The Mountains and the Valleys. (Mark 9: 1-13)
Most people would agree that life has it high points and it low points.
There are good times and not so good times. There are mountains and there are valleys. We all want to remember the special mountain top moments in life. Leaving school or graduating university, a new job, or a new career, engagement, Marriage, the birth of a child.
Life however is not just one mountain peak after another, because there are also valleys. Valleys are those difficult moments that you would like to forget. You don’t need me to list them out, but they range from the loss of a job or the breakup of a marriage or perhaps even the death of a family member. However, have you ever considered the thought that the life of faith also has it highs and lows. Spiritual highs might include the day we fully understood that God loved us personally and Jesus died for us, or maybe an answer to a heartfelt prayer. Perhaps the day of our baptism, or the coming to faith of a dear friend or family member.
Spiritual lows might be, not getting an answer to prayer in the way we expect. The falling away of a believer, or even falling short or falling back into old habits we thought we had left behind. What is it important to understand about these highs and lows in our spiritual lives is there are some very valuable lessons to learn from both experiences. Things to learn when we reach the mountains top. But there is just as much to learned in the valleys if we choose to approach them in the right ways. So, let’s look at the helpful passage of scripture where we will witness the disciples going from a mountain top experience (A real spiritual high point) to within a few verses being down in a deep valley.
The way they responded to these events may well help us know how to handles our own mountain tops and our valleys. When considering the verses that were going to look at together this time you will notice I divide them into two clear parts. In verses 1-8 they will be e on the mountain top and in verses 9-13 they are in the valley. Let’s start with the mountain top.
And he said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.’
(Mark 9: 1)
Wow! That’s some statement. Most bible scholars agree this is describing what is just about to happen six days later, as described in the very next verse.
After six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them.
(Mark 9 2-3)
Jesus here is described transformed into something more than the figure of a man. His clothes become a shiny translucent heavenly white. He is being transformed so he appears as he will be in glory not as in the flesh as he walked the earth. Then this happens
And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.
(Mark 9: 4)
Now, why Elijah, and why Moses. Most agree they are there as the great historical representatives of God’s salvation history prior to the incarnation. The Law and the prophets. The law (Moses) and the Prophets (Elijah) Moses of course scribed he law, and Elijah was a prophet, some would say the most significant of all the prophets. The fact that they are brought together here suggests to me that Jesus is seen as the one who brings together and fulfils what had previously been shown and referred to by the whole Old Testament revelation given through both the law and the prophets. This is one of the most phenomenal events in all of the bible, in all of history, in fact. Jesus is transformed into his heavenly state, and Moses and Elijah are there to verify it, and just three disciples witness it. If that isn’t a mountain top experience, I don’t know what is. It certainly was for Peter who in the next verse blurts out.
Peter said to Jesus, ‘Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters – one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.’ (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.)
(Mark 9: 5-6)
The word translated in this version as “frightened” is more to do with being awestruck than it has to being terrified or afraid.
This is not terror being described here, rather it is a feeling of being completely awestruck and overwhelmed and Peter just blurts out, let’s build three tabernacles, three booths. Implied in this phrase Peter is saying, let’s stay here and celebrate, let’s set up home here for a while, just like at the feast of Booths, whereby you set up a temporary home. But staying and camping at the high point and celebrating was not the Lords plan at all.
Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: ‘This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him! Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.
(Mark 9: 7-8)
Wow! So not only have they seen Jesus transfigured before them, and see Moses and Elijah appear, now they have heard God himself speak from Heaven and say “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him”!
Ever had people say to you, why doesn’t God just appear and introduce himself and say who he is and then I would believe in him.
Well, that’s exactly what happens here. If ever anything was a spiritual mountain top experience, then this is it.
Let me pause here for a moment and suggest all of us might at some point experience a spiritual high, (Not quite like this probably). The disciples seemed to experience one spiritual high after another. They had heard him reveal life changing teaching. The saw him calm the storm and feed the hungry. They saw him heal the sick and drive out demons and they saw him raise the dead, and most importantly forgive sin. They saw Jesus perform one miracle after another. They had seen Him deal with the three great enemies of mortal human beings. He had shown power over sickness, he had shown power over nature and He had shown power of evil. One high point after another.
But let me pause for a moment and make an observation about high points in life, and highs in general.
The first thing is that the highs do not last. We want the party to never end, just like Peter. We too want to set up camp and stay in that moment for ever. I hate to be the one to tell you, but life doesn’t work that way. Even when one experiences the greatest of highs emotionally it just doesn’t last. Cast you mind back to maybe the last time your teams won a great match. Are you still jumping around and cheering today? Enjoy the moments of pleasure when they come along, but remember for the balanced human being, the intensity will rightly fade. But when it is a spiritual high point, when we find ourselves in the moment when God is clearly doing something or revealing something to us, then what should we do in the midst of that moment.
Should we dance around and celebrate – that might be OK for a moment.
Let me suggest that what we should also pause and try and discern what we need to learn or what new perspective we should gain. Ever stood on the top of a mountain, in the UK we have the lake district or the peak district. Ever stood on the top of a mountain or a hill in an area that you know. What do you get, when you are up there, a whole new perspective? Years after this event Peter wrote a book of the bible we call, Second Peter, and in it he said this, and I quote.
For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honour and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.
(2 Peter 1: 16-18)
Peter here is reminding people that this in no fable, in fact they were eyewitnesses to His majesty. So over 30 years later Peter is saying we had a mountain top experience back then and what I learned that day is that Christs coming again, and that second coming is not a fable. Because that day I saw him as he will appear when he comes in majesty a second time. He then goes on to repeat the testimony of God they heard that day in relation to His son Jesus. So, there is absolutely no doubt that what Peter is referring to is his experience that day on the Mountain of Transfiguration.
What I am suggesting is a mountain top experience ought to give you is a new perspective and from that new spiritually higher vantage point you ought to be able to see things differently, or at least see things more clearly. To gain a new perspective, to see things more clearly, you need to keep your eyes and your ears open but you must also have an open heart, in other words you need to have a teachable spirit.
If we want to learn from spiritual high points, if we want to gain a new perspective, you have to remember what God did that on that special day. Because if we remember the highs then they can strengthen us for the lows that lie ahead. I think in reality the only purpose of the highs is to strengthen us for the lows that will lie ahead. So, remember that the next time you are on a spiritual mountain top and if you find yourselves in one of those valleys, maybe even right now, then remember there is a mountain top ahead.
Verses 9
As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. They kept the matter to themselves, discussing what ‘rising from the dead’ meant. (Mark 9: 9-10)
We have seen Jesus say, “don’t tell anyone”, before. But this time his request is different, because this is the first time he qualifies his statement, don’t tell anyone he says, “until the Son of Man has risen from the dead”. This time limit means this injunction is temporary. The text continues.
And they asked him, ‘Why do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?’ Jesus replied, ‘To be sure, Elijah does come first, and restores all things. Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected? But I tell you, Elijah has come, and they have done to him everything they wished, just as it is written about him.’
(Mark 9: 11-13)
Most commentators believe Mention of Elijah having come is a reference to John the Baptist coming in the Spirit of Elijah. Remember what happened to John the Baptist, that’s right he was killed. Like they killed the prophets before him and like they are going to kill Jesus. Luke chapter clarifies this “Spirit of Elijah” aspect concerning the birth of John the Baptist, when it tells us.
Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah.
(Luke 1: 13-17)
So, they have been on a mountain, and they come down from the mountain and that find themselves entering the valley and for them the valley is going to be a long deep one. They will watch Jesus get betrayed, arrested, publicly beaten, and condemned, executed in the most painful shameful way known to man at that time. He told them specifically that was how it was going to be when he said, “that the Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected?”
It seems to me that many people will say, that when they get in a pit, they get stuck there. So, let me qualify that and say that lows do not last forever for those that follow the Lord. The valleys of life may be long and deep, but for the believer there is always a mountain on the horizon. However, that statement is only true if you are responding to the Lord correctly. The lows when they come can be for our learning, our training, and our development. So, what do you have to do to get some benefit from our time in the valley. What did they do in the valley? They asked questions. So, let me suggest the lows can be times of learning provided you ask the right questions. Usually when people find themselves in a low, they ask the wrong questions. They ask, why me, instead of, what do I need to learn from this? It’s a very short step, from why me, to woe is me.
The mountain top experience should give us a new perspective and the lows should teach us provided we are asking the right questions and listening to the Lord.
Summary and final observation.
There is something to be gained in both the highs and lows of life.
The problem is we always want to stay on the mountain top. The mountain top is good, and those experiences can be defining moments in our lives. They can be life changing events, but they are never meant to last forever. We are meant to take what we have learned up there and bring it down and apply it in the rest of our life journey. If we understand them correctly it should then that new perspective that flash of insight, something you may have already known but it now grabs you in such a way as to help you through the rest of life’s journey. Life is not primarily lived on the mountain tops.
For these disciples this mountain top was very high and very brief, but the valley was long and got deeper and deeper ending with Jesus being crucified. The day of our conversion was a mountain top experience, answers to prayer are mountain top experiences. God blessing us spiritually and materially are mountain top experiences.
But when you go through the valley, don’t forget what the Lord did for you on Calvary’s Hill.
On May 19th1952 Edmund Hilary and Tensing Norgay reached the top of mount Everest. They were the 1st two people to stand on the top of the world. After Hilary climbed mount Everest he became an overnight celebrity, his name became a household word, he was knighted by the Queen. His name appeared on sleeping bags, tents, even breakfast cereals. He could have just stayed and basked in the glory of his success for the rest of his life, but he didn’t do that. Later He returned to Nepal and over the next 50 he used his fame to bring help to the Nepalese mountain people. In 1960 he told of how he sat down with some of those Sherpa’s who had helped him get up the mountain and he asked him what their people really needed, and he said what the needed most was education. The children in his region weren’t prepared for the future and what they needed was a school. So, Hilary established the Himalayan Trust in 1961 and the first of many small schoolhouses were built. To begin with the fund first focused on education, but soon it began to expand into health. It has now built over 30 schools 2 hospitals and 12 clinics, plus numerous bridges, an airfield, as well as re-foresting the valleys regions between the mountains. For over 40 years after he stood on that mountain top on one particular day he spent half his year travelling around raising funds for the people of Nepal and the other half supervising its distribution.
If I were to say in the streets of the UK what is Edmund Hilary famous for the answer is nearly always what he did on the mountain top on that one day. Ask Hilary what the most important thing he did in his life, and he would say it what he did in the valleys for the Nepalese people. I suspect I think I know which of these two great things has the most value in God’s economy.
Mountain top experiences are great, but living working and helping and loving those in the valley is what God really wants us to learn to do.