Exodus 34:29-35 Luke 9:28-36
Kim and I have been watching a TV series recently on Netflix, and at the beginning of each episode a narrator tells us everything that has happened up until this point – very briefly, in about a minute. It feels weird. Because when you binge-watch shows on Netflix or Amazon or other streaming services, it feels unnecessary to have a voice telling you everything that happened on your TV screen five minutes ago.
The way we read the scriptures in church, though, we could use some of those narrations. Someone to say, “Previously, in the Gospel of Luke…” so we know what happened eight days before.
Because that is how this passage from Luke begins: Eight days after he said these things, Jesus took Peter, James, and John up to the mountain to pray. Well, what were those things he said eight days ago? We might decide it’s not worth the trouble of looking backward to see what happened eight days earlier, I think the words were put there for a reason. It helps our understanding of this text significantly to know what Jesus said.
All we have to do is look back a few verses. Jesus told his disciples that he must undergo great suffering and rejection by the leaders of his own people, and that he would be crucified and on the third day rise again.
Now, let us not be in a hurry. Let us take a moment to acknowledge the weight of these remarks. All of this would surely be more than his disciples could absorb in the moment.
There are certain things that humans find to be unacceptable, unfathomable. It makes no sense for his own people to reject him, and the mere notion of crucifixion is their worst nightmare. And that he would rise again? This would be incomprehensible.
But, even worse, he goes on to say that if any would follow him, they too must take up their cross.
Take up their cross.
When we use this phrase, we always mean it figuratively, not literally. But for the disciples, this was a very real, physical thing. Crucifixion was the Romans’ instrument of torture and terror. To these disciples, taking up their cross did not mean encountering some hypothetical challenges or hardships. It meant something very specific; it meant death.
The disciples apparently made no response to Jesus’ statements. I don’t know if I would have anything to say in response to such a thing. There are moments in life when we are confronted with something so impossible that we simply deny it. Something we cannot bear, so we allow our eyes, our ears, our hearts to resist the knowledge. They say that denial is the first stage of grief. When you are confronted with the death of someone you love, or your own death, everything in you wants to resist the truth of it.
The disciples said nothing in response to Jesus’ words. Perhaps some quietly left. The rest continued on their way. And eight days later, Jesus took a few of them up to the mountain to pray with him.
Up on top of the mountain, as Jesus prayed, the disciples saw him change – become transfigured. His clothing took on a whiteness that was blinding. His face somehow changed. Perhaps it was similar to the appearance of Moses’ face when he came down from his mountaintop meetings with God, when the brilliance of it was more than the Israelites could bear to see. The presence of the almighty God, in a mere reflection of its brilliance and power, is too great for the human mind to comprehend.
And as if summoned by this similarity, Moses himself appeared beside Jesus, along with the prophet Elijah. The three of them spoke about his departure, Luke tells us. And so we know that what they were speaking about was in line with the things Jesus had told his disciples eight days earlier; the great suffering to come.
Peter, James, and John were weighted down with sleep – and yet awake. A puzzling remark, but I think it must indicate to us that they were not, mentally, at their best. It may have been grief that weighed them down – a grief from which they desired to escape, and sleep was the only escape.
Yet still they tried to be present for Jesus, to understand what was happening right before their eyes – the transfiguration of their teacher, the presence of Elijah and Moses in all their glory. And Peter had an idea: to make a shrine, three little shelters for Jesus, Elijah, and Moses. It didn’t really make any sense. And in case we should be misled, Luke says, He didn’t know what he was saying.
But even while he was speaking this nonsense, a cloud overshadowed them and the voice from heaven was heard, saying: This is my Son, my chosen. Listen to him!
Then it was quiet. Elijah and Moses disappeared as inexplicably as they had appeared. And no one said a word.
This episode in the gospel story, the transfiguration of the Lord, is profoundly mysterious. There is no logical explanation for the dazzling whiteness, the changed appearance of his face, the presence of Elijah and Moses. We cannot understand them – we can only notice how these things make us feel. And the feeling they evoke is one of awe, of being in the presence of the divine.
And we cannot, must not, lift this out of the text and isolate it from the words that Jesus spoke to his disciples just eight days before. Just as we cannot, must not, try to erase the great suffering in the world, or isolate it from our worship, praise, and adoration of God. They are all a part of the same cloth. The voice from heaven said, Listen to him! We must not dismiss his words.
The truth that Jesus suffered death on a cross is an essential part of our faith. And the words he spoke to his followers, that we each take up our cross and follow him, through death and toward life are also essential to our faith. Time and history have not made these things less true. We know that there is great suffering in the world. Yet, as Christians we do not shy away from this truth, because we know that there is no place we might walk where Jesus has not already made a path for us to follow. And there is no suffering we would have to undergo without him beside us.
In this episode on the mountaintop, we know what came before. And we also know what is yet to come. But in this particular moment Jesus shares with us a brief view of the full glory of God that is ours to know through him. In this episode we are shown that although we may have understood glory in certain ways before (and maybe wanted to do things like build little shrines or golden calves), through Christ, God is redefining power and glory for us. Through him, we have a deeper, stronger, more lasting knowledge of glory.
We always revisit this transfiguration story before we enter the season of Lent, and it is for good reason. Our Lenten journey is difficult. If you submit to the demands of the season, you open yourself up to challenges but also new truths. You might become more acutely aware of the suffering of this world but also the beauty that is always there. You might experience some pain, but also receive the gift of joy.
The Lenten journey is not for the faint of heart, because true rewards do not come from taking the easy way. But here in this moment on the mountaintop, we are given a glimpse of glory; we are offered strength for our journey.
And know that we embark on this journey together, one step at a time.
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Photo: ChurchArt.com
