Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Will you pray with me?
Dear Heavenly Father, we ask that you will open our eyes, our ears, our hearts and our minds to hear what you would have us hear from you today.
Give us the proper setting, the proper will to hear what you would have us do. And give us this courage and the strength to carry out your will. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
The two scripture passages today are from the Old and the New Testament.
Exodus 34 is Moses.
Moses came down from Mount Sinai. As he came down from the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant in his hand, Moses didn't know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God.
When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face was shining and they were afraid to come near him.
But Moses called to them and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him. And Moses spoke with them.
Afterwards, all the Israelites came near and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord has spoken with him on Mount Sinai.
When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face. But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would take the veil off until he came out. And when he came out and told the Israelites what he'd been commanded, the Israelites would see the face of Moses, that the skin of his face was shining, and Moses would put the veil on his face again until he went in to speak with God.
And in the New Testament, we have Luke the 9th chapter, the 28th verse.
Now, eight days later, after this, Jesus took with him Peter and John and James and went up to the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning.
And suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking about his Exodus, which he was about to fulfill in Jerusalem.
Now, Peter and his companions were weighed with sleep. But as they awoke, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, master, it is good for us to be here. Let us set up three tents. One for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah, not realizing what he was saying.
But while he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them. And they were terrified as they entered the cloud. Then from the voice of the cloud came a voice that said, this is my son, my chosen. Listen to him.
When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silence. And in those days told no one any of the things they'd seen.
On the next day, when they came down from the mountain, a great crowd met them. Just then a man from the crowd shouted, teacher, I beg you to look at my son. He is my only child. Suddenly a spirit seizes him and all at once he shrieks. It convulses him until he foams at the mouth. It mauls him and will scarcely leave him alone.
I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.
Jesus answered, you faithless and perverse generation. How much longer must I be with you and put up with you? Bring your son here.
While he was being brought forward, the demon dashed him to the ground in convulsions. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy and gave him back to his father.
All were astounded at the greatness of God.
This is the word of the Lord.
[00:04:26] Speaker B: Thank you, Darlene, for that wonderful reading. I can always trust you to like, really capture the context and the voice of it. So it's so great to be with you all here today. As Matt noted, it's been a long time in coming. We'll see how long it takes for him to regret the request that I come and preach. So today is Transfiguration Sunday, right? This is a day we are supposed to contemplate Jesus. Brilliant mountaintop experience this transformation.
A day when we stand in awe and wonder at the inbreaking of the divine.
But the context for today's passage from Luke is not marked by awe and wonder. What precedes Jesus? Mountain top experience is actually not a heavenward contemplation, but this earthbound anxiety. You see, Jesus had just foretold his death, and the disciples are understandably a little confused.
What he has told them doesn't make a lot of sense. It certainly isn't what they were expecting.
The story that they were taught is that the Messiah is supposed to bring about revolution.
The Messiah is supposed to be the one who overthrows the Roman rule and rebuilds the temple of Jerusalem.
He is supposed to be the one who ushers in the kingdom of God, which they understand to be the restoration of Israel to power, the inauguration of universal peace under his kingship.
To make things even more confusing, Jesus goes on to speak about the kingdom of God, telling disciples that some of them will see the kingdom before they die.
So Jesus is going to die, and yet the kingdom is going to be realized.
Needless to say, disciples have a couple of questions.
But as the text tells us, they're actually too afraid to ask.
So they're left with Jesus prophetic words, but remain blind to the meaning of it all.
Now, it's not that the disciples are entirely wrong in how they're thinking about Jesus. They know he's going to be the Messiah, and they know that he will usher in the kingdom.
But in spite of all this knowledge, their own expectations, their own aspirations, their own ways of thinking have made his message difficult to decipher. It's as though they can see who Jesus is, but their vision remains obscured. They see and don't see at the same time.
Now it's in the wake of this cryptic, confusing exchange that Jesus invites three of his disciples, Peter, James and John Tom, to go up with him to the mountain to pray.
And as he prays, as he communes with the Father, we are told that his clothes become dazzling white and his face changes.
Matthew tells us that his face begins to shine with the brilliance of the sun.
And all at once, Jesus is bathed in glory.
This, of course, is transfiguration.
When the earthly realm is met by the heavenly, and through this meeting, the ways and the rhythms of this world are brought into conformity with the order of God, with the ways of heaven.
Transfiguration is a space wherein God's divine order breaks into our world and transforms it such that the kingdom of heaven is made visible to us.
Now, in all the gospel accounts, it is Jesus appearance that changes.
This is the part of transfiguration that we call glorification. When the body comes to reflect the glory of the divine.
For example, when Moses communes with God and receives the law, he experiences glorification of his body. His face starts to shine with the glory of the Lord. In fact, it shines so brightly that he feels compelled to put a veil over it when he speaks with the people of Israel.
But glorification of the body is only one part of the process of transfiguration.
This physical change in Moses face is a byproduct of his encounter with the divine, not only of this one encounter, but of his many encounters with God. It is a physical indication of a much deeper transformation that stems from this relationship with God.
His experience of bodily transfiguration is the culmination of an ongoing relationship with the Lord and in turn, his ongoing participation in and conformity to the holy order of the divine life.
Basically, what I'm saying here is that time spent with God conforms us to the ways of God. It changes us, right? In extreme examples, we see that change being manifest through the physical body.
It's the relationship with God that transforms Moses, that changes him from this reluctant leader who fears his own shortcomings, to a bold patriarch of the faith who finds strength and hope not in himself, but in God alone.
Moses. Relational participation in the divine order of God comes to define, to determine his whole life.
It comes to define his entire identity.
We might say the same of those stories of the saints, those hagiographies, the saints who are reported to be so thoroughly conformed with the ways of God, with the rhythms of God, that their physical bodies start to change, right? You think about, for example, those who no longer need to consume food in order to live, or those who take on the stigmata, the wounds of Christ. These external transformations of the body are signs of this internal change that's been happening, signs of the saints profound alignment with the rhythms and the ways of God.
It's as though, while still living in our present earthly reality, these saints have crossed over into the heavenly realm, becoming conduits of and sign points pointing to the kingdom of God.
And so, returning back to our passage in Luke, we recognize that the glorification of Jesus body indicates so much more than a physical change.
It's a sign that he is profoundly aligned with the holy order of God, which is the order at the heart of the kingdom of God.
Now, as the second Person of the Trinity, this should come as no surprise to us.
Jesus is defined as the order of God, not simply because of his proximity to God, but because he is God.
This is my Son, my chosen, the Father declares this order defines both who Jesus is and how he is in the world.
It marks his identity and colors his life and his ministry.
And so, even more than Moses or the saints, Jesus embodies God's divine order in the world. To see him is to know the ways of God.
To see him is to see the kingdom.
What the Father's divine announcement makes clear is that bodily transfiguration isn't really for those who have been transfigured.
It's for those who bear witness to it.
Moses transfiguration isn't for him.
In fact, scripture tells us that initially he doesn't even realize that he's been changed.
The glory of the Lord imparted to Moses is for the people of Israel, so that they might be reminded of God's abiding love, so that they might be reminded that God is always, God is always with them as they wander in the desert.
Remember, this is a very challenging time that they are facing.
And so that they might be, they might recognize the sacredness of this relational order into which they are being invited through the law. It's not just Moses being invited into relationship. They too are being invited into relationship through the law. A law that calls them to be with and for one another.
For this is the order of God.
Moses Transfiguration invites the people of Israel into deeper relationship with the Lord and in this way further into their own process of transfiguration as they come to to more fully reflect God's divine order in their own lives.
It's not only Moses who is called who is being changed, but they too are being called into this change.
Likewise, Jesus's transfiguration is not for himself, but for his disciples, especially in preparation for his coming death and the time of darkness and uncertainty that is sure to follow.
His transfiguration reveals God's presence to the disciples.
It reveals that God is with and for them. And it calls them to recognize the kingdom and be conformed to its ways.
As we saw with Moses, Jesus transfiguration encourages the disciples towards their own transfiguration.
It invites them to know the reality of the kingdom being realized in and through Christ and to be drawn into conformity with the order found in him.
But again, transfiguration is a process.
It takes time to be transformed. It takes time to be conformed. And Luke suggests as much with the story that immediately follows our main event.
We are told that the day after they descend from the mountain, a crowd gathers around them. And out of this crowd a man cries out, teacher, I beg you to look at my son.
He is plagued by his spirit.
Now, the Greek word for look here is epibelepo, meaning to turn one's eyes toward, to gaze upon, to show special attention or care. So we might paraphrase this verse as teacher, I beg you to look, to turn your eyes with care upon my son.
See him with compassion.
Turn your eyes with care upon my son and see him with compassion. The Father goes on to tell Jesus that he had begged the disciples to cast out the Spirit, but they were unable to do so.
Now, upon hearing this, Jesus grows angry. You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.
Now, initially, when I read this, I read it as Jesus anger towards the man who had sought his help, he and his faithless generation.
But that confused me.
Why would Jesus rebuke a man for seeking help from Jesus, for his son, for loving his son, for believing that Jesus could heal him?
So after sitting with this passage, I realized that maybe I was misreading Those verses, the rebuke, perhaps, was not for the man at all, but for the disciples who had been unable to heal the boy.
For even after all of this, even after all this time that he had been with them, they still could not see with the eyes of compassion, with the eyes conformed to the ways of the kingdom, with a vision that can heal the world.
And this concerned him, for he would only be with them a little while longer.
To bring healing to the world, to bring true and lasting healing, we must first learn to see.
We must first turn our eyes to God and be transfigured.
Only then will we be able to look upon the other, to look upon our neighbor, to look upon our enemy with attention and care, with the abiding love of God that can heal the world.
Transfiguration is a powerful anecdote to times of wandering, times of sickness, times of darkness and death. Not simply because it makes God's presence real to us, filling us with hope, but also because it enables us to live out the divine reality of God's kingdom in the world.
You know, some would say that we are currently in a time of wandering, a time of sickness, of darkness, of death.
Perhaps, like the disciples before the transfiguration, you find yourself feeling anxious and confused about what is happening in our country and in our world. Perhaps, like the disciples after Jesus crucifixion, you find yourself feeling brokenhearted, lost and afraid.
But take heart, dear friends, for transfiguration is made for times such as these, as Paul tells us in his Second Letter to the Corinthians, to look to Jesus and see the glory of the Lord.
That is a source of profound hope for us.
His transfiguration enables us to live in boldness and freedom, even in the midst of darkness.
For by looking to him, we too are transformed.
We are being transformed into his image, from one degree of glory to another, as Paul tells us.
And by being transfigured into the image of Christ, by coming to embody the order of the divine, we are also being equipped with the power of the kingdom.
Looking to Christ's transformation, we become agents of transformation ourselves.
We become people who can bring hope and healing to a hurting world.
So on this transfiguration Sunday, let us be reminded of our own call to transfiguration.
Let us be people of hope.
Let us be people of healing.
Let us be people of change.
Let us be people who boldly reflect the glory of God's abiding love for the other.
And in doing so, let us transfigure the world.
