Mark 9. 2-9
Transfiguration is when we see, when we hear, only Jesus!
Each year, every year, seven weeks before Easter, we celebrate the same thing. The Transfiguration of Our Lord. We tell – retell – the old, old story. Last year, it was from Matthew. Next year, it’ll be from Luke. This year. This year, it’s from the gospel according to Mark. But no matter what the source, the story’s, always, pretty much the same. Jesus goes up a mountain. With Peter and James and John. When they get to the top, Jesus is transfigured. Transformed. His clothes become whiter than white! Dazzling white! Whiter than anyone could bleach them! Then, Moses and Elijah appear, and they talk with Jesus! The three – Peter, James, John – are terrified! A cloud overshadows the group. And a voice speaks from the cloud. “This is my Son. Listen to him.” “This is my Son. Listen to him.” Suddenly, Mark says, there is only Jesus! Suddenly, they see no one … except Jesus! The gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, O Christ.
Each year, every year, we tell and retell that story. And the challenge for me – as the preacher – is to figure out what to say. And usually, first time through, I have no idea! So, I’d read it a second time … and a third time … I’d meditate and I’d ruminate! I’d contemplate and I’d consider. I’d, eventually, come up with something. But it would, never, come easy. But this year, it was different. It was nothing like pulling teeth. Instead, I sat down, read the story, and there it was! Right before my eyes! The last three words spoken by the voice from the cloud! Listen! Listen to him! Listen to HIM!
You see, the problem isn’t that we don’t know the bible well enough. The problem is that we know it all too well. And we don’t listen closely. We don’t listen carefully. We’ve been reading this passage for generations! For centuries! And we forget what it must have been like! Back in the beginning! When Jesus was a nobody! There was a time when he was nothing more than Mary’s son! The carpenter! The crowds, the multitudes, knew nothing more. But Moses! Elijah! They were famous! Everyone knew them! They were saints! Heroes! Their grandparents knew Moses and Elijah! Their grandparents’ grandparents! Theirs were the names of everything holy! And here, on the top of the mountain, they talked with Jesus! Their Jesus! Face-to-face! And Peter and James and John were terrified! Peter muttered something about building three dwellings. Mark tells us that Jesus didn’t know how to answer him!
The cloud is the way god’s presence has been described in the oldTestament. There was a cloud that overshadowed Mt. Sinai. There was a cloud that overshadowed the Tabernacle in the wilderness. There was a cloud that overshadowed the Temple on Mt. Zion. God, now, comes here. With Elijah and Moses and Jesus. And a voice from the cloud speaks. And that voice says nothing about Elijah. Nothing about Moses. Instead, the voice says, “This one! This Jesus! This carpenter! This son of Mary! This brother of Joses and Judas and Simon! This brother of women not important enough to name! This is my Son! This is the one I love! Listen! Listen to him! Listen to HIM! Imagine the shock! The surprise! When they look up and there’s only Jesus! Moses … Elijah … gone! The law and the prophets vanished!
That transfiguration, that transformation, was the church’s way – the ancient church’s way – of
highlighting, of spotlighting Jesus! It wasn’t Moses’ face that shone like the sun. Not this time. It wasn’t Elijah’s garments that dazzled. It was only Jesus’! Only Jesus! You see, this day is more than just one more step, one more stop, on Jesus’ magical mystery tour! More than another moment of shock and awe on the journey to the cross, the grave, and beyond. It was there, on the mountaintop, that Peter, James, and John … that the church … finally saw Jesus in a new light! A light that shined only on him! Not Moses! Not Elijah! Not on any of the holy ones. Just on Jesus! Only on Christ!
Transfiguration isn’t about Jesus. It’s about us! It’s about the church! When Paul tells the church in Corinth that he decided to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified, that was transfiguration! When Luther writes that he sees Jesus – Jesus and the cross – in every dotted i and in every crossed t, that’s transfiguration! When we decide that it’s Jesus and not the bible who is the Word of god, that, too, is transfiguration! When that happens, Jesus’ face shines like the sun and his clothes become dazzling white! And Moses and Elijah just fade into the background. The voice speaks and when we look up, when we look around, there’s only Jesus! There’s only Jesus!
Funny thing, it’s all pretty ordinary. When transfiguration, when transformation, happens on a mountaintop. Up high. Far away. The clothes. Elijah. Moses. It all seems larger than life. Even Peter and James and John were terrified. But when it happens here, now. Well, it doesn’t seem near so extraordinary. And it’s the voice … coming from the cloud … that puts it all into perspective. It was the newcomer, the rookie, the odd-one-out that god chose! Jesus! Of all people! Greater than Elijah! Greater, even, than Moses! “This is my son! This is the one I choose! This is the one I love! Listen to him! Listen to HIM!” And suddenly, everything else – everyone else – was gone! And they saw – they heard – only Jesus! They saw – they heard – only Christ!
And you know, maybe it was that day, that very day, that they became a people of god! Maybe it was that day and every day like it, that we, too, become church! A people not of a book! A people not of rules and regulations! But a people of a promise! A people of a proclamation! A people of Jesus!