Jesus invited us, Peter, James & I to go up with him on the mountainside to pray. Although we were all tired, I was delighted for I truly wanted to know just how He prayed & how He drew such strength from His Father through those times. Yet, that wasn't actually what happened.
We climbed up together but then Jesus moved away from us. As He drew away from us slightly, I was aware of that kind of tingling you get when there is almost a spark of anticipation (it comes more often being with Jesus than it ever did before) that crackle of being infinitely in the present moment & being in the presence of God.
I looked up at Jesus & as I did so, it was as though He was being clothed from head to toe in light, but not light as we would normally see it, this light had a luminous quality & a brightness & clarity to it that wasn't of the earth. It didn't hurt my eyes in any way, yet it was the brightest of lights I had ever seen. Jesus was utterly transformed. It was still Jesus, but more than Jesus. He was brighter, bigger, totally majestic & awe-inspiring. All His features became more than they were, it's hard to put into words, but His eyes were terrifyingly beautiful & powerful, even more than usual. You knew He would be able to see the very depths of your heart if he were to look at you. His face looked just like the sun in all it's splendour & the three of us were bathed in the light from Him, a light which transformed us just as sunlight transforms that which it touches in its radiance.
As we watched and my eyes became used to seeing this light from Him, I saw that there were two others with Him. I thought to begin with it might have been James & Peter as I had been so wrapped up in this scene before me, but they were just as absorbed by it all as I was. None of us were sleepy any more!
As I looked more closely, I saw it was Moses & Elijah with Jesus, speaking to Him in a way that they had clearly known Him so deeply & so well. I guess that was only to be expected. Yet even in this, I just knew this was a new thing we were seeing, a culmination & a bringing together of both the Torah & Prophetic teaching. Not a superseding, but a glorious marriage of them both & it seemed to me of all history to this very moment.
They looked as though they were about to leave when Peter then got up & said he'd build a shelter for the three of them & for us to stay there. I understood what he wanted & why he wanted to stay there, because it was the kind of place & kind of sight that you could gaze on forever & never become bored with. I also knew that there was no way this was going to happen, no way Jesus would allow this & no way this was something that you could stay simply looking at. Just as Peter had finished speaking a glorious cloud began to descend on the three of them & on us. There was weight to this cloud & I knew that this was what our fathers had seen as they journeyed in the wilderness, this was the cloud of the glorious presence of God!
I was enthralled & then came the Voice! The Voice of God. We heard the voice of God speaking! That was it, we couldn't watch any more. We were flat on our faces in awe, fear, reverence, amazement - too much to explain in mere human words. We heard Him say 'This is My Son, My Beloved, with Whom I am [and have always been] delighted. Listen to Him!' We were hearing the very Voice of the Almighty. We were disciples following the Beloved of The Lord. My mind struggled with the fullness of all we had seen & experienced & time stood still......
The next thing I remember was hearing the voice of Jesus. You know, I realise now the reason He always spoke with power is because His voice was like His Father's voice & carried that same authority. When I looked up, it was simply the Jesus we had known & loved, telling us not to be afraid. I realised then that the terror we had felt was a holy terror, not like fear in the human sense, but a different kind of fear. Jesus was as He had always been & yet, I certainly couldn't see Him as the same as before we had been up that mountainside & seen what we had seen & heard what we had heard.
Peter & James asked Him questions about Elijah coming before the Christ & I simply listened to them all, as everything Jesus said in answer to their questions fell into place like a mosaic does when you see the full picture. Of course, John the Baptist had been a kind of Elijah, it was so obvious, why hadn't we seen it before. But actually, I realised, nothing, nothing at all would ever be as it was before.......
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