Luke 9:28-45
We’re going to start with a little game today. I’m going to give you categories of people, and I want you to think about them. I want you to think about how they look. Think about, without judgment, what ethnicity or gender you assign to them. Think about how you feel, or would feel, if you were having a conversation with this person. You may think of someone you know that could be described by one of these words, and that’s fine. Don’t go too deep. Just react. If it interests you, you can think more about them later and give this person a story (I like to do that with strangers when I’m waiting on a flight).
OK, here we go: Doctor, Nurse, Person in the Service Industry (Restaurant/Retail, etc), Person Experiencing Homelessness, Immigrant, Politician, Sanitation Worker
I have to admit I was a little tempted to do the Sesame Street song, “These Are The People In Your Neighborhood,” but I didn’t give Jake time to warm up on that one. The thing is, these are the people in our neighborhoods, and often we have little to go on except for our experiences and our biases (and whatever these individuals reveal on social media) unless we have an actual conversation with someone or unless they are a part of something so public that we can’t help but know about it.
Take “sanitation worker” for example. Now I’m going to add to whatever image you had in mind the names Dion Merrick and Brandon Antoine. Those are the two young men who recently saw a car that was mentioned in an Amber Alert. They used their truck to block the driveway, and they called 911 – reuniting a family and probably saving a little girl’s life!
It’s amazing how a story can change the way we see people sometimes. If you’ve seen their interview, both men feel like they were just doing the right thing and encouraged others to do the same.
Now, why am I telling you about this? I’m telling you because I believe that it is an essential example of what the transfiguration of Jesus is all about. Knowing what these two men did should change, to some extent, your perception of who they are, regardless of what you do or do not think about sanitation workers in general.
In the same way, Peter, James, and John had a mountaintop experience with Jesus that changed their understanding of who Jesus was – even though Peter had already declared that Jesus was the Messiah of God!
Let’s unpack that a bit. At this point in the story, Jesus has traveled around Galilee – healing, preaching, and sending disciples out to do the same in his name. Rumors abound that Jesus is a resurrected John the Baptizer or the return of Elijah (who had been taken up to heaven ages ago). Jesus drew a crowd and fed 5,000 with 5 loaves and 2 fish. Then, when Jesus is processing all of this with his disciples, Peter says that Jesus is the Messiah of God – God’s anointed, chosen one.
Then Jesus gets a little weird. Our reading begins with “Eight days after these sayings” (which seems oddly specific). These sayings are basically, “I will die and be rejected. Take up your cross if you want to follow me. If you are ashamed of my words, God will be ashamed of you. Oh, and some of you will not taste death.”
In the awkward eight days of silence that followed, Jesus took Peter, John, and James on a little hike up a mountain, and it’s kind of like the time when Moses took Tribal Elders up a mountain with him. From a storytelling perspective, this is the watershed moment. Just like the mountain led to Cannan, from this point everything moves toward Jerusalem. Just like the law was given on the mountain, Jesus is acknowledged as the one who establishes what God decrees. Just like the bush that burned unnaturally, the robes of Jesus became unnaturally white. It’s important to note here that the brilliance of his clothes is intended to imply purity because clothes that have all of the colors removed show any blemish or stain more obviously. Jesus himself only changed in terms of his expression, because the idea of Jesus being a white man is just plain silly.
Now, this mountaintop experience was no retreat with a keynote speaker...or maybe it was the best one possible – for suddenly there was Moses and Elijah, Jesus was in the spotlight! I don’t mean to make light of this moment, but it is a strange and wonderful story that sometimes seems a bit out of place. Jesus lights up like a fire and two ghosts show up. Peter interrupts. God says, “Shush! Listen.” Then no one talks about it. Right?
Well somebody did, because we have the story, and here’s why we tell this story. First, it confirms that Jesus is who he is as the beloved of God. Second, it confirms that he is the fulfillment of God’s expectation for how we should be in community with God and one another (the Law). Third, it confirms that he is the one who assures us of God’s promises for the way that God will be in community with us (the Prophets).
In the midst of that, we have our dear friend, Peter. He’s tired. He’s confused. He speaks without thinking. That’s what extroverts do, you know? We work things out verbally. None of this “think before you speak” for us, no. Peter speaks for all of us when he says, “Wow. This is great. Let’s...um...let’s make some booths for you three! We’re all tired, and I’m sure there will be a lot of people who want to come to see you…”
Then the voice of God knocks them to their knees with the same claim God made when Jesus was baptized, “This is my son – my beloved.” Then added, “Listen to him.” Once again, they are silent. Then they go down the mountain and find that the world is still waiting with all of its troubles. A boy is traumatized by a demon and the disciples can do nothing.
I have to say that I find it troubling that the first thing Jesus says after God says to listen to him is a passive-aggressive mumbling about how faithless and perverse (literally turned away from God) all these people are. Maybe it’s more like he broke the fourth wall and started talking to the audience. What matters here is not that Jesus was cranky.
What matters is that he was anxious to get on with his mission. He knew that no matter how many people he healed and taught, the only way for substantial change was through the cross. He knew that, just as the tabernacle and the ark of the covenant demonstrated to the people that God was in their midst, he had come to demonstrate that love is stronger than death, mercy is stronger than judgment, and hope is greater than fear.
That’s why he said, especially to those who had seen him on the mountain, “Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into human hands.” Now, they said nothing because they just did not understand, but we know the whole story, and we have received it well after the resurrection of Jesus.
Yes, we still live with personal demons and diseases that we cannot cast out, and so we tell this story to be reminded that God is present in our affliction. We also tell this story to be encouraged toward the cross, the tomb, and the glory of the resurrection of Jesus, and the promise of his return.
In the meantime, there is more than a transfiguration (a revealing of true nature) in store for us. For us, there is transformation (a change of form or character) that awaits. While we wait, there is still a lot to do. There may be moments along the way where we see something and say something and participate in the salvation of others. In fact, it is moments like those that lead us to see how Jesus may be revealed in each other, whether we climb a mountain or stay in the valley.
Mostly, the transfiguration of Jesus reminds us that God is with us (on the mountain or in the valley), that his cross invites us to set aside the things that keep us from experiencing God’s active presence, and that no tomb or prison or hastily constructed booth can contain or limit what God is doing through Jesus. Sometimes that can be downright scary, but in the words of Dion Merrick, “You just have to go with your heart and let God take the wheel.” It’s just that simple, and it’s just that hard, and to God be the glory for the amazing way that healing comes from listening to the words of Jesus and letting them guide us on our way. Amen.
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