changing Jesus- Transfiguration
(Note that the recorded sermon was part of a child directed sermon)
Jesus is far from a
comfortable person. Being around Jesus always changes you or challenges you. No
one who reads the New Testament will leave feeling perfectly comfortable with the
way they have always been living. We will come away having our faith
challenged, our lives reexamined, our love stretched, and our minds broadened.
One of the ways to get
around this discomfort in encountering Jesus is to put up filters. In our North
American world we have problems with miracles. The easy thing to do is to put
up a filter when we read the New Testament and not take any of the miracles
seriously. That filter will assure us that the miracles are just metaphors, or
that they are fictional.
There is no lack of
things to make us feel uncomfortable when we look at Jesus. In our craftiness
we have filters to suit our tastes. It
often makes us feel uncomfortable when Jesus speaks about our money and our
responsibility to the poor, but no need to be worried, we can put up a filter. All we need to do is assure ourselves that we shouldn't be attached to
our money and then we can go along merrily.
It can make us
uncomfortable when Jesus turns over the tables in the temple court in judgment.
A Jesus who brings judgment in this world or in the next is hard for
many of us to accept. Our filter will cause us to soften those words of
judgment, or forget them entirely.
We have issues with
Jesus telling us to not worry in a worrisome world. We have issues with Jesus'
call to non-violence in a violent world. We have issues with Jesus' call to
repentance in a world where we don't often believe in sin. We have issues with
the cross in a world where we don't understand or feel the need for sacrifice.
We have issues with resurrection in a world where people die and don't come back.
We have a variety of filters to make Jesus more comfortable for us. We have
many filters to transform and transfigure Jesus into a Jesus we are more willing
to accept. This way we can have our own personal Jesus that does not challenge
us in ways that we don't want to be challenged. "Your own personal
Jesus"- as Depeche Mode said.
Something similar was
happening to Peter. Jesus was always stretching his disciples. And Peter had an
image of who the messiah was. The Messiah was a person who would join military
and religious authority and kick out the Pagan Roman oppressors who had
overtaken the promised land. In Peter's mind that is the definition of the word
"messiah". In the Gospel of Mathew (chapter 16) when Jesus told Peter
that he would have to suffer and die at the hands of the authorities in Jerusalem , Peter was
stretched too far. Peter dragged Jesus off to the side and gave him a talking
to. He told him that this was unacceptable behavior for a messiah. Peter's
image of what a messiah was and did was so strong that he began to lecture the
one he called his "lord". Jesus was trying to teach Peter that
suffering and dying were points along the path of the messiah.
This exchange between
Jesus and Peter happened just before the Transfiguration, which we read in
Matthew. When we read about the Transfiguration, Peter still hasn't learned his
lesson. Jesus takes the disciples Peter, James, and John up a mountain, which
is a thin place. Mountains are almost like suburbs of Heaven (as one
commentator put it). There they witness
Jesus transfigured. They see him as the heavenly being he is. The veil of the
everyday and ordinary is lifted and they see the deeper reality. Jesus' face
shines like the sun, and his clothes are beyond white. And Moses and Elijah
appear and speak with him.
And what does Peter do?
He goes back to his original idea of the messiah. He wants to build three
tents. They can camp there for the evening and then in the morning Jesus, Moses
and Elijah can all go down to Jerusalem and start putting things right. Peter
has completely filtered out the suffering that Jesus said was going to be a
part of his role as the messiah.
When we look at the
transfiguration in more detail we see that it is a reassurance to the disciples
that Jesus can be trusted. They can accept him as he is. It is the disciple's
views and expectations that need to change, not Jesus.
In the ancient world a mountain is a place you go to get closer to heaven, which sounds silly to our
modern ears, but when you stand on top of a mountain you begin to understand
why they thought that way. They go up the mountain, the way Moses did when he
received the Law from God. When they get up the mountain Jesus' appearance
changes and he looks like a heavenly being, because of course that's who he is.
He existed before his human mother Mary gave birth to him. The disciples see
Jesus with representatives of the Law and the Prophets. This is to reassure
them that Jesus is in continuity with what God has been doing since the
beginning. But Jesus is more important than Moses or Elijah. A voice speaks
from the cloud of God's glory that surrounds them, and tells them that Jesus is
not just a prophet, he is God the Father's beloved Son. They hear God speak
from the clouds and God points to Jesus, "This is my Son, the Beloved;
with him I am well pleased" And the last thing they hear the heavenly
voice say is "listen to him".
I can imagine that
phrase rattled inside Peter's head- "listen to him". Just before they
came up the mountain Peter had lectured Jesus and corrected him on his
understanding of the Messiah. Peter was afraid that Jesus was making a terrible
mistake- suffering and death could not be a part of the equation. It doesn't
make sense. Jesus was going to ruin everything with that kind of thinking. But
now they stand on top of the mountain. Moses and Elijah are speaking with
Jesus. The cloud of God's glory has surrounded them. The cloud that was there
when God gave the Law to Moses. The cloud that guided Israel out of
slavery, the cloud that had filled the Temple
so Long ago. And here it is surrounding them. A voice comes out of the cloud,
God's voice, and God points to Jesus, the beloved Son. And the voice of God
tells them to listen to Jesus. Now how does Peter feel thinking back on his
confrontation with Jesus? Maybe a bit foolish? maybe frightened? God says,
"listen to him!".
I'm sure no one has ever listened so carefully
as those disciples did after having heard the phrase from the cloud,
"listen to him". And what is the first thing Jesus says after this?
Jesus says "get up and do not be afraid". So the first thing they are
to do- the first command they are to obey- is to get up and not be afraid. The
next words to come from Jesus instructs them to not tell anyone about this
until he has been raised from the dead. Again Jesus makes reference to his
death. Jesus cannot be properly understood apart from the cross.
This is good news to
Peter and the other disciples. They want a safe definition of messiah. They
want a powerful messiah who arrives in power with an army of angels and kills
all the bad guys. A definition of Messiah that includes suffering and death
leaves them unprotected. It leaves the future unpredictable and out of their
control. Yes, Jesus' mission will include
his death, but they do not have to be afraid. They just have to trust him. And
that is the good news. They can trust him. They don't have to be afraid.
Like the disciples we
are much more comfortable with a Jesus we create. We are much more comfortable
when we can filter out those bits that make us uncomfortable. We all have
different bits about Jesus that make us feel uncomfortable, whether it be
loving our enemies, forgiving as we want to be forgiven, giving our money to
help the poor, the reality of miracles, or turning the other cheek. Encountering
Jesus is not comfortable.
So when we encounter
Jesus we have two options. One, we can change Jesus and filter out all those
things that bother us about him. We can replace Jesus with an idol of our own
creation. Or, two, we can accept Jesus
as he presents himself to us, transfigured on the mountain, and suffering on
the cross, with all the challenging parts included- all the hard teachings. But,
if we accept Jesus as he is, without the filters, it means we are the ones who
will have to be transformed. And that can be frightening. That is why we try to
change who Jesus is, because change is frightening and it's not always in our
power.
However, the good news
for the disciples is also good news for us. We are encouraged to not be afraid. If we can
truly believe that God has things under control and that he will guide us then
we really don't have to be afraid. No matter what comes our way God will work
it out for good. It doesn't mean there won't be pain, or even a cross, but in a
world where God has things under control we don't have to be afraid. We will be tempted to be afraid because we
can't control it. But we can choose to trust the beloved Son who the Father
encouraged us to listen to. And when we
are face down in the dirt afraid of what the future might look like- afraid of
what God might do with out lives- we hear Jesus' words to us and feel his hand
on our shoulder "Get up and do not be afraid".
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