Transfiguration Sunday, 2021

Six days later ... 

Today is Transfiguration Sunday for those of us who follow the liturgical calendar. It is the Sunday before Ash Wednesday; the Sunday before the Lenten journey begins. 

The text for Transfiguration Sunday - Mark 9:2-9 - offers us guidance for the Lenten journey.

The biblical writer tied the transfiguration experience to what happened a week before. He began his account of the transfiguration with the words "six days later." Those earlier events help us understand what transpired on the mountain. 

The week before, Jesus and the disciples were on retreat in the region of Caesarea Philippi, north of the Sea of Galilee in the mountains near the headwaters of the Jordan River. The retreat marked a significant shift in their relationship. For the first time, they openly began to talk about Jesus being the long-awaited messiah. Peter was the one who first said it out loud in the group. In response to Jesus's question, "who do you say I am?", Peter answered, "You are the Messiah." Jesus immediately began to build on that understanding. For the first time - but not the last time - he began to talk about what he would experience in Jerusalem: suffering, rejection by the religious establishment, death at the hands of the authorities, and resurrection. Of course, what he said blew the disciples' mind. What he said was going to happen was the polar opposite of what they expected to happen. Peter, again, put into words what they were all thinking. He rebuked Jesus for even thinking such things, much less saying them out loud. Peter and the others could not, would not accept what he was saying as true. The excitement and joy of talking openly about Jesus being the Messiah quickly gave way to confusion laced with fear, questioning looks at one another, and guarded conversations. 

Such was the backdrop to the transfiguration experience.

What took place in the transfiguration was for the benefit of both Jesus and the three disciples. The experience with Moses and Elijah was for Jesus's benefit. The voice from the cloud was for the benefit of the disciples.

The experience was, for Jesus, akin to his baptism experience. It was a time of affirmation and encouragement. At his baptism, as he began his public ministry, the vision Jesus saw and the voice he heard affirmed his understanding of his identity. He was indeed the Messiah and he was the Suffering Servant. The two roles were one and the same. (He was the first in Hebrew history to link the two roles together.) Now, as he faced the reality of all that his identity involved, he once again received affirmation and encouragement from heaven. His conversation with Moses and Elijah (representing the Law and the Prophets) offered him reassurance of his understanding that death was not the end. Resurrection would follow. His experience of transfiguration allowed him to taste the glorified life that awaited him. 

Peter, James, and John were overwhelmed by what they saw. It was as though a veil had been pulled back, allowing them to see the spiritual dimension of life that infuses the physical realm. Not knowing how to respond, Peter offered to build booths for Moses, Elijah, and Jesus so they could celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. (The Feast of Tabernacles commemorated the wanderings in the wilderness after the Exodus.) That's when the cloud, representing the presence of God, enveloped them. The voice spoke to them: "This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!" The words affirmed what they had just recently begun to say out loud. Jesus was indeed the Messiah. The phrase "This is my Son" is from Psalm 2, the coronation song sung at the anointing of the king. The phrase affirmed that Jesus was the messianic king.  But the words also affirmed what Jesus had taught them. He was the Suffering Servant who would experience abuse before being killed. The phrase "the Beloved" is from the servant songs of Isaiah. The words of affirmation gave way to a command: "listen to him!" Be willing to hear and accept what he is teaching. Quit holding onto your old thinking. Accept the new way of thinking he is trying to teach you. 

Both dimensions of the experience provide us guidance as we walk the Lenten journey.

Jesus's experience calls us to see with different eyes. It calls us to see beyond the surface. It calls us to recognize the spiritual dimension that infuses our physical lives. We get caught up in and consumed with the physical. We become so preoccupied with making a living, making ends meet, and making a go of it that we are blind to the spiritual dimension of life where the essence of life is found. 

The Lenten journey invites us to see with different eyes. It calls us to pay attention to the spiritual dimension of our experience. It calls us to look for God in the everyday. 

And the Lenten journey calls us to listen. It beckons us beyond old ways of thinking shaped by our what's-in-it-for-me mentality. It calls us to surrender old attitudes nurtured by that old thinking. It calls us beyond our innate resistance to the ways of God. It calls us to nurture a teachable spirit that is open to new ways of thinking and understanding. It calls us to allow the character of God and the teachings of Jesus to shape how we think. It calls us to grow and change as the Spirit recreates us in the likeness of Christ.

The Lenten journey invites us to listen. 

Following the transfiguration experience, Jesus and the disciples made their way to Jerusalem where they would celebrate the Passover . . . and where Jesus would be arrested, killed, and three days later be raised from the dead. During that six weeks journey to Jerusalem, Jesus continued to teach his disciples about what he would experience when they got to Jerusalem. But they struggled to hear, to understand, to accept what he was saying. 

Their six weeks journey to Jerusalem is the pattern for our forty day journey through Lent. During our journey, may we be willing to hear what they could not hear. May we see with different eyes. May we be willing to listen. 

(During the season of Lent, I will post brief reflections each day, Monday through Saturday. The reflections - which we call Lenten Riffs - have been written by my colleagues and friends, the Reverend Jennifer Long of Corning, NY, the Reverend Mike Trautman of Ferguson, MO, and myself. The three of us do a podcast each week in which we discuss the narrative lectionary text of the week.)