Rev. Debbie Cato
Matthew
17:1-13
Fairfield Community Church
February 19 , 2023
God of transfiguring light, show us your Word as
we read the words of Scripture today, so that your will and way can illuminate
our paths. Amen.
A Sign of
the Resurrection
Jesus has just told his disciples that he has to go to
Jerusalem, suffer at the hands of elders and chief priests and scribes. He told
them that he will be killed but on the third day he will be raised from the
dead. He will be resurrected. They had
no way of really understanding what he was telling them. It was out of their realm of anything that
had happened before.
He also told them that “If any wish to
come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow
me. 25 For those who want to save their life will
lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. 26”
What in the world did Jesus mean, take up your
cross? Lose your life? What was He asking of them? What is He asking
of us?
Six days later, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John –
the leaders of the disciples up a high mountain by themselves and he is
transformed. His appearance is
different. This passage is a bit of
mystery. It’s really outside of our
understanding, isn’t it. The dictionary
says that transformed means “to change in outward appearance or form. Or to change so as to glorify or exalt.”[1] Matthew tells us that Jesus’
face shone like the sun, and his clothes became bright as
light. I’ve never seen anyone transform
in that way. Have you?
To make the event even more astonishing, two of the greatest prophets – Elijah and Moses were standing there with Jesus. Imagine! Imagine witnessing Jesus’ standing with Elijah and Moses!
If you remember the story of Elijah, he did not die as
most people do. God brought fire down from the sky
and swept Elijah up. Moses’ death is a little
more “ordinary” if you will, but there is also a bit of a mystery to it. Scripture tells us that God told Moses, “I have let you see the Promised Land with your
eyes, but you will not cross over into it." And Moses the servant of the LORD died there
in Moab, as the LORD had said. God buried Moses in Moab, in the valley opposite
Beth Peor, but to this day no one knows where his grave is.[2] Hmm.
And here these two great prophets stand with Jesus’ in all his glory. What a sight. No wonder Peter is
star-struck. He wants it to last. Let me build
you three tents where you can stay, he says. But God’s voice breaks through and stops
Peter from saying anything more. “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him
I am well pleased; listen to him!”
It’s a reminder of Jesus’ baptism when Jesus rose
from the waters of the Jordan and a voice from heaven said, “This is my
beloved. With Him I am well pleased.” But this time God adds, “Listen
to him!”
Listen to him.
Listen to what he has to say. Listen
to what he has to teach you. Listen to
what he has to say about the coming days.
Listen to him tell you that he is
going to suffer and die and then rise from the dead. Listen to him say that if you are going to
really follow him, you must deny yourself and pick up your cross. You must lose your life. Listen to him.
I think it’s important to clarify what cross-bearing means. It is not a
reference
to accepting suffering in our lives. It is naming the crosses that are bearing down
upon our lives and upon those around us — realities that oppress and disfigure
our lives and that of the whole creation.
Things that defy God’s intentions for us. It means naming and resisting
those forces. Jesus’ teaching on taking up the cross is calling us to name and
resist the many crosses in our environment that defy God’s will for us all. In
our current world, those crosses include racism, sexism, classism, and abuses
of power, to name just a few. When Jesus calls us to take up crosses, he is
calling us to face the tension and anxiety of naming and resisting them, fully
aware that consequences may come our way as a result.[3]
But I wonder what our individual crosses might be in addition to the
“big things” that we all struggle with.
What gets in the way of us as individuals of really following
Jesus? What gets in your way? Of really following His teachings? Of really living the way He calls us to
live? What are the crosses that get in
the way of Fairfield Community Church really being the community of faith that
Christ calls us to be? Not being good
enough? Smart enough? Too old?
Too small? These are important
questions for us to think about as we prepare to enter into this season of
Lent. Important questions for each of us
as individuals and as a community of faith to wrestle with and figure out so we
can fully live into our call as followers of Christ.
In the Transfiguration story, we recognize that the way of God in Jesus is the way of the cross. The story anticipates the transformation of disciples into the image of God in Christ as we listen to Jesus. That transformation is not instantaneous. For us, just as for the first disciples, it takes place over time as we lean into God’s future, by resisting and naming the crosses we detect in our world that disfigure human lives and the life of the whole creation. This will surely bring us into conflict with the status quo, as we witness to God’s power to bring life out of death.[4]
One of the reasons that Matthew writes his
Gospel is because some in his
congregation are losing confidence in the
coming of the kingdom of God. It’s taking too long. Some are drifting away. It’s been 80-90 years since Jesus was
resurrected and ascended to be with God. It’s a long time to wait for Jesus to
return. Matthew shapes the narrative of the first gospel to encourage them to
remain faithful even in the midst of the restlessness of their moment in
history.[5]
In this context, Matthew offers the story
of the transfiguration as a word of assurance. Although the gospel writer
portrays only three people present —Peter, James and John, in many ways the
executive committee of the twelve, Matthew intends the message for the whole community.[6]
The key to the meaning of the event is the transfiguration itself. God reveals Jesus to the three disciples and to the readers of the gospel in the body Jesus will have when God resurrects him. For Matthew, the power of the resurrected Jesus continues to operate in the world but the final and full coming of the kingdom will not occur until Jesus. At the transfiguration, God gives the Matthean church a vision of the future: Jesus as he will be on the day when he returns to complete the work of replacing the old world with the new.
The resurrection is the conclusive sign
that the path of transformation; the path of change towards the new age is
already underway. Matthew wants the church to believe that participation in the
kingdom is worth suffering through the restlessness they are experiencing with
the synagogue down the street and within their own community. Matthew reinforces
this theme through the words, “Listen to him,” that is, “Pay attention to what
Jesus has just told you.
Jesus was faithful even when rejected,
and God resurrected him and will return him. If we persevere, God will be just
as faithful to us – to you and to me. You will be resurrected and will be part
of the new world.”[7] That is a truth we can hold onto. Amen.
[1]Dictionary.com
[2] Deuteronomy 34.
3]
Presbyterian Outlook. Rev. Roger
Gench. February 19, 2023.
[4]
Presbyterian Outlook. Rev. Roger
Gench. February 19, 2023.
[5] https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/transfiguration-of-our-lord/commentary-on-matthew-171-9-6
[6]
https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/transfiguration-of-our-lord/commentary-on-matthew-171-9-6
[7]
https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/transfiguration-of-our-lord/commentary-on-matthew-171-9-6
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