Reading 4
The light on the mountain
The reading
Mark 9:2-8
After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John, and brought them up onto a high mountain privately by themselves, and he was changed into another form in front of them. His clothing became glistening, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them. Elijah and Moses appeared to them, and they were talking with Jesus. Peter answered Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let’s make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” For he didn’t know what to say, for they were very afraid. A cloud came, overshadowing them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” Suddenly looking around, they saw no one with them any more, except Jesus only.
The companions
Psalm 27:4
One thing I have asked of the LORD, that I will seek after: that I may dwell in the LORD’s house all the days of my life, to see the LORD’s beauty, and to inquire in his temple.
Exodus 34:29-35 (selected)
When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, Moses didn’t know that the skin of his face shone by reason of his speaking with him. When Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come near him. When Moses was done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face. But when Moses went in before the LORD to speak with him, he took the veil off, until he came out; and he came out, and spoke to the children of Israel that which he was commanded.
The note
Mark gives Peter’s motive plainly. He did not know what to say, because they were terrified. So he said something. He proposed a project.
Three tents, one each, a way to keep the moment and make it manageable.
That reflex is familiar. Something lands that is larger than you, and within seconds you are drafting a plan for it. A document. A structure.
A next step. Anything with stages in it, because stages are something you can do and awe is not.
The cloud interrupts him mid-sentence. The voice says two things: this is my beloved Son, and listen to him. Not build. Listen.
Then it is over, fast. They look up and there is nobody there but Jesus, and they walk back down an ordinary hill. Whatever they saw, they were not given anything to keep. They were given an instruction, and it was the harder of the two.
This week
The next time something arrives that is too big to file, good or bad, notice how long it takes before you start organizing it. A plan. A search. A message to somebody who will help you process it.
Try leaving a gap of ten minutes where you do nothing with it at all. Then, instead of the plan, go and read something Jesus actually said and take it at face value. That is what the voice asked for, and it is duller than building.
For the watch
The mountain teaches us how the glory works, and it matters for the watch. The disciples saw, for a moment, what they could not normally see: the enormous reality shining underneath the plain man in front of them. That is a picture of what our ordinary sight usually keeps out, and of how the true one is glimpsed, not by force but by a lifting of the veil. And note what the voice said: not, be dazzled, but listen to him. Whatever glory we may one day glimpse, the test stays the same. We follow the one whose words are the way of love, and we do not stop at the spectacle.
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (public domain). The divine name is rendered “the LORD” in the companions.
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