Scripture/Sermon of the Day. February 19, 2023

Matthew 17:1-9

The Transfiguration

Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. 2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became bright as light. 3 Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. 4 Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will set up three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 5 While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” 6 When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. 7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” 8 And when they raised their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.

9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

Reflection/Sermon:

I. Who can say what this means? It sounds like a dream — the kind of dream where you wake up sweating and your heart racing. Maybe a headache too. You stumble out of bed half-asleep, walk to the bathroom, open the medicine cabinet behind the mirror and reach for the plastic bottle where you think the Tylenol are and shake out two on your hand kind-of hoping it’s the Tylenol and not the Oxy-Contin for the hernia surgery you had last year but you’re so groggy you don’t care so you take the pills and stumble back to bed in the dark and hope you don’t have another dream like that. Because — things like this don’t really happen, right?

II. It is passages like this, which we call The Transfiguration, that made church leaders decide to keep the Bibles out of the common person’s hands. Until Martin Luther and the sixteenth century, Bibles were not available to people but only to church leaders because there was a concern, rightfully, that people would misuse the scriptures and in the untrained hands, they would be “weaponized.”

The Catholic, Franciscan Priest, Fr. Richard Rohr, says in a recent book on the Sermon On The Mount: “The Bible is the most controversial book in print. It has done an immense amount of good. At the same time — it probably has caused more damage than any other book in human history. If we look at history, we see how many Christians acted in oppressive, senseless, and rigid ways in the name of Jesus and the gospel — because they didn’t understand Jesus.”

For sixteen hundred years, people could not own or read the Bible. Unfortunately, the people who were allowed to own and read it, the priests, also abused it and millions of people through history have been killed because of their misinterpretations and abuses.
And to this day it is still a book that does an immense amount of good, and is more dangerous then any other.

III. Notice, as you read the gospels — Jesus didn’t write anything on any material that could be preserved. And in today’s reading, he told the men with him not to tell any one what they experienced. “Tell no one,” Jesus said, “Until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

But now we have to interpret that — “raised from the dead?” Does he mean the resurrection? Well — what is that? Can anyone agree about what that is? Or — is “raised from the dead” the same as being “born again?” But even Nicodemus, a leader of the Pharisees and Bible expert couldn’t understand what Jesus meant.

IV. The disciples who saw the Transfiguration didn’t understand it. Monks in Buddhist monasteries study their scriptures for years, and still don’t know the meaning of what they hear the master read and interpret. When I lived in the Trappist monastery in Dubuque, Iowa — New Melleray Abbey — I got to know, over the three months I was there, some of the monks. One especially was “transfigured.” He had the light — you could see Christ in him, though he looked so normal. I had a conversation with one of the monks there and he confirmed my impression or this monk — Fr. Wilson. But he said there were monks in the community who were “just serving time.” He said that being in place of a high intensity spiritual practice didn’t guarantee a person would grow spiritually. Ultimately, he said, being transfigured —changed from the inside out — is not in our control — it’s a grace from God.

V. Maybe, like us, the disciples saw Jesus transfigured and didn’t understand what had happened.

And maybe we don’t understand the spiritual world either. BUT WE BELIEVE that God intends for each of us to be transfigured into the image of God that is deep within us, which we call Jesus Christ.

VI. For now, like the disciples, we have to come back down to earth. The view from the mountain top is amazing, but Jesus says we have to come down. Jesus’ first encounter when he reached the bottom was with the devil. Then Jesus told the disciples that he must suffer and die, and they would too.

What’s most remarkable is in this story is the lesson that while we are “down” here, encountering the devil, struggling, suffering, even dying — THE TRANSFIGURATION IS HAPPENING TO US. By God’s grace, the light of Jesus shines through our lives.

But — don’t tell anyone.