. You occasionally turn around and look back down the trail toward the Sea of Galilee, wishing you were swimming in its blue waters…

But, higher, higher, higher, Jesus hikes up. Will He never, ever stop?

Well, suddenly, He stops. He motions the three of you to sit down under the shade of a tree. You have arrived in an open stretch of level ground, rounded about by tall reddish boulders, like walls around you. Sitting down in the shade of that one little tree, you suddenly realize just how tired this day of hiking has made you. All the twisting and turning, hiking up, hiking down, climbing, climbing, climbing, climbing has got you feeling like you could take a nap.

For a moment, you are trying to fight it…

Then…

you’re not…

Because now you’re asleep.

And it’s when you start to feel yourself awaking that you suddenly realize the whole world around you is flooded with light. But it’s more than light: the feeling against your face and the front of your eyelids is far more powerful: you’re almost afraid to open up your eyes.

But, finally, you open them. Just a little. You try to just peer out and see whatever there is to see. You only barely open your eyes and yet – immediately! – you are overwhelmed by exactly what it is you’re seeing.

Jesus… but Jesus with a face like the sun.

Jesus glowing gloriously like every ounce of all the light and glory in the universe got together and descended upon Him, all at once.

And there’s two other men, glowing there beside Him. One is saying to Jesus, “You, Jesus, are the One the Lord our God has raised up, a prophet like me, from among the people! Our Father God has put His words in your mouth, and you speak to all the people all that our Father God commands!”

You know those words: this man must be mighty Moses!

Now the other man is saying, “You, Jesus, are the fire of Heaven falling upon the earth; you are also the sacrifice consumed…”

And you remember the story of that sacrifice and that fire from the writings of the prophets: this other man must be the prophet Elijah!

And that’s the exact moment that Peter opens his big mouth!

“Master,” he says, “it is wonderful that we should get to be here with you! Let me put up a tent… or a house… or a shack, so that you and Moses and Elijah have a place to stay—”

But even before those words have left his lips, a thunderous sound from Heaven shakes the whole earth beneath you:

“THIS IS MY SON, MY CHOSEN! LISTEN TO HIM!”

As you feel the ground you’re lying on finally stopping all its shaking from that voice, you almost feel brave enough to look up. You have no idea if the sky and the mountains and the tree will even be there anymore: so powerful was the booming of that voice from Heaven.

So, you prepare yourself to open your eyes; to look up…

…you are telling yourself, Be strong, Be courageous…

…and when you finally open your eyes and turn your gaze toward that scene from just before…

…only Jesus is standing there.

He is standing in the middle of the level ground, totally alone, totally Himself: just His normal cloak, sandals and that look on His face. He is quietly regarding you, Peter and John, as the three of you are huddled under the shade of that little sapling.

“Have you begun to begin to understand who I AM?” He asks.

Yes, you say. I have begun to begin. 

Let’s Talk About It

• Draw a picture or describe what you think Jesus looks like in His heavenly form.

• How would you feel if you suddenly saw Him like that?