'But when they became fully awake they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him' (Luke 9.32). It's a strange time, Lent. For forty days, we look toward the crucifixion. And while we don't forget the resurrection has happened, we force ourselves to dwell just that much more on the suffering of God before we allow ourselves to focus on his resurrection and glorification. In the crucifixion, it has to be said, things are not as they seem. It isn't defeat. But on the other hand, crucifixion is just what it appears to be: God the Son suffering with and for his creation. In the same way, things are not now as they appear to be. Now, it looks like the world is in chaos, spiraling out of control. Earthquakes, tsunamis, wars, famines, epidemics. Suffering now as then, is the status quo. But things are more than they seem. That, I would argue, is the point of this morning's gospel reading.
Which begins: 'Now about eight days after these sayings' (9.28). Luke connects the transfiguration to what came before. And he isn't alone. In fact, in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the story of Jesus of Nazareth takes a decisive turn at this point and all three structure their narrative depictions exactly the same. First, we find Jesus alone with his disciples and he asks them who the crowds say he is. The disciples report that they say John the Baptist, Elijah, or one of the ancient prophets. And Jesus asks, 'But who do you say that I am', to which Peter answers, 'The Christ of God'. In all three gospels, Jesus commands the disciples not to pass on this information to anyone. He didn't want the disciples going round and telling everyone they'd found the Messiah because, in fact, what the Messiah - the Christ - looks like will not be what they expect. And that brings us to the next aspect of our narrative. Jesus says to his disciples that he will have to suffer and die and then be raised again on the third day. He is letting them in on just what kind of Messiah he's going to be, one that suffers and dies. One that will be raised. But the disciples don't even have a clue what that's about. Here, we reach the next agreement between Matthew, Mark, and Luke: Jesus turns from talking about his own suffering and dying to talking about the necessity of his followers taking up their own crosses and denying themselves. He's not promising them an easy road. Indeed, as we well know, the road he does show them is one paved with unjust treatment, with pain, with death. But let us not forget 'with resurrection'.
So, four common points leading to this morning's gospel reading. (1) The declaration that Jesus is the Christ of God, the Messiah. (2) Jesus' command that the disciples not tell anyone. (3) His prediction of his death and resurrection. (4) A command to his disciples to take up their own crosses and follow him. And now we are ready to talk about the transfiguration, which happened - the three emphasize - some six or eight days after Jesus said these things. And Luke's narrative has several things to add to the ones told by Matthew and Mark.
In all three accounts, Jesus takes Peter, John, and James up on the mountain to pray. And in all three accounts, Jesus' face and his clothes become a dazzling white. If we know our Old Testament, we know that when Moses spoke with God, his face shown with such light that he had to cover it with a veil. And, as though we needed more of a hint, Moses himself and Elijah show up on the mountain and speak with Jesus. Now, here we have Luke's first little narrative distinction: the three men are talking about Jesus' 'departure', in Greek, his 'exodus', which he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem.
So let's think a minute about this notion of the exodus. What happened? We'll hear it recounted at the Easter Vigil, but in a short sentence: God saved his people Israel from their bondage to the Egyptians. The exodus - so the story goes - was accompanied by miracles and God's participation in human history. Luke is telling us that God is about to do something for Jesus that is similar to what he did to Israel. So, unlike Matthew and Mark, Luke wants us to know that Moses and Elijah are talking to Jesus about what's to come in Jerusalem. We already know from the preceding verses that Jesus will have to suffer and die and be raised again. So there must be more to this, right?
And here we have another of Luke's narrative distinctions: he points out that the three disciples were heavy with sleep. It's an important point, this one. It is likely that Luke wrote his gospel with copies of Matthew and Mark in front of him. So, when he adds this little bit, he's not doing it for the fun of it. If you read Matthew and Mark, you might think that this scene is metaphorical or some pretty imagery, putting Jesus on the level with Moses and Elijah, next to the founder of the law and the pre-eminent prophet. But that is certainly not what Luke wants us to think. He suggests that they were heavy with sleep, giving us the sneaking suspicion that they just might be dreaming. But then he finishes the sentence: 'but when they became fully awake they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him'.
Now, I'm very aware that I likely lost half of you in that. I can even hear someone saying to me at the door: 'Do you believe Moses and Elijah actually came to Jesus on that mountain?!' But the point is not necessarily that - though we can still have a chat about it if you really want to - the point is that Luke is letting us know that the three disciples are seeing things as they really are. On that mountain, they see Jesus for who he actually is. Peter, as always, jumps right in and suggests setting up a few tents. Seeing Jesus standing here with Moses and Elijah, Peter thinks the obvious, 'This guy's as important as these two. Ha! I was right. He is the Messiah.' But even that isn't the full truth. God himself speaks from the cloud that overshadows them. 'This is my Son, the chosen one; listen to him.'
'The chosen one'. Here is Luke's final adjustment. Jesus is not simply God's Son, 'the beloved'. He is God's Son, the chosen one, the one they should listen to. In other words, Jesus has a place above Moses and Elijah, who disappear from the scene as everything turns back to normal. Here's how things really are. The Jesus transfigured on the mountain is Jesus as he actually is. So, when Peter confessed that he is the Christ, he confessed without knowing it that Jesus is the person on the mountain, the person that we should listen to, who stands in a place above even Moses and Elijah.
The glimpse of the transfigured Jesus is - for the moment - fleeting. The disciples come down from the mountain with him and he gets right back to the business of healing people. Still, here in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, he restates that he will die. The transfigured Jesus is the Jesus who will be crucified. The Son of God is the man Jesus who walked around Palestine with his disciples, who will die at the hands of the elders and chief priests. The glory that the disciples see is not a passing glory, it is - as Luke makes clear - the way things really are, something they could only see when they were 'fully awake'. Even the next day, when Jesus tells them he will die, they stand confused. They are, as it were, once again asleep. When they witness the suffering and death of Jesus, they will yet again be confused. It is only when they see him in the glory of his resurrection body that they can put together the pieces, understand that what they saw on the mountaintop was the way things really were. Only after the resurrection can they understand that the Son of God is the crucified Jesus of Nazareth, that the man who walked around with them for three or so years was in fact the Son of God dwelling among us.
And here we come back round to Lent and how the world appears. The disciples witnessed the transfiguration but could not understand what they had seen until the resurrection. The way things really were the whole time was hidden from them. They couldn't see that God himself was dwelling among them. In the same way, we look out at the world and don't see how things really are. During Lent, we look towards the cross, but we aren't able simply to see the cross as a moment of suffering; it was much more than that. Faith looks through the suffering of the cross to resurrection, sees how the world really is. On the surface, the world is falling apart; there is suffering, unjust pain, death. But in the resurrection, God's light broke through the darkness of death. The world is actually heading towards renewal.
Right now, we're in the place of the disciples as they came down the mount of transfiguration. We've seen how things really are in the resurrection, but sometimes it becomes impossible to understand it, impossible to live in light of it because of all the suffering that's around. So Lent is just this. Looking at the face of suffering in the cross of Christ and knowing that it was God himself suffering and defeating suffering in resurrection. The risen Christ is the crucified Christ. Lent forces us to look this fact full in its face, to see that God is the kind of God who gets into a hurting world and suffers with it. So, when we see the suffering of thousands, and when we sit in fear of tsunamis and earthquakes, we can know that though this is how the world looks now, we have actually seen how the world really is in the resurrection. When Jesus came down from the mount of transfiguration, his suffering lay ahead of him. Death first, then resurrection. Jesus of Nazareth, that first century rabbi, is the transfigured Christ is the crucified Christ is the resurrected Christ. In just this way, the Body of Christ - we living after the resurrection - have to reckon with the fact that the world is not what it seems. It is on its way in the power of the Spirit to renewal in Christ. Even more amazing than that: as Christ's body on earth, in union with God in the Spirit, we have a role to play in bringing into the open those things that are hidden, of going to those who are suffering and suffering with them, because in doing so, we are showing that suffering and death are not the end; they are nothing but the way to resurrection.
Amen.
Sermon by: Jake Andrews