Luke 9: 28-36
As Jesus was praying, the look on his face altered, and his clothes became radiant white………..
and a cloud came over them, and a voice spoke out of the cloud:
“This is my own Son, the chosen one; listen to him.”
If you reckon the story of the transfiguration is a bit “way out,” then you are definitely on the right track. If your mind gags when you try to understand it, then I think Luke would be delighted. You should mentally gag; you should puzzle over the picture that Luke frames for you. You should feel out of your depth because you are out of your depth! Far out of your depth!
Luke, in telling the transfiguration story, is attempting to convey the confounding mystery of Jesus the Christ… A mystery which in the final analysis is: “inaccessible to human mind and tongue”
[to quote the New Testament scholar, Eduard Schweizer.]
It is a story of enlightenment, an epiphany story. That is why we use this Gospel reading at the beginning of Lent…to prepare us as we ponder and participate in the amazing story and mystery of Easter.
The Transfiguration is another shot at encapsulating the good news: “We have seen the glory of God in the face of Jesus the Christ”.
A REVELATION OF A UNIVERSAL CONSTANT
That shining “otherness” which they saw in Jesus of Nazareth, was not a one-off event
Peter, James, and John experienced a brief break-through; they saw the Holy Light which had been there all the time. The glory is mostly hidden, but on the mountain, they were given a blinding glimpse
It is the God-light which had been since the beginning. A universal constant.
The God-light is when glimpses of God’s plan and purpose is seen since the beginning of creation…insights to the grandure and purpose of our loving God.
The God-light had always been. Glimmers came through in the ethical insights of Moses, the visions of Isaiah, and the “tell-it-as-it-is” faith of the Psalms.
It was there when Jesus while a boy, went with his parents to the Temple and ended up asking hard questions of the rabbis. It was present when he was baptised in the Jordan and when he went into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. The God-light was focused in him when Jesus went public in the Galilee province. The disciples had sensed it when Jesus called them.
In his parables and healings, in the compassion of Jesus for the outsiders, folk dimly but surely knew they were in the presence of a profoundly enlightened person.
The Godlight was there when he shared a last meal with his friends, when he anguished in the garden of Gethsemane, when he was arrested and abused. It was exquisitely there on that awesome day when the sun was eclipsed, and from a cross in the darkness Jesus gave a loud cry. “My God, my God why have you forsaken me”.
It was gloriously present in the resurrection experience.
It had been shining since before the foundation of the universe, and it will be when this cosmos is no more.
Because Christ was transfigured, all things are now transfigured for those who climb with him up the mountain or descend with him down to the dusty plain.
As Jesus was praying, the look on his face altered, and his clothes became radiant white………..
and a cloud came over them, and a voice spoke out of the cloud:
“This is my own Son, the chosen one; listen to him.”
Is seeing this in the light of the Transfiguration another shot at encapsulating the good news:
“We have seen the glory of God in the face of Jesus the Christ”?
THE TRANSFIGURATION CALLS FOR AWE AND SILENCE
What do we see?
I think we can see a new story emerging
I see in the Christmas and Easter events of Jesus a powerful light and meaning for Jesus the Christ to be showing God’s plan…the incarnation of God coming and pitching tent with us. Then living within the earthy creation …living its pain, hanging on a cross and rising from the tomb.
Is it possible that this is part of the radiant mystery of Jesus of Nazareth at the Transfiguration where we see Luke and the disciples struggling to make sense of it all?
What a story of a loving God… to the creation…. As a scientist who sees in the creation of God, a system of creation which by its very nature yields great beauty but also much pain, hurt and destruction. The creation is both beautiful and awful.
The same evolutionary process which results in the Grevillia flower also produces the Covid 19 virus or the Cancer cell.
I wonder as we look at the transfiguration is the light for us today to see Jesus teaching us that God is wholly with us in this creation. God is within the creation and from the very beginning has come and pitched tent with us.
Jesus in his life and action, teaching, death, and resurrection is showing the true nature of God with us.
God taking responsibility for the nature of God’s creation…a creation of much wonder beauty and joy but also one in which by its very nature one that has pain, suffering and death.
Can we see Jesus the Nazarene as also Jesus the Christ of the Cosmos…our loving, vulnerable God working with us to live victoriously and creatively with not only ourselves but in partnership with God redeeming the whole of creation.
Creator God acts and speaks both within and beyond creation….
God cared so deeply for humanity to become flesh and dwell with us.
I am convinced that God cares deeply for all that God has created and continues to create…we ponder the light and meaning of the Transfiguration can make these re-connections…to understand the epilogue in Revelations and the Hymn to Christ in Colossians chapter 1 –
“For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”
To see more clearly God’s concern for the reconciliation and restoration of all creation is a fundamental part of the gospel.
It is not a side show, an add-on extra, but rather the gospel at its core.
As Jesus was praying, the look on his face altered, and his clothes became radiant white………..and a cloud came over them, and a voice spoke out of the cloud:
“This is my own Son, the chosen one; listen to him.”
As we listen to him do we hear of a God of Love who became one with us.
- Suffering, struggling, and hurting with us.
- Confronting sin, overcoming hatred, achieving freedom, living, loving, and celebrating with us.
- He came as a servant king. God was vulnerable in Jesus, yet ultimately victorious.
- God came, and is with us now, as Jesus’s teaching and ongoing presence opens space for God to reveal, live and travel with us in new and unexpected ways.
HOW DO WE SEE JESUS, THE CHRIST?
The Transfiguration calls for awe and silence – as the God-light offers new insights…let’s sit with some new possibilities. It is a call to be open and listening to God’s call on each of us.
That in the God-light we will need to re-discover, affirm, and live out our new story… we each need to develop our own story…a story that leads us to understand our place in creating a community that both cares for one another and for the planet.
In other words, how might live to care for each other and the ecosystems of the earth so that the whole of creation might be reconciled and renewed. As visioned in Colossians and first verses of John’s gospel.
We need to pray, listen to God, ponder the scriptures, and learn, grow our new story, a new song for the earth.
By not giving spiritual attention to the Christ…the post-resurrection Jesus…the word… the logos…the cosmic Christ….have we missed what is so important in our time…the renewal and healing of the ecology and life support systems of the planet…the on-going work of our loving God and creator?
As we look at the transfiguration for Peter, James, and John…What is our transfiguration insight when we listen and see Jesus in new ways….
When we listen to Jesus can we glimpse grander view of Jesus the Christ?
A love filled gospel of Jesus the Christ which incorporates personal reconciliation, a cry for justice, and engagement in the on-going work of our loving God and creator in the restoration, renewal and healing of the ecology and life support systems of the planet.
I believe we can and therefore be assured that the post-resurrection Jesus will be the wind under our wings.
Amen
John Williams
1 July 2022
Acknowledgements
1. Bruce Prewer-YEAR C, TRANSFIGURATION OF JESUS, bruceprewer.com/DocC/C18trnsf.htm
2. Bill Loader – First Thoughts on Year C Gospel Passages from the Lectionary
Transfiguration: 27 February Luke 9:28-36 (37-43) (billloader.com)