Glory through the Cross

Galiwin'ku NRCC

Reflections from my message at Nhulunbuy Uniting Church 2nd March 2025

Imagine these readings represent three mountains, three moments in history, three monuments in the Christian faith, three significant events that give shape to our Christian story. And the distance between these mountains is not kilometers but time.

On the first mountain in Exodus 24:12The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there; and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.” 

In Luke 9, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up onto a high mountain. There he is transformed before them. His face shines like the sun, and his clothes become white as light. And then Jesus is joined by Moses and Elijah;‘the deathless ones.’ Both encountered God on the mountain (Sinai/Horeb) and both experienced rejection and suffering at the hands of God’s own people.

The third mountain is mount calvary. On Mount Calvary we see Jesus stripped naked, soldiers throwing dice for his clothes, and on the Mount of Transfiguration we see him clothed in brilliant white. On Mount Calvary we see Jesus between two violent revolutionaries, symbols of Israel’s faithlessness and on the Mount of Transfiguration we see him between Moses and Elijah, between the embodiment of the law and the prophets, symbols of faithfulness. On Mount Calvary dark clouds blot out the sun and on the Mount of Transfiguration the bright clouds of heaven shine their light. On Mount Calvary a Roman soldier declares surely this was God’s son, confirming what was echoed from the clouds as the Lord spoke on the Mount of Transfiguration, “This is my son”. Two mountains and two very different scenes – one shining brightly with glory and the other enveloped in shame and despair.

When the disciples are tempted to despair over the scene on Mount Calvary, the gospel writers point them back to the scene on the Mount of Transfiguration. What looked from a human perspective like the day when sin and death had done their worst and won, Jesus was, in fact, on that cross revealed in all his glory. In the contradictions of horror and glory that surrounded Jesus we glimpse the holy love of God and the servant Christ.