After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.
Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.)
Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”
Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.
As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. They kept the matter to themselves, discussing what “rising from the dead” meant. (Mark 9:2-10 NIV)
“Now you know the rest of the story.” I bet you’ve heard that tagline before. Remember who would say those words? Paul Harvey. For five decades on the radio, Paul Harvey would share surprising details about famous people and events, and each show would end with him saying, “Now you know the rest of the story.” Do you know where Paul Harvey grew up? In Tulsa, Oklahoma! Doesn’t that make you proud? “Now you know the rest of the story…”
Don’t you wish Paul Harvey could do that for your life? Wouldn’t it be nice if in his deep, calm voice, Paul Harvey would tell you the rest of your story? Life often feels like we’re stuck in the middle of a novel. With each passing day, the plot thickens, the suspense builds, the complications grow… Do you ever find yourself anxious to know the rest of the story? How long will this pain last? Where will we be living next year? Will I ever feel happy? Is it all going to turn out okay? Books can let the suspense grow and wait until the end to tell us the surprise, but that’s hard to do with the story of our lives. Wouldn’t it be nice to know the rest of the story?
That’s what Peter must have been thinking in the Bible. Peter was having trouble making sense of his life. Know anyone like that? Peter had just had one of his greatest moments. Jesus had asked him and the other disciples: “Who do you say I am?” And Peter boldly confessed: “You are the Messiah!” (Mark 8:29). He was on top of the world! But then Jesus started talking about how he was going to suffer and die. That made no sense to Peter: Savior’s don’t die! He pulled Jesus aside and said: “This shall never happen to you!” But Jesus said to him: “Get behind me Satan! You do not have in mind the things of God but merely human concerns. If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mark 8:33).
Can you imagine what was going through Peter’s mind? He was following a Man he knew to be the Son of God, and so you’d think everything would turn out well. But, instead, Jesus was talking about dying! Jesus insisted that he had to go to a cross, and he promised that everyone who followed him would have to carry their crosses too. Suddenly a page had turned in Peter’s life, and he didn’t know where things were headed. Sound familiar? His head was full of crosses and suffering. I bet Peter wished he could know the rest of the story, just like you and me.
So Jesus showed him. Six days later, Jesus flipped forward in the book and showed Peter the rest of the story: “Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them.” That’s why we call today “Transfiguration Day.” The Greek word for transfiguration is “Metamorphosis.” Know what that is? That’s what a caterpillar does when it builds a cocoon and then bursts out as a butterfly. It’s transfigured. It’s totally transformed. A plain-looking caterpillar becomes a glorious butterfly.
That’s what happened to Jesus on Transfiguration Day. For a few moments on that mountain, Jesus showed Peter, James, and John a glimpse of the rest of the story. “His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them.” Pure, perfect, glorious! It was as if Jesus were saying, “Yes, I’m going to die on the cross. But that’s not the end. Look at what’s coming in heaven. Don’t be afraid! Here’s a glimpse at the rest of the story: Glory!”
Not just for Jesus. “And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.” Two prophets from the Old Testament were sharing Jesus’ glory. I wonder if those two prophets were chosen because of how difficult their lives had been. Moses and Elijah knew about crosses. Moses had spent forty years leading the Israelites through the desert, listening to them complain. Imagine the worst car trip you’ve had with your kids, multiply that by two million Israelites, and imagine that lasting for forty years. That was Moses’ life! And Elijah? He had two crosses named Ahab and Jezebel—the wicked king and queen of Israel. Once Elijah felt so depressed that he said: “I have had enough, LORD. Take my life!” These men didn’t enjoy lives of glory here on earth. But that’s why God sent them back to that mountain. He sent them to show us the rest of the story. In life they bore the cross. Now they enjoyed the crown.
This is what Transfiguration is all about! It is God in his grace allowing us who struggle through the trials of life to see the rest of the story. Like letting a nervous football team know the final score before the big game. Like letting you see a glimpse of your healthy baby in your arms before you go through pregnancy and childbirth. Like a cancer patient getting a glimpse at post-cancer life before going into surgery. That’s what Jesus did on Transfiguration Day. He gives us a glimpse of what’s to come. I know life’s not easy. You and I don’t know what the next chapter is going to bring. You might be stuck in a hard part of the book right now. But by faith in Jesus, this is how your life is going to end up: In glory in heaven with Jesus! That glory is hidden now amidst the troubles of this world. You may have more pages of drama and suspense and trial to live through, but you can know what’s waiting at the end of the book: The glories of heaven!
But Peter took that Gospel truth and did with it what we so often want to do. He wanted to jump to the end, to the good part, to the glory, and skip all the crosses in the middle. So he said: “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” “Let’s just keep it like this! No more talk about suffering and dying. No more crosses. This is good. Let’s keep heaven here on earth. It is good for us to be here!”
Isn’t that what we say? Or at least what we think? I don’t want life to be hard. I don’t want to face crosses or trials or suffering. I think that life would be so much better if we could have all the good things now. All the glory now. Wouldn’t that make more sense? So, like Peter, when Jesus allows troubles in life, I think: “No, this should not be happening to me. This isn’t right. Jesus, you need to stop this right now! No more talk about suffering and dying. No more crosses. This glory stuff is good. Let’s keep heaven here on earth. It is good for us to be here!”
And Peter was right. It was good for them to be there! Jesus had brought them there to see his glory and be strengthened for the road ahead. But there was one thing Peter didn’t understand. It wasn’t time for that glory to last. We want our best days now. We want the glory, not the cross. But thankfully Jesus is not like us. Otherwise, he never would have left the glory of heaven to come to earth in the first place. For Jesus, as good as it gets was death on the cross. That’s why he came—to make heaven possible for sinners like Peter and you and me. For Jesus that mountain wasn’t the top. It was another stop on the way down to the cross. In fact, unless Jesus went down to the cross, the rest of the story isn’t possible. First the cross, then the crown!
If there was any doubt that this was God’s plan, the booming voice of the Father wiped it all away: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him.” That’s even better than hearing Paul Harvey’s reassuring voice! God the Father’s voice booms out: “People of Christ the King, you are on the right track, you are following the right God. Don’t despair. Listen to him!” That’s exactly what we have on Transfiguration Sunday. God shouting down from heaven: “Look: The best is yet to come!” Being a Christian doesn’t mean the ups and downs of life are going to stop. It doesn’t mean our joys will stop being mixed with sorrows. It means we know what is coming. God gives us a glimpse of heaven to remind us why we persevere: The glory awaits! Just like it did for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah, it does for you and me. You know the rest of the story!
That’s what we need to make it through the days and weeks and months ahead. Here at church, we are entering the season of Christ’s suffering for us: Lent. Jesus will soon be clothed in shame and blood, not in dazzling white. There are dark days ahead as we meditate on the cross of Christ and our sins that put him there. But before we go with Jesus into the valley of the shadow of death, God wants us to remember this day—Transfiguration Day. You know that rest of the story. You know how it all ends, and that makes all the difference in the world!
Not just for the season of Lent, but for your entire life. I can’t tell you when the pain will go away, but I can tell you how it all will end: In the glory of heaven. I can’t tell you when or even if that special someone will ever come around for you, but I can guarantee how it all will end: In the glory of heaven. I can’t tell you why you’re struggling with depression right now, but I can assure you how it all will end: In the glory of heaven. I can’t even begin to guess what struggles and crosses are coming in the next chapters of your life, but I can promise you what the rest of the story is about: The glory of heaven. Because your Savior Jesus left the glory of heaven—and the glory of that mountain—to die on a cross for you and take your sins away. And so one day like Moses and Elijah you will talk and laugh face to face with him in the streets of heaven.
Do you know how life ended up for those three men—Peter, James, and John? It ended up just like Jesus said: They bore their crosses. James was beheaded—the first disciple to die. Peter was imprisoned often and ultimately crucified in Rome. John was the one disciple who wasn’t put to death for his faith, but he spent his last years exiled on an island. It was just like Jesus said. But ever since the day Jesus took then up the mountain, no cross could rob them of crown of glory they knew was waiting for them in heaven. As James saw the gleam of the executioner’s axe, I wonder if Transfiguration Day flashed before his eyes. “I know the rest of the story!” As Peter was nailed to a cross, I wonder if Transfiguration Day flashed before his eyes. “I know the rest of the story!” As John closed his eyes for the last time as a 100-year-old man, I wonder if Transfiguration Day flashed before his eyes. “I know the rest of the story!” What comfort!
This is how we live with hope. When you believe in Jesus, when you trust in his death and resurrection for you, when you listen to his promises of eternal life in heaven, you know the rest of the story. You know that one day every sin and tear and fear will be wiped away from your eyes. You know the rest of the story! You don’t know how long the pain will last, but you know when it will end: In heaven! You don’t know what twists and turns your life will take, but you know where it will end: In heaven! You don’t know what God has planned for the rest of your life on earth, but you know what he’s planned for you in heaven. On Transfiguration Day, it’s as if Jesus smiles and says to you and me: “There’s hope. Now you know the rest of the story!”
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