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The Transfiguration of Our Lord
O God, who on the holy mount didst reveal to chosen witnesses thy well-beloved Son, wonderfully transfigured, in raiment white and glistening: Mercifully grant that we, being delivered from the disquietude of this world, may by faith behold the King in his beauty; who with thee, O Father, and thee, O Holy Ghost, liveth and reigneth, one God, world without end. Amen.
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Scripture citation(s): Luke 9:28-36
A Sermon by
Fr. Mead
on
Luke 9:28-36
✛
The Transfigured Cross
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In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
The Book of Common Prayer regards the Feast of the Transfiguration, August 6, as a major observance that takes precedence over a “regular Sunday.” Every sentence in Saint Luke’s account of Jesus’ Transfiguration on the mountain is weighted with significance, and I want to walk us through the whole story, commenting as we go.
The story begins “about eight days” after Peter confessed Jesus to be the Christ of God, an occasion when Jesus also predicted his suffering and death and warned his followers to count the cost of discipleship. We need to remember this all the way along, much as we might wish to forget it.
Jesus took Peter, James and John, his inner circle of three within the twelve apostles, up on the mountain to pray. While praying, Jesus’ appearance was altered, and his raiment became dazzling white. Then Moses and Elijah, the great prophets of ancient Israel, appeared in glory and talked with Jesus. The subject? Jesus’ “departure” which he was to accomplish at Jerusalem. In other words, Jesus’ suffering and death is of supreme importance; it characterizes Jesus and, as we shall see, raises him above even these two epic figures.
Peter, James and John were heavy with sleep, but they awakened in time to see Jesus’ Transfiguration and Moses and Elijah; Jesus’ experience and prayer was not private; the three disciples were witnesses and about to become participants. As Moses and Elijah parted from them, Peter said to Jesus, “Master it is well that we are here,” and he proposed to make three booths, “one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” The Evangelist notes that Peter spoke, “not knowing what he said.” As he was speaking a cloud overshadowed them; and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. This cloud was not a cirrus or cumulus; it was not mist or fog, not a normal cloud. It was the shekinah cloud of God’s presence. We could have a whole sermon on this cloud’s history in Holy Scripture, but today we haven’t time. Clarity was about to come.
A voice came out of the cloud, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him.” When it had spoken, the three disciples found only Jesus. Then they descended the mountain and kept silence about all this until much later – after Jesus’ death and resurrection
Just as we might wish to forget Jesus’ prediction of his passion and his admonition about our counting the cost of discipleship, just so we can understand why Peter wished to stop time and capture the moment on the mountain by building three booths, one for Jesus, one for Moses and one for Elijah. Authentic prayer experiences and mystic visions comfort and fortify the heart and soul. This is like some art. On Monhegan Island, Maine, a beautiful place where I have vacationed for a quarter century, artists flock to paint the scenes. A photographer there has for many years advertised his work nicely with the words, “To hold a moment of beauty forever.”¹
But other things must come to pass in the Gospel. Jesus must fulfill his mission, his life’s work, which means his collision with human sin and human institutions, including the authorities of religion and government. This means Jesus will necessarily suffer and be killed. Those who truly follow Jesus may not literally be crucified, but we get the sacrificial sense of what the phrase, “take up your cross daily and follow me,” might mean.
When I was a boy our family went regularly to church, and I was strongly attached to the figure of Jesus. But I was upset by the image of the cross, more concretely the crucifix and all it represents. “How could they do that to him?” I thought. “All he wanted was to do good.” It would be nice to keep things simply glorious, contained, say, in a booth, holding that moment of beauty forever. But we need to remember more fully in order to see farther and more clearly. It was after all Jesus’ “departure” that was the subject of conversation in the Transfiguration story; that is, the very thing that we naturally dread. In other words, the supreme moment of the Son of God’s glory is precisely the most inglorious moment of all.
It took the disciples a while to grasp the necessity and therefore the goodness of Christ’s death; to call the day Christ died Good Friday; to place crosses and crucifixes in our houses of worship, indeed right at the heart of things. This issue is perennial. It takes insight, a breakthrough, to grasp the profound necessity and goodness, the glory, of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Peter, James and John kept silent about the Transfiguration of Jesus until later. The Transfiguration would be misunderstood without its link to the cross of Jesus. At the same time, the cross of Jesus is misunderstood without the Transfiguration. The cross requires the gift of the eye of faith to see it for what it really is; namely, the revelation of the glory and the love of God, who has gone down to hell itself in order to call us back to life with him. This insight is a gift very much worth praying for, the insight that sees through to the transfiguration of the cross. I would say this breakthrough is one’s critical development as a conscious believer, a deliberate follower, of Jesus Christ.
Let us pray for that gift of clarifying insight. The very desire for it is the beginning. And as you see more clearly into the mystery of the cross (that the cross of Christ embodies the glory and the love of God), then look around. All sorts of moments in daily life, in this light, are transfigured – especially the moments of love, kindness, generosity, contrition, forgiveness, reconciliation… These are mercy moments and are related to the greatest Mercy Moment of them all. They are kin to the cross of Christ and express the redemptive grace of God; and we ourselves can see and do them. They are instances of transfiguration; they are glorious.
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
__________
¹Thanks to Bob Smith for the words.
