The Transfiguration: Matt 17:1-9; First Essay

"Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. 2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. 3 Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. 4 Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 5 While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” 6 When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. 7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” 8 And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone. 9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

Introduction

This familiar text functions for the three disciples in Jesus' inner circle much like his baptism functioned for Jesus. In that scene (Matt. 3), Jesus heard the voice from heaven--a voice that linked themes of Servant and Son. For the rest of his ministry he would be discovering what it meant that he was the Servant of God and what it meant that he was the Son of God. But the discovery wasn't Jesus' alone. It also belonged to the disciples. They had someone in their midst whom they needed to understand, if not fully than at least with enough insight to follow and serve him intelligently and faithfully. There is no reason to think that any of them had been present when Jesus was baptized; therefore the heavenly voice and the designation of Jesus as Servant/Son, which happened at that event, would have only been mediated to them through stories told by others. We look at the Transfiguration correctly when we see it as a gracious gift to the disciples of visual and aural insight into who Jesus was. They would see something, and they would hear something.

What they heard and saw was so unusual that we ought to pause for a moment and consider it. To see Jesus "lit up," so to speak, right before them, and then to hear a voice from heaven saying the same thing (with a notable addition) as was said to Jesus in his baptism certainly would have been a most dramatic event in their lives. And, as with many dramatic events, the meaning of it only would unfold over time. Thus, the Epistle lesson for today, II Pet. 1:16-21, is a plausible attempt to think about the continuing meaning of this most arresting event.

We understand life best if we see it not simply as a series of events after each other, each with its gift of meaning to us, but as a quest for some root metaphors or basic understandings which are shaped, refined, questioned or reaffirmed by the daily events of life. What gives life to those root metaphors or understandings are significant shaping events or personalities in our lives, experiences that so closely define us that we must, as it were, filter all our later experiences through them. My contention in these two essays is that the Transfiguration functioned in this way for the three "inner circle" disciples. The Petrine tradition touches on it in the passage cited above; the Johannine tradition talks about seeing Christ's "glory" (John 1:14); we have no literary remains from James.

A close study of this story yields four points that help us understand what this experience must have meant for the disciples. First, we have the change of Jesus (vv. 1-2); then we have the companions of Jesus (v. 3); then we have the comments of Peter and God (vv. 4-5); finally we have a conclusion where fear is driven away from the disciples. Each calls for some attention.

II. Jesus' Change (vv. 1-2)

I like the way the story begins; it tells of Jesus' taking three of his disciples up on a high mountain to be alone with him. The picture painted is of a real retreat and not one of those temporary withdrawals from the crowds. Up, up and away to the highest reaches of the mountains. Now, the action can begin.

And when the action begins it is unforgettable. Jesus' clothes and visage are transformed before them. The text says that hs face became "as the sun," and his garments were "white as light." A blinding character is thus before them. You wonder if this is the result of the "stripping off" or the "adding to" Jesus. That is, Are the disciples able to see the "real Jesus" because the normal flesh and blood-ness of Jesus has disappeared or has something been added to it? No matter, really, but it invites speculation. The image of Jesus' garmets and face being transformed is reminiscent of other biblical passages, such as Dan 10:5-6 and Rev. 1:13-16. Here is the picture in Revelation:

"and in the midst of the lampstands I saw one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash across his chest. 14 His head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; his eyes were like a flame of fire, 15 his feet were like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, and from his mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining with full force."

Light, and brilliant light, accompanies God's advent:

"You are clothed with honor and majesty,
wrapped in light as with a garment," Ps. 104:2.

But if the disciples thought that this was amazing, they had something else to focus on: the people with Jesus.

III. Jesus' Companions (v. 4)

If I were on the mountain with the disciples, I might have had mental categories to explain the physical transformation of Christ happening before my eyes, but I am not sure I could have explained the next thing that happened: the appearance of Elijah and Moses talking to Jesus. One of the other accounts of the Transfiguration says that they were talking to Jesus about his upcoming "departure" (exodus in Greek), but Matthew is more subdued in his account. We just know that they were talking with Jesus. I frankly don't know what I would have done if Moses and Elijah had appeared. How would the disciples have known who they were? Name tags? Language? Greetings to each other? How are they thought to have appeared? In garments like Jesus? What is their significance? Question would tumble over question, and mingled fear, awe and confusion would have filled my brain, as it did theirs too.

I need one more essay to conclude these thoughts.

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