The Transfiguration

Six days ago, Jesus taught his disciples about what’s going to happen to him in the hands of the nation’s leaders (elders), the chief priests, and the teachers of the Law of Moses (scribes). The Son of Man is going to be made to suffer terribly. He will be rejected and killed, but three days later he will rise to life again. He said this openly, plainly and clearly.

Peter, one among the disciples closest to Jesus, who some people say belong to Jesus’ inner circle, took Jesus aside to tell him to stop talking in such a way. But Peter’s rebuke was met with Jesus’ own rebuke. The disciple was given a dose of his own medicine. In the presence of the other disciples and the crowd, he corrected Peter: “Get behind me, Satan. You are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

After Jesus talked about his suffering, death and rising to life again clearly and plainly, there was a still, on the side of Peter, a doubt, a hesitation, a foreboding, a fear, perhaps cowardice, a denial, a resistance to what is about to happen.

This day, the seventh day, another perfect day, Jesus takes Peter, James and John to a high part of the mountain. Reaching that part of the mountain, without any warning, something mind-boggling happens. Jesus was transfigured. He was completely changed. Metamorphosed. His clothes were dazzling in immaculate white. Two important figures were seen talking with Jesus: Moses and Elijah.

I will say that expounding about the ‘transfiguration’ is a difficult challenge any preacher. Even just to attempt an explanation can be  tricky. Perhaps the transfigured Jesus was not meant to be figured out, according to Matt Skinner. The transfigured Jesus was meant to be appreciated.

However, let me share to you some thoughts shared by a colleague in ministry, Rev Brendan Byrne through his book A Costly Freedom: A Theological Reading of Mark’s Gospel.

First, Brendan notes that the mysterious episode known as transfiguration occurs midpoint into Marks’ gospel. It is second to three scenes in which Jesus is declared to be God’s son, the first occurring after his baptism (1:11), the third on the lips of the centurion immediately after his death (15:39).

These three scenes serve as key nodes in Jesus complete obedience to God that would prove to be costly. The first follows his submission, along with a mass of repentant Israelites, to baptism in the hands of John (1:9). The transfiguration follows his first announcement that he is to suffer and die (8:31). The third and final declaration is a reaction to his death, which has just occurred. The interplay of these episodes that the whole Jesus story emerges: It is about the One who has obediently made a costly entrance into the depths of the human condition that Jesus is revealed as Messiah and Son of God.

The transfiguration is, then, a revelation of Jesus full identity made to Peter, James and John, the inner group of disciples who have seen his power over death in the raising of Jairus’ daughter (5:7) and who will later witness his anguished wrestling with the ‘cup’ that lies before him in Gethsemane (14:33). They will experience the revelation on the mountain, but they will not understand it.

Second, Brendan Byrne notes that the episode is rich in symbolism, though there is little agreement on the meaning of many of the features that appear. In biblical thought, mountains are natural locations for divine-human encounter. In high places where the air is thin makes hard for breathing. But thinness of the air has another meaning. The divide between divine and humane become thin allowing divine-human encounter.

The presence of Moses and Elijah links Jesus to the hosts of prophets called and sent by God presiding over many of the significant events in the Israelites journey of freedom and liberation and into being called to be God’s people.

The transfiguration or metamorphosis is primarily exhibited by the whiteness of his garments, which is beyond any human capacity to produce. Whiteness, particularly white apparel, in Jewish literature denotes belonging to divine/heavenly realm.

The Greek term morphē refers to the way in which the inner being of a person displays itself outwardly. Hence, what is being described here is a revelation in which Jesus’ divine status is outwardly disclosed.

The overshadowing cloud (v.7) signals the presence of God. The cloud was there in his baptism. The cloud was there in his death on the cross. And in the cloud was God’s voice which declared Jesus identity as God’s beloved Son.

But as the cloud disappears immediately after the voice speaks, Jesus, the everyday Jesus familiar to the disciples is seen again. But from now on things have changed.

We know that the narrative will take us on a journey in which, without laying aside his divine status as God’s Son but rather in obedience to that relationship, Jesus will enter most deeply into the pain and suffering of the world to set it free.

The transfiguration remains a mysterious episode. But it is really about the closeness rather than the remoteness of God. The ‘thinness’ of the divide between human and divine on the mountain reveals an equal thinness on the plain: a glimpse of the divine that everyday human life and the sacraments of the church disclose. We will sometimes be with Jesus on the mountain, mostly on the plain where we are invited to go. Whatever we feel at any particular moment, whatever situation our ministry carries us into, we will never be truly far from the One who is the source of our life and our hope.

Amen.