Capture the Moment

Capture the Moment

Text:  Matthew 17:1-9

            Snap!  Eyelids resist blinking at the blinding light of the bulb.  Digital cameras have made it instantly apparent who’s got their eyes closed, whose face has been blocked out, and whether the pose is right.  A big part of the photographer’s art is to persuade subjects to cooperate without feeling bullied.  A skilled photographer can get the picture they want whilst everyone in the photo is having fun.  We all know the routine.  One, two, three, ch-e-e-e-e-e-se!  Click.  Flash.  And there you have it:  a group of people with forced, elongated grins!

            A photograph captures a moment in time.  In the days gone by we had the film developed.  Pictures piled up in a drawer or a shoebox for the day when we had the time to sit down and put them into an album.  With digital cameras and mobile phones we take our pics and upload them onto our computer.  They accumulate and we keep saying to ourselves that we really must sort them.  We’ll need to make time to print them out and organise them into albums.  We may choose to go a step further and arrange our digital photos with internet companies that enable us to publish our pictures with captions in a bound album. 

            (Encourage people to participate in dialogue as I ask these questions):  When do you want to have your camera with you?  (For a wedding?  On holiday?  At a birthday party?  At an anniversary?  On a walk?).  Why do you take photographs?  (To have a record of things that we have done... places we been to...to capture moments of breathtaking beauty?  To remember the stages of growth in the lives of our children and grandchildren?  To capture the whole family being together at a reunion?)   What kind of photos do you prefer to take? (Landscape?  People?).  When you’ve got all the photos in front of you and you have to choose to keep or discard, how do you decide?  (Do we tend to keep the perfect pictures...the nice poses...the cracking good smiles...the fun times...the perfect beauty?  We do keep photos of injuries, damage to our car, wrecked property, damaged goods as evidence.  Would we keep these in our family album?).

            Jesus gets Peter, James and John together and asks them to climb a mountain with him.  Peter might not have been fast but he was energetic and he loved a good trek.  There’s nothing quite like climbing to a summit and surveying the scenery.   

I can just imagine that if digital cameras had been around in those days Peter would have had one.  He would have been snapping shots of the others against a rugged backdrop and later uploaded them onto his computer.  Life was so hectic with Jesus that I can well imagine that Peter didn’t get around to sorting out the photos until long after the resurrection.  Can you see him arranging the pictures and putting captions?  Because these photos and memories were so important, he was going to have them sent off and made up into a glossy bound album. 

            The first picture he labelled “Setting Out.”  It was a photo of the foot of the mountain, moments before they began their arduous ascent.  As Peter looked at the picture it conjured up memories of the chat that Jesus had with them six days before the climb.  He’d never forget it.  Jesus’ words thrilled and terrified him at the same time.  His chest swelled with pride when Jesus gave him a verbal pat on the back for giving the right answer to the question, “But who do you say that I am?”  He was so confident:  “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”  Jesus told Peter of his key role in the church which would be based on his rock solid insight. 

            The wind went out of his sails when Jesus told him off for being an agent of Satan.  Peter was hurt.  He didn’t like Jesus talking about going to Jerusalem to die.  He was sure that being Messiah meant that the kind of death Jesus was talking about should never happen to the Messiah. 

            As Peter looked at the picture he could see in his face that he was still stinging from Jesus’ telling off.  He simply couldn’t get his head round the cross talk of Jesus.  How could the cross – a brutal weapon of Roman rule – be essential to following Jesus?  Losing life to gain life did not make any sense to him.

            Peter continued to look at the picture.  He remembered hoping that the fresh air and breathtaking view at the peak would help to clear his head.  After all there’s nothing like vigorous exercise to help to sort out the mind!

            Peter inserted the next photo.  The caption:  “Four Trekkers.”   Peter smiled as he remembered the antics of trying to take this picture.  They had huddled head to head and as Peter stretched his arm as far away as possible for to take this self-portrait.  Snap.  They looked at the picture.  He and James are only half in with Jesus and John sandwiched between them.  Peter hadn’t realised it then but now he realised that the three of them with Jesus were a lot like Moses who had climbed Sinai with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu (Exodus 24:1-2; 15-18).

            The next few photos are overexposed.  Peter was about to delete them and then thought better of it.  He inserted them into the album and wrote a catchall caption:  “Jesus Transfigured.”   Even now it was hard to put into words what he’d seen!  There was so much light.  Jesus’ face glowed bright like the sun and his clothes were dazzling white.  Jesus was talking with Moses and Elijah.  The giver of the Law and a great prophet together with Jesus!  Peter wished that this could last forever.  It was so amazing! Even now, the thought of it sent shivers up and down Peter’s spine.  

            Looking the overexposed photo reminded Peter of his instinct to capture the moment.  He thought it was such a good idea at the time.  He could hear himself telling Jesus that he’d be happy to build three places for them to live in.  He was so excited he couldn’t stop talking!

            A bright cloud came down and rendered Peter speechless.  This cloud was just like the one that covered Mount Sinai for six days.  A voice spoke out of this cloud just like way back then when the voice had called to Moses out of the cloud on the seventh day.  The voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!”  The command of the voice to listen to Jesus was a sure sign that Jesus was the Moses-like prophet promised in the Law (Deut. 18:15-18).  Jesus is the one who fulfils the Law!  Listen to him.

            Peter recalled being overwhelmed.  The three of them collapsed in fear.  He was never so relieved to feel the touch of Jesus and hear his voice speaking.  The sights, sounds, and emotions had overloaded their senses and blown a fuse.  “Get up and do not be afraid.”

            Peter looked at the last photo.  He took it just after he looked up.  Everything was back to normal.  The lighting was just right.  Here was a picture of Jesus just as Peter and the other two had always known him.  It was “Jesus himself alone.”

            Peter remembered how the three of them descended the mountain with Jesus and told them not to tell anyone about the vision they’d seen until after the resurrection.  There was something about the mystery of what happened on that mountain that was beyond words and pictures.  There was something about what happened on that mountain that they could not be understood until after Jesus’ was raised from the dead.  Jesus’ transfiguration pointed them beyond the cross and the resurrection to the end of time and the final resurrection.  The same Jesus who was transfigured on the mountain before Peter, James, and John is the same Jesus who went with them into the garden called Gethsemane.  The same Jesus who was transfigured on the mountain with Moses and Elijah hung from the cross while onlookers waited to see if Elijah would turn up (Mt. 27:49).  The same Jesus who was transfigured on the mountain died and evoked this response from a centurion:  “Truly this man was God’s Son!” (Mt. 27:54).  This same Jesus who was transfigured on the mountain in the company of three men is accompanied by three women (Mt. 27:56).[1]

            The mystery of the transfiguration of Jesus gives a glimpse of the hope of what will be at the end of time (Mt. 16:27).  The transfiguration would mean nothing if Jesus had not drunk the bitter cup of suffering in the cross.  The transfiguration means everything because Jesus died and rose again.  It is the mysterious hope that enables us to take up the cross and follow Jesus. 

            Rounds of bullets fired from Kalshnikov rifles ripped through the body of Shahbaz Bhatti.  He was in the back of his car making his way to his office as a minister in the Pakistani government.  Shahbaz was an outspoken opponent of the blasphemy law which has condemned Aasia Bibi, a mother of four and a Christian women to death.  Shahbaz fought for the rights of Christians and minorities in Pakistan.  He was vocal in condemning the killing of Punjab governor, Salmaan Taseer.  He knew his life was under threat but was unwavering in his courage and determination to stand for justice. 

            Two months ago, with the full knowledge that his life was under threat, he pre-recorded a message for the BBC to release upon his assassination.  (Video clip to be played at this point which I include here in print for reference):  “The forces of violence, militant banned organisations, the Taliban and pro al-Qaida, they want to impose their radical philosophy in Pakistan and whoever stands against their radical philosophy, they threaten them. 

            When I’m leading this campaign against the sharia law, for the abolishment of [the] blasphemy law and speaking for the oppressed and marginalised persecuted Christian and other minorities, these Taliban threaten me, but I want to share that I believe in Jesus Christ, who has given his own life for us.

            I know what is the meaning of [the] cross and I’m following the cross and I’m ready to die for a cause.

            I’m living for my community and suffering people and I will die to defend their rights so that these threats and these warnings cannot change my opinion and principles.  I will prefer to die, following my principle and for the justice of my community rather to compromise on these threats.”[2]

            Do you and I know the meaning of the cross?  Often we’re like Peter.  We want to capture the moments of glory and the spiritual highs.  These are given that we would have the strength to carry the cross.  Do we know that glory is through suffering?  Do we know that resurrection comes through death?  We cannot capture the moment and stay on the mountain.  Discipleship is the descent into the darkness that takes us into the light of the resurrection.  There is nothing to fear when we look at Jesus himself alone.  Will you follow him?