Sermon preached at St Matthew’s, Stretton on Sunday 15th February 2015
In today’s gospel (Mark 9:2-9), Jesus takes three of his apostles – Peter, James and John – to the top of a mountain, where Jesus is ‘transfigured’ before them. The Greek word is ‘metamorphoses’ – Jesus changes before their eyes. Matthew says that “His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white” (Matthew 17: 2). The two key figures from the Hebrew bible – Moses the lawgiver and Elijah the prophet – appear with him.
Peter is terrified, as you would be. But he has a plan: set up three gazebos, tents or tabernacles. In the Hebrew bible (Exodus 25) God’s people built a tabernacle as a place where God could be encountered. Then, on the mountain, a cloud descends – reminiscent of God’s appearing to Moses (Exodus 34:5) – and a voice is heard. God speaks, not about Moses or Elijah, but about Jesus:
‘This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!’ (Mark 9:7)
These words remind us of the baptism of Jesus:
“a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’” (Mark 1:11)
This is one of those moments, like the baptism, when heaven cannot help but break through! The gospel writers struggle to put into words what is happening. Jesus’s clothes are whiter than white, dazzling. Whiter than anyone on earth could get their washing. Better than the Daz challenge!
Luke says:
“they saw his glory” (Luke 9:32)
But how do you picture glory? Imagine getting that in Pictionary or charades! What does glory look like?!
Luke also tells us that what Jesus talked about with Moses and Elijah. He says they spoke about his ‘departure’, which he would accomplish in Jerusalem. The Greek word for departure here is ‘exodus’. He spoke to Moses about his exodus! The key story in the Hebrew bible is of Moses leading God’s people out of slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land. Jesus is talking to Moses about his ‘exodus’ – how he will lead God’s people out of slavery into freedom. He will do that in Jerusalem, the city where he will face death. It’s the place where the tabernacle was replaced by the Temple as the locus of God’s presence. There, Jesus, whose own body is the temple, will accomplish his exodus.
It’s a key moment and it must have had an impact.
For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honour and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, ‘This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’ We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain.
2 Peter 1:16-18
So why doesn’t John mention it? In John’s gospel, if it was written by the John who went up the mountain with Peter, James and Jesus, why no mention of this extraordinary episode? Maybe there is. In the Prologue to the gospel (John 1:1-14) which we hear at Christmas (and again last week!) we read:
And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory,
the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth (John 1:14).
We saw his glory, when the Word of God became flesh and lived among us. One more Greek word: where John says that the Word of God ‘lived among us’, the word translated ‘lived’ literally means ‘tabernacled’. The word of God set up his tent among us. In the Hebrew bible, God lives in a tabernacle, a tent – a temporary structure that can move from place to place. In the gospel, God’s glory is seen in the ‘tent’ of the Incarnation. The flesh of Jesus is the tabernacle or tent in which God is met and known.
Conclusion
In the second century, Saint Irenaeus wrote:
“the glory of God is a live human being and a truly human life is the vision of God”.
We see the glory of God in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Here, in the story of the Transfiguration, God’s glory shines through. We are invited to participate in that glory, to be transformed by God’s Spirit:
And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3:18
- When people look at my life, how much of God’s glory do they see?
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