Glory Revealed

Scripture:  Luke 9:28-36

 Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers of this country and third president of the United States, might be best known for being the author of the Declaration of Independence.   The foundational document famously contains these words: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.”  In the Declaration of Independence, we get a glimpse of Jefferson’s faith.  However, the faith that Thomas Jefferson held is one that deviates greatly from the Christianity that many of us profess and believe today.   We know this, because Thomas Jefferson created his own edit of the gospels.  The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, commonly referred to as the Jefferson Bible, is a work that he composed.  He did this by literally cutting sections out of the four gospels and piecing them together to create one document that Jefferson believed capture the essence of Jesus’ life and teachings.   In doing so Jefferson left out a lot, specifically anything that seemed supernatural, including the resurrection.   Jefferson did this because he personally did not believe in the truth of those elements of the gospel, so he literally removed the parts of the bible he disagreed with.   Needless to say, this morning’s scripture did not make Jefferson’s cut. 

Thomas Jefferson believed that the miracles of Jesus like walking on water were based in superstition not in reality.  His edit of the gospels was his attempt to create what he believed to be a more factual or authentic view of Jesus.  Jefferson is not alone in this.   Since the time of Jefferson there have been scholars who have strived to capture the historical Jesus.  Even to this day, there is a steady trickle of academically minded books that are published to further explore and define the historical Jesus.  A lot of this work focuses heavily on the culture and time that Jesus lived and how these forces shaped Jesus as a man.  Much of the work focused on the historical Jesus defines Jesus only as a person in a particular time and place.  Like Thomas Jefferson, the majority of it discounts the more supernatural elements. 
I do think there is a lot of wisdom to considering the historical context and we can learn a lot from serious scholar inquiry into the culture of Jesus’ time.  However, this morning’s scripture is a reminder that Jesus is more than just a historical figure.   Jesus is more than just a man, and the only way to ignore this is to cut out whole parts of the bible.  This morning’s scripture reminds us that Jesus is the son of God and this morning’s scripture helps us realize how we should relate to Jesus the Christ, when his glory is fully revealed. 
 
 The story of Jesus’ transfiguration is found in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.  While all three gospels have minor differences in the details they emphasize, all three gospels agree on the major details.   All three gospels have Jesus taking Peter, John, and James up a mountain to pray.  While there have been some historical disagreements about where this took place, most biblical scholars today agree that the mountain in question is Mount Hermon.  This is the largest mountain in Northern Israel, reaching over 9,000 feet, and the summit is snowcapped.  This was not just a brief hike.  This morning’s scripture implies that the event of the transfiguration happened at night and woke the disciples up.  So Jesus and the disciples had journeyed aways into the wilderness as they ascended the mountain. 
 
In all three gospels, the story of the transfiguration takes place about one week after Jesus ask his disciples “but what about you?  Who do you say I am?” and Peter answers, “God’s messiah.”   It is then in the transfiguration that Jesu’s glory is revealed.   Jesus meets with Moses, the keeper of the covenant that makes God the God of the Israelites and the Israelites the people of God.   Jesus is revealed as the fulfillment of the covenant.  As God’s messiah it is through Jesus is through him that all people can become God’s people.   While transfigured Jesus meets with Elijah as well.  The prophet Malachi declares that Elijah will come before the day of the Lord, the day that God deals with sin and evil once and for all.  As the messiah, Jesus did this.  His atoning sacrifice defeats sin and death and reconciles us to God.   Just in case Peter, James, and John missed all of this, God the Father even declares this “This is my Son, whom I have chosen, listen to him.” 

It is truly a remarkable scene.  It is a story that is included in these three gospels to explicitly make the point that Jesus is not just another man.   It is a story that confronts us with the divinity of Jesus.   It must have been an incredible sight, and one that was overwhelming.  This morning’s scripture records after it was all over “the disciples kept this to themselves and did not tell anyone at that time what they had seen.”   The gospels make it clear that Peter is not afraid to talk, yet even he is stunned into silence by what he witnessed.  Perhaps, if we put ourselves in the disciples’ shoes it is easy to see why they felt this way, and we get a glimpse of how we can best relate to and interact with Jesus. 

 I can only begin to imagine what witnessing the transfiguration must have been like for Peter, John, and James.   They were woken up by a bright light and a lot of commotion.  I wonder if they were confused at first, unsure if they were dreaming or if this was real life.  All three gospels struggle to convey what the disciples saw, and they all choose different imagery to get the idea across.  Here in the gospel of Luke, the description is that the clothes of Jesus became as bright as a flash of lightning.   One of the details that I wonder about, is how did the disciples know who Jesus was talking to.  The implication is that they must have heard something of the conversation Jesus was having with them to deduce that the two people Jesus was talking to were Moses and Elijah.  Again, I must wonder what was going through the minds of the disciples when they realized this.   Moses is a person they would have been taught to look up to and emulate their whole life.   It truly must have been incredible for them.  It is no wonder they were silent; how could they begin to find the words to describe something so amazing and beyond explanation?

Despite how just awe-inspiring it must have all been, Peter had to say something.  As I already stated, Peter is not afraid to talk, so he interrupts this divine moment to offer to build three shelters, one each for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah.  I especially like how in this morning’s scripture reading, Luke adds a parenthetical comment of “He did not know what he was saying” to drive home the absurdity of what he was offering.   Yet, perhaps we should not be too hard on Peter.  He was likely thinking back to the stories that he had learned in the bible.   Multiple times in the Old Testament, when someone had an encounter with God they would build a structure and give it a special name.   One example of this in Genesis, after Jacob encounter God in a dream, Jacob builds a pillar of rocks and calls the place Bethel, meaning house of God.   Perhaps, that is the kind of thing that Peter had in mind.   Peter wanted to commemorate this event, freeze it in time, and make it a moment of great importance that could be celebrated and venerated for years to come. 

Honestly, we probably are not that different from Peter.  This was a profound, spiritual experience for Peter.  He saw before him the heroes of his faith, and he saw the glory of God messiah fully revealed.   Today, when someone has an encounter that has immense spiritual importance to them or when someone feels the presence of God in a powerful way it is referred to as a mountain top experience.  Often these mountain top experiences become formative in the lives of people.  They become moments that they look back on with fondness and they often hope to recrate that same feeling in the future.  We may not build little monuments to commemorate these moment, but in our memories we certainly enshrine these holy encounters.   In this morning’s scripture Peter wanted to do the same when he had a literal mountain top experience with Jesus.   However, in doing this he kind of missed the point in a couple of ways.  

First, Peter wanted to build these structures to memorialize the transfiguration.  He wanted a lasting monument to the time that Jesus was transformed before him and radiated as brightly as the lightening flashes.  He wanted this spot to be remembered where the glory of the messiah was fully revealed.  The point that Peter misses here, is that for Jesus this was not necessarily anything special.   What changed is how Peter saw Jesus, who Jesus was did not change.  The bright and radiate messiah, chosen by God is who Jesus always has and always has been.  Peter saw Jesus as he is in this morning’s scripture, but that does not mean Jesus was transformed or changed.   The bright, glowing Jesus and the regular Jesus at the beginning and the end of this morning’s scripture are the same person.

This is where I think the quest for the historical Jesus misses the mark.  Jesus the historical man and Jesus the son of God are the same Trying to only focus on the humanity of Jesus while ignoring Jesus as the glorious messiah is an attempt to keep Jesus manageable.   If he is reduced to only a man who managed to have a large influence on history, then Jesus can be just another remarkable historical figure.  A smaller, less magnificent Jesus is easier for us to handle.  It is easier for us to keep Jesus in a nicely contained box in our lives, instead of being overwhelmed by his goodness, his glory, and his grace.  When people take the Thomas Jefferson route and cut out the parts of the bible that point to Jesus’ divinity, then it makes it so they do not have to bow down and worship Jesus as Lord and God.  

There is danger in going the other way as well and only focusing on the divinity of Jesus.  This gets closer to how Peter specifically missed the point.  When we only focus on the glorified version of Jesus, then we overly spiritualize Jesus.  We make Jesus a person that we can only meet in holy places and the only response we can have is one of awe and worship.   However, doing this means we forget the very first thing Jesus said to his disciples- the first thing he said to Peter.   He did not say worship me, he said follow me.   When we focus only on the divine and spiritual side of Jesus, we run the risk of making Jesus a place we come to worship and not a teacher to follow.        

 The second way that Peter missed the point is in how he tried to honor Jesus.   His whole idea of building shelters was misguided, but his heart was in the right place.  He suggested it because he wanted to honor Jesus.  Like Peter we should want to honor Jesus.  We should want to honor him because Jesus is fully God and fully man.   He is the glorious messiah shining like the brightest light and he is the Son of Man who was obedient to the point of death on a cross.  He is the King of kings, the Lord of Lords, the living water, and the Great shepherd.  He is savior who defeated sin and death and he is the great rescuer who brought about forgiveness for each one of us.  He is the son of God whose glory has been revealed.  

We should seek to honor Jesus but building monuments to commemorate a moment is not the best way to honor him.  We do not honor Jesus by building taller steeples or putting religious monuments in public spaces.     Fortunately, in this morning’s scripture we are told the best way to do this.  In fact, it is God the father who tells us this.  The best way we can honor Jesus, as God says, is to “listen to him.” We honor Jesus by listening to him.  

Jesus told us to love God with all of our being and to seek the kingdom of God above all else.  Jesus gave us a new command to love one another, so that we may best learn to care for the needs of the world.  Jesus told us to love our neighbors as ourselves and set an example of love that is sacrificial.  He pointed out the people we should be extending this care and kindness to are the least of these, those who are most in need of care and inclusion.   If we want to honor Jesus then we listen to him and we actually do it. 

 So may we not put Jesus in a box by trying to define him too narrowly.   May we not seek to turn Jesus into a memorial that we only come to when we want to find or relive a mountain top experience.  Instead, may we see Jesus as he truly is, the messiah, the son of God, the savior of the world.   And may, please, listen to him.