Mountaintop experience …

For a while, all of the television talk shows were into “makeover mania.” You could hardly turn on a show that wasn’t featuring someone being “made over.” Sometimes it would be an audience member who would be taken for a “complete makeover” … new hair style, new wardrobe, new make-up. The frumpy housewife would be taken away and brought back looking a lot less “frumpy.”

In fact, a few shows just about making people … or places! … over came out, to some level of popularity. People liked seeing someone transformed and being so much better looking than when they started.

In that case, people would have loved the transfiguration of Jesus!

Peter, James and John did. Especially Peter. Perhaps too much so!

Matthew 17:1-8 tells the story of Jesus taking Peter, James and John up a high mountain and, once there, Jesus experienced a “makeover.” Actually, it wasn’t really a makeover because it wasn’t improving on the current, it was the real character busting through the layer of flesh! The passages say that Jesus’ face shined brighter than the sun and His clothes were more brilliant than any earthly launderer could make them. Suddenly, appearing with Him were a couple of heavyweights from the Old Testament — Moses and Elijah.

Here was Jesus, in a glorified form, standing in the midst of Moses, who represented the Law, and Elijah, who represented the prophets, both from the Old Covenant, with Jesus easily the superior to both as He represented the New Covenant.

It was a true mountaintop experience for the three apostles. Peter was especially taken with the experience, as we see in Matthew 17:4, “Peter exclaimed, ‘Lord, it’s wonderful for us to be here! If you want, I’ll make three shelters as memorials—one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.'”

Peter’s outburst reminds me of a commercial I remember seeing as a kid for Kodak film. The commercial showed the cutest little boy playing in a field with the most adorable puppy you’ve ever seen. The two playing together was a heartwarming picture, it just wanted to make you say, “Awww, how cute!” Then suddenly there was a clicking sound like that of a camera shutter when taking a picture, and then an announcer spoke the commercial tag line: “Kodak: because time goes by.”

The idea in the commercial was that this moment of play between the boy and the puppy was so heartwarming and so adorable that you just wanted to capture that moment forever, you never wanted to let something so innocent and beautiful pass. So, hang onto it forever by capturing it in a picture.

Peter wanted to do something like that during this time of Jesus’ transfiguration. He didn’t have a camera, so instead of taking a picture, he suggested he build three temporary shelters so they could linger on in that glorious moment, and the shelters would also serve as memorials of the experience.

Peter was so caught up in the “spiritual high” he was missing the lesson of the moment. The mistake he made was putting Moses and Elijah on an equal footing with Jesus, offering to build three shelters (or tabernacles) … one for Jesus, as well as one for Moses and one for Elijah. The passage tells us while he was yet speaking God interrupts the scene to correct Peter: “But even as he spoke, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy. Listen to him.’ The disciples were terrified and fell face down on the ground.”

Peter was so captivated with this mountaintop experience that he wanted to hang onto that moment forever, he wanted to linger there as long as possible, to not let such a significant experience pass.

All of us like the “high” of a mountaintop experience. But what Peter didn’t initially understand was that mountaintop experiences are just for the moment, given to us by God to refresh, inspire, and stretch us. They aren’t a place to stay permanently. But they are given to us to help us better see Jesus as He is. Once God corrected Peter, the only one they saw was “… only Jesus” (v.8).

That’s what mountaintop experiences are for … to help us see “only Jesus.” To clear out the clutter and get focused on Jesus as He is, the glorified risen Savior. These experiences help motivate us on to where the real ministry is, which is down in the valley, those times off the mountaintop.

Look at verse 14a, “At the foot of the mountain, a large crowd was waiting for them …” The mountaintop was personally inspirational, but it wasn’t a place for ministry. But at the bottom of the mountain was a mass of people in need. People who were hurting and suffering. People who needed healing, who needed a Savior.

Ministry is in the valley!

God is gracious in giving us mountaintop experiences where we are refreshed, inspired, and see Jesus better. But those times are for the moment, to be appreciated and a part of cherished memories. But real service, real life, real Christianity, real Christlikeness, is in getting off the mountain, down into the valley, and serving those in need.

Are you living in the past? Are you wallowing in the comfort of the status quo with your church, your home group, the heartwarming fellowship you experience? Are you doing everything you can to hang onto the mountaintop experiences of yesterday while avoiding the ministry down in the valley?

Or have you gotten off the mountaintop and into the middle of the need found in the valley?

Ministry is in the valley … come on down and serve in true Christlikeness!

Scotty