February 11, 2024
Why Transfiguration?
Mark 9:2-8
Rev. Shannon Jordan
Today is Transfiguration Sunday. Have you ever wondered why this is a thing? Why do we have Transfiguration Sunday every year the Sunday before Ash Wednesday and Lent? Why is it on the liturgical calendar? We get Christmas. We understand Easter. Jesus’s baptism, check. Pentecost—the beginning of the church, we get that. But what about Transfiguration Sunday?
As I read this passage consider why this Sunday is so important that it gets its own day on the church calendar each year.
Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus, ‘Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.’ He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!’ Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them anymore, but only Jesus.
This text is a very dense text full of metaphors and deep meaning. This text has connection points to passages throughout scripture. Parts of it are of such value to the early church that Matthew, Mark, and Luke all give certain phrases verbatim in the original Greek. New Testament scholars marvel at this passage. From the spectacular vision of Elijah and Moses, to the cloud descending, to the whiter than white clothes to the voice of God, it is a scene to be remembered. Scholars pick it apart word by word. This scene, this passage, is special.
But why?
When we try to look at this passage through the lens of the original hearers, we can pick up the parallels to Jesus’s baptism where the voice from heaven spoke and said to Jesus that he was God’s beloved and with Jesus God was well pleased—in contrast in our passage this morning, the voice spoke to Peter, James, and John and added the command to listen to Jesus.
For those of us who know the stories of the Hebrew Bible, we may recall how this passage parallels the one of Moses encountering God on top of the mountain and receiving the ten commandments.
Original hearers would have also picked up the on the clouds and how clouds are often present for theophanies, where people meet God. They would have known that clouds were a vital connection or precursor to life-giving rain that this arid geography relied on for life.
There is one theme that does jump out to me when I read this passage.
As many of you know, we raised guide dogs for the blind as a family volunteer project for ten years. We raised our last puppy in 2009-2010. His name was Ritter and I had finished a role at our church in Virginia and I was spending my time raising our two teens, a new guide dog and going to seminary. On a Friday afternoon, our head of staff called me and asked if the kids and I could come share about raising Guide Dogs for the children’s message. I said sure, then he added the throwaway line, “By the way, it is Transfiguration Sunday, if you can work that in.”
I quickly imagined myself in front of a sanctuary with 500 people, with my sometimes recalcitrant teens whom I had volunteered for this without asking, a four month old lab puppy that a couple of dozen children want to pet, talking about Transfiguration. A recipe for success!
But as I went back and studied the text, I realized this was the perfect opportunity to highlight a key part of the text.
This is my Beloved. Listen to him.
This is my Beloved. Obey him.
Lab puppies, children, teens, and adults “get” obedience!
Training guide dogs is all about getting the guide dogs to obey so well that they stop needing to be told what to do. They know what to do in a given situation and just do it. This obedience makes them able to do what a guide dog needs to do to keep their person safe and able to function in society even under stressful conditions. Who to listen to and being obedient are key themes of this passage.
This is my Beloved. Listen to him.
Obedience also came to mind for me as I prepped because as those of you who were at the Epiphany service know, my star word for 2024 is “obedience.” The theme of obedience has been one God has been working on in me since last fall. It really wasn’t that big of a surprise for me to pull that star word.
Obedience can seem simple. Don’t murder. Honor your father and mother. Don’t lie. Don’t gossip.
But it is rarely that simple. What about soldiers and war? What about parents that don’t deserve honor? Is it ever OK to lie? What about the lies we know others are telling? What about the lies we tell ourselves to continue doing what we want to do?
Then the really foggy…what about obeying when we have no idea what the right thing to do is? When someone who appears homeless asks for money, or gas for their car? What is the best thing then? What does obedience look like then?
What about obedience to a conviction to speak out against injustice, and recognizing that in certain cases it is just picking a fight with someone whose mind you can’t change? What is obedience here?
What do we do when we seem to receive a different direction from God than someone else?
Even when we want to do the right thing, sometimes the right thing is unclear.
I believe that is intentional. If things were 100% clear in scripture we would not need the Holy Spirit to help us discern and we would not need our Christian community to help us process and hold us accountable. And for that matter, if we were perfect, we wouldn’t need Jesus.
Obedience is key, but as we study the life of Jesus in scripture, we see many instances in the New Testament where Jesus calls out the religious elites for their following the letter of the law and not the spirit of the law. We learn when we study the life of Jesus in scripture that Christianity is more about relationship than law.
In his book, The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible A J Jacobs, a New York Times best selling author and self proclaimed cultural Jew, decided to follow the Hebrew Bible laws as perfectly and literally as he could. It was hysterical.
One thing that struck me about it was as literally as he took the law, and as closely as he watched what he did, because his purpose was to follow the law for following the law’s sake, he did not draw closer to God. He did not really get to know the author and perfector of our faith in his endeavors.
What is the link between obedience and knowing a God who loves us?
We are obedient to be closer to God. We are obedient out of love and respect for God. It isn’t as much what we do as why we do it.
Scripture is clear: we are saved by faith, not works. We can’t obey well enough to be good enough. We are not required to obey for salvation.
Back to the guide dogs. The goal with the puppies was to help them want to do what you wanted them to do. You could force them—for example, push their hand quarters down and say sit and give them a treat…or you could catch them sitting down and reward them. Then the dog starts looking for ways to do what you want to receive the treat. That evolves to doing what you want for praise—because they love their people and will do anything for them! They love doing what their people ask and the connection they have as a result. That is the goal. That connection. That working as a team.
And that is very similar to why and how we learn to obey God. When we realize we are doing what God wants us to do—when we realize that we are doing what God has called us to do—we experience a beautiful soul fulfillment that gives us peace and joy regardless of our circumstances. Then we begin doing things because we deeply desire to please God. We want that sense inside that we are doing what God wants us to do—even if it is outside of our comfort zone, or something we don’t love, we do it because we know God wants us to and that is more important.
It is practicing something over and over until we can do it without thinking.
The movie scene that comes to mind for this is from the original Karate Kid. In one scene Mr. Miyagi is teaching Daniel karate. He first asks Daniel to wash his cars and I remember clearly thinking not super fair but maybe he was having Daniel work off his lessons. Then we find out that his wax on wax off circles were the basis of his karate moves—blocking moves to keep him safe in competition.
There are things that God asks me to do sometimes that don’t seem to make sense. But I trust God. I recognize there may be ramifications to what I do that I can’t imagine. It may also just be about strengthening my obedience muscles for a future challenge. As we practice when things are going well, it gives us the ability to better obey when things are challenging or stressful.
We are getting ready to enter Lent. During Lent, many of us may be challenged by the Spirit to exercise our obedience muscles so that when we need them, we have the skills needed to meet the circumstances before us. So when life gets hard, and it will, we know there is scripture to encourage us, we know how to pray, we have Christian friends to lean on and have them pray for us. We can walk alongside those in crisis. We have practiced for this. We can do it—even when stressed or in new circumstances.
Anyone who has raised a puppy knows how much easier it is to get a dog to do what you want at home than at a dog park. We too need to practice obedience when it is hard.
In addition to obedience, the Transfiguration is also at a pivotal point in Mark’s gospel and points us to how Jesus is part of a new covenant—Jesus has fulfilled the law—and similar to Moses receiving the 10 Commandments on the cloud covered mountain, Jesus’s followers are told to listen to Jesus. Jesus has the authority and blessing of God. The description of the scene is other worldly. Elijah, Moses, the white clothes—Peter, James and John have been given a glimpse of Jesus’s divinity—as have we. This is why Transfiguration Sunday is important. This is why it is on the church calendar. It gives a brief glimpse of the power and authority of a risen Christ. This is the one who helps carry our burdens, frees us from slavery to sin, and through the Spirit gives us a desire to live in God’s will—obeying because we want to, not because we have to.
Our lives of faith are a journey of learning and curiosity. They are lives of high points and low points and learning that God is trustworthy and will be with us through whatever direction life takes us. Life is about learning to listen to God’s beloved, Jesus, through prayer, scripture, and our Christian community. Life is about learning to stay tuned into God.
Life is not about being perfect. Life is not about knowing for sure the right thing to do all of the time. Life is about learning to dance with the Spirit through our days, finding the rhythm and beat of God’s will in our countless interactions and choices each day.