Luke 9:37
The next day, when they came down from the mountain, a large crowd met him.
We are consumed with mountaintop experiences. We travel for them, pay for them, even leave one church to join another in hopes of finding more of them. We spend time and money in some counselor’s office trying to find a way out of valleys for them, and if we can’t afford a counselor, there’s a million books at the local bookstore written by a smiling author telling us that God’s got more of them and wants us to have them. This theology, of course, only works in America where we need to have pleasure in our faith. It wouldn’t fly in other countries where a believer’s mountaintop experience is often just not being persecuted or killed for their faith. Ahh, the pleasure of simple things like life!
Our passage today tells the story of what happened as Jesus came down from the high place where His glory had just been revealed to some of His disciples. You may recall that Peter wanted to stay on the mountaintop, just like most of us, but Jesus said no. He knew that the reason for the mountain was so that He could receive what was needed in the valley, and so down the mountain they went. As it usually goes after we’ve had a great experience with the Lord, there is no lack of needy people waiting for them in the valley. It is interesting to note that we have misunderstood the relationship between the mountain and the valley. We write songs and preach sermons about how we must pass through the valley in order to get to the mountain, but Jesus saw it in exactly the opposite way. For Him, there was a need to go to the mountain in order to get to the valley, or at least to get to the people in the valley.
Lots of things happen in valleys. Jesus ministered there, David defeated a giant there, Joel saw multitudes making decisions there. Of course, there is also a lot of unpleasantness there, which explains why we don’t like the valley. There’s the endless need, the feeling of claustrophobia as the crowd presses against us, the longing for the goosebumps instead of the sweat. I’m not saying we shouldn’t like the mountaintop, but I am saying that we should leave them with something to take to the valley.
Peter saw the Lord’s glory revealed. He saw the hope of a Savior just before he walked down into the despair of the lost. His experience on the mountaintop had provided him with exactly what the crowd needed, and yet he failed to give away what he’d received. In desperation a boy’s father asked Jesus why His disciples couldn’t help his son, and in exasperation Jesus asks His disciples how long He’d have to put up with them being slow to learn the lesson that what they’d seen on the mountain was what they’d need in the valley. Maybe Peter couldn’t help the boy because he was still looking back at the mountain. Maybe the boy’s need was more of a nuisance than a ministry opportunity. Whatever the reason, Peter got the mountain-valley relationship wrong, and we need to make sure we learn from his mistake.
It’s time to see the valley as the destination, not the mountain. It’s time for the mountaintop to become the filling station on the journey rather than something to be chased, hawked, or hyped. The real ministry is in the valley, and when we become less consumed with getting out of them, we’ll find ourselves bringing more hope into them.
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Thanks for the refocusing, Paul. Even as lovers of Christ, too often we still have our eyes not on the eternal things, but on ourselves. You’re right, of course–we are promised abundant life and the indwelling, empowering filling of the Holy Spirit–but that’s not to keep us on the summit but to help us serve in the valley. Downward, downward we must go . . . After all, My Lord left Heaven for me . . .