“Lord, it is good that we are here,” I found myself saying so often during my pilgrimage to the Holy Land last summer. While there, I gained a new understanding of the mountaintop experience of the apostles at Mount Tabor and the emotions that made Peter blurt out those same words.
Soon after I returned, a friend asked me with a knowing smile, “Have you come back, or are you still there?” I smiled back, “I’m still there.'” A few days later at a prayer group meeting, the leader mentioned there’s one important part of the story of the Transfiguration that we often miss: The experience was brief.
Tents in the desert
It is no coincidence the Transfiguration occurred during the Jewish celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles. In “Jesus of Nazareth,” Pope Benedict XVI writes, “the [F]east [of Tabernacles] very quickly developed into the remembrance of Israel’s wandering through the desert, when the Jews lived in tents (tabernacles, sukkoth). (Leviticus 23:43) Daniélou cites Harald Risenfeld: ‘The huts were thought of, not only as a remembrance of the protection of God in the desert, but also as a prefiguration of the sukkoth in which the just are to dwell in the age to come.'”
When Peter says, “If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah,” he is expressing a desire to prolong the moment. He wants Mount Tabor to be a place he can visit over and over. But no sooner does he speak and the vision ends, with Jesus standing there again in human form.
These events in which we experience God’s presence so intensely aren’t meant to last; at least not yet. These moments are tents where we rest for a brief time on our way to our ultimate place of rest — the promised land.
Fuel for the journey
The Transfiguration was a gift to the disciples six days after Jesus said he must be put to death and then rise again. It was confirmation of Jesus’ divinity and power. It was an experience they would cling to while he was arrested, hung on the cross and buried in the tomb. And no sooner had it ended than the apostles followed Jesus down Mount Tabor and on to Calvary.
God calls us out of what’s comfortable and familiar to the unknown. He keeps us in that mountaintop experience long enough for us to be assured of his power and love before calling us back down the mountain where the cross awaits. Like Peter, we should hold on to our Mount Tabor experiences for as long as we can; they are fuel for our journey through the desert until we reach our true home.
