Book Two, Chapter Eleven

Jesus has led them up hills before, but Galilee’s hills are nothing like this mountain. At first, they think he’s just looking for a solitary place on its steep, forbidding slopes. But after an hour or so of strenuous climbing, they realize he’s leading them toward the top of the mountain—though the summit is still far beyond their sight. 

When Peter can spare enough breath to think, he wonders if Jesus is still angry. He looks at his Master from time to time but can never tell if what he’s seeing is anger or a raw and majestic determination. In the scriptures it says: I have set my face like a flint. Yes, thinks Peter, that’s what Jesus has done.

And so he tries to set his own face like a flint. Tries to climb with the same relentless and consuming drive. The Lord God has helped me, so I won’t be disgraced. I have set my face like a flint, and I won’t be put to shame. Up ahead, Jesus keeps climbing. To his right hand and his left, James and John keep pace.

*

They’ve been climbing for hours, and John is hungry. But he refuses to be the first to stop. The first to ask if they can rest and eat.

*

They’ve been climbing all day and the wind is stronger and colder the closer they get to the summit. James can feel it slip through his clothing and wonders how long he’s made do with the same robe.

*

For the first time in his life, Peter sees snow—not simply as whiteness on a distant hilltop, but as a physical substance lying ahead on the ground. It looks a little like sand. When he reaches it, he takes some in his hand. It feels strange. Cold, yes, but also hot. As if his body doesn’t know how it should feel to touch pure color for the first time.

*

They climb over snow-covered rock after snow-covered rock. They fill their lungs with cold instead of air. They can see the whole promised land when they look over their shoulders, but they hardly ever bother to look over their shoulders. They keep moving, keep climbing.

They have almost reached the top.

*

The three apostles’ bodies tremble with the cold and their eyes are heavy with longing for sleep when Jesus stops at the top of the mountain. The sun is setting, but his face shines.

His clothes are white, unnaturally white, whiter even than the glistening snow.

*

The apostles are struggling to stay awake for even one hour. Their eyes fall closed, and they will them back open. Jesus is talking with Moses and Elijah. They are telling him to take off his white robes and wash them in wine. They are telling him to take off his glistening garments to soak them in the blood of grapes.

*          

Peter is struggling to stay awake, so he tries to listen to them talk. Something about Jerusalem. Riding into Jerusalem. And then something about another mountain near Jerusalem.

“Are you ready?” says Moses.

“Yes,” says Jesus.

“Can we help you?” says Elijah.

“You’re helping me now,” Jesus says.          

*

James struggles to stay focused. James wants so badly to pay attention. Moses and Elijah are talking to Jesus. Jesus’ face shines and his clothes are whiter than snow, his eyes as dark as wine.

*

John doesn’t feel cold anymore because there’s so much light and warmth coming off Jesus and the two prophets. Elijah burns like his chariot, Moses like his bush. John basks in their presence. John basks in the warmth of Jesus, who is like all the light in the whole world. Jesus is like the sun and the moon and the stars, and the hearth on a rainy night.

*

Jesus wakes Peter, James, and John when Moses and Elijah are about to go.

“It’s good that we’re here,” says Peter through growing shivers. “We should stay here for a while. We’ll build a booth for you and one for Moses and for Elijah and it will be just like Sukkot.”

But they don’t need booths to remind them of the Feast of the Ingathering, because God sends a cloud to shelter them instead.

And in the cloud, they hear the voice of God. Not just feel it, but hear it with their own ears. Unmistakable. Though they’ve never heard the voice before, they know it at once:

“This is my Son, my Chosen,” He says. “Listen.”

And they fall on their faces before Jesus in worship and awe and fear. 

“Don’t be afraid,” says Jesus gently. “You can get up.”

And they listen, because God himself told them to.   

*

The cloud is gone, and they’re alone with Jesus now. The sun hasn’t set, and the sun doesn’t seem to set as they walk down the mountain for hours and hours.

“Don’t tell anyone what you saw until everything the prophets said has been done, and I’ve returned,” says Jesus.

None of the three remembers exactly what Jesus talked about with Moses and Elijah, but each of them imagines he’ll ask the other two later, and they’ll know what has to be done.

All at once, something occurs to James. I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and dreadful day of the Lord.

“What does it mean when Elijah comes?” he says.

“Let me tell you a story,” says Jesus. “Elijah came, and they abused him. Herod threw him in a prison and had him killed.”

“The John who baptized you is Elijah?” says the young John.

“That’s not a story,” says James, “that’s a fact.”

“It’s a story for those with ears to hear,” Jesus says.

They get down the mountain and into the village just before the sun finally finishes setting.

“Come inside with me,” says a familiar-looking man. “I’d be honored if you’d join my family as we welcome in the Sabbath.”

Jesus immediately goes with him, but it takes Peter, James, and John a moment to follow. How long have they been on the mountain? Has Time itself abandoned its usual caravan of days and nights? 

James Goldberg is a poet, playwright, essayist, novelist, documentary filmmaker, scholar, and translator who specializes in Mormon literature.

Original artwork by Sarah Hawkes.

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