Luke 9:18-45a
One of my favorite comics was “Ziggy.” I found that I could almost always relate to him and the things that he went through. One comic strip that I cut out of the paper and had tacked on my bulletin board for years until it finally just wore out showed Ziggy standing and looking up at the sky, shouting, “If you’re up there, give me a sign!” And in the next frame there is a giant neon sign sticking by its corner in the ground that says, “I’m here!”
Who among us hasn’t, at one time or another, wished that God would give us a sign that he is up there? A sign that it’s all real? A sign that what we believe in is true? A sign that what we have prayed for might be granted? A sign that the decision we made after seeking God’s will was the right one? A sign that we have done the right thing?
In the scripture passage that begins with Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ and ends with Jesus – again – telling his disciples that he is going to be betrayed, right in the middle of it we find God offering signs and wonders to both Jesus and to three of the disciples, Peter, James, and John, on the mount of Transfiguration. These signs are offered for a number of reasons: to encourage them, to reassure them, to convince them of the truth, to commission them for the next part of the journey, and to verify for them that Jesus was who they believed him to be.
Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Christ is a high point of the gospels. In fact, in the Gospel of Mark, it comes exactly in the middle, the clear hinge point of the story of Jesus. It was an important matter, for Jesus to be sure that his disciples understood who he was and what he had come to do. He knew that his time on this earth was limited – he realized that his enemies were plotting against him and wanted to arrest him and put him to death. And if his followers didn’t get it by now, then he needed to be sure that they figured it out pretty quickly, or his mission would have failed.
Immediately after Peter affirmed his belief that Jesus was the Christ, Jesus said “The Son of Man must suffer and be rejected by the religious authorities and must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” This message was stunning; the Jewish expectations of the Messiah – or Christ – did not include his being arrested and put to death. And then Jesus went on to say that those who followed him must be prepared to deny themselves, take up their own crosses daily and follow him. “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.” Those words should shock us, still, but we have read or heard them so often that we don’t even realize how radical they were, how radical they are. Jesus links discipleship to suffering, perhaps even to death. These are hard teachings.
But about a week later, Jesus invited his three closest friends, Peter, James, and John, to go up a mountain with him to pray. Throughout the Bible, God often chose to reveal himself on mountains. God gave Moses the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. And at the end of his life, God called Moses up a mountain so that he could get a glimpse of the Promised Land, which he would not be permitted to enter. Elijah was on a mountain when he faced off with the prophets of Baal to prove whose God was the true God. And Elijah was on a mountain when he heard God speak to him in a still, small voice.
While they were on the mountain, something amazing happened. The appearance of Jesus’ face changed and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. It reminds me of when Moses met God on the mountain, and his face shone afterwards. Then Moses and Elijah appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus about his departure, in other words, about his death which would soon take place in Jerusalem. The disciples saw this. And Peter, who almost can’t help himself sometimes from the need to say something, offered to build a shelter for Moses, another for Elijah, and another for Jesus. While he was still talking, a cloud came over them all and a voice spoke from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.”
This experience would have been reassuring to the disciples. They must have been anxious about their future, having just been told about how Jesus would be rejected by the religious authorities and that they, too, should be prepared to take up a cross. For one thing, to see Moses and Elijah there would connect Jesus with both the giver of the Law and the most esteemed of the prophets. Jesus the Messiah is the one to whom both the Law and the Prophets point. And I think that seeing Moses and Elijah would have also been a comfort to Jesus, because both of them had also experienced rejection and persecution, but in the end had been vindicated by God. As one commentator put it, “Their presence confirms the prediction of Jesus’s own suffering and death, but also assures his future vindication.” And the second source of reassurance was God’s voice telling them that Jesus was, in fact, his son and that they should listen to him. It was almost the same message that God spoke to Jesus at the time of his baptism, and it would have probably been as much a source of encouragement and blessing to Jesus as it was to the disciples.
In his book, Intense Moments with the Savior, Ken Gire writes about how the Transfiguration affected both the disciples and Jesus:
As he prays, a rush of adrenalin runs through him. Maybe it’s from the climb. Or the claustrophobia. His fate is closing in on him, and he feels as if the hounds of hell have been unleashed, have picked up his scent, and are baying in pursuit… And so he calls to heaven for the strength to face the hounds, the strength to surrender, to give his neck to their ravenous jaws. He prays for the strength to descend the valley of suffering that awaits him. He prays for a ray of hope – however dim, however distant – to help him through the darkness of the days ahead.
Heaven answers, and the ray comes … Blinding in its resplendence, the face of Jesus shines as the noonday sun. Seamless folds of light flow from his garments like so much fabric unfurling from a bolt of shimmering white cloth. The bewildered disciples spring to their feet. Is this a dream? A vision? … the light grows more intense and hurts their eyes. They not only see the light, they feel it. Then they know. It is no dream. It is no vision. It is no hallucination. Until now, the tent of Jesus’ humanity has largely concealed his identity. But now the flap on that tent is lifted, and these privileged three are given a glimpse of his glory.
As their eyes adjust they see Moses and Elijah standing beside Jesus. They stand next to him as men who have also known the wilderness. Also endured suffering. Also experienced the rejection of the very people they were called to lead. How Jesus must have longed to step off that mountain and go with these kindred spirits back to heaven, to return home to his Father and to the honor that was rightfully his. He could have been swept from earth as Elijah had been by a chariot of fire. He could have been delivered as Moses had been by a miraculous exodus. But no chariot comes to whisk him away from his circumstances. No miracles come to provide a way out of his suffering.
How ironic … He who is the fulfillment of the Law and Prophets stands between the greatest lawgiver and the greatest prophet, to be filled by them. Encouraged by them. Strengthened by them. The Savior needs all the strength and encouragement they have to give, for the reality of his death weighs on him heavily. And so for him this moment on the mountain is a sacrament from heaven. A taste of the glory that awaits him.
“This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.” [These words] are what [Jesus] needed to hear three years age before he faced the temptations of the wilderness. And they are what he needs to hear now before he faces the tortures of the cross. He needs to hear those words, but maybe more than the words themselves, he needs to hear the voice. That familiar inflection. That fatherly tone. So rich and resonant. So full of eternity. Just the sound of his Father’s voice infuses him with strength.
“Listen to him.” The message Jesus has been trying to get [the disciples] to hear is a crucial one; he must suffer and die, and they must brace themselves for that reality. He told them this before they climbed the mountain … He would tell them again after they made their descent.
On that day on the mountain the disciples saw Jesus in a way they had never seen him before. Before that day, they saw themselves on a fast camel bound for glory … What they didn’t see was that the road to glory passed through the tunnel of suffering. Jesus asked his disciples to follow him through that tunnel, which connected this life to the next… That’s where the Transfiguration fits in. It was, quite literally, the light at the end of the tunnel – a glimpse of the glory on the other side. The way to that glory is not a road around suffering but through it.
Of course, Jesus and the disciples didn’t stay on the mountain; they couldn’t. They had to come down and continue the journey that had been laid out for Jesus by his Father. He still had work to do, things like healing those with diseases and casting out evil spirits that tormented children. And Jesus would have to keep reminding his followers that he was on the way to being betrayed, arrested, and put to death. And it would continue to be hard for them to understand or accept what he said, even for Peter, James, and John. Because no matter what they had seen up on that mountain, it was hard to imagine once they got back down again.
Has God ever given you a sign? Have you ever seen a wonder that gave you strength or encouragement just when you needed it? Have you ever experienced something that you couldn’t explain but you just knew was something God sent in order to give you comfort or reassurance? I bet you have. I know I have. Not often. But just enough to convince me that those experiences were real and true and sacred.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to work for me like it did for Ziggy. I don’t seem to get signs from God on demand! But sometimes, after prayer and reflection and persistence, God does provide just what I need in order to move forward with confidence and courage. And I know that God does the same for all of his children who ask in faith.
