Transfiguration- the height of the season of Epiphany- Mark 9

Mark 9:2-9

This is the last Sunday of Epiphany. It started with the visit of the Magi, and then the Baptism of Jesus where the Holy Spirit descended on him and the voice of the Father said, 

“You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased” (Mk 1:11).

 … Throughout this season we have been reading passages of Scripture that have been giving us glimpses of who Jesus really is. People have ‘epiphanies’ as they see Jesus teach and heal, and as he casts out demons who identify him as the Holy One of God.

Our reading today, at the peak of the season of Epiphany, is the Transfiguration of Jesus. This reading is introduced by an unusual healing of blindness, which is a bit of a hint towards healing spiritual blindness.

The healing is at Bethsaida (Mk 8:22-26). Jesus leads the man outside the village, and when he first heals him, he has a partial healing of his sight. Then Jesus lays his hands on his eyes and his sight is fully restored. … Right after this two-stage healing Jesus asks his disciples about who people say he is, to which they answer, 

“John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets” (Mk 8:28).

 Then he asks who the Disciples say he is and Peter responds saying, 

“You are the Messiah” (8:29).

 At this point Jesus starts talking about how he will have to suffer, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, the scribes and be killed. Peter rebukes Jesus for saying these things because the Messiah is not supposed to be rejected and killed. … This is where Jesus then rebukes Peter saying, “Get behind me, Satan. For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’”. …

So, we have a partial healing of spiritual blindness. … The disciples are able to see that Jesus is the Messiah, but they can’t fully see what it means to be the Messiah because they can’t see how suffering is a part of that role, and they are even willing to rebuke the one they call “Lord” to try to correct his mistaken understanding of the role of the Messiah. Their view of Jesus has improved, but they are in need of further healing of their spiritual sight.

What does Peter need in order to heal his spiritual sight? What can help him grasp that Jesus might know what he is talking about, regarding the Messiah’s path through suffering? What can help Peter heal his spiritual sight?

Jesus takes Peter, James, and John, up a mountain. There, we read that Jesus was 

“transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus” (Mk 9:2-4).

Imagine being Peter. You just recently rebuked Jesus to correct his view of the Messiah. You rebuked him for saying that the role of the Messiah would include suffering. And now, up on this mountain, Jesus is glowing with divine light, and he is with Moses and Elijah, who are talking to Jesus like they know him. …

Moses and Elijah both had encounters with God on a mountain. They represent the height of Israel’s encounter with God. Moses represented the Law, and Elijah represents the Prophets. Together they represent the tradition of God’s encounter with Israel. … And they are speaking with Jesus, as if they have met before.

Peter, as the spokesman of the disciples, and realizing the incredible moment they are in, wants to build three dwellings. He wants to extend this moment. … We sometimes tease Peter for this, but it is a completely natural response. Every follower of Jesus hopes to be in the presence of Christ, in his manifest majesty, surrounded by his saints. The vision of the beauty, and the power of God is the source of Christian action. That image of the Kingdom of God having come in power- the source of all love, and joy, and peace- that vision is what has allowed Christians to do incredible things.

I’ll give you an example. In the year 203, there was a woman named Perpetua, who was martyred at the age of 22. She had been recently married and had just had a baby- she was arrested for having become a Christian. She was eventually killed along with five other Christians, as a part of the games celebrating the emperor’s birthday. We have a written account from Perpetua, and she describes visions she had leading up to her death. She writes,

“Then I saw an immense garden, and in it a gray-haired man sat in shepherd's garb; tall he was, and milking sheep. And standing around him were many thousands of people clad in white garments. He raised his head, looked at me, and said: 'I am glad you have come, my child.'”

“He called me over to him and gave me, as it were, a mouthful of the milk he was drawing; and I took it into my cupped hands and consumed it. And all those who stood around said: 'Amen!' At the sound of this word I came to, with the taste of something sweet still in my mouth. I at once told this to my brother, and we realized that we would have to suffer, and that from now on we would no longer have any hope in this life.”[1]

She went to her death with incredible courage because she held onto the vision of Christ- The one who loves her, and who is calling her to himself, to a place where death has no more power. … Someone else completes the story from his perspective, describing how she walked before the blood-thirsty crowd who came to see the spectacle of their deaths. He says, 

“Perpetua went along with shining countenance and calm step, as the beloved of God, as a wife of Christ, putting down everyone's stare by her own intense gaze.”

 … She was able to endure this terrible thing because she had an unshakable image of Christ in his glory, and that he loved her, and she would be with him soon.

In Romans 8:18 Paul says, 

“I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us”.

 Paul had an unshakable vison of Christ, and he knew him to be the source of peace and love. He knew that what Christ has to offer outweighs any pain we can face.

So, what did Peter, James, and John need so that they could be prepared, not only for the reality that the Messiah would suffer, but that they would be called to suffer too? They would need to see a clearer vision of who Christ is. … And they still didn’t completely get it, but they would. That healing of spiritual sight would be completed with the resurrection. …

Let’s look at the rest of what they saw. … They see Jesus transfigured, talking with Moses and Elijah, and then, 

“a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!’” (Mk 9:7).

 They see the cloud, like the cloud that filled Solomon’s Temple, and like the column that led the Hebrews in the wilderness by day. It is a manifestation of the presence of God. And from that cloud there comes the voice of the Father that identifies Jesus as the beloved Son, and they are told to listen to him. … God spoke to these fishermen and told them to listen to Jesus- the one they recently rebuked for saying he would have to suffer to fulfil his role as the Messiah.

When all this is over, they make their way back down the mountain and Jesus tells them to not tell anyone about what they saw until after he has risen from the dead (9:9-10). Here again we have a reference to his death. And the disciples are still confused. The complete healing of spiritual sight would have to wait until the resurrection, but progress has been made. …

This vision is a glimpse of who Jesus really is. It is a vision that would grow and become more full when they experience the resurrection. And for us, living after the resurrection, we have the benefit of hindsight- we have access to a more complete vision. For us the challenge is fixing that vision into our minds. … Do we really believe it? That Jesus is who he says he is? That those who have told us about him have told the truth? In our sceptical age, when we are so used to getting lied to, that can be a challenge. … Sometimes, even when we believe it, we get distracted from it, and we need to be reminded of it. …

When we are facing suffering, or a difficult part of our life, how would it change things for us to have fixed in our minds a strong vision of Christ, the incarnate God, the One who loves us, Who yearns for us to be with Him some day in Paradise surrounded by His saints? … And what if we know that vision not as a nice idea, or a beautiful symbol, but as a powerful reality- As real as the sun in the sky. Jesus is alive right now. He isn’t a fictional character in a book. He isn’t just a figure from history. Jesus, right now, having defeated death, has invited us into his victory. He wants our good. He once said, 

“I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete” (Jn 15:11).

 What would it mean to go through the troubles of our life with the reality of that vision in our minds, knowing that some day we will be bathed in that reality with Him. … Can we maybe even project our minds to that future reality, and imagine how we would look back on our present troubles?

We will be bathed in his overwhelming love, joy, and peace. We know those things today in a filtered way, like sunlight through sunglasses. The difference will be like taking the sunglasses off and walking outside into a bright summer day at noon. We will be overwhelmed by the beauty, joy, peace, and love of God. … We are invited to look at our lives today from the point of view of that future reality. When we suffer, and when we are worried, and when we are called to forgive, and when we are called to do something that makes us afraid- we are called to hold that vision in our minds and live our lives from that reality- Christ in his glory as king of the universe, surrounded by his saints, and full of love for you. Amen

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[1] https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/maps/primary/perpetua.html