Anticipate Change
Luke 9:28 – 36
Friends today is Transfiguration Sunday and it is on this day on which we celebrate the miracle of the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ. Transfiguration Sunday is the final Sunday of Epiphany and brings to an end the first major portion of the church year. Over the past few weeks, we’ve been listening in on Paul’s conversation with the church in Corinth as he attempts to unravel some of the theological and obedience problems that community has gotten themselves into. In the last couple of weeks, we even took a glimpse into eternity and discovered the grace that the Father has in instore for the believers that allows us to continue on past our limited physical and perceptual horizons and on into eternity.
I believe that the Incarnation of Jesus at Christmas when God became flesh to dwell among us and the Transfiguration of Our Lord that we celebrate today, are perfect book-ends to the beginning of the church year which includes Advent, Christmas and the season of Epiphany. The two events complement, mirror each other in striking ways.
In the Incarnation, the Son of God sheds His divine form and takes on human form to reside with us mortals on earth. (“Commentary on Luke 9:28-36 [37-43] – Working Preacher from …”) In the Transfiguration, the change reverses itself, if only for a moment. In this case, the earthly Jesus shares for a divine moment the company of two of the great and worthy residents of heaven, Moses and Elijah, a moment that foreshadows the retransformation that awaits Him once that human incarnation ends with His accession back to God forty days after His resurrection.
Just as Epiphany which is the season of understanding who the fully divine and yet fully human Jesus is, leads us out of the Advent, the Transfiguration of Jesus similarly leads us into Lent, the period of time when we remember, because of our brokenness, that we are unworthy of the sacrifice that Jesus gives for us, unless we repent, reconcile and redeem ourselves. As Jesus comes down from Mt Tabor after Transfiguration and heads inexorably toward His sacrifice on the cross for mankind, we can understand that the Transfiguration of Christ foreshadows Easter and ushers us into Lent.
Appropriately enough Christ’s transformation is not the only example of divine radiance that see in our readings today. Our Gospel lesson and our Old Testament lesson both tell stories about when the bright presence of God’s radiance changed humans and stunned those that were present in that occasion.
In the Exodus reading, Moses comes down from Mount Sinai with the two stone tablets of the covenant in his hand. Aaron and all the Israelites were stunned at his appearance because Moses’ face was so radiant from having been in the presence of God for forty days and nights. Moses had not yet been glorified in death, yet his face, his body absorbed some of the brilliance from God.
The glow was so intense that Aaron asked Moses to put a veil over his face so that they could bear to look at him without hurting their eyes. But whenever Moses went up Mount Sinai to talk with God, he took the veil off so when he came back down again to talk with Aaron and the Israelites, Moses put the veil on again due to the brightness he reflected. After a while the radiance of Moses’ dimmed but he had been changed for everyone to see by being in the presence of God’s glory!
Now then, Luke’s Gospel tells us that Jesus goes to pray and commune with God concerning his approaching destiny and His exodus from this world and he takes Peter, James, and John with him. This Transfiguration of Jesus takes place on a mountain a location we see throughout the Bible as a site for divine spiritual revelation. When they get to the top Jesus, leaves the disciples behind and goes off to pray, and while as he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning.
Then two men appear with the radiant Jesus, they are Moses and Elijah. Both of these men also had had encounters on a mountain top with God previously. In addition to the of Moses receiving the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai that we just discussed, Elijah also received revelation on a mountain when he fled to Mount Horeb.
Then, as if the connection to the transfiguration of Moses wasn’t clear enough, Luke tells us that Moses and Elijah start talking to Jesus with the conversation centered on the coming departure of Jesus which he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem. They talk of Jesus’ exodus from this world through his suffering, death, resurrection and accension into heaven, the place in which Moses and Elijah already dwell with God.
When the disciples realized what was happening with Christ alongside Moses and Elijah, all of them glowing brilliantly, they were stunned by what they were witnessing. At first none of them dared to utter a word until Peter could contain himself any longer. He wanted to capture this sight and remain in it. Peter said to Jesus, “it is good that we are here” and he asked if they should build three shelters, one each for Jesus, Moses and Elijah. Peter wanted to stay at that place, with those people, for as long as he could.
He wanted to do anything that he could to participate in the divine glory that they were witnessing, to make it real, to make it last. Peter wanted desperately to act but he soon came to realize that this was a moment in time as a preview of what was to come for Jesus. It was a time of reflection, worship and adoration for the man whom they had chosen to follow, their Lord and savior. It was a time to absorb all that he could about the poignancy of the moment.
Peter was stopped from going any further because as soon as he spoke those words, Moses and Elijah were eclipsed by a cloud and disappeared. The same cloud that represented the presence of God that was seen by the Israelites saw hovering around Mt Sinai for forty days. And then a voice boomed through the cloud, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!”.
What happened on that mountain was not a change into something different, but rather a revealing of the essence of what Jesus was divinely intended to become. In that moment Jesus showed to the disciples the fully divine entity that He always was and always would be. He climbed the mountain as fully human and climbed down as fully human but, in that time and space He was who he was at creation and who he will be in Eternity. In the time before that, the disciples could see only him part. In that moment they saw him as what He always was and always will be.
Friends we will never, short of Heaven, see the divinely radiant Jesus for ourselves. But we can and do experience the majesty, the brilliance of the grace of God in our lives and in the world around us and we too are changed by that grace in this world and the next. Anticipate Change!
Every now and then, we catch a glimpse of something larger, something deeper and more profound than ourselves and our world. Every now and then, we hear a word that reverberates in our soul that transforms it for weeks, if not a lifetime and we are changed. (“Discipleship Ministries | Transfiguration Sunday, Year C …”) Anticipate Change.
“Every now and then, a tear comes to our eye as we stand on the precipice of glory.” (“Discipleship Ministries | Transfiguration Sunday, Year B …”) Every now and then, a lump comes to our throat as we encounter the depths of love and sacrifice of our Lord. Every now and then, we climb a mountain with Jesus and see the majesty of His glory. Every now and then, we move in a little closer to hear a little better. Every now and then, we catch a glimpse of the appearance of his face. And all we see is love – a love so deep that he would die for us; love so powerful that everything is changed by that love; we are changed, Anticipate Change dear ones.
Hear the Good News my friends…..
The Transfiguration was God’s divine affirmation to the disciples of exactly who Jesus was and everything that he had already done and was yet to do. The Transfiguration is a vision of things yet unseen but which represent the significance of Jesus to the glory of Heaven yet to come for us. It was a prophetic vision for those that witnessed it then and those that are transformed by it still today.
The disciples weren’t simply there at the right place at the right time and just happened to come across a miracle happening around them. The Transfiguration of Christ was for them, it was for us, so that we can understand what we will if we accept the need for changes in our lives, if we live our lives as an example of Christ in the world we will be changed. Look forward to change, embrace change, pray for change, Anticipate Change!
Like Peter who wanted to build tents so that all of them could stay in that moment, we too can and should feel the need to remain in that radiant glory that comes from God. The story of Jesus’ Transfiguration shows us that if we live in him, then he lives in us and that a small part of his divine nature lives in our soul and we can radiate his glory to others throughout our lives.
The story is important not only because it ushers us out of Epiphany and into Lent, where we see Jesus go from anointed preacher and teacher to divine change agent and obedient servant. At the heart of Transfiguration is change and as Christians we should be familiar with change, because change happens to all of us. We are constantly in the process of shedding the old self and putting on the new self. God’s promise is that we too, as believers, will also be glorified on that last day for us as we come into the awesome, radiance the Father and Son.
The Transfiguration is a foreshadowing of what we too will be like when we cross over and reach glory. Friends, Transfiguration Sunday reminds us that because there is a sanctifying journey and a glorification ahead of us, we must eagerly and joyfully Anticipate Change as we become just like Jesus as we become radiant just like him in this world and the next! Amen.