FINDINGS II

  

Last Epiphany - A - March 6, 2011

Matthew 17: 1-9    

 

 

 

 

 

  

Harry T. Cook

Matthew 17: 1-9   

Six days later, Jesus took Peter, James and his brother John with him, and brought them in private to a high mountain. His appearance was changed in their very presence, Jesus' face glowing like the sun and his garments glowing as if  lighted from within. Standing with him were Moses and Elijah, and they were talking together. Peter [as if he were stupefied] said to Jesus, "It's really a good thing we're up here with you. We should set up a permanent camp here. And if you want, I will erect three tents, one for you, another for Moses and yet another for Elijah." Peter was still prattling on when a sunlit cloud threw a shadow over them, and voice was heard as if from the cloud: "This is my favored son; I approve of him fully, so listen to him." When they heard that, the disciples fell on their faces because they were seriously afraid. But Jesus came to them and touched them, saying, "Stand up, and do not be afraid." And when they looked up at him, they could see no one else. Only him. As they were on the way down the mountain, Jesus ordered them to say nothing to anyone about what they had seen [and heard?]  -- not until the One Like Us has been raised from the dead." (Translated and paraphrased by Harry T. Cook.)

 

 

 

RUBRIC

 

The vagaries of the church calendar take us several chapters ahead in Matthew to the story of the transfiguration and with it to an accompanying reading from Exodus in which Moses goes up a mountain to receive "the law and commandments." Yahweh speaks to Moses; a voice speaks to Jesus' disciples concerning Jesus. In all three canonical gospel accounts of the transfiguration, Moses is made present, joined in each case by Elijah. In Exodus, Moses enters a cloud. In Matthew, a cloud overshadows Jesus, his three disciples and the ghosts of Moses and Elijah. In the process, it is said that Jesus' appearance was altered (or that he altered it himself, as  exegete C.S. Mann translated metemorphōthā.) When Moses came down from his mountain (as depicted in Exodus 34:29-35) the skin of his face was aglow or shining. Thus in both cases it is established that the mountain is the meeting place of divinity and humanity where divinity delivers and humanity receives. The transfigured faces of the main characters involved are the telling features of the encounters.

 

 

 

WORKSHOP

 

Mark, Matthew and Luke (probably the latter two following the first) have three persons accompany Jesus to the mountain by invitation or conscription. In Mark and Matthew it is "Peter, James and John." In Luke it is "Peter, John and James." Why those three among the proverbial 12? What did they individually and together represent first to Mark, who first placed them in the transfiguration narrative, and to Matthew and Luke? One answer is that they were needed as attesters of an otherworldly experience and were thus required for the narrative. Another proposition is that the event is a retrojection of a post-crucifixion vision experience shared by several of Jesus' followers and is placed midway in the gospel story as an occurrence on the way. A  third possibility is that their presence at the "transfiguration" is an authenticating experience for Peter, James and John -- perhaps considered by the Matthean communities as the top-ranking ones in the original apostolate.

 

Mark, followed by Matthew, has Jesus instruct the three to tell no one of the experience until it would make sense, i.e. after the resurrection when anything would be believable. Luke omits the admonition, though notes that the three "kept silence in those days and told no one any of the things they had seen." (An interesting feature of the "tell no one" and "kept silence" aspects concerns in all cases what Peter, James and John had "seen," not what they had heard. Furthermore, the voice as if from the cloud commanded attention to what the beloved son would "say." There may be nothing to this whatsoever, but to the exegete it is a curiosity worth pondering.)

 

Luke's use of the "in those days" self-limitation on the part of the disciples suggests that eventually they would feel compelled to tell not only what they had seen but what they had heard at such time as those stimuli would resonate with events to come.

 

The glowing face or altered countenance is clearly a sign that the writer wanted the reader to understand that Jesus had been in close proximity to the shekinah -- or lively sense of the presence of Yahweh, a force with which to reckon.

 

The most engaging aspect of the transfiguration narrative is undoubtedly the placing in it of Moses and Elijah -- the lawgiver and the law's interpreter. A returning of Elijah, who is said not actually to have died but to have been taken bodily into the heavens, was to herald messiah's coming as the fulfillment of the prophetic promise. In what better company could Jesus be placed if the one doing the placing is making a case for his being messiah. Some who have studied this passage suggest that the synoptic evangelists in placing Moses and Jesus together -- in conversation, no less -- is meant to convey Jesus as the fulfillment also of Torah.

 

All three synoptic evangelists precede the transfiguration narrative with a passion prediction (Mark 8:31-33, Matthew 16:21-23 and Luke 9:18-22) and an exhortation to discipleship (Mark 8:34-9:1, Matthew 16L24-28 and Luke 9:23-27).

 

 

 

HOMILETIC COMMENTARY

 

If the transfiguration is a retrojection of a post-crucifixion vision event in the life of an early community of Jesus Judaism, it may be that what is transfigured is not so much a singular messianic figure but the community gathered around his memory and his message. Such a community as is animated by the countercultural wisdom of the cheek turned, the second mile walked, the shirt given off one's back, the persistence of forgiveness, the love of enemy. Such a community might be said to have a collective halo hovering over it, or its appearance perceived as one glowing in a world otherwise darkened by blow-for-blow violence, grudging obedience, grasping economics, tightly held grudges and inveterate hatred of the opposition.

 

It's a transfiguration that could cause others to say, "These people have the pearl of great price. They've figured out how life can be good, how they can be good. We ought to listen to them."

 


 


� Copyright 2011, Harry T. Cook. All rights reserved. This article may not be used or reproduced without proper credit.


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