Sunday, February 19, 2023 Transfiguration Sunday

Scripture Readings:      Exodus 24: 12-18

                                       Psalm 2

                                       2 Peter 1: 16-21

                                       Matthew 17:  1-9

“Listen to Him”

I’ve been told I’m not a good listener. And regrettably, when I’m honest with myself, I have to agree. Usually, I’m seen this way because I hear what you say but I don’t do what you say. It doesn’t apparently sink in or I interject with a story of my own.

I am aware of it, and I try to modify the behaviour in myself, trying to catch myself from talking rather than listening. It’s not an easy habit to break and it partly comes down to answering the question “Who do I listen to?”

I think that’s a valid question for all of us. Who do we listen to? And who have we listened to in our life?

I listen to someone I know, someone who I can identify with, who I know knows me, understands me and has something to say that is relevant to my situation, who knows my struggles and pains and aspirations, my hopes and fears. I don’t want to be sick, or in pain, I don’t want to die, as inevitable as that is, I don’t want to see the dearest loved ones in my life suffer or die. I don’t want them to leave me. I don’t even want my lizard or turtle or dog to die or suffer.

I’m not going to listen to someone who hasn’t been where I’ve been, seen what I’ve seen, suffered what I’ve suffered. They just won’t understand. I won’t listen to their platitudes and good words because they are hollow and empty, they don’t come from personal experience, from the trial of real grief. I won’t listen to a magical, transcendental, transfigured Jesus.

And yet, here we have this very unique story of Jesus, told to us in the three synoptic Gospels, Matthew 17:1-8 which we read this morning as well as in Mark 9 and Luke 9 and a reference to it in the second letter of Peter.

This is not a baby in a manger or a child in a carpenter shop in Nazareth. Nor is this an itinerant teacher in Galilee preaching and healing till he is weary for sleep, so much so he can even sleep in the boat through a great storm and when woken by his fearful disciples still have the compassion to calm the storm to appease their faithlessness.

No, this Jesus transfigured on the mountain is not the saviour I relate to when I think of the song “Tell me the stories of Jesus”. This glorious incomprehensible Jesus I can’t quite link to the man, the divine incarnate Son of God who willingly submitted himself to the passion and the cross and the tomb for my sake.

I can relate to all the stories of Jesus in the Gospels because they are so human. They tell me of a Jesus, a God, who would understand me; what I fear and feel and fail in. I would listen to Him. But this glorious, transfigured Jesus, whose “appearance changed from the inside out, right before their eyes. Sunlight poured from his face. His clothes were filled with light” (Matthew 17:2)^[1] how can He relate to me?

And yet, it is here, in all three Gospels, the command from the voice of God the Father spoken from the cloud on the mountain as the Law was given to Moses on Mount Sinai, “Listen to Him”. (5)

“Listen to Him”. Listen to this Jesus in the presence of whom his closest disciples ended up babbling about making prayer booths because they didn’t know what they were saying. Listen to this Jesus who was able to move into a realm of glory and speak with Moses, who represents the Law, and Elijah, who represents the prophets.

And with them Jesus, who himself said in Matthew 5:17 “Don’t suppose for a minute that I have come to demolish the Scriptures—either God’s Law or the Prophets. I’m not here to demolish but to complete.” Jesus the completion of all the Law and the Prophets stands talking with Moses and Elijah and God speaks and says, “Listen to Him.”

To come to grips with this we need, I think, a little perspective.

Starting in Chapter 16 Matthew has related that as Jesus and his disciples are heading for Jerusalem He tells the Pharisees and Sadducees they are “a wicked and adulterous generation [looking] for a sign, but none [would] be given it except the sign of Jonah.” (4)

And he tells his disciples to “guard … against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” (12) Peter declares that Jesus is the Messiah. and “from that time on Jesus … [explains] to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” (21) Peter rebukes Jesus, who tells him “get behind me, Satan!” (23)

Jesus continues “For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done. Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” (27-28)

Chapter 17 begins with “After six days…” and continues into the story of the transfiguration.

Jesus has been preparing his disciples for what was about to happen in Jerusalem. Those who would “not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom” (16:28) were Peter, James and John who would accompany Jesus up the mountain and witness the transfiguration, Jesus coming in his kingdom; his glory.

This miraculous, marvellous event that only a few were privileged to witness was part of this preparation of His disciples for what was coming ahead. But “Coming down the mountain, Jesus swore them to secrecy. “Don’t breathe a word of what you’ve seen. After the Son of Man is raised from the dead, you are free to talk.”” (17:9) You see, this message of the Glorified Jesus, “Listen to Him” wasn’t for the disciples before Jesus resurrection.

So, we ask the question, if the message was only for after, then why the transfiguration before? Why go up on the mountain with three trusted witnesses and let them glimpse the full glory of the risen Christ before He is permanently glorified by His Father being risen from the dead and going to sit at the right hand of God? Why this if they cannot even talk about it with even the other disciples beforehand?

Well, I think the answer to those questions is the same as the answer to my question about listening to a transcendent, transfigured Jesus to whom I couldn’t possibly relate.

The Jesus of the transfiguration is the King and Judge who has the power and authority to accomplish everything God has promised His people, us, me, since the beginning of creation. Only this Jesus, after suffering and dying for my sins and being raised to life has the power to answer my needs in this world as a fallen sinner. He is the Jesus we worship on Easter Morning and celebrate in the Eucharist and turn to in our deepest need. And to accomplish all of this He must be this Glorious all-powerful King enthroned in heaven, the Holy Spirit His agent on earth empowering His people, His body to do His work. How could we have trust in Him to preserve us unto that glorious day if He was anything less?

But here’s the thing; the reason the transfiguration happened before the events of Easter. The Jesus I am to listen to, the Jesus who was briefly transfigured for his three trusted disciples to see, is the Jesus who cried in a manger in Bethlehem. He’s the carpenter who called the fishermen and tax collector to follow Him. He’s the man who wept over Jerusalem, gave sight to the blind, touched and healed lepers, told paralytics to rise and walk, laboured with little sleep, had no secure home or bank account. He was tired, hungry, persecuted, annoyed, disheartened, misunderstood, abandoned and maligned but carried on daily trusting his Father. He was a man who knew more of the pain and suffering of this world than I will ever imagine. If there is anyone who qualifies as someone I should listen to, someone whose been in my shoes, who understands me, it is this Jesus. The transfiguration confirms that this same Jesus who has more than earned the right to have me listen to Him is also the same Jesus who can accomplish everything he tells me He will do.

So often we set Jesus on His throne, which is right, but we forget that this is still the same fully human Jesus who suffered nails in his hands and a spear in his side; who walked beside the sea in Galilee, felt the wind in his hair and the sun on his face. He was hungry, and thirsty and he knew what it was to not know what was going to happen the next moment or where the next meal was coming from. He lived by faith, day by day. Who better to listen to. Who better to follow. The transfiguration tells us that the same Jesus who walked this earth is the man who sits at the right hand of God and who understands our every need and desire.

Listen to Him.

Amen