Today is the feast of the Transfiguration of Jesus, a key event in the life of Jesus and central in the Synoptic Gospels. In each of these Gospels it is a pivotal transition point for it reveals who Jesus is in his depth and theologically, the Son of God. The story is one of ascending the mountain; entering prayer; Jesus turns to dazzling light; Elijah and Moses appear in conversation; the desire to house, keep the moment, overcomes Peter; the voice is heard, "This is my Beloved Son. Listen to him." The moment ends. This occurs as the midpoint of Jesus' public career in each Gospel.
David Flowers has noted the following moments caught in each of these Gospel accounts.
It is of… importance to notice that each of the Synoptic Gospels places the transfiguration within the same sequence of events:
(1) Peter confesses that Jesus is the Messiah; (2) Jesus commands the disciples not to tell anyone; (3) Jesus predicts his coming suffering, death, and resurrection from the dead; (4) Jesus calls his disciples to follow him sacrificially; (5) the transfiguration; (6) Jesus commands the disciples to keep quiet until after his resurrection; (7) a discussion on the coming of Elijah (except in Luke); (8) the miraculous healing of a demonized boy; and (9) a second prediction of the passion of Christ.
Those who simply seek the historical Jesus too often play light with this moment because it is puzzling to rational historical telling and yet it is deep in its theological content.
Yet any one of us who lives a deep and meaningful life knows there are moments of our transition, our becoming, our inner knowing that are other than rational. There are moments when we see past our factual self to our meaningful self. We are all the poorer if we cannot grasp and honor them.
We get married perhaps, exchange vows, honor them, are tempted elsewhere, figure our ring; remember we are deeper than our drives. Or perhaps we forget this depth, act to our betrayal, see what we have done, who we have hurt, struggle to be reconciled or not. Somewhere in there we taste our depth and wonder at our worth if we are at all people of depth. Even if we have traveled life unmarried, we are often deeply befriended and there are moments we see into ourselves and wonder at our value. So often these are moment when we achieve some hallmark and are invited into our meaning, a degree attained, a child born, a death perhaps, a crisis that causes pause in our routine self.
In the Gospel of John, the last of the Gospels, there is no recorded Transfiguration per se and yet there is the energy of Transfiguration throughout. This final Gospel speaks from the theological meaning of Transfiguration and assumes it a fundamental. God is continually revealing God’s will in Jesus' speech, actions, being. It is the theological motif of this Gospel from its beginning, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.” (1:14).
Thus in the Gospel for Evening Prayer we hear Jesus pray from this place of deep knowing. It occurs as the mysterious final days in Jerusalem open which happens to be the midpoint of John’s Gospel.
"Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—'Father, save me from this hour?' No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name." Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again." The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, "An angel has spoken to him." John 12:27-29
This day celebrates a reality that is fundamental to the Christian faith and beyond the bare bones of a search for the historical Jesus. The inner or eternal Jesus is what we worship, what seeps into us, beckons us through sacred Word and sacrament, desires to inhabit our actions and infuse our heart/minds. This Jesus intends to cooperate with the eternal ordering of creation such that we see the way to be God’s light and life in all our doings offered, forgiven where that is needed, transformed by significance. Thus when I make a vow, act in the world of care and daily commerce, pray and go still, there is offered me meaning and depth.
He means nothing less than to work for our slow progressive change into his likeness.
This is no minor feast.
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