“Forty Days and Forty Nights”
Matthew 17:1-9 [N.T. Lesson]
Exodus 24:12-18 [O.T. Lesson]
Dr. Fred Craddock, a giant in the preaching profession who has gone on to be with the Lord, shared a wonderful story about a young minister, newly graduated from seminary, and serving in his very first church. He gets a call telling him that a church member, an elderly woman who has given her life in service for the church, is in the hospital. She’s so weak she can’t even get out of bed, and the doctors don’t hold much hope for her. Would he go and visit her? Well, of course he will, and he did.
All the way to the hospital he’s thinking about what he will say to this Christian lady, what words of comfort he can give her to prepare her for her transition. I’ve been in that place myself a few times—even calling Pastor friends for advice as I drove to the hospital or nursing facility.
So, he arrives at the hospital and goes up to her room for their visit. He sits and talks with her for a few minutes, just small talk really, nothing earth shattering. When he gets ready to leave, he asks if she would like him to pray with her. “Of course,” she answers, “that’s why I wanted you to come.”
He then politely asks, “What exactly would you like me to pray for?” “Why, I want you to pray that God will heal me,” she answers in a surprised tone of voice.
Fumbling over the words he prays just as she wanted that God would heal her, even though he’s not really sure that will happen. When he says “Amen” at the end of the prayer the woman says, “You know, I think it worked! I think I’m healed!” And she jumps out of bed and begins to run up and down the hall of the
hospital shouting, “Praise God! I’m healed! Praise God! I’m healed!”
The young minister—in a stupor—stumbles to the stairs—walks down five flights—makes his way to the parking lot and somehow manages to find his car. As he fumbles to get his keys out of his pocket, he looks toward heaven and says, “Don’t you ever do that to me again! It’s not supposed to happen like that!”
Well, to his credit, this young minister, and his church member, got one thing correct—they knew who was responsible—they knew who to credit for the healing. The young Pastor realized that he was just a passenger on this bus—he realized that he was just along for the ride—and he realized that he was just a bit player in something much bigger than he could have ever imagined.
This morning, both of our Scripture Lessons are about two men, hundreds of years apart, who climbed a mountain, two different mountains, and the world hasn’t been the same since. And both men took along with them bit players, normal everyday men who played a part in the grand scheme of things. You know what? Jesus wants to take you with Him on a trip as well. Just you and Him alone or maybe in a group, or maybe even with a bunch of strangers. Jesus desires that you join Him, that you Follow Him.
On the Tuesday morning edition of the Wake-Up Call this week Pastor Andrew Forest shared that not everyone who is called is called to be a Pastor. He compared Pastors to coaches, meant to prepare people for ministry; “because you can’t win the game if all you have is a bunch of coaches and no players.” In my service to the church, I’ve witnessed many who had a calling other than Pastors, especially nurses. I’ve sat in hospital or nursing home rooms and watched these angels of mercy just float into the room and do their work, their compassion evident. Maybe not all nurses, but many that I’ve observed. The same can be said for teachers and administrators, even garbage collectors have a call to their work.
Anyway, Andrew pointed us to Exodus 31 where it says, “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills.’” Bezalel, a carpenter, is the first person in the Bible said to be filled with the Spirit of God, or the Holy Spirit. Not Moses, or Aaron, or Joshua. But a simple carpenter, a bit player, because it’s good for us to remember that ordinary people and ordinary trades or professions matter to the Lord. This is what it means to be a disciple of Jesus—to live your life as if Jesus were living it. All of us have been gifted by the Holy Spirit to live our lives in the Jesus way and to be in ministry through the ordinary work of everyday life.
In our N.T. Lesson this morning Jesus takes His “inner circle,” Peter, James and John [the Zebedee’s] up on a high mountain. I call them the “inner circle” because this isn’t the only time that Jesus takes along just these three. The Gospel writers considered this event so important that it shows up in all three of the Synoptics [Matthew, Mark, and Luke].
The Transfiguration was a vision, a brief glimpse of the true glory of the King, a foretaste of heaven. This was a special revelation of Jesus’ divinity to these three disciples. They were so enthralled that Peter, the self-appointed spokesperson 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.” Mark, in his gospel, follows this with, “He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.”
While Jesus and His companions are on the mountain He was transfigured before them. His face shown like the sun, and it was at this moment that they discovered they weren’t alone because suddenly there was Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus. Moses and Elijah were two of the greatest prophets in the Old Testament. Elijah represented the prophets who foretold the coming of the Messiah. Moses, who represented the Law was himself transfigured whenever in the presence of God so that he would put a veil over his face because the people were afraid to come near him [Exodus 34:29-35]. You may remember that Jesus said He came to fulfill the law and the prophets [Matthew 5:17].
From our Old Testament Lesson this morning we see the articulation of three crucial aspects of God’s forming and guiding presence in the lives of His people: [1] God invites, [2] God’s people wait, and [3] God gives.
God invited Moses up on Mount Sinai for the sole purpose of presenting him with the two tablets of stone which He wrote His law on.
Moses instructed the elders, or the representatives of the people to stay in their present encampment and left Aaron and Hur [Bezalel’s grandfather] in charge, in case there were any disputes among them. Then, he took Joshua, now for the first time to be called “his aide,” and together they ascended the mountain. Joshua isn’t mentioned again until Moses is on his way back down the mountain. Apparently, he stopped at some point on their climb, possibly where Moses stayed for the six days while the cloud covered the mountain. On the seventh day, Moses was summoned to join the Lord, and he entered the cloud where he stayed for forty days and forty nights.
40 days and 40 nights = the number of days that God sent the rain that flooded the earth.
40 days and 40 nights = the number of days Moses spent on Mount Sinai with God.
40 days and 40 nights = the number of days Jesus spent in the wilderness being tempted after His baptism.
40 days and forty nights = the number of days in the Season of Lent [minus Sundays] which begins this Wednesday [Ash Wednesday].
40 days and 40 nights = Jesus appeared to His disciples and others post resurrection before ascending back to the Father.
Moses [The Shepherd] – Forty years in the palace—forty years sheepherding his father-in-law’s herds—forty years leading God’s people to freedom
Jesus [The Savior] – leads God’s people to salvation
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could live our lives on one everlasting spiritual high? Wouldn’t it be marvelous if everyday was mountaintop day? One life-long glorious, happy time of joy and wonder would be just fine.
God does invite us to a special space where He does show us His glory and reveals to us His eternal love and forgiveness. God does think about us with an abundance of steadfast love and mercy, and that holy space, obviously, can be anywhere, because we know that God is everywhere.
Today, Transfiguration Sunday, God invites us, with Moses, to “enter the cloud” enveloping God’s presence. Today, God gives us a taste of His abiding love at the altar. Today, here in this place, God shows us His radiant glory as we see with the disciples, the shining wonder of God’s beloved Son. God is indeed giving us a mountaintop spiritual high.
In closing, at Mount Sinai God said to Moses, “Chisel two tablets of stone.” In other words, take two rocks and shape them for lettering, get them ready to write something on.
What was to be written? God did not say. Rather, he said, “Chisel two tablets…and I will write upon them.” You get them ready, and I will do the writing. Moses obeyed. And the result was the Ten Commandments.
Over and over again, I think, God is saying to His people: You chisel the tablets, and I will write upon them. Make yourself ready and I will come with a message, some help, a blessing. In true worship we do this—we come before the Lord and we say: “Here I am, Lord. I’ve done the best I can to knock the rough edges off my life. Now I wait for Your hand, Your touch—I wait for whatever it is You wish to do with what I bring.” And you can count on this: When you have chiseled your tablets and smoothed as well as you can, God will not leave them untouched.
Glory be to God!
Eastman First Methodist Church 