The Point of the Glory
Mark 9.2-9
February 11, 2024
Transfiguration B
Scott Hoezee relates that once, when he was at a conference at Emory University, he heard a speaker who was an expert on Russia. The professor told of an experience he had in Moscow while attending Sunday morning worship at a Russian Orthodox cathedral. As was customary, the worshipers all stood for the entire service. As is also typical of the Orthodox tradition, this soaring cathedral’s ceiling and walls were covered almost 100% with icons, bright paintings depicting the apostles, John the Baptist, the Virgin Mary, and of course the Lord Jesus Christ himself. At one point early in the service, the professor from Emory was staring up at some of the icons/paintings on the ceiling, admiring their beauty. Suddenly he felt someone whack him on the shoulder from behind. Turning around, he saw an older man who then said to him, “You are disturbing the worship: this is not a museum!” The Orthodox claim that they most certainly do not worship the icons nor do they merely admire them. Rather icons are windows on the divine,[windows opening on heaven]: [they reveal the spiritual reality which they depict;] you worship God by seeing God through them. The professor merely staring at the icons was [not only] messing up [other people’s] worship; [https://cep.calvinseminary.edu/sermon-starters/easter-4c-2/?type=the_lectionary_gospel] the professor was also missing the point of the icons.
Now, I must confess, I too have been guilty of missing the point. I am drawn to Orthodox icons—there’s something about the highly stylized artwork and the scriptural symbolism that connects with me. But the point is not to admire the art or even to comprehend the theology. The point is to be drawn into eternity, into the Divine presence. I’ve been spiritually moved by icons, but I don’t think I’ve looked through them and beheld the glory of God.
So, perhaps we shouldn’t be too hard on Peter for his reaction to the miraculous vision he beholds, with James and John, after going up a mountain with Jesus. The Transfiguration story portrays Jesus as something of a living, flesh and blood icon: you can see God through him. Jesus is aglow with Divine glory, radiant with the beauty of God, illuminated by God who is light—thus revealing his own divine identity. This is indeed the big reveal. The Transfiguration reveals Jesus to be God incarnate, the very image of God, as Paul puts it, in whose face we see the glory of God. [2 Cor 4.4, 6] This event redefines the term “Son of God” from a reference to a messianic king, a sort of Davidic liberator, into a reference to “the divinity of Christ, his divine nature,” his divine origin, his divine power and inherent divine authority. [William Placer, Mark, Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible, e-book edition, location 2600; Placher is paraphrasing a passage from Rudolph Bultman’s Theology of the New Testament, 2 vols. in 1 (reprint Baylor Univ. Press, 2007), pp. 128-29] At the same time, the Transfiguration foreshadows the more full revelation of Jesus’ identity and God’s glory coming at the end of Mark’s Gospel: the Resurrection.
But, Peter clearly misses the point. He suggests erecting three tents for the three holy men standing before him. “Tents” appears to be a reference to the tabernacle—it’s the same Greek word that’s used in the Septuagint (the first Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, widely used in the first century AD) translation of Exodus to name that mobile sanctuary which, because it housed the ark of the covenant, was understood to be the place where God dwelled among the children of Israel as they journeyed through the wilderness. So Peter, desiring to set up three tabernacles, recognizes the holiness of the moment, but he still doesn’t get it.
Our text is not clear as to exactly why this is a bad idea. William Placher, surveying commentary from the early church, points to two explanations of the problem with Peter’s suggestion. Some of the Church Fathers think Peter is trying to freeze the moment, to make that glorious mountaintop experience last indefinitely. Perhaps by doing so, he thinks he can put off or even prevent the suffering and death Jesus had predicted just six days earlier.
Other early writers and preachers suggest that Peter’s proposal underscores his misunderstanding of Jesus and the vision he sees before him. He wants to set up three tents, as if Moses and Elijah are equal to Jesus. He does not grasp Jesus’ uniqueness. As Augustine points out, the heavenly voice does not speak of sons in the plural, but declares only Jesus to be God’s beloved Son. [Placher, loc. 2592-2600] Peter wants to set up three tents, but only one of the three persons before him is worthy of a tabernacle.
Further, it is only from Jesus that the Divine light emanates. Moses and Elijah do not glow with interior light; they only reflect the light of God which shines forth from Jesus. The presence of these two long dead heroes of the Jewish faith is symbolic of Jesus’ identity as the one in whom the Law and the Prophets are fulfilled. It’s not that the Law and prophets are negated or dispensed with, but that, in the life and ministry of Jesus, they are fully expressed and enacted. The Law and the Prophets, represented by Moses and Elijah, are reflections of God’s will, but Jesus is the embodiment of God’s glory, the light that is the life of all people. [see John 1.4] Indeed, Jesus is the new tabernacle, the new dwelling place of Divine glory among God’s people.
This is what Peter misses. As John Shea observes, Jesus “brings the inner circle of disciples into the depths of himself….[On the mountain top, he reveals that] he and God are in loving communion. This inner communion of love radiates a white light outward. It permeates the entire being of Jesus, moving through mind and body until it affects even his clothing….the outer expression of a person’s inner identity.” [Shea, Eating with the Bridegroom: The Spiritual Wisdom of the Gospels for Christian Preachers and Teachers, p. 85] Peter is dazzled by that light, but he does not see it for what it is: the manifestation of the love which unites Jesus and God, the love which is the inner life of the Trinity, the eternal self-giving that unifies the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. To say that God is a Trinity is to say that God is an internal and eternal relationship of self-giving love. That love shines out of Jesus in a burst of glory at the Transfiguration.
Notice that this divine light radiates outward. The glory, the love, the Divine life flow outward. The glory of God shines forth to illumine humanity. The Divine love flows outward to fill us with love so that we might learn to love God and one another. The light of life bestows its rays upon us, like the sun shining on the growing plant, to give us life abundant. This is the nature of God for God is love.
Here we see the truth of Irenaeus’ declaration: “The glory of God is a human being fully alive and the life of humanity is the vision of God.” The disciples see the divine glory shining in Jesus, but he does not cease to be human. His divinity is shining through his humanity, transforming his humanity, but not negating or destroying that humanity. At the Transfiguration, not only is Jesus’ Divine identity revealed, but in him we also see what humanity can become. In Jesus, we see a human being fully alive, a human being who is filled with God’s love, a human being who is at once turned both toward God in worship and adoration and also toward humanity in compassion and generosity.
As Richard Harries observes, “the Transfiguration of Christ….is to be understood as a revelation both of Christ’s true, eternal being and of our destiny, as those whose humanity is being transfigured by our life in Christ.” [Harries, Art and the Beauty of God: A Christian Understanding, p. 88] We, who are made in God’s image to bear God’s likeness, can be transfigured by the Divine light, can transformed by the love poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Paul tells us that we are being “transformed into the image of Christ, from one degree of glory to another” (2 Cor 3.18). God’s love is changing us, transforming us so that we might be more fully alive, more like Jesus. And just as the Divine Glory shone through him, so too his light may shine through us, as we become more like him, as love “set[s] [us] free to be more like the [people] we were made to be.” [Mumford and Sons, “Sigh No More”] Thus, though we are not able to see Jesus as the disciples did, we can see Jesus in one another, we can see the light of Christ in those people who are transfigured by his love.
I’m reminded of the atheist who once spent a day at a Missionaries of Charity Hospital in Calcutta. All day, he watched Mother Teresa caring for the sick and the dying, treating them with compassion and dignity. When he was leaving, he said, “Today, I have seen Jesus for the first time in my life.” [James Howell, Servants, Misfits and Martyrs, 33]
Methodist pastor James Howell tells of someone far less famous whose love for Christ shown forth and changed him. He writes “I remember my sixth-grade Sunday school teacher, Floyd Busby. Mr. Busby would score a flat zero on teaching technique or age-appropriate planning. He was old and had a whiny voice, and his “technique” was to open his Bible and read—for an hour. But I remember Mr. Busby’s name, and the profound moment when he simply stopped reading. We suspected that he had died. But when we looked up, we realized that he was crying—back in the ’60s, when men didn’t cry. We were tempted for a nanosecond or two to poke fun at him—but even as 11-year-olds we knew the moment was to be reverenced. Mr. Busby gathered himself and read further, about how they arrested Jesus, mocked him, beat him, pressed a crown of thorns into his forehead. He stopped again, looked up at us boys with tears streaming down his face and dripping onto his open Bible, and pleaded with us: “Don’t you boys see what they did to my Lord?” I will never forget it. This was my first encounter with someone who was so deeply in love with Christ.” [Howell, “Fellow Students: Theological Formation in the Parish,” The Christian Century, Feb. 20, 2007, https://www.christiancentury.org/article/2007-02/fellow-students] Howell says, “I will never forget Mr. Busby’s love for our Lord—and because of him I can say “our” Lord. [Howell, Servants, Misfits and Martyrs, p. 95] Floyd Busby’s love for Jesus transfigured him and allowed a young James Howell to see Jesus in a new light, to see Jesus more clearly than he ever had before.
The point of the Transfiguration is to reveal the true identity of Jesus to Peter, James and John and to us, to show us more clearly who he is and what he is about. The one who has predicted his own coming death, the one who is on the road to Jerusalem and crucifixion is also the One in whom god’s glory, beauty, love, truth and grace are most clearly revealed. The light of God’s glory, and Jesus’ own divinity, shine forth through his humanity. That light is the revelation of love that will stop at nothing to save us, not even death on a cross, a love that seeks to transform us so that we might reflect the light of God through relationships of love with God and neighbor. The point is: God is in Christ reconciling the world to God’s self and transforming us from glory to glory.
So, as we stand on the edge of Lent, let us rejoice in the love and grace of God revealed in the life, death and resurrection of Christ. Let us give thanks for the beauty of God shining in the face of Jesus. Let us devote ourselves to worship, prayer and a life of compassion that we might more fully see God’s glory. And as we marvel at that radiant beauty, may we be drawn into eternity, into the Divine presence. And may God transfigure us, that we too might shine with a little of the Divine light. Amen.