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Church of the Crossroads
Last Sunday after Epiphany/Transfiguration
February 26, 2006
Neal MacPherson

TAKING THE LOW ROAD

This morning’s gospel reading from Mark represents a turning point in the life and ministry of Jesus. From the mountaintop experience described in this morning’s reading, Jesus will journey resolutely and with determination towards Jerusalem and the cross. Jesus is not heaven-bound; he is earthbound. He will come down from the mountain and take the low road. He will enter into the suffering of the world and take it on himself. His suffering will give birth to hope and newness of life, the possibility of a new humanity and a new creation.

That newness of life, however, must be put on hold for the time being. For the time being, there is only the low road. The story of the Transfiguration bears all the marks of a high road. It takes place on a mountain. The whole appearance of Jesus is transfigured. His clothes become dazzling white, “such as no one on earth could bleach them.” It sounds very much like resurrection. Now, if the story of the Transfiguration bears the marks of a resurrection story (and it seems to in a way) it must be suspended for the time being. One must not focus on resurrection too prematurely. One must not look to heavenly bliss when the life of the earth is in such peril, when human life itself is up for grabs. That is why Jesus, as he and Peter and James and John are coming down the mountain, tells them not to tell anyone about what they had seen, not until after his resurrection from the dead.

In contrast to a number of New Testament scholars, Chad Myers in his commentary on Mark, Binding the Strong Man, says that the story of the Transfiguration has been really been misunderstood as a resurrection story. He sees it more as a story that serves to confirm the decision of Jesus to move towards Jerusalem and the cross. After all, just before he and Peter and James and John go up the mountain, Jesus has told the disciples that he “must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed,” and only then, after three days, be raised from death.

The story of the Transfiguration, then, serves to confirm the choice of Jesus to journey towards a cross. His story is not unique, in this sense. Appearing with him on the mountain are Elijah and Moses. They too found themselves on mountaintops in the course of their lives. Moses goes up the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments and converse with God. The goal is not to stay on the mountain, but to receive a measure of assurance that God will accompany the ancient Hebrews as they make their way through the perils and dangers of the wilderness, along a low road indeed. Then, there is Elijah. In this morning’s reading from the Hebrew Scriptures, we find him also on a mountaintop where he has an epiphany experience. Here, again, the goal is not to stay on the mountain, but to receive a measure of divine confirmation that his prophetic ministry is worthwhile and must be carried out in the midst of the social and political realities that confronted him. It would be good to stay on the mountain, but that is not where prophets can remain. It’s the low road that must be taken.

The disciples of Jesus are reluctant to take the same low road. They do not want to envision a troublesome, tragic future for Jesus. When Jesus first reveals what will take place, Peter openly rebukes him for saying such a thing. Peter represents the human tendency in our own day to avoid, as much as possible, the reality of death and suffering. On the mountaintop he still does not get the point. He never really seems to get the point, ever. On the mountain, he says, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” Peter does not want to have anything to do with a low road. He wants heavenly bliss instead.

What was the case back then with Peter is also true today. Witness our culture’s avoidance of any acknowledgment of the reality of human suffering and its undying belief in the idea of progress, namely that our life needs to be defined by “more and more” rather than “just enough.” This avoidance of the reality of death and suffering is also true when it comes to popular Christianity. An article by Gillian Flaccus in yesterday’s Honolulu Advertiser reported on Robert Schuller and his Crystal Cathedral ministry with these words:

Schuller exhorted his followers to take control of their destinies with God’s help and a positive outlook. That upbeat preaching style made the most of a spirit of change that was sweeping the nation . . .

The elder Schuller also did something few other pastors had done so successfully: He studied marketing tactics to lure worshippers from other congregations and built an enormous ministry focused on a generic, feel-good Christianity. . . .

Not only is this kind of Christianity foreign to the Gospel story with its central focus on the cross; it also, at least as far as I am concerned, seems to be out of touch with reality as it is experienced. Our human experience moves between times of orientation and disorientation, or, as I have sometimes described it, through both the thick and thin of life. The Gospel holds that the gift of hope comes not when everything is “peachy keen” but when life is experienced as hopeless, when despair and disorientation constitute our experience.

More dangerous, perhaps, than this popular feel-good Christianity is the growing popularity of what has been called the theology of the “end times.” In this theology, the Gospel story is overlooked in favor of a concentration on the Book of Revelation and its eschatological vision of the end of history. The popularity of this theology is evidenced by the overwhelming success of the novels of the end time which we find consistently listed on the New York Times bestseller list. This theology is dangerous not only because it does not ring true with the earthbound focus of the Gospel story but because it is so disparaging of the creation. After all, if our goal is to be among the heaven-bound elect who get caught up in the skies to be with Jesus, who cares what happens to the creation, or to most of humankind, for that matter? In fact, the suffering pains of the creation serve only as evidence that the end time is near, for which the true believers must be thankful.

Thank God, there are signs that this theology is now being questioned by that part of the church that has been most enamored of it in the past. Last Thursday, I shared with the Coordinating Council the news that a group of 85 evangelical Christian leaders, including mega-church pastors, Christian college presidents, religious broadcasters and writers, have parted company with President Bush and the White House and have instead backed legislation to cut carbon dioxide emissions and mobilize religious conservatives to combat global warming. A television spot sponsored by this group declared that “With God’s help, we can stop global warming for our kids, our world and our Lord.” This new focus on ecological responsibility runs directly counter not only to the White House but also to the “end time” theology with its disregard for the well-being of the creation. To this new development among evangelical Christians, we can only say, “Thanks be to God.”

In the end, my friends, it is impossible to avoid the story of the cross that plays such a central place in the Gospel story. Jesus cares so much about the life of the world and all who dwell in it that he will not hesitate to take the low road and enter into its darkest places, its political realities, its suffering, engaging the reality of death itself. Out of his involvement among the least of God’s children, their suffering, and their longing for a measure of justice and peace in their lives and in the life of the world, hope will be brought forth.

Yes, the end of the story is resurrection, but the focus of the story itself is the journey of Jesus to the cross. That must be the focus of our story as well. May our community be a place where we are willing always to face not only the reality of our own suffering, but the suffering of our world and its people as well. May we be honest about life’s reality as we experience it, both the thick and the thin of it, that in the midst of the despair and the darkness we might know always the hope of the Gospel. And may God help us always to take the low road, as did Jesus before us.

Amen.

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