Live in the Light.

Matthew 17:1-8

February 23, 2020

Six days before this story, there is this incident with Peter where he makes his confession that Jesus is “the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”  It’s really kind of a turning point in the gospel.  Jesus commends him for saying this and really apparently getting who Jesus is.

But then Peter proceeds to mess it up.  When Jesus tries to explain to his disciples that he is going to Jerusalem where he will be killed by the authorities, and raised on the third day, Peter imagines it is his role to get Jesus off this negative jag.  He says, “God forbid it, Lord!  This will never happen to you!”

Which earns him a severe rebuke by Jesus where he gets called “Satan.”  Which is a pretty bad thing to be called by Jesus.

Jesus has then to explain that his followers will have to deny themselves and lose their lives for his sake.

The disciples have six days to ponder over this.  Then Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up Mt. Tabor, which is this odd mountain in southern Galilee.  It just kind of sits there by itself on otherwise relatively flat terrain all around.  It’s visible for miles.

Whenever Jesus goes up a mountain we may expect something important to happen, especially in Matthew.  Mountains remind us of Moses, who went up Mt. Horeb to receive the tablets of the Law from God.  That’s the same mountain where the great prophet Elijah also met God.  Jesus preaches his seminal sermon on a mountain, and he feeds the 5000 also on a mountainside. Mountains remind us of Jesus’ closeness to God and his continuity with the great prophets of the past.

They go up there, and something totally weird happens.  It says that Jesus is “transfigured” or changed somehow, and his face and his clothes become this blinding, dazzling white light.  And then two other figures materialize on either side of him, and it is Moses and Elijah.  It doesn’t say how the disciples know who they are, they just know.  And they are talking with Jesus.

Peter’s reaction is odd.  He wants to commemorate the event by making 3 dwellings, one for each of the three men: Jesus, Moses, and Elijah.  But even while he is expressing his plan, they are all engulfed in this mysterious, shining, bright cloud.  And they hear a voice from within it say, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with him I am well pleased; listen to him!”

This finally gets to be too much for the disciples and they collapse in terror and confusion, apparently even losing consciousness.

When the finally come to the only see Jesus again, back to normal, telling them not to be afraid.

The significance of this story is that God is kind of giving the disciples a glimpse of Jesus’ true nature as not only the successor to Moses and Elijah, but as God’s very Son, God’s Word and Presence with humans.  It is like God is validating Peter’s confession from the previous chapter, and assuring them of Jesus’ true identity.  It is something they will need to remember and keep in their hearts as they continue the rest of the story.

Because now Jesus turns his journey towards Jerusalem, where he will be killed, and where he will rise from the dead.  They need to hear the message, “Do not be afraid,” because a lot of fearsome things will be happening to them in the next few weeks as they make their way south to the Holy City for Passover.  

Being witnesses of the Transfiguration prepares them to serve as witnesses to Jesus’ suffering and finally to his resurrection.  Even so, they don’t really get it at first.  They do mostly run away in fear when Jesus gets arrested, and they are not present when he is executed.  It’s only much later that they remember this story and start to see how it all fits together.

For us, this story reminds of who Jesus really is.  And because he is the truly Human One, the Son of Man, it also tells us something about who we are.  For we also are beings made of light in the very Image of God.  We also have a share in the divine nature; we also have been accepted and welcomed as God’s children.

This means that nothing, no matter how bad our existence gets, can ever separate us from God’s love which has been poured into our hearts in Jesus.  That is, he reveals God’s love at the center and heart of who we are.  God is what we receive when we do deny ourselves and take up our cross.  When we lose our old, normal, egocentric lives for his sake, we do find this new life already there, deep within us.

Indeed, the challenges, the sacrifices, the losses, even the suffering we undergo is transfigured by and through him.  In him, nothing bad can touch us.  For like him we are also beings of pure light, the light God spoke into being at the beginning from which everything was made.

Now we are called by God to live in the light, and to spread the light of God’s love everywhere to everyone.  That is the light of forgiveness and hope, peace and justice, generosity and compassion, grace and healing.  It is given to us by Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit we are empowered to share it with all.

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