Matthew 17:1-9
I recently heard someone refer to having a case of
“sphenopalatineganglioneuralgia”. It
sounded horrible. I found myself
wondering if I needed to wash my hands or find a surgical mask. Did the Department of Public Health know
about this? Would there be a study by
the Centers for Disease Control? How
long would the quarantine last? Then I
looked it up. The explanation broke
everything down into its parts:
“spheno-” refers to the sphenoid bone, which is at the front
of your skull;
“-palatine” has to do with your palate, the roof of your
mouth;
“-ganglio” points to the ganglion, a nerve cell; and
“-neuralgia” is nerve pain.
A light went on.
“Sphenopalatineganglioneuralgia” is a nerve pain in the front of your forehead
connected to something in your mouth. In
other words, it’s an “ice cream headache”.
It’s a “brain freeze”. That’s a
minor example of how something confusing or puzzling or mysterious sometimes
all comes together and in one moment, with a flash, it all makes sense.
The disciples who were on the mountain with Jesus, as Matthew
tells about it, had a moment like that.
The revelation that Jesus is God’s Son drew together the whole religious
history of their people, parts of which even seemed to be at odds with one
another at times.
There was a tradition, on the one hand, of respect for the
Law. It’s the kind of religious outlook
that takes very, very seriously the details of worship. It’s the kind of outlook that says to be sure
the colors of the hangings and the altar cloths are the right ones for the
season. It the kind of outlook that
calls us to give God the best of our creative powers, to pay attention to the
music and to wrap all aspects of our daily life in prayer. All of that is good, but it can threaten to
turn inward and move the focus from God to ourselves and what we are
doing.
The other strand looks back to the Prophets and their drive
for social holiness. It embodies the
sense that, by feeding the hungry and providing shelter and generally
performing acts of kindness, we are serving God. At its best it goes even further to encourage
a confrontation with the impulses within society that lead to poverty and exclusion
and injustice. But it can threaten to
turn our eyes away from the part that we ourselves bear in the injustice of the
world or to become judgmental of others, as if we were God.
There are times that the two aspects get split apart, which
is a false division but a common one.
Call them the religious right and the religious left in our day, or the
traditionalists and the progressives, or the evangelicals and the
liberals. There were those then, as
there are those now, who wanted to grab Jesus for their own camp and hear him
say what they wanted to hear.
When the disciples were allowed to see him in his glory,
though, they saw him as the Lord of all.
In him, separate elements of the human experience of God that sometimes
seem at odds are drawn together.
“And he
was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes
became dazzling white. Suddenly there
appeared Moses and Elijah, talking with him.” [Matthew 17:2-3]
It is Jesus who holds
Moses and Elijah, the Law and the Prophets, together. Jesus pulls all of these impulses together in
a way that shines with true holiness.
He could and did point to the goodness of the Law:
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the
law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and
earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the
law until all is accomplished. Therefore,
whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do
the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them
and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your
righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter
the kingdom of heaven.”
[Matthew 5:17-20]
But he never forgot
the love that undergirds it. He knew
that there were times when hungry people would pick grain on the Sabbath. He knew that there would be people who had
sinned who needed forgiveness, not condemnation.
On the other hand, he knew the limits
that the prophetic side had to learn, and could observe it all firsthand. He understood that there were people like the
three he took up the mountain – James and John who were hotheads and ambitious,
(“Sons of Thunder” he called them) who needed to learn humility; and Peter, who
was loyal and steady to a point but in the end could be overcome by fear,
enough to deny that he even knew him. These
were his closest friends. They would be
with him in his most prophetic moments, like when he overturned the tables of
the money changers in the Temple itself, citing the words of Isaiah [56:7]:
“My house shall be called a house of prayer for
all people.”
But, sadly, they would
not be right there when he, who had spoken about loving our enemies, actually
did it, crying out from the cross where he suffered,
“Father, forgive them, for they do not know
what they are doing!” [Luke
23:34]
But they were there at that moment when heaven itself opened
up and the great figures of faith were there, treating him with honor and
respect. It was a moment when he was
given a validation by someone even greater than Moses or Elijah, as
“suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and
from the cloud a voice said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well
pleased; listen to him!”
[Matthew 17:5]
Matthew doesn’t give
a name to that voice, but surely it was the same heard by John the Baptist at
Jesus’ baptism,
“You are my Son, the Beloved, with You I am
well pleased.” [Mark
1:11]
It was the voice of
God, again proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah, the one to whom the traditions of
the Law and the Prophets both pointed, the one who would bring them together.
Jesus’ transfiguration was a moment
where those three, who are people like us, saw in one brilliant glimpse of
God’s glory, that Jesus holds all of human life in the light of God’s
love. Jesus is able to bring all of our
impulses under God’s guidance and control.
Jesus is able to provide us with the balance that makes us truly human,
and to bring us into line with God’s will for the world. Julia Ward Howe wrote,
“In the beauty of the lilies,
Christ was born across the sea
With a glory in his bosom
That transfigures you and me.
As he died to make us holy,
Let us die to make men free.
Our God is marching on.”
She was right. Jesus had within him that which transfigured
him on that mountaintop but which also transfigures us here and now. Personal holiness and the search for a
righteous society don’t need to, and shouldn’t, stand apart. The awareness of God’s holiness and our
sinfulness go hand-in-hand with a sense of God’s mercy for us and for
others. To see the glory of God shining
out from Jesus is also to see it reflected from the people he gathers around
him, and the people to whom he was sent.
So keep your eyes open, but keep
your sunglasses handy, because thanks to him it can get very, very bright.
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