16 March, Second Sunday in Lent

“Master, it is good that we are here.”

This is a very ‘S. Peter’ sort of thing to say – by that I mean that it’s absolutely correct, wrong, and misunderstanding what’s going on all at the same time His impetuous nature combined with his deep love for Christ and his openness to the promptings of God (even if he didn’t really understand it at the time) all come together in what he says – and we are told that he didn’t know what he was saying. But yet he was right, but not right for that precise moment.

On that mountain Christ shone out, the glory which was his from eternity, which was hidden under a veil as he became incarnate, was allowed to peep out from veil. His true nature as God is shown to those chosen apostles – Peter, James, and John. This revealing of his nature is reinforced when the voice speaks from the cloud ‘This is my Son, my Chosen One.’ We are being left in no doubt that by being in the presence of Christ; Peter, James, and John were in the presence of God.

But it is just a temporary moment. There was good reason why Christ’s glory was veiled at his incarnation. He came down to our level so that he could speak to us, he could reach out his hand to us, he could teach us of God’s love for us all…none of this would have been possible if he had remained with the fullness of his glory shining out. Indeed even on that mountain only a tiny part of his glory was allowed to shine out – had more shone out then those three apostles would have died in an instant.

It is notable that Moses appears on the mountain and talks with Christ – Moses himself asked to see God face-to-face, and despite all of the other great favours which God gave to him, this was turned down. Turned down not because God was being stingy with Moses, but because he knew that Moses would not be able to cope seeing his glory so directly. The same was true of Christ and his apostles – they were given a small taster of the fulness which he had. There were given this so that they could have a greater and a deeper confidence in Christ and the message which he brought. It’s clear that this moment could not last, they had descend the hill and return to the mission which Christ had. So S. Peter is not merely confused but also wrong in what he said – surely if it was good that they were there, it would have been even better for them to stay.

But S. Peter was also right. It was a good thing for him to be in the presence of Christ and his glory. Indeed S. Peter is in the presence of Christ in his glory; he does look at the face of Christ and worship him without ceasing…because S. Peter is now in heaven, along with all of the rest of the Saints. But at that moment S. Peter was not ready for heaven – neither were S. John and S. James for that matter.

It’s worth noting that Christ’s body shone out with glory, S. Peter’s didn’t, S. John’s didn’t, and S. James’s didn’t…as I looked in the mirror to shave this morning, I noticed that I wasn’t exactly shining out with glory either, and looking around church it’s much the same with all of us. We do not have that glory, we are not shining brilliantly, our clothes are not dazzling white. But if we were given the chance to peer into heaven, we would see that S. Peter is now shining out with glory…as are all of the other Saints.

Something changed for S. Peter between that moment on the mountain when he saw Christ’s glory, and that moment when the inverted cross of his martyrdom took him through death into the glory of heaven. It was a long journey – it involved denying Christ and then repenting of that denial; it involved much work for the name of Christ; it involved much suffering for the name of Christ too. All of which was needed…and S. Peter know why it was needed, he tells us all earlier in S. Luke’s Gospel. When Christ produces the miracle of the enormous catch of fish, S. Peter falls at his feet and exclaims “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”

That is why he doesn’t shine out with glory on the mountain, he is a sinful man. That’s why even when Christ allows his glory to shine out, it’s still only the tiniest part of the glory. It’s also why they had to come down from the mountain – those three apostles were all sinful men. It’s also why we don’t shine out with glory – all of us are sinful men and women. This is the beginning of Christianity – we are all sinful, we are all separated from God and his perfection. None of us can face the glory of God, because that glory cannot touch sin without destroying it. Had S. Peter, S. John, and S. James been free from sin, then in all probability as Christ shone out, so would they…but they were not free from sin, and neither are we.

I said that this is the beginning of Christianity – fortunately it’s not the end. Christ chose to place that veil over his glory, chose to come down to our level, chose to become like us in everything other than sin, precisely because we are sinful, and he wants to change that. As S. Paul wrote to those Philippians, Christ will ‘transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body.’ That’s what happened to S. Peter – after they came down from the mountain, after his denial of Christ, after his restoration by the risen Christ. S. Peter was slowly transformed from being that sinful man to being the glorious Saint. So too, S. John and S. James – each were given God’s grace, each were given the benefits of Christ’s death and resurrection, and each came to his glory. They all shine out with glory in heaven, they all see the fulness of God’s own glory face-to-face, and now they say ‘it is good that we are here’ and it doesn’t end shortly after.

But we are still not shining out. We are still sinful. We still need to keep turning back to God, placing our sins at the foot of the Cross, receiving his pardon, receiving his transforming grace. We still need to have our lowly bodies transformed to be like his glorious body. That is the work of the Christian life, the whole of the Christian life, but especially in this lenten season – co-operating with God’s grace, accepting his work in our lives, leaving our sins behind us. At Easter we will greet the risen Christ, if we have passed well through Lent, then we will be ready to greet him properly…and ultimately we will be ready for him to greet us in our resurrection, as he welcomes us, now glorified, into his heavenly kingdom. Then we can join with S. Peter, and all of the Saints, ‘Master, it is good that we are here.’