Transfiguration 2023

Matthew 17:1-9

¹Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. ²And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. ³Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. ⁴Then Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."

⁵While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, "This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!" ⁶When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. ⁷But Jesus came and touched them, saying, "Get up and do not be afraid." ⁸And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.

⁹As 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."

Epiphany Concludes

Opinions differ as to whether the Christmas season ends at the Day of Epiphany, at Jesus' Baptism, or at Jesus' Presentation in the Temple. But with Lent beginning next week on Ash Wednesday, without a doubt Transfiguration concludes seasons that formally magnify Jesus as God incarnate and Jesus as light to the world.

One more thing! On Transfiguration we bury the alleluias because we usually don't sing or pray "alleluia" during reflective, penitential Lent.


Transfiguration Dates

The Western Protestant Church celebrates the feast of the Transfiguration on the last Sunday of the Epiphany season; most Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and some Anglican churches celebrate Transfiguration on August 6th. Many Orthodox churches observe Transfiguration for an octave of eight days; the church long has noted particularly important festivals in octaves, so Transfiguration is that important. The Roman Catholic calendar also schedules Transfiguration on the Second Sunday in Lent.


Transfiguration: The Event

Similar to Jesus' Baptism in early January, the Transfiguration famously brings us a Trinitarian theophany, a simultaneous revelation of all three persons of the godhead. Transfiguration in the Greek is "metamorphosis."

Jesus' nativity and his transfiguration bookend this first major portion of the church year. In Christmas or the incarnation, the divine enters the human condition. At the transfiguration, humans Jesus, James, John, and Peter share in divine glory. The light show on the transfiguration mountain (traditionally Mount Tabor, though scripture doesn't say) continues the epiphany theme of light as an aspect of God's revelation.

All three synoptic gospels that view Jesus' ministry in a similar way narrate his Transfiguration:

• Mark 9:2-9
• Matthew 17:1-9
• Luke 9:28-36


Place and Purpose

Throughout scripture, we experience creation as the setting or venue for God's historical activity. Mountains often were arenas of God's self-revelation. Although Mount Tabor is the traditional site of the Transfiguration, scripture doesn't cite a place.

In this passage, Moses represents the Sinai Covenant / Law he received on Mount Sinai [Exodus 20:1-17]; Elijah, who received divine revelation on Mount Carmel [1 Kings 19:12], represents the Prophets. We receive God's fullest self-revelation at Jesus' crucifixion on Mount Calvary.

In his great commission from a mountain at the end of Matthew's gospel, Jesus promises to be with us forever and charges us to teach and baptize all nations.


Interpreting Transfiguration

In Matthew 17:1, "Six days later" comes after Peter's confession of Jesus as the Christ of God, after Jesus' rebuke of Peter as satan. In Luke's account, Succoth, the Feast of Booths–Tabernacles–Tents when people re-enacted God's protection during their wanderings in the exodus desert (Leviticus 23:39-43) has just ended. Because of this, Peter, James, and John may have imagined offering hospitality to Moses and Elijah because their memory of Succoth was fresh.

Traditional and valid interpretations include:

• You can't stay on the mountaintop forever.
• The party needs to end because you need to go back to the daily rhythm of life with its public witness out in the world. The worship ends—the service begins!
• You can't contain God or put god in a box. Martin Luther talked about a domesticated god.
• God is not a place god of one particular locale; God is God of all places, all people, everywhere.


Listen to Jesus

Moses and Elijah appeared on the mountain with Jesus we know as the ultimate word of God, the definitive interpreter of The Law and the Prophets.

v. 5 During their literally seeing Jesus full of brightness, dazzle, bling, and splendor – glory! – the voice out of a cloud (in Hebrew cosmology clouds are icons of the Shekinah, the feminine image of God as Holy Spirit), doesn't suggest "look at him," but this is my Son …listen to him! In a biblical lifestyle, to listen is to hear is to obey.

Listen to Jesus! and don't heed any other cultural, consumer, economic, ecclesiastical voices evokes the Barmen Declaration [1934] from the Confessing Church in Germany in the wake of the idolatry of nazi national socialism:

Jesus Christ, as he is attested to us in Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God whom we have to hear, and whom we have to trust and obey in life and in death.

We reject the false doctrine that there could be areas of our life in which we would not belong to Jesus Christ but to other lords, areas in which we would not need justification and sanctification through him.

• Barmen Declaration text and background


Where We Live

v. 6 Fear overcame the disciples.

v. 7 As Son of God, Jesus touches his disciples and commands them not to be afraid, tells them to get up and live their lives! The cloud of the shekinah, the presence of the divine, may have disappeared from human sight (it had), but this is Matthew's gospel, and Jesus the Son is Emmanuel, God With Us, whose presence equals the presence of the one who sent him. Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ of God, touches, speaks, and commands with all the authority of the Divine.

v. 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." Down in the valley, Jesus teaches and heals for a few more chapters, but ultimately he's on the way to Jerusalem, to the cross, to the empty tomb.

The late Trappist monk Thomas Merton believed not only Jesus was transformed—the disciples also received a transfiguration so they could recognize the divine presence in all persons, in all creation.

Nelson Mandela: "We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us."