Coming Down the Mountain
Matthew 17:1-9
February 6, 2022 anno Domini
It’s hard to come down off the mountain. Ask Moses and Elijah. Ask Peter. Ask Jesus.
Moses stood on Mount Sinai and received God’s Word. He received the Gospel of God’s deliverance of His people from Egypt. He received the will of God in the commandments. He received God’s hymnal for the substance and structure of Israel’s worship. While he was up on Sinai having heavenly conversation, his congregation was down below having earthly carousing.
The Lord told Moses to go down and tell the people the marriage was over. God was going to wipe them from the face of the earth. How quickly after their salvation had they gone after the contemporary gods of pleasure and convenience? Moses pleaded with God. It won’t look good if you save this people only to kill them. You’ll get a bad reputation among the nations. You’ll appear fickle and faithless. God relented from His anger, but Moses still had to go down and face the music. He carried God’s Word on the stone tablets, written by God’s hand, spoken by God’s mouth. In righteous anger Moses threw the tablets down and broke them. Israel had broken the covenant. In the middle of the wedding ceremony Israel had committed adultery with a god of her own choosing, but the Lord would not let her go.
Elijah also had to go down the mountain. On Mount Carmel Elijah had his best day ever. It was a battle royale. In the black corner numbering 450 were the prophets of Baal. In the white corner numbering only one stood Elijah. The contest? Whichever god (Baal or Yahweh) burns his sacrifice wins. 450 to one. Those were the odds against Elijah winning in Vegas. He had a better chance against the prophets of Baal than the Vikings do in making the playoffs.
Numbers and statistics can be deceiving – just ask the CDC or watch the news. Elijah won and Baal and his boys lost. The Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob burned up His sacrifice, Baal’s sacrifice, and by the end of the day every prophet of Baal was out for the count – permanently. But when Elijah came down from the Mountain, Queen Jezebel, Baal’s #1 fan girl, put a contract on Elijah so Elijah had to run for his life. The Lord accomplishes victory when defeat is certain, but victory with the Lord can often feel like defeat.
Peter doesn’t want to come off the mountain of Transfiguration and can you blame him? Jesus has taken off the gloves. The full glory of the Son of God is shining so brightly in the flesh of Jesus that His clothes and face are lit up. The Lord of life is standing with Moses alive 1400 years after the Exodus. Elijah is there 800 years after he beat Baal’s boys to death. Jesus is Lord. Jesus is life. Jesus is true God. Peter saw it with his own eyes, but Peter had to go down the mountain. He couldn’t stay with Jesus in His glory. He couldn’t sit around the campfire hearing Moses and Elijah tell their stories. And worse yet, as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus said, “Keep this on the down low. Don’t say a word of this until after the resurrection.”
After each of these mountains comes suffering, comes a cross. After each victory comes defeat. Moses came down to adulterous Israel. Elijah came down to a death sentence. Peter came down to see Jesus arrested, tried, and crucified. Jesus went from glory to gory, from living to dead, from radiant light to the darkness of death and the tomb.
What does coming down the mountain teach us about the Christian faith? Appearances can be deceiving. Success looks like failure and failure looks like success. God’s work on earth isn’t outwardly glorious. His glory and His work is hidden under suffering and the cross. You are not going to like how God works, because He doesn’t work like you. He works for you, to save you, to get you to cling to Him and Him alone.
God commanded Moses to go up Sinai again, with two stone tablets. And God once more wrote the 10 commandments on stone, but on this occasion, Moses asked to see God’s glory, to know that God would go with His people. God put Moses in the cleft of the rock and as the Lord passed by He proclaimed, (Read Exodus 34:6-7) Moses was not allowed to see God’s face, but after God passed by Moses was allowed to see His bu – backside. Even though all Moses saw was God’s backside he had the Lord’s Word of mercy, grace, faithfulness, and steadfast love. Remember that when you think the Lord has turned His back on you.
Elijah also went up another mountain – Mount Horeb. There Elijah whined about how bad he had it and the Lord commanded him to stand on the mountain. A great wind blew on the mountain shattering rocks but the Lord was not in the wind. Then came an earthquake that shook the foundations of the mountain, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. Then came a consuming fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. After the fire came a whisper, and the Lord was in the whisper, in His Word. Remember that when the Lord isn’t answering your prayer with power. His answer for all your loneliness, sorrow, and prayers is in His Word.
Jesus ended up on another mountain – Mount Calvary. Jesus didn’t glow on Calvary, instead the sky went dark. There was no life on Calvary only death. Jesus wasn’t standing with the Saints, but hanging with sinners. There was no voice from heaven as the prayers of the Son went unanswered by His Father.
What does this mean for us? We want mountains of glory, but we need the cross. The people of Israel needed a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, and so do we. Elijah beat the life out of Baal’s boys, but what he needed was God’s whisper, God’s Word of promise that he was not alone, but surrounded by a few faithful, and so do we. Jesus shone in glory, but hung in shame. He was God in the flesh, but crucified a sinner, and that’s what we need, a Savior from sin.
This is your mountain top. The Divine Service of Word and Sacrament is the highest point on earth for the Christian. Here you are as close to heaven as you will get on earth. Here you get Christ and Him crucified whispered into your ears by God’s Word. Here you get Jesus in His risen and ascended glory, but just as His divinity was veiled in human flesh so His body and blood are veiled under bread and wine. Here stand Elijah and Moses and the Saints who have gone before us and live with Jesus. They are on the heavenly side of this altar. Redeemer’s beautiful granite altar occupies the highest place in the sanctuary for a reason. It’s the Mountain of the Lord, the place of His presence for you. After every Lord’s day you must go down from this mountain – and down there, wherever you go this week, it may look like God is failing, that He has turned His back, that the darkness is snuffing out His light. It may feel like you’re failing, that you are alone, that there is no hope. Do not be afraid. Confess the truth. Be strong in the Lord. Do not shirk from the battle. And next week, climb the mountain again, to be strengthened, to hear God’s still, small voice, to receive Jesus, and to glimpse heaven, until you’re finally taken up to eternal glory, to unending light, to the heavenly Mount Zion. In the name of Jesus. Amen.