Shining Through

Luke 9:28-36

Transfiguration, March 2, 2025

Holy Trinity Cathedral

“Shining Through”

This week, a question came up about what is happening in the world.  Is this God’s plan? I find it difficult to discern good news in the suffering of people in conflict, and the disrespect and arrogance displayed by powerful men.  In our dark times, how can we glimpse the light?  Like the first disciples, we are being asked to look beyond human means to the glory of God revealed in Jesus.

God had a plan, but the followers of our Lord had a hard time accepting it.  The gospel of Luke this morning begins with “eight days after these sayings, Jesus took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray” (Luke 9:28).  What sayings?   Jesus has been teaching about the cost of discipleship.  He has been straight with his circle of friends that he is heading into conflict with the religious authorities in understanding the Scriptures and living out the commandments of God.  If he follows the path to Jerusalem, it will lead to his death.  He then predicts that those who believe in him will meet opposition as well, even risking their lives.  It’s a wonder that there were still disciples left after this little pep talk!  Yet a few of his closest friends accompanied him on a hike up to a mountain to pray. 

Mountains are transformative places in scripture.  Seems that individuals can get close to God, not just figuratively but literally.  Remember that it was on Mount Horeb (sometimes called Sinai) that Moses listened to God dictate the Ten Commandments for the people of Israel to follow.  And much later, when the Jewish people had fallen away from their Law, the prophet Elijah fled to that same mountain to get counsel from God. Now Jesus climbs upwards to join briefly with his heavenly Father.  The disciples are witnesses to an encounter that is so terrifying and awesome that they keep silent about it until after the resurrection.  What they see is a foreshadowing of the risen Christ in glory.

The three figures- Moses, Elijah, and Jesus- are united in more than location.  They each shine with holy light. In the Hebrew Scriptures, God proclaims that “no one can see the face of God and live” (Exodus 33:20).  When Moses asks to see his Creator face to face, God protects him by covering the mortal with a divine hand and passing by.  Moses glimpses the retreating glory of God’s back.  This is enough to make Moses’ face shine from within, so much that he has to wear a veil when he goes back down from the mountain to meet with the people.  In the second run-in with God’s glory, Elijah is smart enough to form a facial covering with his cloak before he stands in a crack of the rocks and feels God passing by.  Even so, glory clings to him too; enough that his own followers spot the difference.  Jesus is special, as the disciples find out.  He doesn’t need to hide from the searchlight of God’s holiness.  Instead, the radiance of the divine shines through from within.  Moses the lawgiver and Elijah the prophet stand on either side as the full strength of glory changes the appearance of his face and form.  What the disciples experience is not a transformation: Jesus doesn’t change into someone or something else.  This is not a reflection either, like a mirror from another source.  Instead, it is what we call transfiguration: the true nature of Jesus is shining through, as if a veil were suddenly taken away and the witnesses see the depths of God in the one they called rabbi.  They are seeing Jesus again for the first time as the Christ.

During the pandemic for a good while, everyone needed to wear masks.  I had just started at a new church before the initial lockdowns and protocols occurred.  I had not even met most of my new parishioners before we had to distance and cover up in public spaces.  The cloth coverings hid a lot of information about the person with whom you were interacting.  Were they smiling or upset?  Were they telling you something important or only what they wanted you to hear?  How well were they coping?  I think most of us got better at reading expressions with only a little information and picking up on signals in tone of voice.  But it was surprising to me to finally see the full face of a person that I had only heard on the telephone or known as a pair of worried eyes.  It was much easier to discern what they were really like.

Up to this point, the people around Jesus had sometimes glimpsed the power of God working through what he said and did.  They listened to his words and reached out for healing.  They tasted the food he provided for them and hungered after the vision of God’s future.  But how the kingdom was going to all come about through this one man was beyond their understanding.  Even if he were to be the Son of David and the Messiah of Israel, how could he lead to the restoration of Israel or overturn the Romans?  But unlike Moses and Elijah, who beheld God’s glory, Jesus is God’s glory.  He is the presence and protection of God in our darkened human world.  Those few first disciples were privileged to catch the trailer for what is to come in the post-resurrection moves.  But to get there, Jesus has to still do three things.  One: he has to come back down from the mountaintop.   Two: he has to go to Jerusalem.  And Three: he has to die on the cross.  Only when God’s glory, contained in his person, undergoes this process will the transfiguration be complete, and the risen Christ’s light be free in the world. 

God’s plan is salvation.  All the dark powers of the world can try to work against its completion, but the light is stronger.  The disciples are sworn to secrecy about this unveiling of glory until after the events of Easter.  But then the Word gets out.  Nothing can keep us from the love of God, not even death.  The Holy Spirit makes it possible for all of us to have a part in God’s continuing plan.  We are made into the body of Christ.  We have a part in sharing the light and charting the way forward for the kingdom. What we say and do matters in this world and the next.  The more we can display love in the face of human indifference and malice, the more brightly God’s light will be shining through.  God has a plan and we have a choice: to shine out with love.   Amen.