It all becomes clear to me now

 

 Luke 9:28-37 is the Gospel text for Transfiguration Sunday, February 27

 This account holds many meanings, I believe.  All of them are pointed to the Cross of Jesus. 

 Jesus took three of His closest disciples with Him, those who had been with Him since the first day.  Three witnesses provide a true witness in that time and culture, and then some.  Luke’s Gospel wants us to know that this is an authoritative account of Jesus and God in Jesus.

 Jesus’ appearance changed.  His face and His clothing were luminescent.  Something dramatic was happening in and through Jesus in this moment, and whatever it was manifested in some very apparent ways.  Does the writer have your attention yet?

 Now, enter Moses and Elijah.  These young Jewish men knew Moses and Elijah.  Moses, the Law and Agitator of Emperors, the deliverer of the oppressed and speaker with God was with Jesus.  Elijah, the Prophets and confronter of corrupt leaders, truth-teller to the powers that be and persecuted servant of God for doing it was with Jesus.  They represented God’s leadership to God’s people for generations.  They represented God’s authority on earth, until this moment.

 In Luke’s Gospel, it is specified that they spoke to Jesus about what He was going to accomplish in Jerusalem.  The Agitator, Deliverer was now Jesus.  The confronter of corruption and truth-teller was now Jesus, and He was about to be the persecuted servant of God.  They passed the mantle to Jesus, punctuated by God’s own voice declaring that Jesus is the chosen authority now, even in the face of Moses and Elijah, and that the people of God should listen to HIM.  When this was pronounced, Moses and Elijah were no longer on the scene.  Jesus is God’s authority, God’s voice and God’s activity in the lives of God’s people.  He IS the Law and Prophets, and much more.

 Now, the reaction of Peter and the two brothers was predictable.  Out of reverence and awe, they wanted it to be a worship moment.  That was even before God’s voice was heard!  They wanted to bask in the vicarious greatness of Moses and Elijah and Jesus on the mountain, and stay there, even perhaps forever.  But that could not be.  The next line is critical.  “When they had come down from the mountain…” says it all.  This Good News is not meant to be cloistered in and soaked in by a few followers in spiritual ecstasy.  Their witness about that spiritually ecstatic moment was not even to be shared!  No.  They had to come down from the physical and metaphoric mountain to be with the people.  The crowd was waiting, as was the world.  There was work to be done.  Jesus had to be about the business of fulfilling God’s Will of Law and Prophets, Agitation and Deliverance.  He had to speak the truth to power, confront corruption and yes, be persecuted on behalf of God’s children.  The mission was not on the Mountain.  The mission was in the world.

 The Good News of Jesus is not meant to be kept in a “brick and mortar” box, and opened only in the comforting, moving or even ecstatic experiences of worship.  It is meant to be lived in the world to transform the world through a kind of love that the world has not seen apart from it, and which the world most needs.  The world needs the Good News of Jesus to confront the bad news of empire and offer God’s different and better way.  The world needs the Good News of Jesus to agitate those who abuse their power, to speak truth in spite of their lies and confront the corruption of those who only want good things for themselves.  The world needs the Good News of Jesus to transform hearts and minds and thus deliver us from evil and the fruits of evil in the world around us.  The world needs the Good News of Jesus that God loves us so much, that God’s only Son, the beloved, was chosen to teach us a better way – God’s Kingdom way – and die for us to deliver us from Hell on earth and Hell forever.

 If the announcements of Jesus in His hometown synagogue and sermon on the plain did not clarify what the mission of Jesus is in the world according to Luke’s Gospel, this should clear it up.  Jesus is ALL of God’s Word for the World, the Logos made flesh, who has dwelt among us to provide God’s Good News of a better way for us in this part of God’s Kingdom, here and now, and to die in order to take sin’s evil to its death with Him.

 It all comes down to this moment, but really to what will happen next, as Jesus goes to the Cross.  Let’s go with Him this Lenten season and usher in His Good News as our new way of living in this part of God’s Kingdom, here and now.