March 6, 2011

Transfiguration Sunday: Exodus 24:12-18, 2nd Peter 1:16-20, Matthew 17:1-9

Orthodox and Roman Catholic traditions remember the Transfiguration on August 6th, the first day on which it was recognized in the Christian Year.  Later Protestant lectionaries place the event at the end of the Epiphany season where it is more closely associated with the baptism of Jesus by the Holy Spirit and the voice from heaven declaring the Sonship of Christ.

From the earlier tradition in the Christian spectrum it seems to me that this passage fulfills a post-resurrection meaning.  It is a confirmation of the divinity of Christ, whereas the emphasis in the Protestant traditions is to see it as a passage where the uniqueness of Jesus is still hidden from all except the three witnesses on the mountain top.  To apply sensitivity and careful reflection when studying this event can be extremely helpful in reaching a true understanding of what the divinity of Jesus really means.  Both traditions have something important to say.

The Exodus reading that accompanies our Transfiguration theme brings to mind another mountain top experience.  The experience of Moses receiving the Law and the disciples at the Mount of Transfiguration can both be well described as religious phenomena profoundly affecting the lives of those who were there.  The Dutch phenomenologist Kristen stressed the importance of the meaning that the religious phenomena have for believers present.  The dazzling light of God’s presence on Mount Sinai is not just about a mysterious happening of a numinous kind.  By its very nature it is linked with the divine purposes of God and the ethical needs of God’s people.  In a similar way the numinous that surrounds Jesus on the mountain top has an extremely deep meaning for the disciples in their calling to follow Christ and their service in the Kingdom of God.

The Psalm for today also takes up the significance of another ‘high ground’ situation.  The high mountain of the Transfiguration has its counterpart in ‘Zion, my sacred hill’ where the announcement of the Lord’s anointed will be made.  In this Psalm the king says, “I will announce what the Lord has declared.  He said to me ‘You are my son, today I have become your father.’”  Divine kingship is implied here.  The commentator Elmer A. Leslie suggests that these are ‘the words spoken by a Judean monarch when he is appointed king.’  This is closely associated with the ‘divine right of kings’, emperors and other civilizations where the king was occasionally called ‘god’ and was therefore considered to some extent divine.  The Psalm also contains a parallel to the Baptism of Jesus which represents the wisdom and authority that is given to the chosen one who will in the Psalmist’s mind overthrow inferior kings.

The lesson appointed from the Second Epistle of Peter returns to ‘that which dazzles’ us in Christ.  Here Jesus is ‘a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the light of the morning star shines in our hearts’, but again there is no sense of the special or numinous without a sense of the divine purpose and meaning present at the same time – because, as Peter writes, ‘there is no prophetic message that is just human utterance.’

In St. Matthew’s account of Jesus’ transfiguration, we see Jesus on a high mountain where three of his disciples are alone with him.  They see a change come over him – a shining face and dazzling white clothes.  All three synoptic gospels take this up, and Mark, who tends to be the briefest writer, adds that his clothes were whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them.

This theme of the dazzlingly special is taken up in St. John’s Gospel by the use of the technical word ‘glory,’ a more abstract descriptive word than many used in Hebraic thought, reminding us that John is addressing a different audience – but for the moment we must return to St. Matthew’s Gospel.  Peter speaks up and proposes to celebrate the event by building ‘three dwellings’ or three focal points.  However, the message of Jesus’ baptism comes to them as they hear a voice from the cloud telling them of Jesus’ uniqueness.  They find the whole episode frightening, and when the cloud has passed they find no one with them but Jesus.  Then he orders them to keep it to themselves until after his death and resurrection.

The timing of this shared experience and of its delayed announcement to others is important.  It would not have helped to tell the full nature of Jesus’ coming to all and sundry too early.  I believe this is still true in our present day experience.  There often has to be a journey of assent is our understanding before we come to a true appreciation of what the divinity of Jesus is all about.  Whilst we must never be afraid to share with others what we believe about Jesus Christ, there is often an order in which we share things.  Just as the disciples had to wait for the right time to tell others, so do we.

I was puzzled recently when I saw a church sign saying ‘We worship Jesus here’.  This was not because I don’t believe in the divinity of Jesus.  I do, but there were to things maker of the sign had overlooked.  For many people these bold words on their own come over very Tri-theistically, even suggesting to some that we do not worship God at all.

To begin with a strongly assertive approach to Jesus’ divinity can be as destructive of our understanding of his true nature as the one that only interprets his life in humanistic terms – as at the most, only a prophet.

It is only by living closely to Jesus and his teaching that we see him intimately involved with the Fatherhood of God, and we become aware that his life and teaching take us beyond simple humanism.

St. John’s Gospel may come at the matter more philosophically from the divine Word end to remind us of a full-blown theology of divine Sonship from the beginning, but this is not where most ordinary people begin.  Faith is more likely to begin at a pragmatic level where the experiences of life speak to us, and lead us to understand Christ as more than a giver of a set of rules or a prophet urging people to change their ways.

The ‘three dwellings were an essential backdrop to the maturing religious experience of the disciples.  The three disciples present were not just disinterested spectators looking on but they were personally involved with Jesus, and because of this, the Lordship and uniqueness of Jesus stands out.  We live in an age when the Bible is rarely read, and even then often poorly misunderstood; but we do have to recognize that the specialness of Jesus is something that comes to us as we worship God in his Name – and eventually we discover that the words of Jesus when he says that ‘I and the Father are One’ are true.

The message of the Transfiguration leads us to this fact, and is central to our understanding of the nature and ministry of Jesus.  Amen.