Indeed, you are a God who hides himself. Isaiah 45:15 says.
Lately I’ve watched some Mission Impossible movies. They’re fun action-packed spy thrillers, and one of the tropes of the series going all the way back to the original television series in 1966 has been the masks that they sometimes wear. A henchman spills the beans about their secret dastardly plot as he talks to the boss, except not-so-fast! It’s not the boss at all, but one of the good guys wearing a perfect mask, tricking him into giving up their secrets. Using a kind of magic that really only works in the movies, he was hidden in plain sight.
Is that how God works? Many have asked that question. “If God is real,” they say, “then why doesn’t he make himself known? Why doesn’t he show himself? Why doesn’t he display his glory?”
On this day we remember one time when God did reveal his glory. And in all the accounts, both from eyewitnesses and from those who heard it from the eyewitnesses, it was everything you might hope for. A high mountaintop, brilliant glory, pure holiness, a great booming voice from heaven.
And then it was gone again. Hidden away. But in this event God teaches us who he is and how he wants us to know him.
We find this account recorded in our Gospel for today from Mark 9. It’s also recorded by Matthew in chapter 17 and Luke in chapter 9. Peter also makes reference to his experience there in his second epistle. That’s four different witnesses in the Bible, and you could say that John also affirms it by skipping over it in his Gospel. The other books were all written decades before John wrote his book. He was one of the very small group who was actually there on the mountain, but he didn’t add any details or correct the record, and so in this way he says, “They have it right, there’s nothing more to say.”
They had been traveling, on a sort of private retreat for Jesus’ disciples. They were never completely alone. Besides the 12, there were others who followed Jesus all the time. But at least for a little bit, they went north of Israel to get away from most of the crowds. They went to a town called Caesarea Philippi, which was near Mt. Hermon. Jesus spent some time teaching his disciples there. They confessed that they believed he truly is the Christ, the Son of God and Savior of the world. And Jesus began teaching them in plain language what that meant. He would be betrayed, arrested, and crucified. And then on the third day he would rise from the dead.
We’re living many years after this all happened, so it all seems obvious enough to us. But to the disciples this didn’t make sense. They were imagining that the whole purpose of the Christ was to reveal the glory of God on earth. He was supposed to defeat Israel’s enemies. He was supposed to rule all the nations. He was supposed to draw all men to himself. How was he going to do all that by dying? Isn’t dying the worst thing that could happen?
But Jesus took three disciples; Peter, James, and John, up a mountain by themselves. These three were the ones he always chose when he wanted just a small group. And up on the mountain they saw something amazing. Jesus was transfigured. He changed. His clothes were brilliant, dazzling white. Mark says they were whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. This wasn’t a normal thing to see. This was the glory of God. And with Jesus appeared two men, Moses and Elijah. These were two of the greatest prophets of old, and yet neither of them was in the place of honor here. But they also didn’t cower in fear. They spoke with the glorious Jesus.
It’s no surprise that Peter, James, and John were overwhelmed. How do you respond to something like this? Peter said, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” But it was more than just sensory overload going on here. The disciples were at the same time thrilled and terrified. Peter was thinking of making tents. “Let’s stay,” he was thinking. “Let’s live here. We can stay forever.” Just think of it! Moses, who led God’s people out of Egypt and for 40 years in the wilderness in the promised land. Moses who spoke with God on Mt. Sinai and delivered to God’s people the holy law. How long could you spend talking with him! And Elijah, who fought the spiritual battle against the vile prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel, who lived through a severe famine by God’s providence, who performed great miracles and who covered his face at the still small voice that was the whisper of God?
And Jesus, who didn’t look at all like the humble every-day man who had to sit down because he was weary from his journey, who had to leave his hometown when the people there hated him, or who had to endure constant attacks from the Pharisees who wanted to kill him. No, this was Jesus without the mask – the mask of humility and plainness and weakness.
But at the same time they were terrified. And who wouldn’t be? This was the glory of God. Have you ever stood outside watching a great thunderstorm roll toward you? It’s vast and awesome and more powerful than your mind can comprehend. And its power is nothing compared to the might and glory of God. This is the one who created the universe with just a word. This is the one who sustains it by his will. This is the one who holds every life that ever has existed and ever will exist in the palm of his hand. And this is the one whose righteousness cannot and will not tolerate sin. Not a speck, not a spot, not a stain can stand in the presence of him whose clothes were brighter than anyone in the world could bleach them.
And no man, no woman, no child, can possibly be worthy to enter the holy presence of God.
“Where is God?,” people ask. “If God is real, why doesn’t he show himself?” He does reveal himself. He does it by the vastness of the universe he made, by its beauty and intricacy and wisdom. This did not happen by accident. It was the design of someone so great we cannot fathom it. And God reveals himself in morality, in the conscience he gave us to discern right and wrong, good and evil. You might ask, “What more do you need? Do you need a man shining with all God’s glory on a mountaintop? Do you need God to terrify you with his all-consuming righteousness that scours the earth of every sin and everything unclean? If God tears off his mask today and reveals all his holiness to the world will you be standing with an equal righteousness or will you be burnt to a crisp by his all-knowing and all-powerful judgment?
The event on the mount of transfiguration continued. A cloud enveloped and overshadowed them. A voice came from the cloud, a voice that could only belong to God the Father, a voice that was directed at those three disciples as well as to every person on earth including you and me, “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him.”
This statement of God is an amazing thing, because here we do not have the wrath of God. He does not command us to fall down and cower before him. Instead, he directs us to his only Son and to his love. And how are we to know his love? We don’t know it by brilliant glory that burns our eyes. We don’t know it by his mighty power that crushes us into the dust. We know it by his word. “Listen to him.”
Just as suddenly as it all began there on the mountain it was all over. The three disciples looked around and there was no more glorious cloud, no more Moses and Elijah, just Jesus. The same Jesus they had always known. And as they went down the mountain Jesus told them not to tell anyone about this until after he had risen from the dead. The time was coming, but for now he was focused on something else. What lay ahead was not a mountain of glory, but a mountain of shame, not the brightness of heaven but the darkness of hell. A cross, pain, mockery, and death.
Jesus’ transfiguration shows us something different, a different side of things. When Jesus heals someone of a disease or drives out a demon we see a man doing something great, something that can only be explained as the power of God. But at Jesus transfiguration we see not just a great man, but God himself in all his glory, who hides himself in humility as a true man.
Why does he do that? Why wear this mask? It’s not a deception or a trick. It’s his ultimate love for you. Jesus did not need to come down from that mountain for himself. He could have stayed there forever, until the whole world and all who are in it passed away. And you and I would still have no hope to look on his face or stand in his presence, not with the guilt we carry in our hearts and the sins that stain our souls.
And so Jesus set his face to Jerusalem, to Golgotha, to the cross. He put aside his glory and hid his brilliance so that we could know him not as our certain doom, but as our Savior, the one who covers himself with our sins to pay their dreadful price, so that we can be robed with his righteousness, so that we can share in his glory and his life.
Indeed, you are a God who hides himself. ****Isaiah said. And yet God is also revealed. He’s revealed as he fulfills his word. “I, the Lord, am speaking in righteousness.” he says. “There is no god except me, a righteous God and Savior. Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth, because I am God, and there is no other.”
Yes, this Jesus is your God. Your humble God and Savior, who did not stay in the glory of heaven but came to die for your sins, and who lives eternally to give you life, to make you righteous and holy by his word, to declare to you the forgiveness and love of God. He is not hidden from you. Know him. Listen to him. Amen.
— Pastor Seth Georgson