Sunday March 16, 2014 (Matthew 17:1-9) There are three mountains/hills worth recalling today; Mount Tabor, the Mount of Olives, and Calvary. Today we read about Jesus being transfigured before Peter, James, and John on Mount Taber. “His face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light.” Peter, awestruck and caught up in the moment, excitedly declared “If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” Yet Jesus did not wish to stay up high on the mountain in such a glorious state, for that was not the reason why he came into the world; he came into the world to suffer and die. Instead they went back down the mountain and Jesus went on with his public ministry. A little while later we read the story of the Last Supper. After the Passover meal, “they went out to the Mount of Olives”. It is there that Jesus began to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane, asking that none other than Peter, James, and John keep watch. When they failed to keep watch and Jesus was arrested, the story of the Passion began to unfold. It concluded with Jesus on the cross on the hill of Calvary. Mount Tabor, Mount of Olives, Calvary. At the first mountain, Jesus was glorified as the Son of God. The next, he went through agony as he began to pray for an hour. The final is where he would breathe his last. Mount of Olives and Calvary would not have happened if Jesus would have stayed on Mount Tabor, comfortable in his glorified state in a “tent” where it was nice and safe. Following the Father’s will required that he come down from one mountain in order to carry the Cross up another. Once he was dead, he would make his way down one more time (to the depths of Hell) before rising on Easter Sunday and ascending into Heaven 40 days later where he would take on the glorified state foreshadowed in the Transfiguration that we read about today.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 20:08:08 +0000
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