What does the Transfiguration mean? Why should we care?
Lutheran Christians celebrate the last Sunday of the season of Epiphany as “the Transfiguration of our Lord.” Matthew, Mark, Luke and 2 Peter each tell the story of Jesus going up a mountain with Peter, John, and James. At the top, the disciples saw Jesus’s clothes become super-white and his face brilliant as the sun. Suddenly, Moses and Elijah are talking with Jesus. Peter wants to build huts for each and a voice from a cloud names Jesus “the Beloved Son.” And as suddenly as it began, everything is back to the way it was: Jesus’s normal face, road-stained cloak, and no past prophets. This year on March 1-2 we will read the story from Luke 9:28-36, if you want to read it now. The question is: what does it mean? And why is it important to us today?
You’re invited to study these passages on Sunday mornings in the Manor Community Room at 9:45am, Monday nights online at 6:30pm and Thursdays in the Chapel at 10am. Let me share two quick insights we are discussing:
First, we know God fully in Jesus. Human beings so want to see God face-to-face, to know really what the invisible God thinks and feels. This is part of what the presence of Moses and Elijah communicates: Moses wanted to see God face-to-face, but only was allowed to see God indirectly (Exodus 34:29-30). Elijah climbed the mountain to experience God, but only heard God through “sheer silence” (1 Kings 19:12). Finally in Jesus’s transfiguration, Moses and Elijah get to see God through Jesus! John’s gospel doesn’t have a transfiguration scene, but communicates a similar idea, for example, “No one has ever seen God. It is the only Son, himself God, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known” (John 1:18). Jesus says, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:19).
How does this matter to us? We too have days when we are desperate to know that there is meaning and love in this universe. How will we know? We look at Jesus, by reading the gospels, by listening to other Christians who help us know God through Jesus!
Second, we are still waiting for the glorious Christ to come. The transfiguration is a sneak preview of Jesus’s second coming, when he “comes in glory to judge the living and the dead” (Apostles’ Creed). The disciples needed a vision of the glorious Jesus to get through the despair and disappointment of the crucifixion, when Jesus’s face looked bruised and beaten and he was stripped of any clothes. We too need the vision of Christ as King of Kings and Lord of Lords to help us continue to serve our neighbors and tell people about Jesus, trusting the promise shown in the Transfiguration.
There is much more! I hope you’ll take some time this Epiphany season to allow the Holy Spirit to open in your hearts and minds the significance of the Transfiguration in your life!
In awe of the glorified Christ,
Pastor Peter
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