Luke 9:28 About eight days
after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto
a mountain to pray. 29 As he was
praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright
as a flash of lightning. 30 Two
men, Moses and Elijah, 31
appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about his
departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. 32 Peter and his companions were very
sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men
standing with him. 33 As the men
were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, "Master, it is good for us to be
here. Let us put up three shelters--one for you, one for Moses and one for
Elijah." (He did not know what he was saying.) 34 While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and covered them, and
they were afraid as they entered the cloud. 35 A voice came from the cloud, saying, "This is my Son, whom
I have chosen; listen to him." 36
When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. The disciples kept
this to themselves and did not tell anyone at that time what they had seen.
As can be readily
gathered from the text, this Sunday is Transfiguration Sunday. For the
preacher, it's the sort of Sunday that is on the one hand quite easy in terms
of planning, and on the other hand entails some difficulty.
It is easy in the sense
that one needn't spend much time mulling over which text to preach on. It's
obvious. Transfiguration Sunday means preaching on the Gospel text, even for
those who don't already observe the custom of regular Gospel-text sermons. A
lot can also be made at the "atmospheric level." We are getting ready
to say goodbye to the Sundays after Epiphany. In a few short days Ash Wednesday
will be here and we will be in Lent. That is a major mood change. Liturgically,
having a Sunday with a set theme like Transfiguration Sunday functions as a
'bridge' between the two seasons and their vast differences in terms of focus.
The tricky part is that
the story is so familiar. We hit it every
year as we pass from Epiphany Sundays to Lent. Even on the three year
lectionary with the built in differences between the individual Gospels, the
nuts and bolts of the story are always the same: Jesus, Peter, James and John
are on the mountain. Jesus is joined by Moses and Elijah. They're conversing,
but the exact content of their discussion is not revealed. Jesus is 'altered'
in some way in his appearance. Peter wants to build 3 'booths'... one for each
of the holy figures. The voice says this is my beloved son, etc. In the end,
nine out of ten times the sermon becomes something about "mountain top
experiences" and how they're sure nice when they happen, but they can't be
preserved; there's work to get on with down off that mountain. That's even the flow
of one of the most beloved hymns of the hymnal "Tis Good Lord to be
Here."
One somewhat
interesting approach is to come at each of the Gospel versions within the
context of their own sitz em leben ...
the circumstances surrounding the context of their writing. In the case of
Luke--an extremely Gentile-friendly Gospel--it has been noted by boatloads of
scholars that a primary concern of Luke's Gospel is to show the Empire that the
message of Jesus of Nazareth is not a
threat. Jesus and his disciples may
have started out as Palestinian Jews, but unlike the Zealots and young rabble
rousers of mid 60s AD Palestine, they did not preach open revolt against Rome.
Furthermore, many pious Jews accepted
Jesus and his kingdom not of this world, but
the Jewish leadership as a whole did not. In terms of continued relevance in
God's unfolding plan for the world, therefore, a Judaism without Jesus, would
be no longer relevant. (very politically incorrect to say these days, but that
is most certainly the point of much of the New Testament narrative).
And so with this in
mind, what does one find when approaching Luke's Transfiguration account? We
find Jesus atop a mountain with two of the Old Testament's greatest mountain
top heroes, Moses (Mt. Sinai) and Elijah (Mt. Carmel). Moses talked to God face
to face and received the Torah from him. Moses was the hand-picked captain to
lead the Exodus of God's people from slavery to redemption (note: they were not
led from slavery to freedom; they switched masters from evil/oppressive Pharaoh
to their Redeemer loving/gracious Yahweh). And then Elijah atop his mountain
exercised perfect faith/obedience to Yahweh; vastly outnumbered... and with
everyone against him from the king on down (remember Ahab and Jezebel?) Elijah
prayed fire down from heaven and then slew the false prophets of Baal. In terms
of MOUNTAIN TOP HEROES, they didn't get any better than Moses & Elijah. In
terms of collecting "hero trading cards" everyone would want a Moses
& Elijah card. They were the Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig of the Old Testament.
So what does that mean
for Luke? Here are these two great figures of Israelite lore standing WITH
JESUS. They're talking with him, but they are not arguing or jousting with
him like the Pharisees; they're not clamoring for his death like the Chief
Priest and Sanhedrin; and they're not shouting "crucify him, crucify
him" like the unruly Jerusalem mob. They are there to 'endorse' him; they
are there to say, in effect, your
mountain top experience, especially your eventual one atop Mt. Calvary, will
eclipse ours. What ours was about was a mere shadow of what you're here to do.
And as the story
unfolds, it's nice that Peter would like to build a booth for all three--Moses,
Elijah, and Jesus--but in the end
such honorific thinking mistakenly puts all three on the same footing. Two
things set that record straight: the heavenly voice commands that we listen to the beloved son; listen to
him as perfect expositor of EVERYTHING that Moses and Elijah were about, but
listen to him alone (not the other
rabbis, not the tradition of the elders, etc. etc.). The other salient matter is that in the end, Moses and Elijah
disappear, leaving only Christ. This is not to say that the Old Testament is no
longer relevant, but it is to say that the whole epoch has its culmination and
fulfillment in Christ. There is no such thing as a legitimate understanding of
Moses & Elijah apart from Jesus.
One last observation on
the command listen to him. Typically
we like to listen to winners. Listen to General Patton because he's a
battle-hardened winner. Listen to George Halas because he's a winner. Listen to
EF Hutton because he's a winner. As disciples of Jesus, we are told to listen
to the one who preached forgiveness, not retribution; listen to the one who
said pray for our enemies; listen to the one who said we can't serve two
masters, God and money; listen to the
one who willingly left his mountain top of glory for a mountain top of
universal service for others. It sorta redefines God's view of 'winning.'
Cheers,
TM
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