Tonight in our Little Big Church service, we looked again at the subject of light. We did science experiments involving prisms, shining light on them to reveal the different colours of the rainbow, and shining a torch on a glass of water to show how refraction makes the arrows behind the glass appear to reverse direction! We talked about different sources of light, including the sun, moon and stars and animals which light up like jellyfish and glow worms.

In the Bible, we are told that Jesus is the Light of the world (John 8:12), another one of the ‘I am’ statements in John’s Gospel that indicates the deity of Jesus (since God is light – 1 John 1:5). Those who follow Jesus have the light of life and indeed Jesus says that we are now the light of the world too. (Matt 5:14) Jesus’s light in us shines in us and through us. It’s not a temporary light, like the lights we see when we have firework displays. They are spectacular, bright and dazzling, but they don’t last long! We are more like street lights, standing firm and strong, shining consistently.

Christmas is a time when we think a lot about lights and use lights a lot more than usual: Christmas tree lights, lights in our windows, Advent candles and so on. As we enter the season of Advent, let’s continue to shine brightly, for when we follow Jesus, the Light of the world, we don’t have to be afraid of darkness, for He gives us the light of life.

Dave spoke this morning from Mark 9:2-9, the account of Jesus’s Transfiguration. There, on the mountain top, Jesus was completely transfigured before three disciples who saw a brilliant light and saw Elijah and Moses as well as hearing a voice from heaven. The transfiguration gave the disciples a glimpse into Jesus’s true nature; unlike people who have plastic surgery and change the outward appearance without being able to change the inner nature, this incident did not change Jesus’s nature but simply allowed others to see it. This is often referred to as a ‘mountain top experience,’ and it’s true we need these experiences when God’s glory seems to be revealed to us more plainly than usual. Faith is more than a rational, educated response to God; we need the supernatural experiences which help us to see the eternal world more clearly. These experiences where we glimpse glory are vital; moments when the transcendent nature of God is real to us are precious.

Peter definitely thought this experience was more in line with what he expected of the Messiah than Jesus’s prophecies about death and crucifixion (see Mark 8). He longed to stay on the mountain-top, to build shelters for Elijah, Moses and Jesus and to stay there. His view was that ‘where the Messiah is, there is no misery.’ What he needed to learn was that there was another mountain to be faced, Golgotha, before full glory could be experienced. The truth is that where there is misery, there is the Messiah. Jesus is both the Son of God and the Son of Man and we cannot have the glory without the suffering. The two things go hand in hand, and we have to leave the momentary glory of the Mount of Transfiguration to come down to the valley of everyday life, where there are disputes and healings and work to be done. We simply cannot live on the mountain top all the time, crucial though these experiences are to our faith and Christian walk; we have to understand that there are twin peaks in the Christian life – suffering and glory – and Christ is with us in both.