Transfiguration

Sermon by: Rev. Mary Alice Mulligan, Ph.D.

Scripture: Exodus 34:29-35, Luke 9:28-43a

Every year, just 3 days before the season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, the universal church calendar invites us to celebrate the Sunday of the Transfiguration. For most of us, this is not an earth-shaking holiday. From year to year, we hardly remember the story of Jesus on the mountaintop, but three of the Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, thought it was important enough to record. And each of them connected the mountaintop transfiguration with Peter’s declaration of the Christ. 

Here is the scene: Jesus is walking with the 12 and he casually asks them, who do people think I am? Then he turns the question on them: Who do you say I am? And Peter declares he is the long-awaited Savior, the Christ. “You are the Messiah of God.” Then Jesus teaches, including the prediction he will undergo terrible suffering, be killed, and raised after three days. In all three Gospels, the transfiguration story is connected to Peter’s declaration of the Christ. They each say about a week after the declaration, Jesus takes his closest three up onto the mountain, where God reveals to them exactly who Jesus is. Peter said it; now God reveals it. As Luke tells the story, three weary disciples head up the mountain with Jesus to pray. Please read Luke 9:28-43. 

The Transfiguration is confusing. Interpreting the mountaintop scene is not easy. Notice, Luke indicates the original witnesses didn’t really “get” what was happening, with Peter’s bumbling comments about constructing booths for Moses, Elijah, and Jesus. Even after they came down from the mountain, the disciples didn’t tell anyone. Probably they couldn’t imagine what to say, if they even believed it themselves. So it’s no surprise that for 21st century minds, the transfiguration seems like an ancient fairytale. Once upon a time, Jesus’ appearance completely bursts with light, Moses the law-giver and Elijah the prophet appear alive, and the glory of God erupts among a little group on a mountaintop. A curious story.

Some biblical scholars argue that the transfiguration is most probably a misplaced post-resurrection story. Only after his death and divine raising would Jesus appear so changed as to dazzle with glory. But even if it is a misplaced post-resurrection event, how is that easier to comprehend? Or believe? How can any of us make sense of such a fantastic biblical story? It’s hard enough to find our way around Jesus’ simple signs, like feeding a crowd when they brought no provisions or healing a child who seems to have had an epileptic seizure. But this? Moses and Elijah, dead for centuries, appearing, and the apparent humanity of Jesus stripped away? The transfiguration is impossible to believe.

Nevertheless, on the mountain, Luke is showing us Jesus. The writer includes the Transfiguration in the Gospel on purpose. So, what is Luke doing? Let’s remember what we know about his Gospel. Although there is story after story of Jesus’ picking up and going to the next place, scholars point out that the journey Luke takes us on is not geographic; the journey is theological. Luke is teaching theology, not history. So, what theological teaching do we get on the mountaintop? 

Luke places the story near the pinnacle of Jesus’ teachings. Crowds are gathering wherever he goes. His ministry had gotten so hectic, he started appointing assistants. Just before the Transfiguration he empowers the Twelve and sends them out to preach on their own. After the Transfiguration, he appoints 70 other disciples and sends them out, two-by-two. The Gospel also reports Jesus’ preaching lots of parables and enacting parables to spread the word. These are spelled out after the mountaintop scene, but what are we supposed to get from the mountaintop scene itself?

Here’s one possibility. We might see the Transfiguration as a frozen moment, held up for us like an icon. We can almost see it. The mountaintop, with Jesus flanked by Moses and Elijah, and the glory of God bursting from within him. An icon is not a painting of a real-life moment; it’s not like a snapshot. Rather such an icon is making a statement. The frozen scene is saying, “This is who Jesus is.” As important as Moses and Elijah are, they are subsidiary. Although in day-to-day encounters, Jesus appears as a regular guy, in the icon Luke reveals the presence of God within him. We hear the same message every year on Christmas Eve: “Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see; Hail the incarnate deity. Pleased on earth with us to dwell, Jesus our ‘God with us,’ Emmanuel.” When Luke paints the mountaintop scene, he wants us to see who Jesus is.

So then, we can claim him. We can confess faith in Jesus. Of course, we refuse to throw reason out the window. We don’t need to claim the Transfiguration was a video-camera-ready event that happened on a particular day. Some among us do believe the scene happened just as Luke says, which is fine. But the truth is we don’t have to believe it happened exactly like Luke depicts. Biblical scholars often say, “Just because something didn’t happen doesn’t mean it isn’t true.” Luke uses the Transfiguration to tell us that something about Jesus is the presence of God, different from anyone else. Even our 21st century skepticism can confess Jesus Christ is God’s Chosen One. We don’t have to understand completely, but when we acknowledge that God is present in Jesus, we begin to realize Jesus Christ is present among us still. And during these very difficult days, claiming Jesus can make a difference in our lives. 

Consider how easily we might have fallen into the pit of despair in the past week. All hell is breaking loose in Ukraine. People we love in the St. Andrew family are broken hearted with loss and impending loss. Our school system seems to have been taken over by people who don’t care about truth in education, who seem set on erasing our LGBTQ children and their families with the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, and who are denying enslavement, Jim Crow, and lynching so white people don’t get their feelings hurt? With all that going on, how can we not despair?

Here’s a key: We hold back despair by trusting ourselves to the presence of God. Through Jesus, we are empowered to stand up. We can speak up. We can support actions which make a difference; we can write letters; we can comfort those who are hurting; we can send money to Fellowship of Reconciliation; we can Say Gay at the rally at the bridge today at 12:30; we can pray for our enemies. In the face of so much, God helps us hold off our despair. But if we get to where we can’t hold it back, then we just allow ourselves to collapse into what we think will be a pit of despair, only to find ourselves held above the despair by the holy loving arms of God. Peter claimed Jesus as the Christ in the first century, and our 21st century minds can claim the empowering presence of Jesus among us today.