Matthew 17:1-9 "OK, I Give Up"

         A brilliant magician was once performing on an ocean liner. However, every time he did a trick, the ship captain's parrot would yell, "It's a trick. He's a phony. That's not magic."

         Then one evening during a terrible storm, a disastrous thing happened.  The ship pitched and rolled once too often and began to sink – far from land and right in the middle of the magician’s evening performance.  All of the passengers and crew scrambled safely aboard the lifeboats, and a few of them watched in horror as the ocean liner slipped beneath the waves and disappeared. 

         As luck would have it, the parrot and the magician ended up in the same lifeboat. For several days, they floated on the now gently rolling swells of the ocean.  However, the whole time they just glared at each other, neither saying a word to the other.  Finally, the parrot broke the silence.

         "OK, I give up,” the bird said.  “What did you do with the ship?"

         That bird could not rationally explain what had happened. It was too much to comprehend, even for a smart parrot.  And so it is for us when we begin to reflect on this story of the transfiguration. 

          “OK, I give up, “ we say.  “What happened up there on that mountaintop – and whatever does it mean?”

         Well, whatever the “it” was, it happened “six days later” we are told – six days after Jesus had quizzed his disciples on exactly who those folks following him from town to town and village to village as he preached and taught and healed – who they thought he was anyway.  Some were saying he was John the Baptist or one of the great prophets such as Elijah or Jeremiah, come again.

         Then, of course, Jesus had asked point blank just who the disciples thought he was.  Peter, for once, got it right.  “You are the Messiah,” he quipped, and Jesus liked his answer so much that he called Peter a rock, the rock on which some day a church would be built. 

         It was just when Peter was basking in the glow of this particularly benevolent compliment that Jesus blew the lid off of all their expectations – not that he was the Messiah but rather what being the Messiah would entail. 

         You see, Jesus went on to tell them about the journey they all would take to Jerusalem.  He told them it would be there – in the Holy City – that the most unholy thing would happen. 

Under the hateful gaze and catcalls of the temple hotshots, Jesus said, he would die a terrible and ignoble death – which only meant one thing in that day and age – and, guess what, there would be crosses enough for all of them, he went on, should they choose to pick one up. 

         Jesus also told them he would be raised to life in three days, but it was only the death part that grabbed Peter’s attention, maybe because he could not possibly make sense of it in light of all they had hoped and dreamed for in a Messiah.  Anyway, Peter piped up again, this time all hot and bothered - and this time getting it all wrong. 

         “That must never happen to you,“ he declared, which was when Jesus called him not only Satan, but, even more cutting, an obstacle to everything that must occur.  Once again, confusion reigned among the twelve. 

         “OK, I give up.  Who is this man Jesus that we have been partnering with for the past several years?  What’s his shtick anyway?”

          It was six days after all that happened that Jesus took Peter, James, and John along the wilderness trail littered with stones and dust up to the top of a nearby mountain.  He led them on a journey at the end of which they would never be quite the same.   

         You see, when the four of them were alone at the top, all this transfiguration business took place.  First, the Gospel writer tells us, Jesus began to glow.  Soon his face shone like the sun was shining right through him, and finally his clothes turned a sparkling white. 

         Not only that!  In the mere blink of an eye, the Gospel writer goes on, Jesus was not the only one dazzling.  Moses and Elijah – the number one Jewish lawgiver and the crackerjack prophet – the great saviors of Israel - flanked Jesus on either side – like bookends - and the trio was chatting as if they were old buddies, a savior-to-savior conversation of sorts.  What ever were they talking about?

         Ecumenical pastor Russell Rathburn makes one tongue-in-cheek suggestion:  Perhaps they were just catching up, he speculates.  “Like, ‘Jesus, we haven’t seen you since the incarnation, how’s it going down here?’  And Jesus is like, ‘well pretty good — I’m not gonna say there aren’t some problems…but over all not bad.’

        Or are they doing official business? Is there something that Elijah and Moses know that Jesus really needs to know so they have to run down to earth and tell him right quick?

         It could just be to impress Peter, James and John — it’s not just that Moses and Elijah appear with Jesus — Jesus actually knows them. (Maybe) Jesus is saying to Moses, ‘Are they looking? Are they looking? OK, pretend you’re talking to me like we’re old pals and I just said something really funny.’

         And Elijah and Moses go, ‘ha, ha, ha, ha’ and slap Jesus on the back (or) give him a playful punch in the shoulder. Or maybe they’re complimenting him: ‘Jesus, those clothes are whiter then anyone on earth could bleach them — what is your laundry secret?’

         Of course, it probably was not that way at all, but the truth is that we do not know the gist of their conversation, though we do know that what happens next is pretty unbelievable as well.  I mean, right in front of him, two of the greatest figures in all of Jewish history are chatting up our rabbi, and Peter, who has absolutely nothing to add to the conversation, no matter what they were talking about, interrupts them.         

         “Peter’s like, ‘Uh excuse me, uh Jesus….Rabbi, it is really good for us to be here, lemme tell you what I think we should do: Why don’t we make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah? — then you can sit down relax — be a little bit more comfortable while you’re talking.’ Jesus just looks at him; doesn’t say a thing.”  (Rathburn)

         Only then did a cloud enshroud the mountaintop, and out of the cloud came a voice that presumably even Peter recognized as the voice of God Almighty.  “This is my Son,” the voice proclaimed, “my Beloved, the one marked by my love.  Listen to him.”

         And at that, the three disciples threw themselves facedown in the dirt, terrified.  But, hey, how else do you take in such a close encounter with the Holy One?

         And then it was over – except that Peter, James, and John felt Jesus touch their shoulders.  Actually, the Greek word that we translate as “touch” means “fasten or adher to.”

         So – Jesus fastened himself to the three frightened followers, and this time when Peter, James, and John heard a voice, it was his voice speaking – in that special way he had of being gentle and yet oh so strong at the same time.  “Don’t be afraid,” he said.

         And with that phrase echoing in their hearts and minds, they walked down the wilderness trail together, and I like to believe that they really were not afraid because they were fastened to Jesus.  And I like to think deep down inside they knew that they were not alone – even as they traveled into a dark and unknown future together.  And I like to think that the unspoken words among them were:  “The journey has begun.” 

         And that, my friends, is the story of the transfiguration.  “OK, I give up, “ we say.  “What really happened up there on that mountaintop – and whatever does it mean?”

         As far as what actually happened up there on the mountaintop, I, for one,  do not know.  As Methodist pastor Jim Parsons remarks, “We live in a factual world. If we want the answer to a question all we need to do is pull out our phones and find the answer. It is right there in Wikipedia. We want answers to all of our questions and we are as demanding as a three year old as we constantly ask any authority around us, why? Why? Why?

         And the answer “just because” doesn’t cut it anymore. But the truth is what happened on the mountain…doesn’t make sense….(just like) I cannot explain to you with facts and a pie chart how the Holy Spirit is present in the sacrament we are about to partake in. I do not have an answer to how God is God (and how God goes about manifesting that Godly self).  It is a mystery.”

         However, that being said, maybe exactly what happened on that mountaintop is not as important as the meaning of whatever happened there.  And I do have a thought about that.  

         I think the transfiguration is like a preview for a movie.  It is a glimpse of what is to come.  As we get ready to begin Lent on Ash Wednesday this week, this story reminds us of what we will discover at Easter.  This story shows us the ending of our Lenten journey just before it begins. 

         And when we know the ending, we can see that this journey we are about to take – with all its dust and pebbles littered along the way – in all its darkness and unknown twists and turns – is a journey that, if we take it seriously and intentionally, will be one where we will learn oh so much about love – because, in the end, that is really what Easter is all about – love.        

         Jonathan Turtle, who is a pastor in the Anglican Church in Canada, puts it this way:  “For Matthew, love looks like (Jesus, God’s Beloved,) journeying towards death in Jerusalem…For Matthew, to love this Jesus is to listen to this Jesus, even though it means we too will end up picking up our crosses to follow him to his death, and indeed our own death….

         For the next 40 days we have the opportunity to consciously journey with Jesus towards Jerusalem. Are we willing to do this?...Are we willing to love like Jesus? Because this is the way of Jesus. There is no other way. Love looks like a life poured out for others, a life lost….Love looks like Jesus. Specifically love looks like Jesus on the road to Jerusalem. It looks like Jesus hanging on a Roman cross outside of the city walls…And because love looks like Jesus we know that (for us as well) a life poured out, a life lost, is not in fact a life lost. No, it is a life found.”

         “OK, I give up.  Previews of the end, lives lost, love poured out?  All in this one little story?  Seriously, what does this transfiguration business mean?”        

         In the end, I suppose, it means simply that Easter will come – April 20^th – whether we choose to journey through Lent to get there or not.  Easter will come whether we use these next 40 days intentionally or treat them like any other 40 days.  Easter will come whether we commit to deliberately injecting a bit of extra prayer time into our lives or a Bible study or some planned self-reflection or just a few acts of kindness and justice done in a purposeful and considered way.  Easter will come whether we make time for extra loving or not – in our homes, our schools, our workplaces.  Easter will come regardless of what we may - or may not - do.  We all know that.

         But I also know – because of this transfiguration story - that Easter will be all the sweeter for the journey taken to get there.  And the journey will be all the richer knowing that, throughout it all, we are fastened to Jesus and bolstered by his words:  “Don’t be afraid.” And the 40 days of Lent will be all the more profound by remembering the time that Peter, James, and John saw Jesus in dazzling white, and those 40 days will be all the more significant because we know that they saw with their very eyes the ending of the story and that only a God’s love could make that kind of the ending possible.

by Rev. Nancy Foran, Raymond Village Community Church UCC