Mountain top mysteries

     We are now finished with Jesus' Sermon on the Mount and are gearing up for the church's most important time of the year: Lent/Easter.  We started off our church year with Advent, the awaiting of Christ's coming, and moved into Christmas and Epiphany, the seasons in which Christ came and was revealed as the light of the world.  The pivotal moment in the turn from Epiphany to Lent is Transfiguration Sunday, and we read in Matthew 17.1-9 about Jesus' transfiguration before the disciples. 
     The context of our text in Matthew's gospel is as Jesus prepares to enter Jerusalem the final time.  He has just explained to the disciples that if they want to become his followers they must deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow him.  Then, six days later, Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John and they went up to the mountain.  Peter, James, and John were privy to a foretaste of Jesus' glory at God's right hand - the majesty, honor, power, and shining brilliance of being God's son.  They hear the voice of God just like at Jesus' baptism, and again, God is affirming Jesus' identity and mission.  Except Jesus knew that it was not yet time for the glory.  He knew that the glory he tasted could only come through the way of the cross, everything the exact opposite of the mountain top experience. 
     Mountain top experiences are some of the best experiences of a lifetime.  You know, the ones where you feel literally on top of the world, and that nothing could get better than it is at that moment?  I have had a few of those experiences and one of them was even on top of a mountain!  In those moments, I have savored the sheer awesomeness of God and God's blessings.  I have looked at a loved one with wonder and amazement that God loves me enough to give me wonderful relationships with others.  I have thought about how small I am and how big the world and God are.  Many thoughts and emotions go through one's mind during mountain top experiences.  Except, just like Jesus knew he couldn't stay on the mountain, our mountain top experiences seem all too fleeting.
     This text produces for us a lovely tension between the glory of God already revealed in Christ Jesus and the sin that invades our lives and reminds us that it is not yet time for the kingdom to be here in totality.  Something inevitably happens, and like the prick of a pin to a blown-up balloon, our mountain top experience fades into the background, becoming a cherished memory to be relived in dreams and quiet moments.  Sin, brokenness, and the way of the cross draw us back to a reality in which Christ is not yet revealed in his glory and we journey through faith with hope for a better tomorrow. 
     As we prepare to enter into the time of Lent, the journey to the cross, I invite you to live the mystery with me.  How is it that God would love such a one as me?  A sinner, broken and selfish for those glorious mountain top moments, putting me above anyone else?  How is it that God would send Christ on his own journey to the cross, starting with such a tantalizing taste of the future, only to be rudely awakened to the violent reality of sin?  Lastly, if Christ tells us to take up our own crosses and follow him, what is the cross I am called to carry?