Matthew 17:1-9
Every year on the Sunday before Lent starts we read the story of Jesus’ transfiguration. This story is loaded with symbolism. It takes place on a mountain top – like all important stories in scripture when people are coming near to God and about to have a transforming experience of holiness. Moses met God on a mountain when he received the commandments. Elijah met God on a mountain when he had given up being God’s prophet and thought all was lost. So Matthew has Jesus take the disciples to a mountain to confirm for them that something very important is happening in Jesus ministry. And of course Moses and Elijah show up along with Jesus because the tradition says they will return when the Messiah comes.
Matthew tells this story because he’s working very hard to convince people that Jesus is the Messiah who was promised, even though he doesn’t do what the Messiah is expected to do. He doesn’t overthrow Rome and replace Ceasar with God’s rule. In fact, by the time Matthew writes his gospel, Rome has conquered Jerusalem for another time and destroyed the Temple. Most of the people who lived in or near Jerusalem during Jesus ministry have died, been killed in war, or been taken across the Empire as slaves, many of them to build the Coliseum. There simply is no good evidence that the Messiah has come to save God’s people and Jesus was the one.
Except for the evidence of those who encountered Jesus in person during his ministry (like the disciples and others who traveled with him) or had a revelation involving Jesus later (like Paul). These folks insisted that Jesus had changed their lives and the world. It was as though he shine with a great light and the voice of God confirmed he was the one. Those folks were so convinced that even Jesus’ death or the threat of their own deaths couldn’t dissuade them from saying the Messiah had come and Jesus is the culmination of God’s work on earth.
The most important message of Transfiguration Sunday isn’t that something strange happened to Jesus once when he was having an executive committee meeting on a remote mountain. It’s that a generation later when the gospels were written – and for generations after that – people keep insisting that God is in Jesus reconciling the world to a new way of living. Even today people insist that God is in Jesus changing the world.
What is the first century message of Jesus that people found so transforming?
Each of us hears that message in a personal way, and at different times in our lives places the emphasis on various aspects of it. But there are common themes we can lift up.
You are loved by God and you matter.
For the most party no one told people they were important. But Jesus did. He ate with outcasts, noticed beggars, paid attention to women, healed people who couldn’t pay a fee, and reprimanded leaders for making life hard for those with no power. He spent every day concentrating on people who needed to be acknowledged because no one else would do that. That kind of attention can be life changing – just knowing that your life matters to someone, especially to God.
You can care for each other.
Time after time religious leaders confront Jesus because he takes care of people and breaks rules in the process. He heals on the sabbath. He stands up for prostitutes and tax collectors. He lets people take grain from the fields when they are hungry. He insists that people matter more than rules and community is the heart of faith. That’s now how the world worked in his time and it’s not often the way the world works now. But those who follow Jesus keep holding the vision that life can be better for everyone.
God shows up in the small stuff.
Transfiguration is about a miraculous sign with light and booming voices and dead prophets brought to life. But it’s not the end of the story. The disciples are blown away by the whole experience and not sure what to do. Should they pitch tents for Moses and Elijah? Should they stay on the mountain? In the end, Jesus just takes them back to work – like what most of us do when lunch break is over and there’s a long to-do list waiting. Sure, you can hear the voice of God, but someone has to plan the itinerary and deal with the crowds and shop for supper groceries. The disciples come down off the mountain and go back to doing what they were doing before. But maybe they do it with a little more hope and a little lighter heart. It’s possible that the point is that God is present in the day-to-day stuff that makes up life, and how we do those small tasks is the way we show that we know God is with us.
Victoria was helping me think about this scripture on Friday. She made the helpful point that this story tells us we can come face to face with awesomeness and mystery. There is something that speaks of holiness and the presence of God when we least expect it. That’s an important insight. I suspect this story is also telling us that holiness and mystery aren’t often found in spectacular events in faraway places. They happen in the heart of ordinary life when we care for one another and reinforce that everyone matters.
God is present when we buy coats on sale for kids who need new ones in February. When we dish up chili and cookies for students far from home. When we help with a rent deposit so someone can get her own place and maybe get her kids back from foster care. When we listen to each other over coffee and really care about the hard things that are happening in our lives.
Matthew was convinced that in spite of all the evidence, Jesus was the Messiah and the world had changed. Those who follow Jesus in our time believe the same thing. In spite all the hard things that happen and the systems that beat people down, we can care about each other. We can experience people caring about us. And the world can change.
It’s a matter of seeing light in darkness and believing that light will win in the end. Sometimes there’s a transforming moment and we’re lifted up into the presence of God – quite beyond our ordinary selves. But mostly it’s a matter of getting up and doing the work and believing that it’s enough just to be alive, just to care, just to hope.