Grace to you from God our Father and our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen
The Holy Gospel reading for this meditation us written
in the 9th Chapter of the Gospel according to St Mark: Verses 2 - 9
2 And after six
days Jesus took with him Peter
and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, 3 and his
clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them. 4 And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were
talking with Jesus. 5 And Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses
and one for Elijah.” 6 For he did
not know what to say, for they were terrified. 7 And a cloud
overshadowed them, and a voice
came out of the cloud, “This is
my beloved Son; listen to him.” 8 And suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone
with them but Jesus only.
9 And as they were coming down the mountain, he charged them to tell no one what
they had seen, until the Son of
Man had risen from the dead.
Today is the Sunday of the
Transfiguration. We just heard an
account of that very Transformation from the Gospel according to Mark. Transfiguration Sunday is a major turning
point on the church calendar. We enter
the Sunday of the Transfiguration from the season of Epiphany and, as we leave,
we look forward to Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent.
So it is that the Sunday of
the Transfiguration is a hybrid of these two seasons. The obvious epiphany is Jesus standing before
Peter, James, and John and giving them a glimpse of His glory. The foreshadowing of Lent is the prophecy of
Jesus’ upcoming suffering, death, and resurrection that precedes the
Transfiguration by just a few verses.
The reading that we just
heard from the Gospel according to Mark begins with the phrase “And after six days …” Six days after
what? The preceding verses tell us that
Jesus [Mark 8:31–32] began to
teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the
elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three
days rise again. 32 And he said this plainly. So the
transfiguration happened six days after Jesus began telling the disciples about
His sacrifice to save the world from sin.
We know that the disciples
did not understand what Jesus meant because Mark’s account goes on to say, [Mark 8:31–32] And Peter took him
aside and began to rebuke him. None
of the disciples understood, but Peter was always the one who was outspoken and
he actually scolded Jesus for talking about suffering and death.
Many of you will remember
Jesus’ response to Peter. [Mark 8:33] Turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get
behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but
on the things of man.” With these
words, Jesus warns Peter that not only is he wrong, but he is also acting as an
agent of Satan in order to tempt Jesus to abandon His mission of going to the
cross.
So the transfiguration
happens about six days after Jesus began telling the disciples about His
suffering, death, and resurrection. It
also happens six days after this very dramatic demonstration of Peter’s
confusion about these events.
Jesus took Peter, James, and
John up onto the mountain. Mark tells us
that Jesus was transfigured so that even His clothing shone whiter than any
launderer could get them. Not only that,
but two Old Testament saints, Moses and Elijah, appeared and had a conversation
with Jesus. You have got to admit that
this is pretty impressive stuff.
The Gospel we recently heard
doesn’t actually tell us anything else about Jesus and his conversation with
Moses the Law Giver and Elijah the prophet.
Instead, it draws our attention to the utter failure of Peter to
understand what is happening. Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good that
we are here. Let us make three tents,
one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” Once again, here is Peter trying to divert Jesus
from the cross. In effect he is saying,
“Hey Jesus! We can build some shelters
up here and just stay here and worship you.”
Now keep in mind that if Jesus stays up on the mountain, then He can’t
go to the cross. This is simply another
variation on the devil’s main temptation of Jesus.
About this time, God the
Father puts in an appearance similar to His appearance at Jesus’ baptism. A cloud
overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son;
listen to him.” It is almost as if
God the Father was saying, “Hey! Pay
attention! This is My Son. When He tells you that He is going to
Jerusalem to suffer, die, and rise from the dead, listen to Him!” When
the Father appears, the disciples find themselves face down on the ground
trembling in terror.
Not much has changed over
the centuries. We find ourselves down
with our faces to the ground in terror right along with the disciples. You see, we think that we would really like to be there with the shiny,
mountain top, Jesus. We think it would be really great to have
God’s glory shine down on us. We think it would be great to bask in the
brightness of God’s presence. But, what
we think would happen and what the
Bile actually says about being in the glory of God are two different things.
God’s revealed presence has
a profound effect on people. The Bible
tells of people falling to the ground like dead men, falling to their faces,
quaking in fear, and so forth.
Basically, it doesn’t make any difference what kind of person we
are. If God were to show up in all His
power and glory, we would have a panic attack.
Today’s Gospel account says, “Peter
did not know what to say, for they were terrified.”
You see, when God shows up
in the full majesty of the glory that He revealed on the mountain top, we
become intensely aware of how holy He is and how sinful we are. This is the terror of sinful people in the
revealed presence of Holy God. There is
a reason why angels normally begin their message with the words, “Fear
Not!” Even though the angels only
reflect the glory of God’s holiness, it is enough to terrify even the bravest
soul. We think we would like to bask in the glory of God, but the terror of
Peter, James, and John teaches us to rethink
our desire for this kind of mountaintop experience with God.
Our Gospel message for today
is telling us that we should think about joining God on a different mountain …
the mountain Jesus was talking about when He said [Mark 8:31–32] that the Son of Man must suffer many things
and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be
killed, and after three days rise again.
As marvellous as it is that we should hear about Jesus showing His glory
to Peter, James, and John, this is not the glory that we should seek or even
need. Instead, as sinners, we need the
glory of the blood, sweat, and tears of the cross.
It is in the ugly brutality
of Jesus on the cross that God reveals His greatest glory. The glory of Christ on the cross is the glory
that takes away our fear and replaces it with humble confidence … a confidence,
not in ourselves, but a confidence in the God-man on the cross. It is the brutal glory of Christ on the cross
that takes away all sin and replaces it with the righteousness of Jesus. This is the glory that Peter did not
understand when Jesus spoke of His suffering, death, and resurrection. This is the glory that Peter did not
understand when he suggested building three shelters on the mountain top.
Eventually, Peter would
understand. Before he understood, he had
to witness Jesus in Gethsemane as He prayed.
He had to witness as a band of soldiers arrested Jesus. He had to witness as he tried to stop Jesus’
mission with his sword only to see Jesus heal the ear of the servant. He had to witness as the soldiers took Jesus
away to suffer and die. Most of all, he
had to witness the living Lord risen from the dead … showing His hands, feet,
and side to the disciples. Even then, it
was only when the Holy Spirit came on the following Pentecost that Peter would
get it right.
We are thankful that Peter
got it right because he is the one who taught Mark, and Mark is the one who
wrote today’s reading from the Gospel.
Peter finally did get it right. It is through the apostolic words of Peter as
recorded by Mark that we have the Gospel account we heard today.
All too often, we seek the
bright glory of the mountain top experience that shone on Peter, James, and
John as we heard it in today’s Gospel reading.
We tend to ignore that part where the disciples were in terror. We ignore the terror because we are arrogant
enough to believe that the holy glory of God will not strike us down with
terror over our sins.
God the Father’s message is
clear. “This is my beloved Son; listen
to Him!” Listen to Jesus teach [Mark 8:31–32] that the Son of
Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests
and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. It is this suffering, death, and resurrection
that is the glory of God that rescues us from sin, death, and the devil … that
gives us eternal life.
The season of Epiphany is
about the revelation of Jesus Christ. It
begins with the light of the star that led the magi to the Christ child. It ends with the Transfiguration that teaches
us that this man Jesus is also true God.
In revealing Jesus as both man and God that Epiphany prepares us for the
glory of the cross. It teaches us that
the man who died on the cross is also the God who shone forth in the transfiguration. That in Jesus Christ, we have both man and
God dying for our sins as He hangs on the cross.
This Wednesday is Ash
Wednesday … the beginning of Lent. Now
that we have once again celebrated the Epiphany of Jesus Christ as both God and
man, we are ready to remember that Jesus must be both God and man so that He
can go to the cross and save us from sin.
We are now ready to remember the journey that Jesus took from the mountain
of the Transfiguration to the mountain of the cross. We are ready for Lent. We are ready to meditate on the journey that
leads to the cross where Jesus will battle for us and win the victory – the
victory that gives us true life with Him forever. Amen
The peace and love of our
Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and
minds in Christ Jesus. Amen
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