Last Epiphany, Year B

“LIGHT AND STRENGTH FOR THE JOURNEY”
A sermon by The Rev. Gene Tucker given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, IL; Sunday, February 22, 2009
I Kings 19: 9 – 18; Psalm 27: 5 – 11; I Peter 1: 16 – 21; Mark 9: 2 – 9

Back when I was 10 or 11 years old, I could identify the gleam of the headlights of the 1950 Buick our family owned, as its headlights shone on that big chrome grill, from about half a mile away. You see, we kids used to peer out of the big picture window of our house, waiting for mom to come home at night, and the area where we lived on the northwest corner of town made it possible to see her car coming from a long distance away.

Now a 1950 Buick had two big headlights (they all did in those days), and a big chrome grill that had vertical chrome bars in it. When the headlights were on at night, the light would bounce off these vertical bars (and the big chrome bumper that was in front of them), and if you knew the car well enough, you could tell whether or not the pattern of lights and reflections was the car that you were waiting for.

So, we’d wait for a set of headlights to come rolling along, hoping that the lights and the reflections would match the ones we were looking for.

For, you see, the correct set of lights and patterns meant that mom was coming home. Her return and her presence meant joy and security. Her presence brought the light of love into our lives and into the home. Her presence shut out the darkness of the Nebraska winter night. Her presence allowed us children to look ahead at life’s journey with confidence.

This childhood memory of mine – seeing her car coming down the street - served to connect our past experience with mom’s presence the next occurrence of the same experience again. It served both to remind us of the past experience, and to awaken our hopes and expectations for the next time the same experience would occur again.

Today’s gospel text functions the same way: It connects us to the first time the disciples experienced Jesus’ identity with God the Father on that holy mountain, and it serves to prepare us for our encounter with Christ on the mountain of our lives.

The light of Christ, reflected in today’s text, means joy and security for us who witness that light through the text before us today, and through the eyes of faith, just as it did for Peter, James and John.

The Transfiguration[1] of our Lord is a foretaste of the resurrection, and it is meant to give the disciples a glimpse of the light of God’s glory, and strength for the journey ahead, which will lead to Good Friday, and then to Easter Sunday.

Before we delve into the implications of this event for the original disciples, and for us, we should pause to look at the text itself, and at its context within Mark’s gospel account.

As we consider the context of the Transfiguration, we can readily see that a pattern of ups and downs has characterized Jesus’ ministry and His presence among the disciples….In the most recent incident preceding the Transfiguration, we see that Mark tells us (8:31 – 33) that Jesus began to teach His disciples openly that He would suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed.

Talk about a “downer”!

Perhaps because of what Jesus had said, the disciples (and particularly Peter) react in the way they do…..Notice Peter’s response: Mark tells us that he took Jesus aside and began to rebuke Him.

Obviously, following a road to Jerusalem that led to suffering and death for their leader didn’t fit into the plans that the disciples must’ve thought would be the way the kingdom of God would come into being. After all, wasn’t Jesus the miracle-worker, the healer, the charismatic teacher and preacher? Hadn’t He come in the power of David of old, that great king who united the 12 tribes as no one had ever done before? Couldn’t He be the Messiah, God’s anointed one, the one who would throw the yoke of Roman occupation off? How could suffering and death be a part of that plan?

But the road will lead to Jerusalem, to suffering, rejection and death. And the disciples will walk that road with Jesus.

It’s entirely possible that the disciples heard the first part of Jesus’ prediction about what would lie ahead of him and them, and not the last part….Maybe that’s why Peter reacted the way he did, rebuking Jesus.

For the last part of Jesus’ statement said that He would rise again after three days. Maybe the disciples hadn’t kept their ears open long enough to hear those words.

Perhaps our Lord knew that these disciples needed strength for the journey. Perhaps they needed something to give them a bigger glimpse of God’s plan. Maybe they needed to see some of the glory that the Christ possessed before His coming among us as one of us.

And so, in God’s providence, the glorious light of God’s presence blinds the disciples’ eyes. Mark tells us that “He was transfigured before them, and his garments became glistening, intensely white.”

But notice also that Jesus is now accompanied by two other figures, two figures who are intensely important to the history of God’s chosen people: Moses, the great giver of the law and mediator of the Covenant, and Elijah, whose reappearing would herald the coming of the “day of the Lord”, as the Old Testament prophet Malachi had predicted.[2]

Before we look more closely at the implications of the Transfiguration, let’s pause to consider what the presence of Moses and Elijah might signify to the disciples, and to us.

First, we consider Moses, the great mediator of the Covenant between God and God’s people, in the Law (or Torah), given at Mt. Sinai. Notice that the giving of the Law took place on a mountain, and that its transmission was accompanied by flashes of light, clouds, and so forth.[3] Notice that the imagery and language is remarkably similar in many respects between Exodus and Mark.

The meaning seems to be that Jesus Christ will be the mediator of a new covenant between God and human beings.

Second, we consider Elijah’s presence. Clearly, the implication here is that the “great and terrible day of the Lord” (Malachi’s words) has arrived. The kingdom of God is here![4]

I said earlier that Jesus may well have intended to give the disciples a glimpse of the future glory that awaited Him, after His death. As I reflect on today’s incident, I think that’s part of the strategy that God is using here.

For, you see, the disciples looked back on this incident, remembering the brilliant light and the dazzling white garments, and understood that it was the first time they’d ever seen Jesus in the divine glory with which He was surrounded before His coming to earth.

It is a foretaste of the resurrection, when Jesus will appear again, dazzling and glistening.[5]

Now, let’s apply the lessons of the Transfiguration to our lives today.

We are on a journey….We stand on the mountain top of the end of the season of Epiphany, a season of the Church Year in which we have walked with the Lord, seeing Him heal, hearing Him teach. We stand with the early disciples today on the mountain top, as the eyes of faith allow us to see Him transfigured before us, and we catch a glimpse, with them, of the glory of the Christ which has existed from eternity. We see a bit larger picture of God’s great plan, God’s working in the person of Jesus Christ.

But, our road will now lead down from the mountain top of the Last Sunday in Epiphany, down into the season of Lent. The road of Lent will lead us to Palm Sunday and to the Lord’s Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. This road will lead us to Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, the darkest of times for us, and for the early disciples.

We need strength for the journey. We need to harbor within our hearts and minds the glistening light of the Transfiguration, remembering that it is but a shadow of the glorious light of the Resurrection.

Light and strength for the journey. Truly, God is good to all of His people.

AMEN.


[1] The Transfiguration account is heard twice during the Church Year: Always on the last Sunday of Epiphany, and again on the Feast of the Transfiguration, which is August 6th.
[2] See Malachi 4: 5 – 6.
[3] See Exodus 19 – 20.
[4] It’s worth reading the interchange that took place between the three disciples who witnessed the Transfiguration and Jesus following this incident. See Mark 9: 10 – 14.
[5] Notice the similar language that Matthew will use to describe Jesus’ post-resurrection appearance, as he says that Jesus’ appearance was “like lightning, and his raiment white as snow.” (Matthew 28: 3)