Matthew 17:1-9
Robert Burns (1759-1796) was a poet best known for “Auld Lang Syne” …the lyrics of which are sung badly every New Year’s Eve.
- No one understands them anyway…because Burns wrote in Scots and not English.
One of his other better-known poems is titled “To a Louse.”
- It was inspired by an occasion when he sat behind a well-dressed woman in church.
- And suddenly spied a creepy crawly he calls a louse on her bonnet…ascending to the top.
- He is both fascinated and repelled by the insect’s journey.
- And he cannot take his eyes away as the insect crawls among the ribbons and bows of her headpiece.
- Burns concludes with the following stanza…I’ll say it in English…not Scotts:
- Which translates to: “If only there were some spiritual power that let us see ourselves as others see us. It would free us from many a blunder and foolish notion. Maybe we wouldn’t spend so much time or take such pride in our appearance.”
Well…maybe we all need to be brought down a peg or two on occasion by getting insight into how we appear to others.
- And…just maybe…a clue about how we appear to God might be found in today’s Transfiguration passage.
Our passage begins with the words “Six days later ….”
- Six days after a surprising moment when Jesus asked his disciples “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
- They reply that he is compared to Elijah…Jeremiah or another prophet.
- But when questioned further about what they think…
- Peter boldly proclaims: “You are the Messiah…the Son of the living God.”
- Which is just fine until Jesus reveals that part of being the Messiah involves suffering.
- Going up to Jerusalem where he will be killed…and on the third day be raised.”
- We all know the story…Peter objects and Jesus rebukes him with harsh language.
- Jesus explains that following him will mean that each of us must pick up our own cross.
It is six days after this exchange that Jesus is transfigured.
- Metamorphosis…is the Greek word for transfiguration.
- It means to be changed in form or appearance.
- When Moses comes down the mountain after speaking to God…his face reflects the light of God.
- That is a change in appearance.
- When a caterpillar is changed into a butterfly…
- That’s a change in both form and appearance.
When Jesus is transfigured…we are seeing a change in appearance.
- His form is unchanged.
- Matthew tells us the face of Jesus shone like the sun.
- We can only look safely at the sun during a total eclipse.
- The glory of God is eclipsed most of the time in Jesus.
- But here on the mountaintop…the apostles can no longer look directly at his face.
It is such an overwhelming moment that Peter…unable to gaze for more than a second at the formerly familiar Jesus…
- Begins babbling about setting up tents or shrines for Jesus and for the two revered figures from history…Moses and Elijah.
- Even more overwhelming is the voice from the bright cloud: “This is my Son…the Beloved…with him I am well pleased…listen to him!”
- So overwhelming that the three apostles fall to the ground…paralyzed with fear.
It is only the words of the no-longer-transfigured Jesus:
- “Get up and do not be afraid” that make it possible for the disciples to raise their eyes.
- The scene ends with the warning from Jesus to say nothing about what happened until after his death and resurrection.
OK then…the glory of Jesus is revealed in such a way that we cannot look directly at Jesus without being forced to look away.
- The Hebrew word for glory is…
- Its root meaning is the word “weight.”
- True glory paralyzes us…as if we found ourselves beneath the pressure of a great weight.
- Sometimes when we meet a person of great accomplishment…
- We find it difficult to speak because we feel the weight of their presence.
In his essay “The Weight of Glory” C.S. Lewis talks about glory and weight.
- Lewis says that we are all immortals.
- Now Liston to this.
- He says that “There are no ordinary You have never talked to a mere mortal.”
- Lewis is talking here about the glory that each of us reflects from its source in the divine light in Jesus.
And so…Lewis suggests that we treat each other as creatures of weight and substance.
- “The load…or weight…or burden of my neighbor’s glory should be laid daily on my back.
- A load so heavy that only humility can carry it…and the backs of the proud will be broken.”
The apostle Paul tells us the way we can metamorphize…he uses exactly that word…into being able to bear each other’s burdens.
- He says: Refuse “to be conformed to this age…but be transformed (metamorphosed) by the renewing of the mind so that you may discern what is the will of God…what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
The first thing Jesus says to his disciples on the way down the mountain is to say nothing about…what has happened up here…until after the resurrection.
- Why is this?
- Because glory for so many of us is assigned to the lightest things.
- The most likes on Facebook.
- Followers on twitter.
- Ratings on television.
- Instead of taking them for the harmless entertainment they might be…we make gods of lightweights.
That is why it is good to take the words of Robert Burns to heart.
- When we preen ourselves for worldly glory…
- Like the woman in his poem: “To A Louse” …
- Without a thought to the little bug of our folly crawling up our own hat.
Let us remember why Jesus had earlier scolded Peter.
- Because he expected Jesus to achieve glory without betrayal and death.
- There is no glory for Jesus without the cross.
- There is no glory for us without recognizing that we are transformed.
- And our glory revealed when we serve each other and lift up each other in the darkest hours.
- And that is the reason we do not always see each other’s true glory…except in glimpses.
Our true weight of glory has not yet been revealed to each other or even to ourselves.
- That glory is present in all of us.
- But to see more clearly…our method of looking must be transfigured…transformed.
The Apostle Paul put it this way:
- When I was a child…I spoke like a child…I thought like a child…I reasoned like a child. When I became an adult…I put an end to childish ways. For now…we see only a reflection…as in a mirror…but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part…then I will know fully…even as I have been fully known.
The suffering we share on our own road to Calvary…carrying our crosses…will help clarify our vision.
- Until we see each other as God sees us.
- Reflecting the light of Christ.
- Bearing the marks of eternal glory.