Every year, we focus
on the story of Jesus’ Transfiguration on the final Sunday before Ash
Wednesday, the day when Lent begins. In a way, we conclude the season of
Epiphany in the same manner it began. In
the beginning of our season, we remember Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist.
When Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit of God came down to fill Jesus and the
voice of God cried out “This is my son, the beloved. With him I am
well-pleased. Listen to him.” As we read the story of the Transfiguration
today, we will hear that again God says the same thing as Jesus was
transfigured – “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen
to him.” The witnesses to Jesus baptism
were different individuals that the witnesses to Jesus’ transfiguration, but
God had the same message – this is God’s son, the Messiah, who is loved by God.
Listen to him!
Hear now the story of
the Transfiguration of Jesus as it is recorded in Matthew, chapter 17, verses
one through nine:
Proclamation of the Scripture Matthew 17:1-9
After six
days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and
led them up a high mountain by themselves.
There he
was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes
became as white as the light.
Just then
there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.
Peter said
to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three
shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”
While he
was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud
said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to
him!”
When the
disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified.
But Jesus
came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be
afraid.”
When they
looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.
As they
were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, “Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son
of Man has been raised from the dead.”
Here ends this reading of the word of God for the people
of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the
meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, our Rock
and our Redeemer. Amen.
Message Dazzling Reign
The Transfiguration is a mysterious
event. It appears in the middle of the book of Matthew, and is a glimpse into
the supernatural nature of Jesus. Most of us will not encounter the Holy Spirit
in the manner of Jesus – Jesus was transfigured before his friends, he
metamorphosed and became visibly “more” than a regular person. His face shone
like the sun and his clothes became whiter than anything on earth can be. Super
mysterious and magical. And, then, to top it off, as Jesus and his friends were
coming down the mountain, after the three disciples had witnessed a strange
miracle, Jesus told them to keep quiet and not tell anyone what they saw until
after his resurrection.
Sigh.
Why?
Although the
transfiguration is a mysterious event in general, the most troubling part for
many of us is that Jesus wanted the disciples to keep it quiet.
There are many
theories about why this is…maybe Jesus didn’t want to be mobbed by bigger
crowds than he was already drawing. Perhaps the crowds wanting him to heal ill
people were distracting from his message. Also, Jewish people in the first
century seemed to have many preconceived beliefs that the Messiah would act as
a military ruler and lead them to repeal the Romans – Jesus did not come to
earth to be a king in the way human kings operate. So, keeping his true nature
quiet offered several advantages for Jesus’ mission to teach us about God’s
love and to invite us to live out that love in how we relate to our fellow
human beings.
For us, our take-away
from the story of the Transfiguration is that Jesus was both fully-God and
fully-man. This is a mysterious concept for us and a reminder that many of our
beliefs fall into the “mystery” part of our faith. Some of the things we
believe are intangible. Some of the things we believe are un-provable according
to our current understandings of science and biological possibilities. Even if Jesus
climbed into a Cat-Scan machine had a body scan or had his blood drawn and had
a full DNA check-up, our scientific advances would not help us understand his
nature as both human and God.
As rational Americans
who live in the 21st century, we don’t allow for a lot of mystery in
our lives. We are suspicious of things that seem supernatural – people may
whisper to their pastor about the signs they see after a loved one dies or
feeling like they have a guardian angel watching over them, but we are often
reluctant to talk about these things in public or professional settings. We are
afraid when we tell others about these things they will dismiss us as having a
mental health problem. We are very private about the mysterious things we
observe and experience.
But, there are many
parts of our faith that are mysterious. We can’t deny this reality or apologize
about it. And, we shouldn’t. People who aren’t Christians “yet” are often seeking
mystery. People have experiences we can’t explain and want to be reassured that
we are not alone in having these experiences. People find it comforting to
discover that it normal and ok to not have an explanation for everything that
happens to us.
On Wednesday, we will
enter the Christian season of Lent. In this season, we are invited to slow
down, to pray more, to fast or do without things that distract us from God, and
to refocus on our faith. Our faith is mysterious – we are invited to lean into the
mystery. We are invited to experience
the mystery and to acknowledge we don’t have everything in this life figured
out – we don’t need to have everything in this life figured out. Instead, we can let go of needing to be
completely in-control of everything in our lives and remember that we don’t
have to be in-control because we believe in God. God has everything under
control. There are a lot of things about God we are incapable of understanding
-- we don’t know how God works. We don’t know God’s long-range plan for us – But,
we do know that Jesus came to share with us that ultimately God loves us and God’s
plan for us and humanity is good. God is the embodiment of love. God loves us
and wants us to live out that love in our interactions with each other and our
planet. And, although we will never fully understand all of God’s plan, we can
trust it is Good.
Let us lean into the mystery.
Let us lean into the good. And let us act out the love commandment in all our relationships
and interactions with each other.
May it be so. Amen.
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