Transfigured!

Reading: Matthew 17.1-20
All of us can be wise in hindsight. A person sickens with a serious terminal illness and we ask ourselves, "Why didn't we notice the tiredness and other symptoms which were developing over the last two years?" Or, worse still, a person takes their own life and guilt descends on all the relatives and acquaintances, "Why didn't we notice? What were the signs we failed to see? What was the call for help to which we failed to respond?"

The story is told about a business man who had a very vivid dream. In his dream he was reading the newspaper. Suddenly he was aware that it was the newspaper for seven days' time. Quickly he turned the pages to the stock market reports. If only he could know what would happen to stocks in a week's time, he could make a very handsome profit. In his dream he wrote down the names of the companies whose stocks would be rising dramatically in the next week. Very pleased with himself, he turned to look at the other news. His eye caught the deaths column. Scanning the names, he was shocked to see the announcement of his own death.

In the real world, all of us have to make our decisions and responses in terms of the information we have available to us at the time. Sometimes we ask ourselves, "Did we make the right decision to do so and so?" Or perhaps we say, "In the light of what we now know, we should have chosen differently." Or we reflect on the other influences and indicators that might have pointed us in a different direction from the one we took.

Didn't our hearts burn within us ... ?

The two disciples who walked to Emmaus (Lk. 24.13ff) were met by a stranger who seemed to know nothing about the events in Jerusalem when Jesus was crucified. They were not only sad but confused. Not only had their friend Jesus been killed, but his body had disappeared and angels said he was alive. The stranger explained to them how the Scriptures clearly foretold that the Messiah had to suffer these things and then enter into his glory. Then, as they began a meal at their home in Emmaus, the stranger took bread, gave thanks, broke it and gave it to them. Suddenly they realised that it was the risen Jesus himself! It's true! He's alive! They said to each other, "Wasn't it like a fire burning in us when he talked to us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?" They now saw the whole conversation in a new light.

Today's reading from Matthew 17 takes us back to some of the events which were pointers to Good Friday/Easter but which the disciples failed to recognise.

In chapter 16 we hear Peter's declaration, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God", a truth which Peter had grasped by revelation from the Father in heaven. Now that they had grasped that truth, Jesus began to explain to them that he must go to Jerusalem where he would suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and teachers of the law. He would be killed and on the third day would be raised to life. Now Peter protests - this is not his picture of "the Christ, the Son of the living God"! And Jesus says to Peter, "Get away from me, Satan! You are an obstacle in my way, because these thoughts of yours do not come from God, but from man."

So the two who went to Emmaus shouldn't have been so totally in the dark! But if Jesus was "the one who was going to set Israel free", this violent death shouldn't have happened! Or, to get back to Peter's words, if Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of the living God, this should never happen to him!

So - into chapter 17. "Six days later" - six days after Peter's great profession about who Jesus is and his great blunder about why he had come - "Jesus took with him Peter and the brothers James and John and led them up a high mountain where they were alone." While they watched, they saw Jesus with a glory that was hidden for most of his earthly ministry. And they saw Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus. This made a deep impression on them. John says in his gospel, "We saw his glory, the glory which he received as the Father's only Son" (Jn 1. 14b). Peter wrote about it in his second letter, "We were there when he was given honour and glory by God the Father, when the voice came to him from the Supreme Glory... We ourselves heard this voice coming from heaven, when we were with him on the holy mountain" (2 Pet. 1. 17-18).

Staying up the Mountain

Peter was so impressed that he wanted to suspend the agenda of suffering Jesus had been speaking about and stay there. We can sense that in his offer to build three shelters, "Lord, how good it is that we are here!" This is even further reinforced in Luke's account where we are told that Moses and Elijah "talked with Jesus about the way in which he would soon fulfil God's purpose by dying in Jerusalem" (Lk. 9.31). 1). Peter is saying, Stay here, Lord! If Moses and Elijah are here, the promises are fulfilled already! Let's all stay here!

Then the voice from the cloud, "This is my own dear Son, with whom I am pleased - listen to him!" And that means hearing for the sake of heeding, listening in order to obey!

As they came down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, "Don't tell anyone about this vision you have seen until the Son of Man has been raised from death."

But they haven't really grasped this dying bit at all. There will be suffering before the glory will be revealed again. But isn't Elijah coming first? Yes, and in fact he has come - in the person of John the Baptist. They didn't recognise him either, but ill-treated him, just as they will also ill-treat the Son of Man.

A Family in Need

But Jesus had come into the world for the sake of human need. He had laid aside his rightful exaltation in glory. He would continue to be submissive and obedient even to the point of death on the cross. And on the way to that redemptive suffering and death, he would continue to minister needy people whose paths crossed his. And if they would be his followers, they too must accept the path of servanthood and suffering.

Having returned to the crowd, Jesus is met by an anxious father. He has brought his epileptic son to the disciples, "but they could not heal him". The boy's problem is further described by Jesus as demonic. We do well to note the comment of one writer, "Those who were 'demon-possessed'... often had physical manifestations resembling epilepsy... However, demon possession is definitely not synonymous either with epilepsy or with mental disorder in general, and is clearly distinguished by the synoptists and in Acts (v. 16) from the general run of disease" (A.P.W. in New Bible Dictionary).

Jesus commanded the demon to leave the boy and at once he was healed.

But of course, the disciples couldn't heal him! It was not a matter of understanding and using the right formula. God is the healer. What they lacked was faith in God. With faith we have no limitations except the will of God.

William James wrote: "Everyone knows on any given day that there are energies slumbering in him which the incitements of that day do not call forth... Compared with what we ought to be, we are only half awake. Our fires are damped, our drafts are checked. We are making use of only a small part of our possible mental and physical resources... Stating the thing broadly, the human individual thus lives far within his limits; he possesses powers of various sorts he habitually fails to use."

Jesus is alive - as one writer put it, "let loose in the world"! No longer is he limited by time and space. There are resources available to us only through him. Let us put our trust in him as our Saviour and step out trusting him as our Lord. He gives us the mountain-top experiences, then calls us into the valleys of service.


© Peter J. Blackburn, Home Hill Uniting Church, 10 February 2001
Except where otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the New International Version, © International Bible Society, 1984.

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