The Transfiguration of Our Lord

2 Peter 1:16-21    Luke 9:28-36

Good morning. Today we celebrate one of the oldest feast days in the Church, known as the Transfiguration of our Lord. For Christians today, it’s a familiar story. For the disciples who witnessed it, and for the early Church, it was anything but.

Let’s put ourselves back in time, to first century Galilee, or Judea, or even Samaria, the areas where Jesus walked and did the bulk of His teaching. We’ve probably heard about Him – which means we are either the Roman authorities, keeping an eye on Him, or, if we’re interested in His message, we are a Jew or possibly a Samaritan.

Jesus was different. His message was one of love and service. He was a Jew, and He spoke in the Synagogues, where His teachings sometimes created rather extreme reactions. While He lives and teaches and walks among us, we first century Jews talk about Him with others of our faith, about what He says, and we wonder if He is Moses or Elijah returned.

“Who is He?” was a question that also puzzled the early Christians, even making its appearance in the first century Church in a heresy known as Adoptionism.

Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them. 

For the disciples, the Presence of God was a daily reality, but one of which they, like us, were unaware.  And then, one day, they accompany Jesus up to the top of a mountain – the Biblical imagery for drawing near to God – and the unimaginable happens. Transfiguration, (the proper translation of the word is metamorphosis). 

Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus. Moses and Elijah represent the two principal components of the Old Testament: the Law and the Prophets. Moses was the giver of the Law, and Elijah was considered the greatest of the prophets.

For the disciples, the God who had always seemed so distant, the God of their history, was suddenly no longer only an historic memory.  They believed in the teachings of their faith. Prophets had revealed God's will, called to His people through Noah and Abraham and Moses and made covenants—contracts -- with them.  All this was in their scripture, and they had been raised with this knowledge, but that was history.  Now, the God who spoke long ago was speaking to them, and their leader and friend was transformed before their eyes.

Light – the chief proof of God’s Presence, illuminates their friend and rabbi. There is no mistaking what they are seeing, but it is a reality that is hard to grasp.  Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” What is he talking about? 

Though it has been suggested that the Transfiguration occurred around the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, the feast of Booths – or tents, and this may be the reason for Peter’s words, it is more generally accepted that his suggestion, which occurs when Moses and Elijah are preparing to leave, reveals a desire to prolong the experience of glory, which means Peter is focusing on the wrong thing.

The experience of the Transfiguration is meant to point forward to the sufferings Jesus is about to experience, which, a few verses before today’s Gospel, Jesus’ has just revealed to His friends. It is meant to strengthen the disciples’ faith, revealing to them in a powerful way the divine hand that is at work in the events Jesus will undergo. Peter misses the point and either wants, or thinks, they should stay on the mountain.

While Peter was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!”

At this, the disciples did what anyone would do, they fell to the ground trembling, afraid to look, afraid of what might come next. They know this is the voice of God, the God of their history, the God of what we call The Old Testament, and this God is greatly to be feared. But now their friend has revealed to them a Truth about Himself. What began as a familiar journey up the mountain to pray, has become a terrifying experience.

The disciples know that God can be a God of wrath, of whirlwind and fire. Do we realize that there are also some terrifying stories in the New Testament, and the story of our Lord’s Transfiguration is one of them? Should we too be afraid? On the day in our Gospel reading, while the disciples trembled, we learn that the God of whirlwind and fire has chosen to change things, to do things in a new way.

The new way was and is Jesus. Jesus looks like us, He walks and talks like us, He laughs and cries like us, He bleeds and dies like us. God comes among us as one of us, and Jesus reaches across the gulf of fear and trembling and touches us and says, "Get up. Do not be afraid."

Who is Jesus?  Peter told the early Church, “We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty”  Yet, even as early as the first century, we flawed and sinful human beings have tried to “explain” Jesus in ways we find acceptable to human logic. 

Adoptionism, appeared in the first century Church. It is the belief that when God saw that the human Jesus led a sinless life, God adopted Jesus as His son, making Him a deity. The Church moved fairly quickly to stamp out this heresy, but couldn’t stop the questioning. During our lifetimes the search for “the historic Jesus” has enjoyed great popularity. Was Jesus married? What was his private life like? And we get movies, entertaining but fictional, like The Davinci Code. We want a Jesus that “makes sense” – but if that’s the case, like Peter on Mt. Tabor, we’ve missed the point.

The Church views the Transfiguration as a crucial affirmation of the Incarnation of our Lord. This event confirms that Christ is not merely a “good person” or a “religious, moral teacher”, but the divine Son of God who came to redeem us all.

What does all this mean for us? If we are honest, sometimes that nagging question, “Who is Jesus?”, goes through our minds too.  One of our favourite hymns tells us “What A Friend We Have in Jesus”. We like to think of Jesus this way, and it is a correct image, because He is our friend.  But though the hymn mentions our “sins and griefs”, the comfortable, upbeat music robs it of a deeper sense of reverent awe.

The Transfiguration calls us to think of our Friend in a totally new light – in that light that shone from His face and turned His clothes a dazzling white. On this holy day, there is a hymn by C M Noel which is more suitable, a hymn based on Philippians and the Gospel of John. “At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, every tongue confess Him King of Glory now. 'Tis the Father's pleasure we should call Him Lord, who from the beginning was the mighty Word.

We are called to live our lives always alert for Jesus with us, to live what Br. Lawrence described as the Practice of the Presence of God. For God is always present, and in each action we take He is there. We need to keep this always in our minds and hearts, for otherwise we live unaware of God with us.

Be a good friend to Jesus by finding Him in others and serving Him there, doing everything you do with love. Be prepared. It is when you are paying attention that Jesus will reveal Himself to you. Remember that His closest friends went up Mt. Tabor with Him, unprepared and with just their normal daily expectations, only to be terrified by the revelation of His divinity. Don’t be afraid. The King of Kings, our God, who is about to begin a time of suffering for us, is near. Be still within – in your mind and heart – be overflowing with kindness and love - and know that Jesus is God.

Let us pray:

O God of peace, who hast taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved, in quietness and confidence shall be our strength: By the might of thy Spirit lift us, we pray thee, to thy presence, where we may be still and know that thou art God; through Jesus Christ our Lord and our God. Amen.