Both Sides of the Mountain

Readings: 2 Kings 2:1, 6-12, Mark 9:2-9, True Christianity 222 (see below)
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If you listened carefully this past week, you might have heard a collective groan go up among preachers as they contemplated this week’s text. The transfiguration is notoriously hard to preach, for a number of reasons.  It is often taken out of its place in the narrative, as we see it is this week, having made the jump quickly from chapter one last week to chapter nine this week.  It is filled with references and allusions to the Old Testament and so can easily become a laundry list of explanation.  And, it is also just a little weird to modern sensibilities; a shining Jesus, voices from heaven, babbling disciples.  Just how are we supposed to hold and understand this startling, magical, otherworldly story?
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Let’s begin by placing the episode in its narrative context.  What has just happened in the story that would precipitate the transfiguration?  We find that Jesus has just predicted his death to the disciples for the first time, and schooled them in the way of the cross. We read from verse 31 in chapter 8:

He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

Crazy right? Peter began to rebuke Jesus. Now look, we can understand. He didn’t want to lose Jesus, his beloved teacher. We all share this instinctual “No,” this rising up of protest to the idea of loss and of suffering. This can be a good thing. In addition to being a valuable survival instinct for ourselves, when directed towards others, it can guide our sense of empathy and justice.  But not in this case. Jesus says, famously:

Get behind me, Satan!  You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.  Or in the words on the Message Bible: You have no idea how God works.  He continues: For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.  What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?

It is with these powerful words still ringing in the air, that we are told that six days later, Jesus takes Peter, James and John up to the mountain and is transfigured before them.  Jesus receives a divine blessing (This is my Son, whom I love) and the disciples receive a divine instruction (Listen to him).  Just two weeks ago, we spent some time with Deuteronomy, learning about how God would raise up a prophet like Moses…and the divine voice at the transfiguration echoes Moses’ prophecy “You must listen to him.”
Listen to what? Listen to what Jesus says he must do, listen to what he says the kingdom will look like, listen to what it means to take up their cross. In the transfiguration there are a number of revealings: a revealing of divine reality, a revealing of Jesus identity, but also a revealing of Jesus’ purposes.

To understand Jesus’ purpose, let’s pause for a moment and consider the presence of Moses and Elijah.  They are often understood to represent the law and the prophets and to demonstrate that Jesus is a fulfillment of the law, and is in solidarity with the prophets.  In one sense, this is true, Jesus *is* a continuation and fulfillment of these things. But in another interesting sense, Jesus is a contrast to Moses and Elijah. This is because the Jewish tradition had long believed that neither Moses nor Elijah had actually died, but had been taken up to be with God.  For Moses, this was believed because his burial place was never actually found or acknowledged in scripture.  For Elijah, it is because of the transition story that we heard in our reading today, of Elijah being carried up to heaven in a whirlwind and chariots of fire.  So, to the original hearers of the gospel, it would make perfect sense to see both Moses and Elijah there talking with the transfigured Jesus, and in the presence of the divine voice.  That’s where they understood them to be, alive with God.  The fascinating contrast is that Jesus, clearly elevated above both Moses and Elijah, designated the Beloved Son, had just been telling the disciples that he was going to have to die.

Elijah had served well, Moses had served well, Jesus had served well…but their fates would be very different because their mission was different.  Moses and Elijah were messengers.  Moses had delivered the law and Elijah had delivered the prophetic word.  They had done so in good faith, and at great peril. But, Jesus intended not only to be a conduit of God’s word but to usher in the kingdom of God in a new and powerful way.  In a Swedenborgian sense, Jesus represents the Word in this story, God’s Divine truth for us, God speaking to us and the whole world, communicating and reaching out.  And as static as the Word might appear on the page, we know that internally it is living, it is truth accommodated to level upon level so that it may speak to us wherever we might find ourselves. That it might always be doing its work of revealing and uncovering the truth of ourselves to ourselves, so that we might be free enough and clear enough to love other people well and fully.

The Word is God’s stake in the ground, this is God continuing to show up for us day after day as Divine Love in the form of Divine Truth, illuminating reality, clearing our path. The Transfiguration shows us there is glory and holiness at the heart of it all, that this source of all things, God’s Divine Love is benevolent and beautiful, and shines brightly and continuously.

But as Peter’s reaction shows us, we humans are alternately dazzled and frightened by the brightness. We are easily captivated and distracted by ideals, and beauty, and shiny things. It is not a bad thing to love beauty and to strive for ideals.  But if our eyes are always on the bright light, then our world around us becomes like nothing, the people behind us forgotten and unworthy.  And God means to save everyone. So, God’s brightness became veiled in humanity, so that it might become present to suffering and pain, that the brightness might be embodied in sacrifice so that no one will be left behind, no matter how oppressed, broken, tired, mistaken, or forgotten.  God’s humanity through Jesus will effect the divine reach into every experience, God’s divine love found within and through humanness.

And this is the reason for what is called the “Messianic secret.”  We might remember examples of Jesus warning those healed not to say anything about it.  Here, Jesus orders that the disciples not tell anyone about the transfiguration until after he had risen from the dead.  You see, Jesus wasn’t a magic trick. God is not only revealed in the glory of the transfiguration but in the suffering of the cross; God’s character is manifested in both the brightness *and* the sacrifice. In the first, the divine love shines in delight with Jesus, a representation of how divine love delights in being manifested through divine truth.  In the second, divine love is revealed in sacrifice, reaching in and through suffering and death in order to transform them, a picture of how divine love works for our salvation. The disciples were having a lot of trouble understanding this.  And Jesus is fierce about correcting them.  He calls Peter Satan!  He tells them: You have no idea how God works.

Jesus understands that he must be killed and then be raised to life, must be brought down and then lifted up, must suffer and then be exalted, because this is, incredibly, the actual good news: that a dying can lead to a living. This is the principle that makes the universe just, makes the universe loving. This is a big deal because if we can’t countenance the death, we can’t get to the resurrection. If we can’t countenance dying to our own selfish desires, we can’t experience life in the kingdom.  “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life to me will find it.”  Peter, in his objections, is voicing all of our common, understandable survival instincts.  There is nothing in the culture of the world, on the face of things, that tells us when we lose our life we will find it. What we see, is that when we lose our life we lose it.  What we feel, when we are asked to lose some very integral parts of our self-identification, is that we will die without these things.  How many of our cherished habits and ways of thinking feel impossible to sacrifice?  Who here like me, might cling tightly to control in their life, for example?  Who else might feel like they always have to be completely on top of things?  What about the temptation to control other people, boy, what a relief it is, how gratifying when other people do things as we wish. And then, how does it feel when we are forced to let go of control in these situations?  To me, not good, like things might completely collapse, that my conception of myself might actually fall apart.  Who am I, I might wonder, if I am not able to control my world, see my will come to pass? But is that really living into the kingdom?  Might these parts of us, and many other parts of us, actually have to die, so that the rest of ourselves, our souls, can live?

Today, Transfiguration Sunday, is the last Sunday before Lent begins.  On one side of Lent, Jesus is up on a mountaintop, transfigured in glory, and on the other side of Lent we find him on another high place, crucified (1). The whole point though, is that God is found in both, and in between.

For, Lent is not a time of the absence of God.  Lent is not a time in which we get it all together so that we can approach the Lord at the resurrection.  Jesus prevented the disciples to speak of the transfiguration because we can’t understand God’s love fully without also understanding God’s sacrifice.  He prevented them from characterizing the story as “this is where God really is,” and not allowing God to enter into the rest of it.  So, even as the placement of transfiguration takes us out of the narrative, its placement is also very intentional.  A bestowal of love and an exhortation to listen are exactly the tools we need as we enter into Lent.  Because this means that God is going with us, to whisper love and encouragement along the way.  In the transfiguration, God shares with us the possibility of delight blooming in us, in God’s beloved children, the possibility that love will shine brightly through truth, and though insight.  And that insight may cause suffering for a time, we may learn about how we have persecuted Divine Love, or perverted Divine truth.  We may learn about parts of us that need to die.  But we also know that Jesus is walking this path with us. So we’ll be brave, and just maybe, a little hopeful too.
Amen.

(1) https://www.workingpreacher.org/podcasts/sb585-transfiguration-sunday


Readings:

2 Kings 2:1, 6-12

1 Now when the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven by a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal. 

6 Then Elijah said to him, "Stay here; for the Lord has sent me to the Jordan." But he said, "As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So the two of them went on. 7 Fifty men of the company of prophets also went, and stood at some distance from them, as they both were standing by the Jordan. 8 Then Elijah took his mantle and rolled it up, and struck the water; the water was parted to the one side and to the other, until the two of them crossed on dry ground. 9 When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, "Tell me what I may do for you, before I am taken from you." Elisha said, "Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit." 10 He responded, "You have asked a hard thing; yet, if you see me as I am being taken from you, it will be granted you; if not, it will not." 11 As they continued walking and talking, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them, and Elijah ascended in a whirlwind into heaven. 12 Elisha kept watching and crying out, "Father, father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!" But when he could no longer see him, he grasped his own clothes and tore them in two pieces.

Mark 9:2-9

2 Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, 3 and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. 4 And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. 5 Then Peter said to Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." 6 He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. 7 Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, "This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!" 8 Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus. 9 As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

True Christianity 222

When the Lord was transfigured, he represented the Word in its glory. Of the Lord's transfiguration before Peter, James, and John…I have been taught that in this instance the Lord represented the Word. His face shining like the sun represented the divine goodness of his divine love. The clothes that became like the light represented the divine truth of his divine wisdom… The shining cloud that covered the disciples represented the Word in its literal meaning. That is why a voice was heard coming from the cloud saying, "This is my beloved Son. Hear him. " 

All communications and answers from heaven come solely through outermost things like those in the Word's literal meaning. The Lord communicates in a complete way.