Transfiguration

Mentmore Sunday 22 February 2009

Reading 2 Kings 2

¹ When the LORD was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal. ² Elijah said to Elisha, "Stay here; the LORD has sent me to Bethel." But Elisha said, "As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you." So they went down to Bethel.

³ The company of the prophets at Bethel came out to Elisha and asked, "Do you know that the LORD is going to take your master from you today?" "Yes, I know," Elisha replied, "so be quiet."

⁴ Then Elijah said to him, "Stay here, Elisha; the LORD has sent me to Jericho." And he replied, "As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you." So they went to Jericho.

⁵ The company of the prophets at Jericho went up to Elisha and asked him, "Do you know that the LORD is going to take your master from you today?"
       "Yes, I know," he replied, "so be quiet."

⁶ Then Elijah said to him, "Stay here; the LORD has sent me to the Jordan."
       And he replied, "As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you." So the two of them walked on.

⁷ Fifty men from the company of the prophets went and stood at a distance, facing the place where Elijah and Elisha had stopped at the Jordan. ⁸ Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up and struck the water with it. The water divided to the right and to the left, and the two of them crossed over on dry ground.

⁹ When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, "Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?" "Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit," Elisha replied.

¹⁰ "You have asked a difficult thing," Elijah said, "yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours—otherwise, it will not."

¹¹ As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. ¹² Elisha saw this and cried out, "My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!" And Elisha saw him no more. Then he took hold of his garment and tore it in two.

Gospel Mark 9

² After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. ³ His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. ⁴ And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.

⁵ Peter said to Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah." ⁶ (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.)

⁷ Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: "This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!"

⁸ Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.

⁹ As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. ¹⁰ They kept the matter to themselves, discussing what "rising from the dead" meant.

Sermon

Today’s gospel is Mark’s account of Transfiguration. Same incident appears in both Matthew and Luke. Component parts of the story and even words used are very much the same.

Jesus took Peter, James and John up a mountain by themselves. Traditionally the location is believed to be Mount Tabor in Galilee. There, Jesus is transfigured before their eyes – meaning that his divinity somehow shone through his human form. His clothes became dazzling white. Literally the Greek says they were whiter than any fuller on earth could bleach them, which was always an occasion for some mirth each year in a previous church where the minister was Michael Fuller.

The disciples then saw two other men speaking with Jesus, whom they took to be Moses and Elijah. These two figures from the OT presumably represented the Law and the Prophets. The implication may have been that the contemporary Jews had rejected Jesus, but the authority figures of the past endorsed Jesus’ ministry.

Peter, James and John were of course terrified, and Peter made some sort of suggestion about building some booths or tents. It is not clear what these were for, but Peter’s use of the term Rabbi to address Jesus and the suggestion that they build these ‘dwelling places’ shows they regarded Jesus as equal to Moses and Elijah. It also demonstrates just how much the disciples misunderstood what they had seen.

The next thing that happens is the intervention of a voice from a bright cloud that attests to Jesus as ‘my Son, the Beloved’ and instructs the disciples to listen to him. The other two figures then vanish. God joined the figures of Moses and Elijah to endorse Jesus as the Son of God and not just a teacher or leader.

As the party comes down from the mountain, Peter James and John ask Jesus about the significance of the presence of Elijah. They knew the scribes taught that Elijah would return before the coming of the Messiah.

Here it is worth pointing to the difference in people’s attitude to death in the Old Testament compared to that of the New and ours today. In the OT death was the completion of the cycle of life. No one seems to have feared death. There does not seem to have been the same hope of eternal life. Heaven is where God resides not somewhere the people of the Hebrew Scriptures went to. God was the God of the living not of the dead.

Neither Elijah or Moses were recorded as having died. They were taken up to heaven, and so their appearance in the Transfiguration would not been seen as a type of resurrection because they had not tasted death in the first place. They had just come back from their journey into the heavens and become visible to men. That’s the way the Transfiguration would have been regarded through Jewish eyes.

How should we regard it today? Does it say anything to us, or is it another mysterious visionary story from long ago? No, because Jesus speaks to every age, and not just the time of his sojurn here on earth. Yes it is what we would today call a ‘mountain top experience’ but we encounter Christ as often in the valleys of our despair as we do at the peaks of our faith.

On the mountain top the voice is different though. On the mountain top we encounter God’s calming voice whereas on the valley floor his still small voice is almost inaudible through the din of competing human noise and speech. On the mountain top the glory of God is revealed, whereas on the valley floor it competes with the power of sin and unbelief.

No wonder so many Christians seek ways of spending all their time in mountain top experiences. They always seem to fail, perhaps because the valley floors are always there, and the rightful place for our ministry is with those who need our help down on the valley floor. So it’s no coincidence that as Jesus and his disciples descended to the plain, he was besieged by a large crowd. They were arguing with the teachers of the law about a young man possessed by an evil spirit. The disciples had tried to drive out the evil spirit and failed. Jesus healed the boy. After he had gone inside, his disciples asked “Why could we not drive it out?” Jesus answered “This kind can come out only by prayer.” So the mountain top is the place of refreshment and listening. The valley floor is where the action is. We cannot spend time in the one and not the other.