© Alex J MacDonald

It was the day that changed my life. The day I climbed the highest mountain - Mount Hermon - over 9000 feet.

Now, I’m not a mountaineer - more of a seaman myself. Give me a boat with a wind in the sails and the waves rolling under it, or even a dead calm and the tug of the living waters under the oars. But my friend loved the mountains. He was always dragging us up hills! And I came to love them too. He had that kind of effect on you. I call him my friend. He was that, but much more than that, and it was that day that I really grasped how much more.

Up until I met him I’d lived around the Sea of Galilee - occasional visits to Jerusalem - but not much more. And he was much the same. I only got to know him in the last three years of his life - but what years they were! I could tell you about a night on the Sea - one of the roughest I ever saw - and since then I’ve seen mighty storms on the Great Sea and I’ve heard about ones beyond the Pillars of Hercules... but I want to tell you about the Mountain.

This day he decided to leave Galilee and we travelled north. We were all there - my brother Andrew, and my friend John and his brother James (we’d been fishermen together), and eight others. We all thought it was a strange place for him to want to go to - Caesarea Philippi it was called at that time. Philip, one of King Herod’s family, had rebuilt the city in honour of Caesar, the emperor. It was a really pagan place - Greeks, Romans - you should have seen the buildings - the temples and the idols. The place used to be called Paneas, after the Greek god Pan, the god of nature.

We were all a bit scared - it was creepy. But not him! At the time it seemed a strange place for him to want to visit. I’ve got used to such things now. I’ve been in many cities. I’ve been to Rome! And I think I understand now - why he took us there - but it did seem strange at the time.

The Mountain- Yes, the Mountain. You could see it from there, all right. Its snow-capped peaks dominate that whole area. In fact you can see it from around the Dead Sea, 120 miles away.

Yes, the Mountain. But first we stopped at a little place a bit nearer. That’s when he asked us. “Who do people say I am?” Just straight out. No beating about the bush. That was always his way. Of course that was easy to answer. Because people had to have an opinion about him - the things he did ... and said.

“Elijah” we said. “Some people say you must be Elijah, the power you have.” Yes, Elijah was a mountain man too. It was on Mount Carmel he defeated the pagan priests.

Some said, “Jeremiah or one of the prophets”, or “John the Baptiser”. John was actually his cousin. Like, but unlike. John had power all right... before Herod stuck him in prison, and then had him beheaded. He was a powerful preacher. That’s when I first met him. We’d gone to hear John preach. And boy, he could preach! But he was there. Andrew it was who introduced me. And he said a strange thing to me. He said I would be known by a different name - the Rock. I discovered it’s the kind of name you have to grow into!

But the Mountain. Yes. That was rock all right! I felt very small looking up at it.

But I felt very big when I answered his next question. “But what about you- Who do you say I am?” He put you right on the spot - always! Not that I minded that then. Full of self-confidence in those days I was. The others must have hesitated. Maybe it was the mention of John the Baptist and the memory of what they had done to him.

“The Messiah”, I said, “The Son of the living God!” No half measures! I was big and bold then - not bent and old like I am now - and I didn’t care who heard me. Because I believed it. Maybe I didn’t understand it - not like I understand it now. But sure, I believed it. You don’t see a man standing up in boat out at sea in a Force 10 gale and telling the storm to stop, and it does, and think “O, that happens all the time!” Get real! I may not know the mountains, but I know the sea. That just doesn’t happen. But it did. That’s the point.

Anyway ... to get back to my story... It was what he said next that amazed me. He called me The Rock, and then he said he would build his people on the rock and the gates of Hell would not conquer them. And he said he would give me the keys of his kingdom.

Well, I felt kind of embarrassed, but I must confess I felt proud too - very proud. Too proud, as it turned out. I didn’t understand then that it was my faith in him that was the real rock. And it was only that that gave me, or anyone else, the right to open the door of his Kingdom to anyone, or to close it against those who would not believe in him.

They say pride goes before a fall. It was certainly true in my case. Because he went on to teach us about what was going to happen in Jerusalem. We didn’t know what he was talking about then, but actually he was telling us exactly what was going to happen - what did happen - that the religious powers-that-be were going to turn on him and get him put to death. But that was not going to be the end - three days later he would be back.

I really thought he was losing it - we all did. But it was Big Mouth here who had to say it. “Never!” I said, “That’s not going to happen!” I didn’t understand then. I thought - we all did - that the Messiah was going to rule a powerful kingdom, like his ancestor the great King David. Set us free. Put everything to right. End the oppression. Well, yes, he did all that... But not in the way we expected. It wasn’t the Romans we needed to be freed from - we were enslaved on the inside.

He turned on me like a flash. And his words still make my blood run cold. “Get out of my sight, Satan!” Yes, he even called me that! That hurt! “You want to bring me down,” he said, “It’s human ideas you have in mind, not God’s. What good is it if you gain the whole world, yet lose your soul?” I was hurt and confused. But I know now he was right. I’m glad he’s not now sitting on Herod’s throne with a gold crown on his head. I’m glad he didn’t turn aside from that cruel wooden throne and that crown of thorns. He bore our sins in his own body on the tree. By his wounds we are healed. I know that now, but then I thought you could gain the whole world, keep in with the world, and keep your soul. It can’t be done. I know.

But the Mountain. Yes, the Mountain. It was just the four of us. He took me and my two friends, the brothers James and John. Just the four of us - we set out in the early morning. The mist was still down. There was a heavy dew on the ground. Then as we went up, the mist started to clear and we could see the top - still a long way off, the snow on the top glistening in the sun.

I wasn’t really built for the mountains. Didn’t really have the legs for it. More upper body strength. All that pulling on the oars and hauling in the nets. I was fairly gasping for breath by the time we reached the first high ridge. I’d never been so high. I’d climbed the hills round Galilee of course, nothing like this. But it was marvellous. You could see for miles. By the time we were near the top we could see Galilee and the Jordan valley. We thought we could even see the Dead Sea, away on the edge of sight. What a day!

It was like being in another world - dreamlike - but not unreal - somehow more real. The snow was dazzlingly white in the sun, whiter than anything I’d ever seen. It was cold too, and you couldn’t seem to get enough air. The three of us were getting quite sleepy in fact.

He started to pray. He often prayed in the hills - away from all the crowds - in the peace and quiet - surrounded by God’s handiwork, not man’s.

And that’s when it happened. At first I didn’t know what was going on. My eyes were closed. To tell you the truth, I might have dozed off. But something made me open my eyes, and when I did, I saw this light falling on James and John. It seemed to be coming from behind me. It seemed all wrong. The sun was still high in the sky but in front of me. This light was coming from the opposite direction - and very bright. And the look on John’s face ... That’s what really made me turn round.

I’ll never forget what I saw. It was him all right, but not as I’d ever seen him before. I’d seen his power - when he healed a paralysed man, or when he brought dead girl back to life. And I’d seen his majesty - when he walked on the sea of Galilee in the middle of a raging storm, or when he walked through a hostile crowd and they parted before him like the waves before the prow of a ship. I’d seen him angry - when he looked round at the hypocritical Pharisees who would rescue their beasts on the Sabbath, but criticised him for healing a man. And I’d seen that look of love in his face, when he saw the crowds harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd, or when he said to that woman, “Your sins are forgiven.”

But this was different. It was all these rolled into one... and more. There was glory. There was brightness so bright you couldn’t look at it, but you couldn’t look away either. It was as if you were really seeing for the first time.

At first I didn’t see the other two, such was his splendour. But then I realised he was speaking to two others, nearly but no, not quite as glorious as himself. I heard him call one of them Moses and the other Elijah. Moses!! Moses who had received the Law from the hand of God on the top of Mount Sinai far to the South, and who had died on the top of another mountain, Mount Nebo on the border of the Promised Land.

And Elijah!! Elijah who had faced down the pagan priests on Mount Carmel, out there to the West, and who was taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire. Moses and Elijah! There were mountain men if you like!

People have often asked me what they were talking about. We didn’t properly understand - at least not then. I thought they were talking about the Exodus at first - the Exodus out of Egypt - because that’s the word they used - Exodus - when God redeemed his people from the slavery of Egypt. But they were talking about a greater redemption - the one Jesus was going to achieve on a hill much smaller than Hermon. A brutal place - a hill called the Skull - outside Jerusalem - where he died for the sins of the world. It just goes to show, it’s not how big or how high a place is that matters - or a person.

Moses and Elijah were just about to leave, when I said it. I just blurted out, “Lord, it’s good for us to be here! Let me put up three shelters - one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” I don’t know what got into me. I think I was terrified. I didn’t know what I was saying. I just didn’t want that moment to end, and I kind of thought, “Here are the three greatest men who have ever lived.”

The words weren’t out of my mouth, when we were enveloped in this cloud - it was a cloud, but it was bright. It shone.

And then this voice came from the cloud. I could hear and understand every word. But no human throat could make that voice. It was the voice of God I heard that day.

He said, “This is my Son whom I love. With him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”

We all fell flat on our faces in sheer terror. Then I felt this hand on my shoulder. I nearly died. But when I looked up, it was Jesus. The same Jesus we knew and loved. But from that day on, I never thought of him in exactly the same way ever again. I now knew the meaning of the words I’d spoken so thoughtlessly - “the Son of the living God”.

It was the day that changed my life.

Read Matthew 16:13 - 17:13.