Transfiguration Sunday

Psalm: Psalm 50:1-6 
Old Testament: 2 Kings 2:1-12 
Gospel: Mark 9:2-9 
Epistle: 2 Corinthians 4:3-6

Today is Transfiguration Sunday. Which is always the Sunday before Ash Wednesday in the Revised Common Lectionary. We are actually at a church retreat this weekend so I haven't had much time to think or write today. (Thus this post is being published on Monday.) Our theme today invites us to explore Jesus' transfiguration in parallel to Elijah being taken up to heaven. I'll just put a few thoughts down real quick.

The first thing I wonder is why is it that Moses and Elijah are the ones who show up? There are a couple of reasons I can think off and there are probably even more. The first is that Moses and Elijah represent the Law and the Prophets respectfully. So when Peter says he wants to build 3 tabernacles for Moses, Elijah, and Jesus he is equating Jesus with the other two. It was still a high honor and recognized that Jesus is from God and that God is doing something new and great through him, but it failed to recognize all who Jesus is. As if in response to the Peter words, a voice called from heaven saying, "this is My beloved Son, listen to Him!" The whole episode seems like a giant flashing billboard of God trying to show to these 3 disciples exactly who Jesus is. God is saying that Jesus isn't a prophet or a new Law. Rather he is the Son of God, fully God and fully man, revealing God in the flesh.

The other reason I think that it is Moses and Elijah who show up is because they each have unusual deaths, if they can even be called that. Moses is said to have died, but it is a very interesting account. In Deut. 34 he goes to the top of Mount Nebo from which he is able to see the whole Promised Land. That is the last any one sees him. The Lord buries him it seems but no one actually sees him die or buried. The text also has this interesting line, "Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone." (vs. 7) And a few verses later it says, "Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face." (vs. 10) Moses appears to die still in good health and also has the only person ever to see the Lord "face to face." So Moses gets some special treatment in life and in death.

Elijah is much the same. In life he becomes this prototypical prophet who calls the People of God back to faithfulness to God and the Covenant. He stands up against the false prophets and idol worship that was rampant in Israel. Looking forward to the age of the Messiah, in Malachi 4:5 it says, "See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes." There was this expectation of Elijah's return and then Israel would be returned to its previous glory, but even better. This understanding helps us to make sense thatwhen he appears at the Transfiguration people were looking for his return. It also shows us why people thought John the Baptist and even Jesus were the reappearance of Elijah.

But it is Elijah's death that is perhaps the most unusual in the Old Testament and the subject of our reading from 2 Kings today. We all know that Elijah doesn't die, but is rather taken up by a chariot of fire in a whirlwind to heaven. It is kind of weird story and one I haven't truly pondered as to why Elijah experienced this rather than a natural of death. Maybe somebody else knows of a place in Scripture where this is interpreted and given meaning. But for our purposes today, we can just leave it at that fact that he appears to not die, but is rather brought up to heaven--unusual to say the least.

So, both Moses and Elijah have extraordinary lives, represent the fullness of God's direct revelation to Israel, and also have strange "death" narratives. I think this, and probably a whole lot more goes into understanding Jesus' Transfiguration. There is no way this event, and really Jesus' whole life, can be divorced from what has come before in the Old Testament. Yet, as we mentioned before, Jesus is not a new Law or new prophet. He is the Son of God and this event reveals to us and to Peter, James and John, Jesus divine glory.

We get one last glimpse here into understanding of Jesus' day and the expectations of what the Messiah would be. After this event the three disciples keep the event secret as instructed, but they discuss amongst themselves, "what 'rising from the dead' meant." (9:10) Nobody expected the Messiah to suffer, die, and rise from the dead. Even when Jesus told the disciples, they didn't understand it. Jesus, through continuity with what God had done before, brought divine revelation to its fullest extent. And this new revelation was of a God who sacrifices and loves to its fullest expression.

One question I have through all of this, which I find fascinating from a historical and biblical perspective and leaves a ton to explore still, is how does this relate to us? We know Jesus is Lord. We know he is the Son of God. But we must remember that Peter, James, and John didn't know that. The people hearing this Gospel read aloud may not have known it yet. This Gospel was written and first heard in a time when Jesus wasn't a household name like he is today. Remember what Luke wrote was his motivation for writing his Gospel, "so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught." (Luke 1:4) The Gospels were trying to persuade and convince their hearers of the truth they presented. We can't take for granted the radical message the Gospels present because we have heard it a thousand times. The Transfiguration is important because it gives us a glimpse of who Jesus truly is. Jesus truly is God's Son, and we are to listen to him. That message is as true today as it was when it was declared 2,000 years ago.

Let us live as if we truly believe it.

Grace and Peace.