We’re here. We’re at the end of yet another season. I have been here with you through much of the Season after Pentecost, Advent, Christmas and today the season of Epiphany comes to a close. That’s a lot of ground we have covered, and I cannot answer for you, but if someone asked me a question about whether or not the journey with you has changed me, I would certainly answer in the affirmative. I expected it and it has happened.
That’s what happens when you travel with Jesus and a community, through the texts and try to look at them with fresh eyes. I suspect you’ve heard me say many times that it is hard to hear the scandal of the Gospel because we have heard the stories so many times. That seems to be a recurrent theme week after week. And now as we come to the end of the Epiphany season we have another Gospel story that has been heard so many times by us, that we sometimes fail to hear how radical it is. And how exciting.
When we saw the last Sunday of Advent come and go, we recaptured an earlier understanding of that day and called it Christ the King. Now at the end of Epiphany, we can find a couple of ways to refer to it. For some, especially Lutherans, this day is called Reformation Sunday and we genuflected in their direction with a couple of selections from the Hymnal that are certainly recognized as Lutheran, only because they are sung a lot in the Lutheran Church. Today is also called Transfiguration Sunday, since the Gospel recounts the Transfiguration of Jesus. This is a bit confusing because August 6th is the actual date set aside to remember the actual Transfiguration. Despite that, the Gospel, on each of the three years of the lectionary cycle, always concludes the season of the Epiphany with this same Gospel. I know this is a bit of Inside Baseball, but the reason it is always read on this Sunday, despite whatever year the Lectionary is in, is because Epiphany is the season of revealing the truth of who Jesus is. It sort of “sheds the light” on what we mean when we say that at Christmas, the incarnation takes place and God has become human, in the baby born in a manger. Immediately following that season, we enter Epiphany and here story after story, from the Baptism of the Lord, through the first miracle at a wedding in Cana of Galilee, to the Sermon on the Mount, all of those stories revealing the implications of what happened on that first Christmas. Lent begins next week as we enter 40 days of preparation for Easter, and the stories and the fasting and the praying and the confessing of sins, all of that is to help us ready our hearts for the amazing event of Easter. But lets not get ahead of ourselves as we draw this season to an end with a quick look at what happened when Jesus took his closest disciples: Peter, James and John to the top of a mountain. On that mountain, something incredible happens and it’s important to be in awe but not so much that we miss the point of that day.
We don’t know what the disciples were expecting that morning when Jesus came to them and told them they were going somewhere alone. It’s not a stretch to suggest that they probably didn’t ask Jesus to explain, since at this point, they had seen so much and were probably as confused as they were amazed. They were just going to where Jesus told them. None of the conversation they probably had before they headed out has been preserved for us. Again, it’s not taking too much artistic license to suggest that there was at least a brief conversation, especially when Jesus told them to get ready to go and forget about telling the other disciples, since they were going alone.
There have been many, many sermons and interpretations about what happened once they got to the mountain, and I am not sure I can come up with some fresh interpretation. I can put my personal spin on things without getting in front of the story. Let me just put it this way, they were pretty much clueless both before the events of that day unfolded, and clearly they weren’t any more clear afterwards, hardly even trying to interpret things.
Jesus tells them to follow him and to watch. All four arrive on what we now call the Mount of the Transfiguration, which was probably Mt. Ararat but the exact location isn’t that important to us. What happens on top of the mountain is. Jesus goes through what can best be called a transfiguration and seems to be glowing. Some preachers have called this an image of Jesus and how we will look after the resurrection but personally I think that is reading too much into the story. Regardless, Jesus is shining and after a quick glimpse, the three disciples notice that he is not alone. The text tells us that he is standing with Moses and Elijah. How they knew that is anyone’s guess. But again, don’t get caught up in the specifics lest you miss the point. I have always wondered how the disciples knew, but again the text tells us that Jesus was standing there with two other of the major icons of the Jewish faith. I suspect they must have been wearing name tags, and that’s how everyone knew who they were. I could be wrong though.
But the story doesn’t tread water but goes directly into what had to be an amazing story to retell later. The text says: “And while he [Jesus] was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white.” This where different commentators offer a variety of interpretations for what that meant but suffice it to say, it was odd at best and felt rather supernatural. And then the three disciples saw something even strange: “Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him.” Like I said, I have not idea how they knew who Jesus was talking to but now we hear that they must have overheard the conversation because the text tells us: “They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.”
All this is good and frankly fascinating but even though they must have gotten up early and the trek up the mountain must have taken some effort to get there on time, we hear that “Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him.” I’m sure that was a nap they were happy they missed.
Perhaps they blamed it on a lack of sleep and they were just seeing a dream like apparition because obviously seeing isn’t believing. Notice that even though Moses, Elijah and Jesus are quickly noticed, it takes a voice from heaven to insure that they understand what this all means. “”This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!”
God speaks. But it seems like the disciples force his hand, since they look on all that was unfolding before him and Peter gives that awkward response to Jesus about how good it is that they are there. At first blush, this seems like stating the obvious. Of course it’s good they are there. Look at what they get to see. But then Peter suggests that they stay there awhile…. Indeed he suggests pitching a tent so they can get comfortable and I suspect he was thinking that it might be a good place to catch 40 winks before they take off.
Let me be honest here. I have read that Moses was there because he represented the law, Elijah has an appearance because, after all he can stand in for all the prophets and of course Jesus is the representation of the new covenant but that seems like a lot of commentators have read back into the story something that the disciples probably didn’t even think about. Don’t get me wrong, maybe these commentators are correct but somehow that just seems too easy. In fact, I love the final comment in the Gospel today when we are told that when they descended the mountain no one said anything. They were quiet.
I like that because sometimes we talk too much and get too clever. Sometimes, to get to the essential teaching of Scripture, it’s helpful to know that sometimes words that are translated in a certain but not necessarily in the most accurate way. This is the case in verse 31, which in most translation indicates Jesus was getting ready to go to Jerusalem for his “departure.”
The word right there is actually not “departure” but instead it is “exodus.” Of course, the word exodus here is not found anywhere else in the gospels and so when I learned that, I got pretty interested.
So here’s where it get’s fascinating: Like Moses before him, Jesus is given an experience of God that is filled with God’s majesty. But just like Moses, even though they were both chosen they were not given a promise that it would be an easy exodus. We are reminded through the word exodus of plagues, blood, the death of first-born sons, and the unremitting recalcitrance of the oppressive power of the Egyptians.
These connections of both Moses and Elijah remind us thatGod will deliver God’s people from slavery as often as God must do it. An exodus from under the power of any oppressor has a cost. Jesus must “set his face like a flint” to get to Jerusalem (9:51). The three disciples who will follow that road with him have seen the glory that awaits and find the path to Golgotha deeply confusing. Jesus’ exodus will deliver even from the power of death, not just death-dealing powers-that-be, but death itself. That cannot be clear to Peter, James, and John until after the resurrection.
One more word: although Peter, James, and John have this awe-some experience, the other nine follow Jesus on his exodus journey without that experience. We are probably, most of us, more like the nine who go along anyway, except that now the experience of hope beyond the difficulties of our journeys is also given to us.