FEAST OF THE TRANSFIGURATION OF THE LORD(2023)
Readings:
Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14
Psalms 97:-2, 6-6, 9
2 Peter 1:16-19
Matthew 17:1-9
Matthew’s gospel was written for a Jewish audience, and, as such, it was meant to portray a Jesus as the new Moses and as the fulfillment of all the prophets. So important was the story of Jesus’ Transfiguration that it is recounted in all three synoptic gospels. Matthew’s approach to the story caters in a special way to his Jewish audience, highlighting not only the presence of Moses with Jesus, which is rightly meant to be a shadow of endorsement by the most important persons in Jewish history. With Moses’ ethereal companion Elijah, one of the most important prophets in the First Testament, the company who join Jesus on Mt. Tabor symbolically represent the Law and the Prophets, adding further weight to this extraordinarily privileged moment.
Before Jesus invites Peter, James, and John to go with Him up the mountain [an action Moses did to receive the Law, the Ten Commandments], Jesus proclaims His second [in Matthew; first in other accounts] Passion prediction: “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men, and they will kill Him, and He will be raised on the third day.” This overwhelms the disciples with “grief.” One cannot help but wonder whether the Transfiguration experience is meant in the gospels to be an antidote to that “grief,” an experience which might help to offset any of the discordance engendered by a Messiah who dies, something most disciples felt was an impossibility.
Notice too, like the gleaming face of Charlten Heston when he comes down from the mountain in Cecil B. deMille’s Ten Commandments, Jesus’ face is said by Matthew to “shine like the sun, and His clothes became white as light.” Jesus is clearly seen in this passage as the new Moses!
Peter, no doubt, speaks for the other disciples James and John, when he states how thrilled he is to be there. The nasty talk of Jesus’ suffering and death is all but forgotten, and Peter wants the moment to continue with his willingness to set up tents for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. But even before Peter can get to work on that, a cloud overshadows all of them, and a voice from the cloud speaks words that were heard at Jesus’ baptism: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him.” Now that brought the disciples to their knees, and “they were very much afraid.” As He will do countless times after His resurrection, Jesus wants them to calm down: “do not be afraid.”
It’s unclear whether the privileged three disciples followed Jesus’ advice to “not tell the vision to anyone until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.” How could something so momentous be kept to themselves? What is clear is just how “life changing” this event was for the three disciples. There is a certain lack of understanding by the disciples throughout the gospels. While three disciples were especially chosen by Jesus to accompany Him up the mountain to the Transfiguration – Peter, James, and John – only one of them would accompany Jesus to another mountain – the mountain of Calvary. Indeed, only John would accompany Mary, Jesus’ mother, and Mary of Magdala to the foot of the cross. The Beloved Disciple John must have been a great comfort to the two women, and his presence did not go unnoticed by Jesus, in spite of the agony He was enduring. Did John absorb a little more of what was going on through Jesus’ Transfiguration? Was John more convinced than Peter and James that, in spite of his Savior being nailed to a cross, He was the promised Messiah.
Perhaps James did more of that special kind of listening that the voice from the cloud commanded: “listen to Him.” Throughout the Transfiguration miracle, and throughout the remainder of Jesus’ public ministry, John took to heart the voice from heaven and listened more intently than the others. We are talking about listening, not just hearing, for the former entails an internalization of Jesus’ teaching, such that it changes for the better one’s heart and soul, and it leads to a greater commitment to put into action all that Jesus taught them.
That command of “listen to him” is spoken to us as well as the small band of disciples. We are meant to listen to the words of Scripture and the teachings of Jesus with a fervor that causes us to put into practice in our daily lives what Jesus has taught. Listening intently will cause our heart to change, and give us the courage to follow Jesus even to Calvary, even to all the suffering which is oftentimes part of day-to-day living. Listening intently will change our minds and hearts in such a way that we learn right from wrong, good from evil, and we will know when Jesus is speaking to us through the din of an often troubled world. As God did at the mouth of the mountain cave with Elijah, God sometimes whispers. May we listen to what Jesus has to say so intently, that we don’t miss the whispering of His Spirit that comes to us on a day to day basis.
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