Last Sunday after Epiphany B – George Yandell
The Transfiguration of Jesus- an event described in Mark, Matthew and Luke. It is the great turning point in Mark’s gospel. The transfiguration of Jesus looks back to his baptism and forward to his death and resurrection. That is of course where we are in the Church’s keeping of time. This mystical vision and experience has it all- it is intended to lead Peter, John, James and us into mystical participation in the work of Jesus the resurrected Christ.
Moses and Elijah appear talking with Jesus. The law given by Moses was intended to shape and form people from the outside. It’s like when people slow down when they know that a photo radar trap is up ahead. That’s how the law works—it only makes a change in behavior from the outside. But grace, transfiguration—is the kind of change that takes place on the inside, and as we open up our hearts and minds to the vision of God in Jesus, we receive the Spirit of God to be changed from the inside.
When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” All too often we explain these expressions of fear on the part of humans as a reaction to divine bullying— as if the disciples’ fear was God’s fault. It is more likely that human fear at the manifest presence of God is rather an indication of problems within us, rather than in God. Jesus touches and reassures: “Do not be afraid.”
This passage is a fitting end to the Epiphany season—we have followed Jesus from birth, to early childhood, to baptism—all events which gave us insight into who he is. The Transfiguration gives us a “final” glimpse of who he is. The season of revelation is complete. [adapted from Joewalker.blogs.com.]
“The text tells us that Peter was ‘still speaking’ when the cloud descended upon them and the voice of God spoke. God had to interrupt Peter! This must be the only account in Scripture where God has to fight to get a word in edgewise.”
Yet Peter’s testimony is essential to our own acceptance of ourselves as witnesses, our willingness to “believe our eyes” and ears and hearts when we are confronted with Jesus’ uniqueness and the urgency of his mission. [Sue Armentrout quoted in Synthesis March 2014 issue]
What Peter, James, and John witnessed, what they saw on the mountain, was a glimpse into their own future—and yours and mine too. Paul writes to the followers of Jesus in Corinth: “It is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” All are intended to be bathed in that brilliant light which is God’s own presence.
So on the Mountain Jesus gives the favored three (and us through them) a glimpse of what his finished work in us will look like. It was a vision meant to comfort and sustain them, to remind them of why Jesus was doing what he was getting ready to do. “Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man has risen from the dead” he orders, as he leaves one mountain behind and journeys toward another: Mount Calvary. [William Weedon at cyberbrethren.com]
Yet those three, Peter, John and James, singled out by Jesus to behold the vision, are also the ones who witnessed the healing of Jairus’s daughter. They will also witness the agony in the garden of Gethsemane. They are his inner circle of friends. Yet this group of Jesus’ closest followers does not demonstrate exceptional insight or fidelity. [Adapted from The New Interpreter’s Bible, 1994, Abingdon Press, Vol. 8, p. 630] They seem like stumblebums, not getting the real message in spite of repeated teachings and revelations from God and Jesus.
In that way too they represent you and me as we approach the coming season of Lent. If you’re like me, most of the time we act as if we just don’t get it- that Jesus IS God’s only Son, that Jesus IS the Messiah, the anointed one, who leads us into God’s domain on earth. We kind of put that knowledge on the back burner and wonder why the world is in such chaos. We haven’t fully lived the Way of Jesus.
So that’s why I sure hope to see all of you on Ash Wednesday and on the successive Sundays in Lent. We need to go back to the basics- we need to seek forgiveness and healing as a community, so that we can stand with Jesus in his world.