February 15, 2026 "What Goes Up Must Come Down"

Transfiguration Sunday

Exodus 24:12-18

Psalm 2

2 Peter 1:16-21

Matthew 17:1-9

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,

 grace and peace to you

from the one who reveals the glory of the Lord to us

 and raises us up out of fear. amen

Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation

 is his scientific and mathematical explanation

 for how gravity works,

 while even the briefest of internet searches

will yield formulas and detailed explanations

 it can be most simply summed up as “

What goes up, must come down.”

and while this refers to the force of gravity

acting on the mass of physical objects,

the rule seems to hold true in many other less scientific situations

 including spiritual (literal and metaphorical)

 mountain top experiences. 

Today we have the story of the Transfiguration,

 Jesus taking Peter and James and John up a mountain

 where the glory of the Lord is revealed to them

reflected on Jesus who is joined by Moses and Elijah

and the experience is so amazing

 that Peter suggests staying there,

 but what goes up must come down,

and they are overshadowed by the presence of God

 and hear the voice of God

who affirms Jesus as beloved child,

instructing them to listen to him.

And when the cloud lifts Jesus reassures his terrified disciples

 and leads them back down the mountain,

and on the way back down

 he orders their silence about the experience

 at least until after he is raised from the dead,

 an instruction that I’m sure sounded like nonsense to the disciples

 who are well aware of the one law of nature for which there are no exceptions,

 namely that dead is dead.

So what is going on here?

Jesus clearly took them up the mountain

for an encounter with God,

that’s why you ascend mountains in the Bible,

 and the experiences of God on the mountain

 are so that the one having the experience

 can then come down the mountain to tell others about it,

 and yet Jesus orders their silence, at least for the moment.

What is going on

is that Jesus is using this moment

 to begin to teach the disciples that with him,

 with Christ,

what goes down must come up.

Jesus knows that when they head down the mountain

their destination is Jerusalem and the cross,

the cross that he must be raised up on for the sake of the world,

 and Jesus knows that though he will be taken down from the cross,

placed in a tomb

and that he will rise three days later.

And that even after he appears to his disciples

 he will also ascend to his Father

and it will be their job to proclaim and interpret these events

that will defy what people know to be true about the world.

So ahead of all this

Jesus gives them an experience of the glory of the Lord.

 In a way that defies nature

 but fits into the disciples’ understanding of God revealed.

They know the stories

they know how God revealed God’s self to Moses on Mount Sinai

and how his face shone afterwards

reflecting the glory of the Lord.

They know the story of Elijah on a mountain

and God appearing to him out of the silence

they have a framework for understanding this mountain top experience.

 Jesus is bolstering them with an experience of God

 for the days to come

 but he is also preparing them for when he is raised.

Only then will the disciples be able to look back on their mountain top experience

and fully understand what it was about.

 Hindsight is 20/20 as they say.

And sure enough in our reading from 2 Peter

we hear Peter, or someone writing in his name,

 pointing to the transfiguration experience

 when confronting the false teachers

 who when faced with a delay in Jesus’ return

claim it is all a myth

 and the supporting prophecies and scriptures are uninspired.

In other words

insinuating that the apostles made up the whole thing

 to manipulate the people. 

“No” says Peter “We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses to his majesty…We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain. So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.” 

What goes up must come down,

 but what goes down also carries with it the experience of the top,

 the experience, the tradition of the transfiguration

lighting the way when the way feels hard to follow. 

And that’s not all Jesus offered the disciples,

 we hear that at the voice of the Lord they fall to the ground

 and are overcome by fear.

But remember with God

what goes down must come up

 so Jesus goes to them,

touches them,

 tells them not to be afraid

and raises them up. 

What is translated as “Get up” is the verb in Greek

 that is in other places translated “rise up,”

 as in Jesus’ passion predictions that he will rise from the dead.

 In their moment of paralyzing fear,

even fear at a good thing,

Jesus comes to the disciples,

calms their fears

 and raises them up.

This is what Christ does for us as well,

 revealing the glory of the Lord to us at our baptisms,

making us citizens of the kingdom of God as well as the world,

so that both rules apply to us,

yes we are still subject to the law of gravity,

what goes up must come down,

but God promises that God’s rule now applies to us as well,

that what goes down must come up

and when we are down

 Christ comes to us,

calms our fears,

raises us up,

and then leads us on

 bolstered in faith

 to face whatever comes next

be it darkest valley or mountain top glory.

This is most certainly true. Amen.