For Tuesday August 6, 2024: Mystery, Miracle, and Dazzling Milestone
Okay so
there’s The Nativity of Jesus, his Baptism, Crucifixion, Resurrection, and
Ascension…hmm are we missing one significant event in his life?
Well,
let’s go ‘way back to when Moses was having his Divine encounters. When he came
down from Mt. Sinai with the two stone tablets, he had no clue at first that
his face was so radiant the Israelites could barely look at him without being
nearly blinded. After he told them what God had given, he put a veil over his
face, and repeated that act after each time he met with God when he returned to
tell what God had said (Exodus 34:29-35).
Today the
Church Calendar marks the other significant Feast in the life of Jesus and his
disciples, The Transfiguration. As with Moses and the stone tablets, the
Transfiguration of Jesus is at once mystery, miracle, and milestone. Jesus
became a dazzling, shining, glowing, gleaming, shimmering beam of radiant
glory! A momentary, visible metamorphosis. At the top of the mountain, Jesus
becomes the connection, the conduit between human and divine ~ between God and
us. Then, another cloud of God in Glory overshadowed them and again, God spoke
to say, as at his baptism, “This is my Son, my Beloved…” and most importantly
for Peter, James, John, who were present, and for us: “…listen to
him!” These particular kinds of clouds in which God is present, are known
in Judaism as the Shekinah [sheck-in-ah] ~ a feminine Hebrew word for a name of God. It also
translates to "settling or dwelling of the Divine Presence."
The
Transfiguration was a miracle of God in which Jesus was not the one performing
but the one receiving. We don't know if Jesus knew this moment was coming when
he took several of his disciples to the mountain to pray. His three companions
were certainly blasted awake from the sleepiness that was about to overtake
them when suddenly, at the top of the mountain, Jesus was in a near-blinding
all-encompassing cloud, when the temporal and eternal sparked a dazzling
display of transcendent, Majestic Glory, all in the sight of those disciples
who then bore witness to the spectacular event. Moses and Elijah appeared,
representing the Law and the Prophets, spoke with Jesus about his coming
departure at Jerusalem, and quickly vanished. Luke, in the original Greek,
carefully chooses exodus as the word to describe the
coming departure of Jesus. Through this new Exodus, the
departure of Jesus in death and resurrection, a new order, that of
the Messiah is established, leading God's people out of the bondage of sin and
into the true and eternal Promised Land of the Kingdom of Heaven.
The
Transfiguration is a critical piece in the significant events in the life of
Jesus. The others are as mentioned above. It is at this moment that Christ is
confirmed by God as His Chosen to those present. The mission of the
disciples is then fully inaugurated in their own minds and they spend the rest
of their lives in Christ's service, spreading the Gospel. It is this moment, in
this spectacular cloud, that the Reign of Christ, our King, begins. It
is this moment, now, that we must emerge as if from a cloud
to listen, to learn, and to live into the Reign of Jesus by our thoughts, our
words, and our actions. God knows we are marked as Christ's own forever. It's
time that we know it again. As we enter the Cloud of Glory with the disciples,
we emerge with hearts and souls shining with Christ’s radiance to guide us in
the fullness, in the emptiness, and in the ordinary-ness of life here and now
in Christ’s Kingdom on Earth, until the time to cross into the Forever Kingdom
of Heaven.
O Lord, our God, You enjoin us to listen Your Beloved Son who told us do not be afraid. Strengthen us to know the Radiant Christ in our hearts, striving to follow Your Law in faith, with courage and conviction. We ask in the name of the Resurrected Jesus; and the Holy Spirit, Your Divine Voice; who lives and reigns with You as One God, forever and ever. Amen.
To read the Gospel accounts see Matthew
17:1–8, Mark 9:2–8, Luke 9:28–36, and it is also referred to briefly in 2 Peter
1:16–18.
We don’t actually know where the Mount of
Transfiguration is. Mount Tabor has a Church commemorating the event on its
summit at 2000 feet. Mount Hermon is nearly 10,000 feet in elevation so it might
have been there. As with so many Holy Land events, locations are often merely
oral tradition, legend, and supposition. But let us breathe deeply into the story
as told, to imagine, experience, and listen to him!
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