Matt.17:5 – While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice from the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him!”
This passage speaks to me about special moments I have had over the years with special encounters with the Lord. These moments are intended to define our lives, sadly we can’t always live in the ecstasy of those moments. This was one of those moments for the disciples. They saw and heard amazing things that day. They saw Jesus shining with God’s glory, Moses and Elijah having a conversation with Jesus, they were engulfed with the cloud of glory, and actually heard the Father speak from the cloud. When this moment was over they had to return to the work of the ministry. The best news, they would return with Jesus. Here is a quote from Barclay about this verse.
“It is quite clear that Peter wished to wait upon the mountain slopes. He wished that great moment to be prolonged. He did not want to go down to the everyday and common things again but to remain forever in the radiance of glory. That is a feeling which everyone must know. There are moments of intimacy, of serenity, of peace, of nearness to God, which everyone has known and wished to prolong.…Susanna Wesley, the mother of John and Charles Wesley, had a prayer: ‘Help me, Lord, to remember that religion is not to be confined to the church or closet, nor exercised only in prayer and meditation, but that everywhere I am in thy presence.’ The moment of glory does not exist for its own sake; it exists to clothe the common things with a radiance they never had before.”
Apparently Susanna Wesley had a relationship with the Lord, she had learned the importance of practicing the presence of Jesus in her day to day life. Those mountain top experiences are critical in our walk with the Lord. What is even more critical is that we bring that experience into our day to day life. Just a memory of what happened on the mountain isn’t good enough, we must take the essence of those moments with us in our day to day activities. Just like the disciples came down from the mountain we must come down too. What was important for them and for us is that we must come down walking with Jesus.