Listen to Him - Stepping forward from the Dazzle

2 Peter 1: 16 – 21

Matthew 17: 1 - 9

Have you ever been dazzled? 

I think about the time that my husband decided to drive through Manhattan at 11:30 p.m. in our ancient Ford Expedition with the kids sprawled out in back, windows down…right through Times Square.

I hate traffic.  I hate navigating unfamiliar roads.  These wild hairs he occasionally gets are full-blown anxiety inducing.

But it was also AMAZING.  It is amazing to stand in Times Square in the crush of the crowd….but here we were basically hanging out the windows cruising Times Square…taking it in at about 25 mph.

It was dazzling.  But fleeting.  It was a moment in time.

I think about more dazzling moments.  This past summer, we drove down the California coast in a convertible…like you should.  And I witnessed a breathtaking sunset every night of that trip.  

And they were dazzling.

But fleeting.

A moment in time.   

Yet I could trust the sun would set again.  I finally convinced myself to stop looking that the sky through my camera lens. Because another sunset would show up.  I would be dazzled again. And I could have the dazzling image in my heart as well as I could have it on my camera.

Because the sun rises again every morning.

This week in the life of the church we mark the transfiguration, a specific event that we can read about in Matthew, Mark and Luke…and while there is no “transfiguration event” in John, who would have been a witness to the event, John’s account of Jesus is always transfigured – beginning with the light that comes into the world. 

The transfiguration is a bridge.  A bridge between the season after the Epiphany, when we have been watching for how Jesus’s “Christ-ness”, his divineness, is revealed to us in his ministry and teachings, and the season of Lent, a time when we are pondering our own mortality, our own fleeting nature…while walking toward Jesus’s trial and death on a cross.

And for three weeks, we have been dwelling in Jesus’s sermon on the mount.  So much happens atop a hill of importance.  He’s been teaching on a mount, now he’s praying on a mount…and we’ll end lent with him being crucified on a hill as well.

There is something about elevation that matters.

So…Jesus takes Peter, James and John up the mountainside with him.  Perhaps you have noticed over the years Jesus’s habit of separating himself from the crowds, sometimes completely alone, sometimes with his key leaders, to pray and to be with God. To rest and to be restored. To be refreshed.  Perhaps to see things in a new light.

And that is what happens for Peter, James and John.  Jesus is shiny, dazzling.  His face shone like the sun.  And as if that was not enough, there also appear Moses and Elijah.  Jesus is seen among the great prophets.

For the nerdy bible study types among us, let’s ponder a few key reasons that the appearance of Moses and Elijah specifically are noteworthy.  Last week, the Deuteronomy text we visited was part of Moses parting words to the Israelites that he had led through so much.  He is not going with them into the promised land, because God has told him he will die instead.  While healthy in body, God announces he cannot join the Israelites in this crossing. And yet, later in the Hebrew narrative, we learn that no one knows where Moses body finally rested because God actually buried him…as God’s act of devotion for who Moses had been.

And Elijah passes the mantle – a spirit of prophecy - to Elisha and is then swept away in a chariot into the sky without explanation, without seeming reason.

And so for Jesus to appear with these two might be understood as a foreshadow of some untimely departure.  Or some gateway to a new witness.  This story dazzles….in more ways than one.

Pay attention.

There are limited words in this text.  But each one has weight.

We have three key messages here.

The first:
“This is my son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

We’ve heard that once before…at baptism.  Which I would note is DOWN in a river.  And here we hear the same words UP on the mountain. It’s like – to be clear, at all elevations, this is my son.

But that’s just my bible geekiness showing up.

So….Once again there is a heavenly proclamation of who this person Jesus is. But it doesn’t stop there like it does at the baptism.

The voice goes on with a command.

“Listen to him.”

This is the second key message – listen.

Now the command to “listen” is a funny one.  Because there is listening…like hearing.  And there is LISTENING. Remember, we talked about this way back in the fall.  Listening to understand is really different than listening so that you can answer. 

I like to listen to podcasts and audible books when I drive.  But I do find that often I am hearing BUT NOT ABSORBING.  Because my heart and my mind are elsewhere. 

God’s commanding a more active form of “listen” here.

This particular episode of the transfiguration in Matthew’s gospel happens right after an exchange with the Pharisees and the Sadduccees.  They’ve asked for a sign, some way Jesus might prove his claims….and Jesus basically sends them packing.  He knows that no matter what he says or does, their doubts and questions remain. Every request for a sign is a trick.

And then right after that exchange, Jesus arrives in Caesarea and asks Peter “who do YOU say I am…” And Peter responds, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Then in just the next frame, maybe 50 words later, Jesus describes the suffering he must endure, and Peter denies it, earning Jesus’ rebuke – Get behind my Satan – you are setting your mind not on divine things, but human things.

It would seem Jesus is accustomed to people not really yet understanding.

So it is as if, this moment of transfiguration serves as an exclamation point.

And it is as if that exclamation point is about really understanding.

Listening to learn.  Listening to follow.

This is my Son, the Beloved.

Listen to him.

The disciples are so blown away that they fall to the ground, overcome with fear.

And here is the third key message – this time from Jesus.

He comes to the three men and touches them. And there on the mountaintop he says to them, “Get up and do not be afraid.”

Just 250 words prior, Jesus described to his beloved Peter the suffering that he must endure.  And now, with the touch of his hand he offers the comfort…get up and do not be afraid.

Just moments before they were dazzled.

But the dazzle isn’t going to last.

Here we are at the brink of the Lenten season.  Most of us have walked this road before.  40 days of remembering how imperfect we can be, how much we do not know or understand.

But we can receive this moment, this transfiguration moment as instruction for what matters most.

This is my son, the beloved.

Listen to him.

Get up and do not be afraid.

As we prepare to once again walk toward Jerusalem and the cross, we prepare to look at our own failed understandings, our own distractions, our own separation from the God who also calls us beloved.

We’re called to step forward into it all, recognizing the power of Christ who leads us forward, to whom we are called to listen.  We are called to step forward and not be afraid.

Because we know how the story ends.  Peter, James and John did not.

We do.

We know that Sunday’s coming.  That resurrection happens. That death returns life.

There is temptation to be dazzled by the moment in front of us.  That glorious Sunset.  Because the next step after that dazzling sunset is mostly darkness.  But the sun rises again. 

Yes, play with the spelling on that.  The SUN (S – U – N) and S – O – N rises again.

We will keep seeing dazzling moments of God with us. We are promised that.

Let’s step into Lent together.

This is my Son, the beloved, in whom I am well pleased.

Listen to him.

Get up and do not be afraid.

May it be so.

Amen.

Sources: Sermon Brainwave Podcast, WorkingPreacher.org, and commentary on Matthew 17: 1 – 9 by Eric Barreto at WorkingPreacher.org.

Image credit – Times Square: wallpaperwide.com