The Madding Crowd 

God on Monday
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‘Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them’ (Mark 9.2).

Reflection

The transfiguration of Jesus is one of the most baffling but enlightening scenes in the New Testament. Jesus and his three closest friends - Peter, James, and John - go up a mountain to get far from the madding crowd. Suddenly, Jesus is all aglow. His clothes, we read, become dazzling white, ‘such as no one on earth could bleach them.’

Bleaching techniques may have improved since Mark wrote those words. But the strangeness of the scene is only increased when two of faith's most honoured heroes suddenly appear by Jesus’ side: Moses, the great law-giver; and Elijah, the great prophet.

Here, then, we have the Law, the Prophets, and the Messiah himself. That is not bad company for those ordinary fishermen. In fact, Peter spots a good networking opportunity and suggests erecting three tents, one for each celebrity.

But something is clear from how this otherwise mysterious story ends: although God wants to give his people mountain-top experiences of his presence and glory, they are not to cling to these. Instead, they are to follow Jesus down into the warp and weft of ordinary everyday human life with all its ups and downs. With all its needs and pains.

We see this in the fact that, instead of building the holy huddle camp Peter proposed, Jesus and his disciples return to the valley, where they are faced with even more madding crowds (a public argument had broken out); the work of demons; and the start of Jesus’ suffering and crucifixion.

The word ‘transfiguration’ comes from the same root as ‘metamorphosis’. It expresses the kind of transformation that occurs when a lowly caterpillar becomes a majestic butterfly. In our ordinary everyday lives, including in our work, we will encounter all kinds of hardship. But this, in part, is why we are offered spiritual high points in which we experience God’s transforming presence.

Those experiences are not to be clung to, even though they may cleanse our souls with the ‘better than bleach’ effect Mark noted. They are to empower us, down in the valley, to be God’s purifying and transforming agents in our wonderful but sullied world.

Response

When will you next steal away to Jesus, finding the kind of solitude offered by a mountain? Once you have experienced the renewal this brings, will you help transform - in God's power - your working (and non-working) communities?

Prayer

Lord Jesus, transfigure our hearts and minds, so that our hands may bring your blessing to the world you love, and for which you suffered and died. 

This Week's Author

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God on Monday is produced in partnership with the Church of England. The reflections are based on the scriptural readings designated for the next Sunday in the Church's lectionary. You can sign up to Faith in Business here to receive each God on Monday instalment.  

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