Transfiguration

THE FEAST OF THE TRANSFIGURATION

It is a sad fact of life that all good things must come to an end. Sooner or later we have to come down to earth and face reality.

This I experienced on Tuesday when I returned from two very restful weeks holiday in north-east Greece. Alas, the clear blue waters, the cloudless skies, the quaint Greek villages and the cheap taverna food are now just a memory.

And that is what the Transfiguration was in the lives of Peter, James and John, which we recall on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday as we celebrate The Transfiguration of Our Lord.

It was a memory of an experience. Yet it was a memory that had a profound effect upon the lives of at least one of those disciples, namely Peter, that he was still able to recall it many years later to John Mark, who in turn recorded it in his gospel for posterity. A memorable experience which has been celebrated in the life of the Christian Church for at least the past one thousand years.

What then is the basis of that memorable experience known as the Transfiguration? What was its significance and what is its relevance for us today?

WHAT IS THE EVENT?

The transfiguration is the name given to an historical experience in the lives of Peter, James and John.

We are told that Jesus took these three disciples up a mountain with him in order to pray. Whilst he prayed, his appearance was changed and he was seen to be talking with Moses and Elijah. It was such a wonderful experience that Peter, certainly, did not want to let go of it. So he said "Rabbi, it is good that we are here! Shall we make three shelters, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah?". Then he heard a voice which appeared to come out of the cloud saying "This is my beloved Son, listen to him".

And when he looked again it seemed as if he had been dreaming. He was there, alone, with just Jesus and the other two disciples. So he went down the mountain and returned to the other disciples, carrying the memory of that experience in his mind.

As with all religious experiences, it is always difficult to know what precisely happened, since it is expressed through symbolism because ordinary words appear inadequate.

For instance, it is pointless trying to identify the mountain, whether it is Mt Tabor or Mt Hermon, since it is irrelevant. The point is, that as far as St Mark was concerned, the Jewish audience to which he wrote, believed that God dwelt upon the mountain tops. Hence the Ten Commandments are given to Moses upon Mt Sinai and it is upon Mt Carmel that Elijah challenges the prophets at Baal.

Likewise, we should not be too surprised by the symbolism of cloud, from which the voice appeared to come. Once again, the use of clouds was one of the ways God revealed his presence to the Jewish people. We recall the cloud that led the Jewish people through the wilderness and it was from a cloud that similar words were uttered at the Baptism of Jesus.

Again, if we take the story literally, it is difficult to understand how Peter was able to recognise both Moses and Elijah since he had never previously met them. The point is that the Jews believed that Moses and Elijah representing both the Law and the prophets, would appear at the coming of the Messiah.

As I have already said, it is difficult to know what precisely happened since religious experience is usually expressed through the medium of symbolism which would have been more clearly understood by those to whom the gospel was originally written than by us today.

Nevertheless, there are no grounds for doubting the historicity of the event and this brings me to the second question,

WHAT WAS ITS SIGNIFICANCE?

Now there have been some scholars who have noted the similarity between the appearance of Jesus at the Transfiguration and appearances of Jesus after the Resurrection. As a consequence, they have suggested that what we have here is another resurrection appearance story but it has become dislocated in the gospel narrative. In other words, it ought to be placed with all the other resurrection appearance stories, namely, after the death of Jesus.

Now, whilst they are right to note the similarity of the nature of the appearance, I believe they are wrong in trying to relocate it after the Crucifixion since it misses the whole point of the story of the Transfiguration.

Let me put it like this. The Gospel of St Mark consists of sixteen chapters. Exactly half way through comes the confession by Peter that Jesus is the Messiah. He is immediately told not to tell anyone about this in case it leads to a misunderstanding about what Jesus meant by the word Messiah, namely, that he was to win his victory through weakness and suffering and not through power and military strength. This was alien to Jewish belief and so Jesus warns them about the necessity of the Cross.

Next Jesus takes the three disciples up the mountain to pray, where they have this experience of the appearance of the victorious, resurrected Jesus in glory and triumph. In other words the curtain of Easter Day is lifted and they are given a glimpse of what is to be. True he is to suffer, but that is not the end of the story. They are, if you like, given a preview of the final act of the drama which Jesus is about to play out in the remaining chapters of St Mark's Gospel.

Of course, Peter and his companions want to hang on to this preview and avoid the necessary suffering that must precede it. There would be something wrong if they did not! Hence the desire to prolong the experience and defer, and if possible, the walk down the mountain back into the real world. But the victory that Jesus seeks can only be achieved through suffering. One cannot leapfrog over Good Friday from the Transfiguration to Easter Day.

And that brings me to the third question which I asked, namely:

WHAT IS THE RELEVANCE OF TRANSFIGURATION FOR US TODAY?

The point is simply this, leap frogging is exactly what we want to do so often, rather than face the pain and suffering which is so often necessary before we can experience new life. Like Peter and his companions we want to prolong the experience and not come down the mountain into the real world. We want the joy of new life which Christ offers without the pain and death of the old life.

Let me give you an illustration of what I mean from my recent holiday in Greece.

My wife and I became very friendly with a couple of people from the Midlands. David was 53 years old and had been divorced for 18 months. Diana was 50 years old and had been divorced for 10 years. There was no doubt that they were extremely happy in each other’s company and doubtless they will recall the memory of that experience in the days and months ahead.

However, David was still very much working out the problems which had led to the breakdown of his former marriage. He was still trying to work out the appropriate relationship between looking after his own future well-being and that of his two teenage children who lived at home with him. Therefore, whilst he was anxious to commit himself in marriage to Diana I was encouraging him to defer any such action until he had sorted out his existing problems. I did not wish him to take into a new relationship the unfinished agenda of the former marriage. In other words, I was encouraging him, not to leapfrog from one marriage into another, but rather to go down the mountain; to face the reality of the situation; to endure the pain and suffering that this must necessarily involve, in order that a new life can be allowed to grow and flourish.

Like David and like Peter, we are often given glimpses of what life can be like. The curtain of the future is sometimes lifted to enable us to see how things can be. But then it is dropped again and we are forced to face the reality of the present. For David it was the reality of sorting out the aftermath of his first marriage. For Peter it was the reality of the necessity of suffering and death of the one whom he had just acknowledged as the Messiah.

The purpose of such transfiguration experiences is not just to give us a glimpse, but rather to feed our memories so that they may become a source of strength and encouragement as we face the harsh realities of life ahead of us.

The Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord recalls a historic experience of the apostle Peter whereby he was given a glimpse of the ultimate victory of Christ over death. Such experiences continue to be ours today, also often clothed in symbolic language, whereby we are given a glimpse of the future. However, often much pain and suffering needs to be endured before the dream can become the reality. Nevertheless, in that pain and suffering we are sustained with the memory of what we have been privileged to have glimpsed.

So God continues to impinge upon our lives through these everyday experiences of transfiguration as he did upon the apostle Peter.