There’s an advert on TV for a well-known washing powder which makes your whites whiter-than-white and concludes with the warning: “always keep away from children”. Wise words indeed – and not just if you have a box of said detergent in your hand. Present company excepted, of course.
It’s the last Sunday before Lent – so a key date in the Church Year. We’ve just been through Christmas and then Epiphany. At one end we have the birth of Jesus in the dirt of the manger, where the Son of God took on human form and resided with us mortals on earth. And at the other end, here we are at the Transfiguration, where that same earthly Jesus, the Chosen One, dazzles in his white T-shirt in the company of two mortals who are now residents of heaven. We hear a voice from heaven say: “This is my Son, the Beloved.”
And if our Lectionary reading had gone on a little further then we would have met a second beloved son (14-29). A son, beloved by his dad, who suffered with violent convulsions and was unable to speak. A parent who was at the end of his tether. It’s a shame our reading stopped short, since I think these other verses shed a different light on the Transfiguration.
All mixed up
We’re on a mountain, in a thin place, where the natural and the supernatural are all mixed up. Where the thickness of the veil between this world and the next amounts to nothing. And in what follows, a divine person here on earth meets with those two humans from heaven.
Mark misses it but in Luke we’re told that the disciples are sleeping, and that Jesus is praying. As he prays, he’s transfigured, transformed, he dazzles. His face shines like the sun and his clothes are whiter-than-white. All those hard-to-get-rid-of stains of egg and tomato sauce are gone. The now awake disciples see the bright and shiny Jesus talking to two men: Moses and Elijah.
Exodus
Moses and Elijah are normally taken to represent the law and the prophets, which Jesus came to fulfil. Again, Luke gives us more detail and tells us that they’re here to talk about Jesus’ departure. The Greek word that he chooses for departure is ‘exodus’… and, like in the OT, ‘exodus’ is signalling a new redemption and liberation for the people of God. But this time it’s as a result of Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection.
Maybe Moses and Elijah are also chosen because they too had their own mountain-top encounters with God. Moses had his moments of being dazzling after he meets God. But his is a reflected glory. The glory of God from outside rather than inside.
Or were they chosen for another reason? In our OT reading, Elijah was taken up into heaven rather than dying. And whilst in Deuteronomy Moses dies, in other Hebrew Scriptures, and according to the historian Josephus, he was thought to have been taken up into heaven too, just like Elijah.
Wrapped-up
Or is it because both Moses and Elijah are mentioned in the last few verses of Malachi, the last book of our Old Testament? Both men are there wrapped-up in the day of judgement and renewal, the coming of the Messianic age.
Whatever the reason, the meeting of the three gives meaning to both past and future. And Moses finally gets to enter the Promised Land, something he didn’t do in his normal lifetime!
Who would you choose to come back and give you instruction if you had a choice? What voice from the past would you pick to give direction for your future?
The shekinah
Moses and Elijah disappear into a cloud, the shekinah. This is the cloud of divine glory that we read of, again, in Exodus. The disciples were in their too. God’s voice says who Jesus is and that the disciples are to listen. This time the voice comes from a cloud, rather than from heaven as it was at Jesus’s baptism. It’s a close-to, imminent presence. And this time the voice was for the disciples, not Jesus. They are terrified – and they are to listen. Jesus tells them to keep quiet about it till after he’s risen. Years later, Paul must have remembered the disciples’ stories and had it in mind when he wrote our NT reading for today.
But before the cloud appears, we have Peter’s suggestion about building the three tents or dwellings. And he’s often ribbed for that but perhaps it isn’t so strange. If he interprets Moses, Elijah and Jesus being together as the coming of the messianic age, then Peter wasn’t to know that this glow of glory was just a passing moment. Jesus’ talk beforehand of impending suffering and death was something Peter didn’t want to hear – and maybe this now meant it had all gone away and they could live in wonderful peace together. And, with all the conflict happening in the world today, which of us wouldn’t want the same now?
Told to listen
And while Peter is still speaking, the cloud appears. The disciples are told to listen. Perhaps they were to listen to those words of Jesus’ about his imminent suffering and death? Or maybe it was to listen to all his teachings – teachings about love for God and for our fellow human beings?
The disciples are overshadowed by the cloud, and they are terrified. But it’s in that very shadow that they hear and encounter God. I wonder if that’s true of us, too? Is it in those things that scare us, that we’re frightened of, that we meet God?
The cloud goes, Moses and Elijah go. Jesus remains. And they are alone.
The people who need him
At the Transfiguration, we have a glimpse of the future glory of Christ at Easter. But to get to Easter Sunday we first must go through Lent, and then Good Friday and Easter Saturday.
And that process is where the story of the father with the poorly son comes in. The Transfiguration is important, in itself, because it tells us that Jesus is the One. And that we’re to listen. But the transformation isn’t just for its own sake, important as it is.
No, in the bit after our Gospel reading, Jesus is directed back to the people who need him, even though the disciples wanted the moment to last longer. And when we meet for worship, sometimes it’s so good that we want to stay for longer too. But we meet so that we can later go out “to love and serve the Lord”.
No longer dazzles
This passage about the Transfiguration needs the bit that follows next. Jesus no longer dazzles. He’s back in his dusty robes when we meet the second beloved son. There was one at the top of the mountain – and now there’s one at the bottom. And another loving father – who wants his broken child to be noticed.
Always keep away from children? Not likely. But the disciples aren’t transfigured enough to handle it themselves. And perhaps Jesus shows his frustration that they still don’t get it when so soon after he would be gone. If we truly ‘got it’, if we truly understood who Jesus was, and the message that he has to offer, then would we not spend more time ‘out there’ loving and serving the Lord?
A little light
The hungry, the abandoned, the homeless, the immigrant, the victims of natural disasters and man-made ones – all these are spoken of in our Scriptures. And, in a way, they are all like that boy, that beloved son. If we’re not careful, we miss the transfiguration of Jesus and our own transformation and, like the disciples, we look at these people not quite knowing what to do. Instead, we ask Jesus if we can stay a little longer in our dwelling, our tabernacle, because we think it is good for us to be here.
Our time here together is vital. A time to worship and glorify God. To build ourselves up. But it’s also to equip us, to transform and transfigure us, to get out there to love and serve the Lord. To get out there so that when the time is right, we help others in any way that we can and shed light for those around us. For each of us to be a little light that shines, that dazzles. Amen
‘He dazzles’ was delivered by Ian Banks at St James, Heywood (and earlier on-line) on February 11th, 2024. It was based on Mark 9:2-9 and 2 Corinthians 4:3-6 and is a version of a sermon first delivered by Ian at Christ Church Walmersley in 2022.