I have a friend who is a schoolteacher. She teaches in a middle school in a city about the size of Lynchburg. Her students know her as a strict but fun teacher in the confines of the classroom. She sometimes attends football games or other school functions and sees her students there.

She told me about one time when she came across one of her students while shopping in Wal-Mart. She said that the student just kind of stared at her when she greeted her. The student was surprised to see her teacher outside the context of the classroom. "You mean that you shop, too, teacher?" the student’s expression seemed to say. All of a sudden the student’s understanding of who her teacher is as a real person was expanded. No longer was her teacher just someone who showed up at the school to teach but her teacher was also a real person.

It might seem obvious to us to think that of course teachers go shopping just like everyone else but to a child, the teacher may be only that, a teacher and have no further identity than that. When this student saw her teacher in the store, her understanding of who her teacher is expanded.

A similar thing is happening in the scripture passage we read from the gospel according to Matthew today. The disciples have been following Jesus around for a good while now. They have heard many of what we would consider to be Jesus’ foremost teachings. They certainly knew Jesus as a teacher. They had also seen Jesus heal a great number of people so they knew Jesus as a healer as well.

Just prior to the passage we read, Peter confesses that Jesus is the Christ; the Messiah. So that is yet another identity that they know Jesus as. But when Jesus takes three of his disciples up the mountain, they get to see a bit deeper into who Jesus is as a person, as the Messiah and as God’s Son. When the cloud of God comes over the mountain, the disciples get a glimpse of the depth of who Jesus truly is.

Tom Long, in his commentary on this text used this illustration. When you are out on a lake during a bright summer day, you can see the sun reflecting off the water. This reflection causes you to only be able to see the surface of the water dancing in front of you. However, if a cloud comes over the sun, all of a sudden you can see into the depths of the water. Without the sunlight bouncing off the surface of the water, you can see deep into the lake, spying all of the life that lives below the surface.

When the disciples see Jesus on the mountain with Moses and Elijah, they get a good idea of who Jesus is. However, when the cloud of God comes over the mountain where Jesus and three of his disciples are gathered, the disciples are able to see even deeper into who Jesus is as a person. With the voice from out of the cloud, the disciples can see and hear God claiming Jesus as God’s Son. All of a sudden, Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God has more depth. It has after all been confirmed by a voice from out of a cloud.

With the voice of God coming out of the cloud, the disciples react in fear and fall to the ground. It is the earthly Jesus who touches the disciples to alleviate their fears. The Jesus whose face was shining like the sun and whose garments were white as light; the Jesus who conversed with Moses and Elijah, those representatives of the law and the prophets, that Jesus is once again covered up as the cloud dissipates and only the surface identity of Jesus is visible again.

It is the earthly Jesus who touches the disciples and tells them not to be afraid. But yet these disciples will never be able to look at Jesus in the same way again. The word that is translated "transfigured" is, in other places in the New Testament, translated as "transformed." This story is not just about the transformation Jesus goes through on the mountaintop but it is also about the transformation the disciples go through when they see the depth of Jesus that is shown to them.

Peter, when he sees Jesus transfigured and talking with Moses and Elijah, wants to do something. He has seen this great thing and now he wants to do something about it. He offers to build three dwellings on the mountain. Wouldn’t it be great to stay up there forever basking in the light and presence of Moses, Elijah, and Jesus! But that is when the voice from the cloud interrupts Peter. That claiming voice echoes words heard at Jesus’ baptism and adds to them a command: Listen to him! Peter’s offer to build dwellings on this high mountain is rejected and in its place is the command to listen to what Jesus has to say.

What are Jesus’ first words to the disciples after this command to listen to him? "Get up and do not be afraid." So the disciples follow the command from God. They get up from the place where they had thrown themselves to the ground in fear and follow Jesus down the mountain. There will be no time for building dwellings on the mountain because there is still much to do. As they go down the mountain, Jesus commands the three disciples to not share their experience on the mountain with anyone until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead. There will be a time for them to share their experiences but that time is not now. For now, they are to listen to Jesus and come down from the mountain.

Paul Galbreath, a professor at the seminary in Richmond, wrote an article about this passage in which he said, "Followers of Jesus find themselves in the situation where the temptation to withdraw and live out spiritual insights and mountaintop experiences must give way to patterns of discipleship that lead to service and ministry in the world."

Rejected is Peter’s idea of staying up on the mountain and building dwellings there. Jesus tells his disciple that they are to get up and come down the mountain with him. Read a little bit further after our passage and you will see that when they come down from the mountain, they are met with a crowd of people and a boy who needs healing. There is no separating oneself from the needs of the world for those who follow the command that came out of the cloud. When we listen to Jesus, we hear him speak words of healing and comfort to the world.

This church can sometimes be a high mountain to us. It is here that a cloud of God might pass over and we might catch glimpses of the depth of who Jesus was and is. But just as the disciples were not able to stay on the mountain, we cannot stay constantly within the church. We must go down from the mountain and out of the doors to be met with those who have needs we can fulfill, prayers we can lift up, loneliness we can lessen.