Day 294: The Mountaintop and the Mission (Matthew 17)

4 And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” 5 He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son,[a] with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” (Matthew 17:4-5)

Through the Bible: Matthew 17, Mark 9

In my younger days, I served as a camp pastor for a youth summer camp—an intense week focused entirely on Jesus, free from all the distractions of home.

Church camp is often described as a mountaintop experience for Christians. Week after week, kids would come up to me on the last night of camp and say, “Jesus has never been as real to me as He has been this week. I wish we could stay at camp forever.”

I think Peter must have felt something similar when Jesus took him, James, and John up on the mountain of transfiguration.

Scripture says that Jesus was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light (Matthew 17:2). They saw and experienced Jesus as they never had before.

So Peter expressed what thousands of church camp kids have been saying ever since: “This is awesome! Jesus has never been as real to me as He is on this mountain!”

Let’s stay here longer!

Peter started making plans for how they could remain on the mountain. He’s taking measurements for three tents, picking out carpet, and trying to decide where to put the pipe organ, when all of the sudden the voice of God lays him flat, along with James and John:

THIS IS MY BELOVED SON; WITH WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED. LISTEN TO HIM.

And with that, we don’t hear anything else about camping out on the mountaintop. Next thing you know, they are heading back down the trail. Notice what is waiting for them at the bottom of the hill:

¹⁴ And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and, kneeling before him, ¹⁵ said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he has seizures and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. ¹⁶ And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.” (Matthew 17:14-16)

Listen, beloved: I pray the Lord gives you Sunday after Sunday of awesome worship experiences. I’m a pastor, and my worship pastor and I do our best to plan services that help our church members experience God in an exciting, relevant, and transformational way. I’ve been in services where the Holy Spirit just takes over—where a fifty-minute sermon feels like five, and when you sing, “Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place,” you mean it with your whole heart.

But while authentic, God-honoring worship is an end in itself, it’s also a means to an end. Every true encounter with God should prepare us for mission beyond the walls of the church.

One of my favorite metaphors for the church is the aircraft carrier. An aircraft carrier exists to be a mobile base of operations for fighter jets. Fighter pilots are fed, housed, trained, supported, and prepared to launch from the carrier into the battle zone. Then they return to refuel, recharge, and retrain—so they’re ready for the next mission.

In the same way, we come away from mountaintop experiences at church encouraged, enlightened, and empowered for the work He’s given us. The greater the encounter with Jesus on the mountain, the greater the task that awaits you in the valley.

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