Today, the Transfiguration of Our Lord, marks the end of the season of Epiphany. The Gospel passage we heard is an especially appropriate bookend because of the way it parallels the beginning of the season.
Epiphany begins with the Baptism of Our Lord. As Jesus rises up out of the water in that Gospel text, a voice from heaven announces, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” Epiphany is the season of revelation, and in his baptism, Jesus is revealed as God’s beloved Son.
As we moved through the season of Epiphany, we continued to learn more about Jesus and the ministry to which he was called. As he invites fishermen and others to follow him as disciples, he is revealed as a leader. As he traveled throughout Galilee, ministering to people who were sick and ill and possessed by demons, he is revealed as someone who brings about healing and wholeness. As he sits with the crowds on the mountain, he is revealed as a preacher and teacher.
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| Photo by Andrea Caramello on Unsplash |
Here, on this last Sunday of Epiphany, Jesus is again revealed as the Son of God, as a voice from a bright cloud above the mountaintop proclaims, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him!” Along with the voice, Jesus is himself cloaked in glory and brightness, and accompanied by Moses and Elijah, giants of the faith. Yes, it is good to be here.
Though the season of Epiphany is ending, there is more revealing to come. Jesus has begun to hint at it in conversations with his disciples, and they are resistant to this revelation, to say the least. In the chapter that precedes this story, Peter makes his confession that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God. But Peter and Jesus have very different ideas about what this means. When Jesus then begins to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised, Peter – yes, the same Peter about whom Jesus just said, “…on this rock I will build my church.” – this Peter responds to Jesus’ revelation by pulling him aside to rebuke him, saying “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” You must never suffer, you must never be killed - that's not what the Messiah is supposed to do! To which Jesus responds, “Get behind me, Satan.”
I understand why the disciples were resistant, and fearful. I understand why Peter wanted to build three dwellings up there on the mountain – certainly, if you had to choose, the transfiguration version of Jesus is easier to celebrate - safe from danger and suffering, dazzling with the glory of God, sharing a mountaintop with rockstars like Moses and Elijah. Like the disciples, I think we, too, find it hard to even imagine how God could choose pain and suffering and sorrow when the alternative is so much…brighter, and safer, and happier.
This resistance, this temptation to hang on to the easy part of the story is why Jesus gives the instructions he does at the end of today’s reading, instructions to tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead. While much has been revealed about Jesus in this season of Epiphany, and in the first half of Matthew’s Gospel, none of these revelations are complete apart from the ultimate revelation that Jesus is not only God, but a suffering, crucified, resurrected God.
As we enter the season of Lent, we too will journey with Jesus to Jerusalem and to the cross. In all that is to come, we find comfort and strength in the presence of Jesus. The same Jesus who was dazzling on the mountaintop also joins us in our own low valleys of suffering and grief, promising that we are never alone. The same Jesus who on the mountaintop came and touched his fearful disciples also reaches out with peace and comfort when we are the ones who are afraid. The same Jesus who was proclaimed to be God’s beloved Son also calls us beloved, assuring us in the waters of baptism that nothing - not displays of glory, or suffering, or even death - nothing can separate us from the love of God.
On the tall, bright mountains and low, shadowy valleys of our lives, Jesus continues to be revealed to us. He is revealed to us in word and water; revealed to us in bread and wine that are for you. In these elements, in these words, in these promises we receive his presence and are strengthened for the journey.
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