Seasons of the Christian Life by Neville Robert Cummings;

Author:Neville, Robert Cummings; [Neville, Robert Cummings]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781498286190
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Published: 2016-07-04T07:00:00+00:00

18. Preached January 30, 2005, the fourth Sunday after Epiphany. Bach’s Cantata no. 40 was performed.

18

Coping with Transfiguration19

Exodus 24:11–18; 2 Peter 1:11–21; Matthew 17:1–9

The Feast of the Transfiguration, which is the formal name for this Sunday in the liturgical calendar, celebrates one of the more weird events in Christian history. After Peter had declared that Jesus was the Messiah—six days after according to Matthew and Mark, eight days for Luke—Jesus took Peter, James, and John up a mountain and was transfigured before their eyes, his body and clothing becoming radiant. Moreover, the disciples saw him talking with Moses and Elijah. Peter offered to make temporary shelters for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah, an offer not taken up. Then a bright cloud came over the mountain and a voice spoke from the cloud saying, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him.” The disciples fell to the ground, and Jesus came over and touched them with instructions not to be afraid. When they looked, Moses and Elijah were gone.

What does this mean, besides a physical transformation that computer graphics could easily duplicate today, right down to the appearance of Moses and Elijah? Part of the meaning lies in the reference to Moses. Our text from Exodus recounts Moses going up Mount Sinai to receive the covenant; on the peak God’s presence is like a bright cloud that cannot be approached but through which God blesses the people. When Moses went back down the mountain, his face was transfigured to shine so brightly that it frightened the people. For Christians, Moses brought the first covenant and Jesus the second or new covenant. Matthew’s transfiguration passage affirms the continuity of the covenants from Moses to Jesus, thus running contrary to those who believe that Jesus’s covenant was a rejection of Moses’s covenant rather than a continuous supplement.

Another part of the meaning of the transfiguration comes out in Peter’s eyewitness recollection of the event, in the Epistle this morning. Peter referred to the transfiguration as a counter to the charge that Jesus was something like a pagan god, filled with magic. However magical the transfiguration was, Peter said he was there and saw it. Moreover, he saw Moses and Elijah, both long dead. This demonstrated to him the resurrection of the dead. Not only was Jesus raised, he would come again, just as Moses and Elijah came again. The transfiguration was thus a foretaste of resurrected life.

Yet another part of the meaning of Jesus’s transfiguration is that the disciples saw Jesus as approved by God. The voice, which the people took to be God’s, identified Jesus as God’s son in whom God was well pleased. These were the same words heard when Jesus was baptized by John. At the baptism, Jesus was transformed. At the transfiguration, the disciples were transformed.

What does all this mean for us today? I doubt many of us take this as a literal happening that somehow proves Jesus’s divinity, although that is how the story was taken for centuries.

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