Readings:
Sermon:
For many New Testament scholars, the story which is our Gospel reading today from Mark chapter 9, is a turning point in the life of Jesus. One such scholar, Wilhelm Wrede, at the beginning of the 20th Century saw what he called the ‘Messianic Secret’ in Mark’s Gospel. And he said that before the Transfiguration - that is our Gospel reading story today - Jesus wanted to keep his identity a secret as much as was possible and for as long as he could.
For example, he told those he had helped such as Jairus, a synagogue ruler – whose daughter was raised from the dead in Mark chapter 5 – not to let anyone know about this. Fat chance of that, I guess! Wrede believed that Jesus did not want anyone to know who He really was until the right time. And yet Jesus did some extraordinary things which would have made many people think that HE was extraordinary.
In the early chapters of Mark’s Gospel, apart from raising Jairus’s daughter, Jesus healed a man with leprosy and also a paralysed man - and then he drove out evil spirits on not just one but on two occasions, as well as calming the storm, when he was in the boat with his disciples. And THEY had to wake him up when He was asleep in spite of the storm, and He spoke to the storm and calmed it. In fact, the Greek word used by Jesus when addressing the storm is from the verb ‘to muzzle’, like someone would do to a wild animal that wants to bite. When He did that miracle, the disciples were terrified and asked each other, ‘Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey Him!’
How could He ask and expect that they keep these things to themselves - and why? I guess that He didn’t want to spend all His time doing those things – miracles – however good they were – however amazing they were - because He had come to teach them too, but above all He was going to go to Jerusalem – to give his life as a ransom for many – to be the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world – to be the saviour of the world. And THIS was his main goal. He needed to keep focused and not be side-tracked by other things, which were still very important but not the most urgent thing on His agenda – and I guess sometimes WE spend too much time on things that are good but are not ultimately VERY good – we should do those things that are the very best for us and for those we share our lives with. IF Jesus had allowed those he helped, to freely spread the word about him, which of course we would see - as both natural and a great means of evangelism – then He would not have been free to travel where He wanted to go and to achieve what He really wanted to achieve.
And, so to Mark chapter 9, the turning point in Jesus’ life, according to many scholars and possibly to Mark himself, who tells HIS version of the Gospel story.
The Transfiguration is when Jesus appears to the 3 disciples - Peter, James and John - and they see Him in ALL His Glory. Now this appears to be the time for them to really know who He is. This is a mountain top experience, and we could be forgiven for thinking that after THIS – as he travels towards Jerusalem – that it is all downhill to the tragic end of Jesus’ life and then just maybe, hopefully – something else to come, that might lift us out of the doom and gloom – could there be light at the end of this tunnel?
We know, of course, that Jesus who suffered and died, rose again. And with hindsight – and with faith – Jesus IS alive and is the means of our salvation: the one who died to forgive us and to take away our sins. We know that we are saved from the penalty for our sin which is death - and we are destined to share in His Glory in heaven, because of what He did for us.
And it happened on a mountain – on the Mount of Calvary.
As we see Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration in Mark chapter 9 we might be forgiven for thinking that THIS is THE Mountain top Glory moment - and certainly NOT what happened on Calvary. On the mountain in Mark chapter 9 we see him with his face radiant, on Calvary we see him with his face marred.
On the mountain in Mark chapter 9 we see Him revealed as the Son of God – the Lord – someone who the voice from heaven says that we should listen to. On Calvary we seem him despised and rejected by men, with little voice left, to speak – but what He does is so much more than words.
The Mountain-top experience in Mark chapter 9 – the Transfiguration - points forward - to another mountain-top experience on Calvary.
On THIS mountain, the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter, James and John must have thought ‘Who is this?’ Well, He is the son of God – God in human form.
But the glory of the Transfiguration is replaced with the Glory of the cross – yes, Glory - because the cross is not a defeat - but a victory.
The American theologian, Jared Garcia, explores the terrible events leading up to Jesus’ resurrection — and why we can call his crucifixion the “glory of the cross.” He reminds us that, ‘Just days before his death, Jesus says, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified”. And in John’s Gospel, the death of Jesus initiates his glorification.
But I would suggest that we might see here in Mark’s Gospel that the Transfiguration is the initiation of his glorification, as this mountain top experience is a turning point - and it leads to and points to another mountain-top experience.
Jared Garcia goes on to say, ‘When Jesus says he will be ‘lifted up’, this is a wordplay. He’s saying two things at once. First, literally, Jesus will be lifted up physically on the cross as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. But second, Jesus is going to be lifted up figuratively - raised in the estimation of people to a place of exaltation, a place of glory.
The glory of the Transfiguration is surpassed by the glory of the Cross.
When we think about what Jesus did for US – do we think of a small group of his disciples – on the Mount of Transfiguration – together with Moses and Elijah – however amazing that was for them - or do we think of all those – ourselves included – who look to the cross – look to another mountain where we see the marred and anguished face of our Saviour, with blood running down his brow from that mockery of a crown of thorns upon his head and blood from many wounds on his scarred and broken body? His blood was shed for us.
Could THEY, those three disciples, have imagined, when they were watching Jesus glorified on the mountain in Mark chapter 9, and they saw his clothes become dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them, that before too long they would see his body made crimson red with his blood on that other mountain?
This MAY have been a turning point in the Gospel as Jesus changed his direction towards that other mountain, but the turning point for Peter, James and John AND the others, really came AFTER the cross and resurrection.
On the way down from the Mount of Transfiguration Jesus again says, ‘Don’t tell anyone’. In verse 9, the final verse of our Gospel reading for today, we read that ‘Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until…the Son of Man had risen from the dead.’ Why? Well would anyone have believed them, I wonder – until they had seen what happened on that other mountain and then at Easter?
Sometimes WE have to be very careful what we say - until it is the right time – until it is the time when people are ready to HEAR what we have to say – but let’s not make that an excuse for why we don’t tell people about Jesus – but maybe, I would suggest, it may not be best place to start, with the Transfiguration!
And if we do - then let us remember that the Transfiguration story comes just before the start of Lent in our Church Lectionary – and it helps us to look from one mountain towards another mountain as, we prepare ourselves, during Lent - for the crucifixion and then it is only after the resurrection of Jesus we can look back to that other mountain and say, ‘Yes – THIS Jesus – who was lifted up on the cross and then raised from death and glorified - is that same Jesus, who as the Son of God was glorified on the Mount of Transfiguration.
Questions:
- How do we respond to the question asked by the disciples in the boat about Jesus, ‘Who is this?’
- What do we think was the purpose of Jesus’ Transfiguration?
- In what ways can we understand the crucifixion as the ‘Glory of the Cross’?