Whats Behind the Cloud
What’s behind the Cloud?
Old Testament & Gospel Readings
February 14, 1999
Hasn’t the weather been something this winter? Warm temperatures and sunshine, brought in by “high” barometric pressure, makes everyone smile and feel good. Cloudy, rainy, weather, brought about by “low” barometric pressure, seems to cast a pall of sadness and gloom over us. But the truth is we need both sunshine and rain, “highs” and “lows”. Thus, our lives tend to be like the weather, a succession of “highs” and “lows.” We tend to refer to them as the ups and downs of life! And that’s where our focus is centered in today’s meditation. Thinking of these highs and lows in life, we might want to ask the question, What’s behind the Cloud?
1. The Clouds of Life. Clouds can represent highs in life. We speak of being “in the clouds” or “on cloud nine!” It’s a euphoric state that we would like to be in all the time. Like the apostle Peter, we would like to set up residence in the highs of euphoria.
In theology this is referred to as the religion of glory, or, a theology of glory. Some Christians believe this is the natural habitat for the Christian. Adopt the Christian way of life, they say, and you are guaranteed success in every way. This gets carried to the point of actually adjusting the gospel message to be something like this: “God can change your life and he can use you to change the world.” Although this might very well be true, it is not gospel at all!
The religion of glory always wants to have Easter without Good Friday. Historical Christianity, however, is a religion of the cross because it is the Good News of God who did not stay in the remote protection of heaven, far from the struggle of the earth. On the contrary, God came into our life through his Son, and here he drank to the full the cup of suffering, temptation and sorrow, then came the glorious resurrection. Thus, Christianity is not a succession of glory but of ups and downs.
Clouds can also represent lows in life. Sometimes we speak of living life “under a cloud.” The reference is to a cloud of misfortune. When it is cloudy we find our vision obscured and unclear. Living under a cloud can represent a depressed or troubled state of mind. Boy, don’t I know about that! And I know that you do too.
Vivian Clark in her book God’s Remedy for Depression” says: “It would seem good to always be up, but that would be impossible and unrealistic. Even Jesus … on the Mount of Transfiguration had to return to the valley of life with its difficulties and stresses. Mountaintop experiences deplete our energy because of the high emotional level on which we operate. It is necessary to return to routine—to rest, evaluate, and learn from experience.”
You see, our lives are really no different than the lives of God’s people in the past? The Israelites endured good news, bad news, good news. Good news—escape from slavery in Egypt; bad news—wandering in the wilderness; good news—the Promised Land ahead of them. It’s the same with us! Clouds represent both highs and lows in our lives. And like the Israelites we too tend to ask What’s behind the Cloud?
Perhaps it would be better to ask Who’s behind the Cloud? When Jesus is transfigured, behind the cloud is God the Lawgiver and Moses. In the Old Testament reading God invites Moses up beyond the cloud to give him the tablets on which he has inscribed the commandments. This Law is to be taken seriously. Though given in love, it represents God’s expectations for humankind. And when it is violated, it incurs God’s wrath—as it did on the children of Israel when Moses came down from the mount and found them already worshiping the golden calf as their god. How quickly we humans are bent in unbelief and idolatry. How quickly we assume answers to life according to our own human wisdom.
Take, for example, Maria, a 15 year old girl who ran away from home because her parents’ rules were “too strict.” After almost a year of use and abuse on the streets, she returned home, a modern prodigal. Later she told a youth group: “It took me nine long months on the streets to finally realize that the rules which had seemed so rough and restrictive were actually sources of safety and security. My parents had established those rules not for their good, but for my own.” Interesting words, aren’t they? My friends, so it is with God the Lawgiver and us. In the Ten Commandments He has given us rules to live by, not for His own good, but for our own. If we honor and live by those rules, we find joy, love, and fulfillment.
Although what I just said is absolutely true, you and I tend to overlook, or just ignore the rules because, like Maria, we find them too restrictive, not realizing they are meant to bring us good, not evil. We all have a tendency to pooh-pooh God’s Word and look for our own way and our own glory.
Wanting to build tents for Moses and Elijah shows Peter kind of doing his own thing, like we do. You might even say he was at that moment headstrong in the theology of glory. He didn’t see clearly because of the cloud. But when the cloud lifted Jesus is the only one there. And, God, the loving Father, reveals His pleasure in His Son Jesus Christ for the work of redemption he has undertaken. The Law and the Prophets spoke of this. Yet, it is God the Father who says, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
This work of redemption, of being bought back from slavery to sin and death, is a work that brings us to our senses, so to speak, so that we too see Jesus behind the cloud. Is it any wonder that Peter would later be able to say, “We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. … And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”
Although we tend to want to stay in a euphoric state, with no Cross, we must also come to the reality that without the cross there would be no Easter Resurrection. And without Easter there is no hope for sinners like you and me. So let’s go back to the reality of a sinful world with our focus set on the one behind the cloud, Jesus Christ. And let us dwell on what He has done and is doing for us. Amen.