2 After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. 3 His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. 4 And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.
5 Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” 6 (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.)
7 Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”
8 Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.
9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
Click through to see how we talked about this important moment in Jesus' ministry and its significance to our daily lives!
After walking with Jesus through the season of Epiphany, discovering his purpose through preaching and healing, we finally get this mountaintop moment where Christ is revealed in all his glory. Dazzling white his robes are, "whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them". He stands attended by the greatest religious figures in history, fathers of the faith from the glorious days of old.
What is the reaction of the disciples? Fear. They were frightened by the glory, by the appearance of figures they had only heard about in stories, men long gone from the earth. They were surprised that the man they knew, walked with, ate with was THIS! Then Peter muttered something to cover his fear and stabilize himself when all of a sudden a voice boomed from above, "This is my Son...listen to him!" AAAAAAAHHH! At that point they were no doubt on their knees, unable to cope.
Then they looked around and it was just Jesus again.
In church I mentioned that we've spent the last 40 years or so making Jesus "just Jesus again", and for good reason. For centuries we built up God as a being so grand and glorious that nobody could approach him. Think of grand cathedrals awing you into insignificance. Consider the Catholic church still holds onto intercessory prayers to saints, asking the holiest of men and women to pray to God on our behalf because we're too small and sin-stained to talk to God directly. Consider fire and brimstone sermons of early American vintage, the God of wrath who looked over your shoulder and saw all, before whom you were to cower and repent. The collective vintage of these images has been a God stern and mighty, living in the sky with a white beard and lightning stabbing from his fingertips. It's a bitter bottle to drink when you're lost and lonely, or even just human like the apostles were.
So we've spent the last few decades bringing God back from the sky through summer camp hugs and friendly greetings at church doors. We talk about God with us, God among us, God who loves and forgives us. We emphasize God as friend and Savior more than God as heavenly king. We latch on to the God Like Us in the person of Jesus Christ, who frankly fits in a world where reading is less about Joyce, Dickens, and Homer, more about Facebook and Wikipedia. We take God on a journey through our daily lives, knowing he's happy to go with us and bless what we do.
That's all good...much better than the old image, in fact. But sometimes in becoming that familiar with God (which I believe is his delight) we forget that God is God. Our Lord coming with us and attending to the most mundane tasks of each day does not make him any less capital-G "God". He is still that being of might and power, dazzling white robes and the world at his fingertips. The beauty of "God with us" is precisely that GOD is with us, inspiring and transforming our day, not that "something not so important or different" is with us making our day just about like it otherwise would have been.
The first great sin of humankind is trying to make ourselves into God. The second great sin is like it, with reversed direction: making God just an extension of us. That's why the Transfiguration story is so important. Jesus looked just like the people around him. He was travel-worn, burnt-skinned, intermittently washed, wearing dusty sandals, speaking in their language and sharing their lives. But he was also the Messiah with all the heavenly might that name portends.
How would your thought processes, behavior, and outlook on life change if someone like that were with you every day? Would any moment be ordinary? Would any decision be inconsequential? Would doing anything other than your utmost to grace the world with goodness be acceptable?
You know that when we say "God is with you" we do mean THAT God, right?
Think of all the moments, relationships, actions, and words you've taken for granted. Would you treat them so if Jesus were standing beside you, robed in dazzling white? He may not be lighting up your room like a million-watt bulb, but he is surely there just the same. Don't conduct your life like he's not there, or like he's not God. Live each moment like the transfiguration was happening in front of your eyes, not in shock and fear like the disciples but in awe and reverence for God's presence among us, making us holy and each of our days a new mountaintop experience.
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
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