Jesus glows really bright and stuff … He’s shiny … and yes that’s a Firefly pun.
Mark 9:2-9; 2 Corinthians 4:3-6; Psalm 50:1-6; 2 Kings 2:1-12
Today is the day we celebrate Jesus’ transfiguration on the top of an unnamed mountain. It’s a relatively minor event in the grand scheme of things, though it makes perfect sense in the course of what’s going on in Mark’s gospel. You see, the way our readings work, Transfiguration Sunday ends up a little bit out of place with Mark’s narrative, so let me fill in the blanks a bit.
We’re just over the halfway point in Mark, as Jesus is on the way to Jerusalem. Immediately prior to this scene, Jesus had asked his disciples who people say he is. They responded that he’s John the Baptist back from the dead, or Elijah, or a prophet like the prophets of old. Then he asked who the disciples think he is, and Peter replied that Jesus is the Messiah. After this, Jesus started to teach them exactly what it would mean to be the Messiah, and Peter, not liking this view of the Messiah very much, started to tell Jesus off, only to be told off himself.
Six days after this, Jesus, Peter, James, and John went up on the mountain, and Jesus started to shine, and Moses and Elijah showed up next to him and they started having a chat. Why Moses and Elijah you might ask? Well, Moses was the one who gave the people the Law, and Elijah was considered the greatest of all the prophets. So, Jesus is talking to the two most important people in the Jewish religion.
At this point, Peter finds himself scared stupid. It’s kind of an odd way to think of it, but that’s really the best way to describe it. He was so frightened and awe-struck that he basically lost all control of his mouth, not that he had much control over it to begin with. So he says, “Hey I know! Let’s build three tents, one for each of you, and just stay up here for a while.” Then, a voice said, “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to Him!” And, as soon as they appeared, everyone left, and the four left the mountain with instructions not to mention this until Jesus’ resurrection.
The transfiguration serves as a direct response to Peter’s just not getting what the Messiah is all about. When you look at the way these two passages are put together, you have, in essence, two sides of who the Messiah is: firstly, the messiah will “suffer many things… and that he must be killed and after three days rise again; secondly, the Messiah really is the Son of God, and is not just an “ordinary” human. The transfiguration fulfilled Peter’s expectations of who the Messiah is. Look at the words that God spoke, “This is my son… Listen to him.” Peter, who had just spent the previous scene not listening to Jesus, would hear these words clearly. It really seems like in these two scenes, Peter finally gets who Jesus is.
I’ve always appreciated that, in the church year, Transfiguration Sunday is what leads us into Lent. Just like Peter, we get to see Jesus in his glory before he starts to look rather like, as he’s described in Isaiah, a sheep led to the slaughter. And yet, because of the teaching earlier, we know that his betrayal, arrest, and trial are exactly why Jesus is here at all. We know he isn’t simply a failed teacher, or a revolutionary who got a little bit too uppity, instead he is the Son of God, and the ultimate sacrifice for us.