Sunday March 6, 2010 Matthew 17:1-9

Welcome, it’s hard to believe that Ash Wednesday is next week already. I’m waiting for spring and that is just another sign. Our text for this Sunday is in Matthew on the Transfiguration. Just prior to this event Jesus and his disciples were discussing who did they think that he was. They told him that the people thought that he was a prophet. He then asked “who do you think I am” and Peter answered the Messiah. Jesus confirms Peter’s announcement but he told them to keep it to themselves. Why? Why not shout it out loud. It is what Israel had been waiting for. The reason, I think, Jesus wanted it quiet was that Israel wanted a Messiah who was going to start the revolution against Rome. If they were God’s chosen people why did Rome, a pagan nation, rule them. They looked back to the glory days of their nation when their own King David had ruled. He had subdued the surrounding pagan nations while increasing his territory and that was their dream now. Jesus wasn’t going to be that kind of Messiah, sure he would fight the battle against evil but it wouldn’t be against Rome. Jesus would fight the evil behind Rome and all other worldly kingdoms. The issue wasn’t necessarily Rome but the dark powers in the world that prompted evil. The indication of this type of Messiahship was his next statement that he must go to Jerusalem and die. A true Jewish Messiah went to Jerusalem to fight with Rome and take control of the Temple, not die on a Roman cross. Peter however, as with the others, didn’t understand. If Jesus was the Messiah, to Jerusalem they would go but for Jesus to die would indicated he was a failed Messiah not a victorious one. They must not understand clearly enough Jesus’ plan of the revolution and that is part of the irony.

V1 Six days later Jesus went up a mountain. Remember when Moses went up Mt Sinai and after six days God started to speak to him? Do we have a new Moses? He had only taken three of the disciples to witness this.

V2 Jesus became transfigured before them. He shone brightly, with his face like the sun. Remember when Moses had come down from Sinai and his face shone so brightly that it scared the people and he had to wear a veil? In the Old Testament the glory of God, the Shekinah (God’s presence), shone so brightly in Solomon’s Temple that no one could enter. When Jesus was born the angels and the glory of God, the Shekinah, shone around them as they announced the birth to the shepherds in the fields. Now the Shekinah is in Jesus transforming his appearance. God is with and within Jesus.

V3 Suddenly Moses and Elijah appeared and talked with Jesus. In the Old Testament Moses and Elijah, a great prophet, had both talked with God on Mt. Sinai. Now they are again on a mountain talking with the presence of God and Jesus who contains that presence. They are discussing the upcoming exodus or rescue event that Jesus will complete in Jerusalem. Remember back a few verses when Peter didn’t think Jesus should go to Jerusalem to die and told him so? This is an affirmation of that prediction. This is the kind of Messiah Jesus must be. Moses had led the first rescue event (exodus) from Egypt (evil) and now Jesus would complete this one.

V4 Peter, probably in shock at what he is seeing, starts to blurt out that he would make three dwellings. The word for dwellings here is tents. This harkens back to the exodus from Egypt when the people lived in tents in the wilderness. God, or his Shekinah, had lived in the tabernacle, a tent with the people. Now Peter would make new tents for them to live in again so God’s presence would be among them.

V5 Interestingly God cuts off Peters babbling by speaking. Can you imagine being interrupted by the voice of God? A bright cloud, in the Old Testament the presence of God, overshadowed them and a voice says “This is my Son the Beloved (from Psalm 2 a coronation of a Davidic King Psalm), with him I am well pleased (from Isaiah 42:1-2 the first servant song in Isaiah) listen to him! (from Deuteronomy 18:15 when Moses told the people a prophet better than him would one day come) So in Gods proclamation we have Jesus as a Davidic King, a servant and a new Moses. The disciples are to forgo their own agendas for this battle and listen to Jesus.

V6-8 At hearing God’s voice the disciples fell to the ground in fear. Jesus came and touched them saying “Get up and do not be afraid”. When people saw God they thought they would die. The disciples probably thought they were going to die. Jesus comforts them. They look up at him and he is standing there looking fine and alone.

V9 As they come off the mountain Jesus orders them to tell no one what they have seen until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead. Jesus throughout the Gospels calls himself the Son of Man. This comes from Daniel 7:13 where the Son of Man, the Jewish people in Daniel, defeat the pagan nations and rule with God seated at his right hand. Jesus is stating that he is the true Israel, not the Jewish nation, and will be the one vindicated by God when God raises him from the dead. This would have really confused the disciples as they thought the resurrection would happen to all people at the end of time. How could they explain the events they had just witnessed when they had no understanding of their meaning? After Jesus’ resurrection as they reflected on these happenings the meaning would be clearer. They would understand the message he was showing them.

How often do we try to make sense out of something that is confusing to us? Maybe we need the perspective of time to understand God’s messages to us. After the resurrection the disciples started to put the pieces together. Jesus entered Jerusalem as a Messiah would. He did take control of the Temple but his message was that the Temple system was dead; it had served its time, it was full of corruption. The presence of God did not reside in the Temple but in Jesus. He was engaging in a battle, not with one pagan nation but with the evil behind all nations. His coronation ceremony consisted of him carrying a crossbeam to his death and his throne was a cross. This is not the revolution the disciples had in mind when Peter declared Jesus to be the Messiah, the Son of the living God.