Moses or Jesus
Luke 9:28-36
Rev. Hugh R. Stone
 
Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of his countenance was altered, and his raiment became dazzling white. And behold, two men talked with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was to accomplish at Jerusalem.

Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep, and when they wakened they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. And as the men were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, "Master, it is well that we are here; let us make three booths, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah" -- not knowing what he said.

As he said this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were af raid as they entered the cloud. And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!" And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silence and told no one in those days anything of what they had seen.

I love mountains. I love to hike in the mountains. I love to drive in the mountains. I love to camp in the mountains. Some of the most inspiring times in my life have occurred on mountain tops. There is nothing more beautiful than a clear view from the top of a mountain. Of course such clear views are rare. Mountain tops are often covered by clouds. When I was in Japan I kept hoping to o have a clear view of Mt. Fuji but it was always covered by a cloud. When I was in Denali Park in Alaska I wanted to see Mt. McKinley but it too was covered by clouds. Sometimes our mountaintop experiences are not as clear as we would like them to be.

Jesus must have loved the mountains of Israel. Luke says that he took James and Peter and John up on a mountain in order to pray. On the mountaintop Jesus was able to get away from the crowds. He needed these spiritual retreats to remain connected to his God. Of course Jesus never stayed on the mountaintop. After praying Jesus always comes back down to the level places to minister to the people.

Jesus ascent of the mountain reminds us of Moses journey up Mt. Sinai to speak to God. While he was on the mountain God gave Moses the 613 requirements of the Jewish legal code. When Moses came down from the mountain his face shown so brightly that the people were afraid. Moses had to put a veil on his face to be able to tell the people what God commanded.

A similar event occurred when Jesus climbed the mountain. When Jesus and his disciples reached the top Jesus was transfigured before them. Like Moses his face shown brightly and his clothes glistened and became exceedingly white.

No one knows exactly what happened. Some scholars believe the transfiguration was like the resurrection. The imagery used to describe both events is similar. Even though we don't know what happened we still would like to figure out what the transfiguration means for our faith.

The meaning is not immediately clear. Mountaintop experiences are like that. Sometimes the clouds obstruct our view.

The deepest meaning of the transfiguration will not to be found in an analysis of the magical metamorphis that occurred on the mountaintop but rather by looking at the significance of the appearance of Moses and Elijah with Jesus.

What were they doing on the mountain? Why were they there?

Moses was Israel's great lawgiver while Elijah was her greatest prophet. Luke tells us that they talked with Jesus about his departure which would take place at Jerusalem. Now the Hebrew word for departure is Exodus. Just as Moses led the people on their exodus from Egyptian slavery, Jesus would lead the people on an exodus from sin and death.

Jesus had reached a critical turning point in his ministry. He was about to leave the Galilee region behind and head for Jerusalem where he would face suffering and death. Before climbing up the mountain he had told his disciples that,

"The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised." Luke 9:22

Those would have been difficult words for the disciples to hear. The meaning would have been unclear.

Equally as confusing would have been his prediction of the suffering they would face. Jesus had told them

"If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake, he will save it. -- Luke 9:23-24

We can imagine the questions that must have clouded the disciples minds as they climbed with Jesus. Why did he have to suffer and die? Why had he decided to go to Jerusalem? What did he mean when he said that he would be raised on the third day.

The scene reminds us of that dramatic moment in Genesis whenAbraham and Isaac were climbing the mountain where Abraham was planning to sacrifice his son.

And Isaac said to his father Abraham, "My father!" And he said, "Here am I, my son. 11 He said, "Behold, the f ire and the wood; but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" Abraham said, "God will provide himself the lamb f or a burnt of f ering, my son. 11 So they went both of them together. -- Genesis 22:7-8

When Jesus' disciples reached the top of the mountain, they saw Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus about his impending departure. Their presence confirmed Jesus decision to go to Jerusalem. His decision was consistent with their understanding of the will of God.

Later in Luke's gospel Jesus said to his disciples,

These are my words which I spoke to you, ...... that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled." -- Luke 24:44

The early Christians believed that Jesus was the fulfillment of the law of Moses and the writings of the prophets. The early church believed that Jesus had accomplished what the Jewish scriptures said the Messiah would do. This was quite a claim since Jesus did not establish an earthly kingdom like King David had, nor did Jesus drive Israel's enemies from her borders. Instead Jesus had died on a Roman cross. Many who had thought that he might be the Messiah had abandoned him. Still the early church proclaimed that he was the fulfillment of the law and the prophets.

When Luke wrote his gospel the early church was trying to figure out how the relationship between their faith in Jesus and the law of Moses and the writings of the prophets. The early Christians had been raised in the Jewish faith. Now that they were following Jesus did they still need to follow the law of Moses? Did God still require them to observe all of the requirements of the law? Was the law null and void or still in effect?

A vigorous debate raged in the early church around these issues. Some like Paul were saying that faith in Jesus had replaced the law of Moses. Paul wrote in Romans:

For we hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law. -- Romans 3:28

At one point in his life Paul had been a Pharisee. As a Pharisee he had regarded the law as the perfect expression of God's will. Then after his conversion to Christianity Paul reassessed the law. He realized that it was his very zeal to enforce the law of God that had blinded him to the Son of God and had led him to persecute the church. The law had proved to be a veil that had hid Christ from his eyes. After his conversion to Christianity Paul wrote that the law was powerless, while Christ was the power of God. The law condemned while Christ saved from the wrath and curse and death. The yoke of the law was bondage while the service of Christ was freedom.

In Galatians Paul wrote

Now before faith came, we were confined under the law, kept under restraint until faith should be revealed. So that the law was our custodian until Christ came, that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a custodian; for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. -- Galatians 3:23-26

Of course Paul's emphasis on the priority of faith might lead people to disregard the ethical teachings of the law and live immoral lives. Paul didn't want people to think whoopee we are saved we can do whatever we want. Paul was aware of this danger. He wrote,

Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law. -- Romans 3:31

Other members of the early church were not as eager as Paul was to stress faith in Christ over the law of Moses. The author of Matthew's gospel recognized the importance of following the Mosaic law. In his gospel Jesus said,

"Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them." Matthew 5:17

On the other hand, Luke was not as interested in maintaining the traditions of the law as Matthew was. In Luke's gospel Jesus said,

"The law and the prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and every one enters it violently. -- Luke 16:16

The coming of Jesus had inaugurated a new order in which Mosaic law was superseded, the new wine of this new order cannot be put in old wineskins

On the mountaintop the early church's debate over the relationship between the law of Moses and the writings of the prophets was dramatized in the vision of Jesus discussing his departure with Moses and Elijah.

The early church had a desire to honor the law and was reluctance to abandon it completely. However loyalty to Christ had replaced obedience to the law. The law insofar as it expressed the holy will of God was still valid, but the law was not as important as the absolute claim of love.

The relationship between faith in Christ and obedience to the law of Moses was a complicated theological issue. At first the disciples did not understand what was going on. They were tired out by their long trek up the mountain. When Peter saw Moses and Elijah he suggested building three booths one for Jesus and one for Moses and one for Elijah. A devout Jew Peter was a little slow to realize the change that was taking place in how Israel should relate to God. It wasn't until much later when he received a the vision from God recorded in the Book of Acts that Peter understood that Israels relationship to God now depended upon faith in Christ alone and not upon the law of Moses or the teachings of the prophets.

Peter's desire to build three booths revealed his lack of understanding. After he voiced his suggestion a cloud came over the disciples. The cloud reminds us of the cloud of God in the book of Exodus. The last verses of Exodus speak of this cloud;

Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting...... Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would go onward; but if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not go onward till the day that it was taken up. -- Exodus 40:34-38

On the mountaintop the voice of God spoke to the disciples rom the midst of the cloud saying

This is my Son, my Chosen, listen to him.

After the voice spoke, Moses and Elijah left the scene and Jesus was found standing there alone.

Jesus was about to begin a new stage in his religious journey. He had set his f ace to Jerusalem. The presence of the cloud of God symbolized this transition point. Just as the cloud had guided the Hebrews in the wilderness, the cloud was directing Jesus and his disciples to move on to Jerusalem. The voice from the cloud told the disciples,

his is my Son, my Chosen, listen to him.

The voice from the cloud and the departure of Moses and Elijah suggest that the teachings and commandments of Jesus are meant to be the highest authority for the disciples and the church.

So what does this mean for our faith today?

I would suggest that it means that the teachings of the Old Testament must always be viewed by the light of Christ. The law of Moses must always be interpreted by the love revealed in Christ. If the law of Moses contradicts the love revealed by Christ the law is superseded. The teachings of Christ are the plumbline by which Christians are to access the law of Moses.

As an example in the 20th chapter of Leviticus we read;

"If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death."

Yet when a woman who was caught in the act of adultery was brought before Jesus, Jesus told her accusers

"Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her." -- John 8:7

Christians are called to view all ethical issues in light of the love revealed by Christ. Issues such as homosexuality and the death penalty should be viewed by the light of Christ's example and teaching. While we need to be aware of the historical position found in the Mosaic law we need to realize that the commandments and teachings of Christ are our ultimate standard not the law of Moses.

As William Sloan Coffin has said,

Too many Christians use the Bible as a drunk uses a lampost--for support rather than illumination..... Why can't Christians just admit that there is such a thing as Biblical deadwood, not to say Biblical folly.

To be pretended to be shocked at such a suggestion is pure hypocrisy, unless of course you still believe in slavery--as Paul did when he wrote in Ephesians "Slaves, obey your earthly masters" or .... wouldn't dream of eating barbequed pork ribs, for to do so would be an abomination, toevah--the same Hebrew word used in Leviticus for homosexual acts.

We are not called to be slaves to the law of Moses but free in Christ. As Paul wrote in Galatians

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery..... For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

When we are conf used about what to do, or about how to interpret the Bible we need to hear the voice from the cloud;

This is my Son listen to him.

When e are hurt and angry we need to hear Jesus say

Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

when we disagree with people and question their motives we need to hear him say,

Judge not, and you will not be judged Condemn not, and you will not be condemned When we have been hurt and want to strike back we need to hear him say;

Forgive and you will be forgiven.

When the burden of our disappointments become too heavy to bear and the mere task of living overtaxes our courage and our strength, we need to hear him say:

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

When we are tempted by the siren voices of self-indulgence and greed then we need to hear him say;

Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all the things you need shall be yours.

When we are tempted to choose the ways of war over the ways of peace, when we are tempted to choose uncritical patriotism rather than justice and understanding we need to hear him say;

Blessed are the peacemakers

When we are tempted to turn our face away from the poor and hungry and sick and ignore their needs we need to hear him say

I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me ' Matthew 25:35-36

Like Peter and James and John we may all need to be taken up to the mountaintop from time to time and reminded that Jesus is the one we should listen to. His way of self-giving sacrificial love is the way God wants us to follow.

Then we are to follow his way down from the mountain and into the valleys where the people live and work and play. For it is there among God's people that we are called to minister not up on the mountain top. While we may need the mountaintop experience to help us see where we must go and what we must do, we are not called to remain on the mountaintop but to take the love of God revealed in Christ into the world, into the hospitals, into the nursing homes, into the prisons, into the streets and marketplaces and schools.

Lord of light and life,

Walk with us Lord as we climb the mountains in our lives.

Listen to our questions and help us find your answers.

Speak to us when the clouds appear. May your voice clear away our confusion.

Free us to follow your way of self-giving love in paths of service and ministry.

Bless the ministry of this congregation as it seeks to obey your will and share your grace in this community.

Strengthen each one of us Lord that we may be agents of your peace and instruments of your will. Amen.