We stop our slow consideration of Mark 1 this week to speed ahead all the way to chapter 9. It might seem out of place to us, particularly those of us who like to proceed linearly in the books that we read. Our lectionary editors, however, had theological considerations to address on this, the Last Sunday after the Epiphany. In the Church we sometimes call it Transfiguration Sunday, but then we confuse ourselves as we sometimes read about the transfiguration twice in a liturgical year. Certainly, the story has caused some questions for Adventers. Jim Martin once challenged me how Mark knew the two figures were Moses and Elijah. I told him I had always assumed it was clear from the conversation between them and Jesus or that the Apostles had later asked Jesus who they were on the way down the mountain. I was fairly sure they were not wearing name tags, though, so I could not be for sure. The Apostles finding out a couple names, though, always seemed no big deal to me; but it bugged Jim to no end. Others have spent some time wondering about the word transfigured. Why that word? What does it signify? And still others have wondered why Peter wanted to build tents, or why Jesus tells them to keep silent. I see a few nods. Maybe we will cover some of those questions this morning.
I mentioned a second ago that our lectionary editors had theological truths to consider when crafting our lectionary. I have mentioned over the season of Epiphany that Mark is mostly concerned with the events of Holy Week. Just as we get much of our corporate memory from Matthew and Luke when it comes to the Nativity, we get a great deal of our Holy Week memory from Mark. That is not to say that all the Gospel writers are not concerned with everything, but rather that each writer had a focus and an intended audience. For his part, Mark wants the reader and hearer to understand that Jesus’ work in Holy Week, on the Cross, and in the Tomb was the work that freed us from the oppression of sin. Mark even ends his Gospel with that “and they were afraid to tell anyone anything” line. If the women were afraid to tell anyone that Jesus had been raised from the dead, how are we reading or hearing about it? But more on that in Holy Week.
One theological reason this is our reason today is that we are transitioning from the season of Epiphany to the season of Lent. In Epiphany, we focus a great deal on Jesus’ manifestation to the rest of the world. Better still, good preachers remind us that we are called, by virtue of our baptisms and confirmations, to manifest God’s glory in our lives, right? Beginning Wednesday, our focus will shift to our need of the Savior. We spend six weeks intentionally focusing on our sins, their consequences, and our need for someone to redeem them, as we can never begin to redeem them ourselves. As I call you to a Holy Lent, I am hopeful that we will all spend time focusing on our habits or foci that cause us not to attune ourselves to God. After six weeks of dwelling on our wretchedness, we are usually ready to celebrate Easter morning. But the question will surface time and time again, “How do I know that Jesus is the Savior?”
Skipping the Resurrection for a moment, which is the big answer to our question or reminder that Jesus really was and is the Son of God, look at Mark’s argument. At the beginning of Epiphany, I pointed out how Mark begins his book with Jesus coming to the Jordan to be baptized by John the Baptizer. Mark describes what happens as personal experience of Jesus rather than something witnessed by the crowd. The heavens are torn open, the Spirit descends like a dove, and the voice of God announces He is pleased with His Son. Then Jesus begins HIs ministry on earth. Jesus faces HIs Temptations, calls His Apostles, and heads out in ministry demonstrating His authority. Yes, it should be obvious after 8 chapters who Jesus is. But human beings are human beings. We often miss the obvious. How many of us here today believe the whisper of the enemy or the false teachings of others that God is not active in the world today? And, some of us doubt God’s Will, Purpose, and Power despite the Resurrection and despite the unfathomable provision of Body & Soul in our own corporate life, right? And that’s a big example of His activity in all our lives, and still we are blind or seduced by the enemy and the world.
Mark reminds us intentionally in Chapter 9, right before Jesus begins the big salvific work He came to do, that Jesus is the Son of God and that what is about to happen was God’s plan from the beginning. Jesus takes the four Apostles up the mountain and is transfigured. The writer describes it as His face shining like the sun and His clothes becoming whiter than any fuller could ever make wool. I guess you and I would say today that His clothes became whiter than any combination of bleach and Oxyclean and who knows what else could ever make our whites.
Just as significant to the change in His appearance is the appearance of two important figures, Moses and Elijah. Moses was known as the Lawgiver or Torah-giver, the one chosen by God to lead His people out of bondage in Egypt and into a closer relationship with God. The Pharisees with whom Jesus deals in the Gospel stories considered themselves the inheritors and arbiters of Moses’ instruction. Elijah represents the prophets and a significant messianic strand in Hebrew culture. It was Elijah who confronted Ahab and Jezebel in God’s name. It was Elijah who battled the prophets of Baal, once again demonstrating God’s power to Israel. It was Elijah who imparted the hard lesson that God is often heard better in the still, small whispers rather than the destructive tempests. And it was Elijah who was carried up to heaven by the fiery chariots and fiery horses in the sight of Elisha and the company of prophets. For that last reason, some thought that Elijah would return to lead God’s people out of oppression and into the blessed inheritance of God.
Not insignificant for us, nearly 2000 years later, the fact that they appear to the Apostles and converse with Jesus is a foretaste, a reminder, that those who believe and trust in God will share in an intimate relationship with Him for all eternity. What were they saying to Jesus? We do not know. Mark did not think the conversation was worth recording when he set his Gospel to pen and papyrus. Mark was concerned about what is to happen in his narrative. Namely, Jesus will be crucified for the sins of the world and make possible full communion with God for those who proclaim Him Lord. The Resurrection will serve as the exclamation point on all of this, but all of Jesus’ ministry, miraculous works, and even this conversation with Moses and Elijah testify to that singular Truth.
Mark does tell us that Peter was terrified and did not know what to say. Such a fear is understandable. What happens when sinful human beings come into contact with a Holy God? They are terrified. How many times does God or His messengers, the angels, have to tell humans not to be afraid? Every single time! It is the natural response. The apostles have witnessed the glory of God in Jesus in a unique way.
Make no mistake, Peter’s offer is not crazy. There is a feast that takes place five days after the Day of Atonement called the Feast of Booths. It is a commanded feast, meaning that all native-born males were commanded to celebrate. The feast lasted 8 days. Those attending the 8-day feast were expected to offer burnt offerings and give thanks to the Lord for their deliverance from Egypt AND to look expectantly to that time when He would dwell again among His people. In other words, Peter rightly recognizes what is happening, even if His timing is a bit off. Jesus still has more work to do, but the result of Jesus’ work is that we will be restored to intimate communion with God, if we accept the Lordship and authority of His Messiah, Jesus.
Now to the important part. I know, I know. It is all important. That Jesus is Transfigured by the glory of God, that the Apostles were allowed to see Him in some way as He was before He condescended to His Work as the Incarnation, that Moses and Elijah appear and converse with Him—it is all important. But remember our discussion of Mark’s account of Jesus’ Baptism way back on Epiphany 1? You better; it has not been that long! Mark records that the heavens being torn open, the vision of the Spirit like a dove, and the voice were a private experience for Jesus during His Baptism. No one else heard or saw what Jesus heard and saw. Following that, Jesus entered the wilderness for His Temptation and then began His earthly ministry. God’s people were supposed to discern Jesus by His work. Moses and the prophets laid out all the signs. Those really paying attention to God and His instructions to His people should have recognized Jesus as the Messiah. Those best positioned in theory, the Temple leadership and Pharisees and Sadducees and Scribes, ironically are the ones who fight against the work and authority of God’s Messiah and will be the ones responsible for what is about to happen. But before this all begins, those present see the glory of Jesus and hear the voice of God proclaiming Jesus is His Son and instructing them to listen to Him. Jesus has been patiently instructing them now for nearly three years. Everything He has taught them is from God. Now, as He instructs them that what is about to happen is also from God, they are to believe Him, that He will die and that He will rise from the dead. I have already mentioned how the story ends in Mark’s Gospel today, but we are all familiar enough to realize that none of the Apostles, none of the disciples, understand what Jesus means. He will be betrayed by those who should know His identity and handed over to death, but He will rise again on the Third Day. Were they to listen attentively, they would know that everything about to happen had to happen. But, like us, they are all too human. They will not understand this completely until the Resurrection!
But why do we remind ourselves of this story every Last Sunday after the Epiphany? What is the truth and pastoral reminder that we need as we transition from the season of Epiphany into the season of Lent? Though there are many different lessons for us to learn this day, I want us to pay particular attention to the intimacy to which God calls each and every human being. You and I live in a world which loves tearing down the other. We live in a world which likes to assert that if someone is not exactly like us, they are our enemies. Our two political parties have too many members who call members of the other party, enemies and destroyers and all kinds of names. They call Americans enemies and traitors. We live in a religious community who speak in the same way of other members of the Church in the same way, except we like to add satanic to those titles, meaning that if you do not understand God the way I do, you are clearly satanic, right? You and I live in a world that sees conspiracies in high profile entertainment figures dating. You and I live in a world that describes those oppressed by hunger, by ill-health, by homelessness, or by any other evil as lazy, stupid, or worse when it comes from “Christians,” accursed by God. I could go on and on, and I am certain the Holy Spirit has already helped you add to my list. But we are reminded on this day before we head into that season of self-reflection that we are called to a glorious intimacy with God! You and I are reminded this day that it is the grace of God dwelling in normal people like you and me that makes us prophets, Apostles, and saints in the lives of others. You and I are reminded that we were created to commune with God, to talk about all those things that interested us, like precocious child with a loving mother or loving father, but that we turned aside from that intended purpose. And though we rightly deserved death for our sins, our Loving Father was unwilling to leave us separated from Him! Does God take sin seriously? Absolutely! He takes it so seriously that He sent His Son, His Beloved, that you and I might be restored to His presence, that you and I might be able to look upon His face without fear, that you and I might dwell with Him and He with us, not for a few hours on a mountaintop or in church, but for all eternity! Best of all, He did all this knowing we would sin, knowing we would not see, and knowing we would not hear. He did this knowing we could not do it ourselves!
As we head into this season of Lent with wars and diseases and economic privations abounding, with people calling each other names and unwilling to humble themselves before God, it might be tempting to us to ignore the glorious promise of the Transfiguration. But the glory of Christ’s Transfiguration stands much like our steeple here at Advent. Those of you who have been here forever are reminded that our steeple was built by our Adventer ancestors in the dark ages to be seen all the way in Antioch. Our steeple was meant to be a light in the darkness, a bright reminder that Christ was worshiped here! Our steeple was meant to draw others into that worship of God, that all might fight comfort and solace and freedom from the oppressions of their lives and hope in Christ for their futures. In the same way, as we enter what some think of as a dark season, you and I are intentionally reminded by the Apostle Mark of the glorious to which God calls each and every one of us and those we meet and serve outside these walls. We are intentionally reminded that Jesus did all this work knowing both who we were and who we could be. We are intentionally reminded when we may discover ourselves hard to love in our own eyes, that the eyes of our Father in Heaven and our Beloved Redeemer Jesus, we were loved in ways we cannot begin to understand. And maybe, maybe if we pay attention this day, we are reminded that we are no different than any of His faithful, that only One truly understood Him, but that in believing in Him we might one day ourselves come to know Him as intimately as He knows us! And reminded of that truth, we are properly prepared to enter into a Holy Lent, seeking to attune ourselves to the one who loves us and invites us to that loving and glorious intimacy that illumined the Apostles and those who have come since!
In Christ’s Peace,
Brian
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