When my family was attending St. Thomas ten or twelve years ago, Sarah played Mary for the church Christmas pageant. Ruth Ann Wraight asked if she had a baby doll which could be used in the manger when the time came. Sarah said she would bring one.
We had some neighbors in TN who were black. They were very sensitive to the fact that every popular picture of Jesus and Santa showed people who looked a lot more Norwegian. Now the fact is that Jesus was from the Middle East. St. Nicolas was from present-day Turkey. Odds are pretty good that they had somewhat darker complexions than you might guess from the popular media.
These friends had a son who was Sarah’s age, and the two of them were great friends. These parents had given Sarah a black baby doll, and Sarah was very proud of it. This was the doll Sarah selected for the baby Jesus. St. Thomas took all this in stride, but the reality is that not everyone is comfortable with a dark-skinned Jesus.
I don’t know whether Jesus had symmetric features. In other words, was the right side of his face a mirror image of the left side. People with symmetric features are supposed to be especially good looking. If you ever look this up on google, Denzel Washington seems to be the standard example. These articles may have been planted by Denzel’s publicity agent, but the fact is that everyone seems to agree that Denzel is a handsome man with or without the articles.
Here is a question for you. I wonder if Jesus had symmetric features? I wonder if he was a handsome man. Oddly, this is addressed by Scripture. Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah would have “no form or majesty that we should look at him––nothing in his appearance that we should desire him” (Isaiah 53:2b).
All of you are familiar with the Sallman’s painting of Jesus. This is a famous painting of Jesus, and you see it a lot. In that picture, Jesus looks like a well-tanned northern European with a beard and long hair. He is looking pensively and thoughtfully into the distance. I think to a lot of people this is what Jesus looked like.
The original disciples, of course, saw Jesus day after day. They walked the roads of Palestine with him. They ate with him. They listened to his teachings. They observed his miracles. They saw his gentleness with children. They saw his compassion with the sick. The disciples saw another side of him, too, when he used a whip to drive the moneychangers from the temple. They thought they had seen everything, but there was more – something that only three of the disciples would see.
Jesus took those three disciples – Peter, James, and John – up a high mountain. There were twelve apostles, of course, but these three were Jesus’ inner circle. When it says that Jesus took those three men up a high mountain, we need to pay attention. In the Bible, mountains are often where people encounter God.
On this particular mountain, Peter, James, and John see Jesus transfigured before them. What does transfigured mean? The word isn’t in our everyday vocabulary. The New Testament was written originally in Greek. The Greek word that’s used here is the one that gives us metamorphosis.
Metamorphosis is another word that we don’t use every day. In fact, the only time I have ever used that word has been to describe what happens when a caterpillar turns into a butterfly. One minute, you have an ugly worm. Then a struggle goes on inside that worm for a few minutes, and then you have a beautiful butterfly. The process by which that ugly worm becomes a beautiful butterfly is called metamorphosis. Metamorphosis means a dramatic change in form or appearance.
That’s what happened to Jesus. I don’t think that Jesus was ugly, but I do think that he was rather ordinary looking. Once they were on the high mountain, those three disciples saw Jesus’ appearance change. His clothes became dazzling white – whiter than any laundry could ever get them. When Matthew tells this story, he says that Jesus’ “face shone like the sun” (Matthew 17:2). Then the disciples saw Jesus talking with Moses and Elijah – two great Old Testament prophets who had been dead for centuries. Then a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him” (v. 7). Then suddenly everything got back to normal. The disciples saw Jesus standing by himself.
What did that mean? I’m sure that the disciples wondered what it meant, but they had a decided advantage over us. They knew the Old Testament stories like the back of their hand, and seeing Jesus’ shining face and dazzling clothes surely reminded them of Moses on Mount Sinai. Moses had gone up Mount Sinai to receive the tablets with the Ten Commandments. After spending time on the mountain with God, Moses’ face was shining so brightly that the people were afraid to come near him. Moses had to wear a veil to cover his face (Exodus 34).
What was that about? What did that mean? It meant that Moses had absorbed a bit of God’s glory while on Mount Sinai, and that bit of glory caused Moses’ face to shine. It’s like the sun and moon. Both sun and moon light the sky, but only the sun produces light. The moon simply reflects the sun’s light. However, if you go outside at night when the moon is full and the sky is clear, there will be so much light that it will feel like daylight.
That’s what was happening with Moses. His face contained just a bit of God’s glory, but even that little bit was too much for the Israelites. Moses had to wear a veil over his face, because the people couldn’t handle even that little bit of God’s glory.
Now, in our Gospel lesson – at the Transfiguration – the same thing happens to Jesus except for one major difference. Moses only spent some time in God’s presence, and his face shone with God’s glory. Now we have Jesus’ face shining too but for a different reason. Jesus didn’t just spend some time in God’s presence. Jesus’ shining face reflected the fact that he was God – God in human form. He was God and He was man.
What really happened on the Mount of Transfiguration was that these three disciples – Peter, James, and John – were given the privilege of seeing a glimpse of Jesus’ true self. They saw Jesus in his glory. God let these three disciples in on the secret. Jesus was more than a man. He was more than a good teacher and a healer. Jesus was the Son of God. That was confirmed, not only by Jesus’ shining face and dazzling clothes but also by the voice of God, saying, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” (v. 7).
It was important for those three disciples to understand Jesus’ true nature, because Jesus’ life was going to move in a new direction. Jesus was beginning to prepare, not just for teaching and healing, but for the cross. These three disciples wouldn’t really understand who Jesus was until after the resurrection, but this little glimpse of Jesus’ glory on the Mount of Transfiguration began to prepare them.
That was important, because these three disciples and others like them would have to carry the ball once Jesus ascended back into heaven. If people were going to see God’s glory, it would be through these disciples. In his letter to the Corinthian church, Paul said, “We have this treasure in clay jars” (2 Corinthians 4:7). The treasure was the Gospel. The clay jars were the disciples. Paul was saying that the Gospel was precious, but the clay jars – the disciples – were ordinary. But God had entrusted those ordinary disciples to carry the precious Gospel to others.
It is the same way today. I see a bit of God’s glory in each one of you this morning. You folks reflect the light of God’s glory in ways that brighten the lives of others. You are the lamp on the lampstand. I asked last week who the lamp on the lampstand had been for you. Today I am telling you that you are that lamp for someone.
Here are some things I want you to think about. These are the takeaways. First, the Transfiguration is preceded by the healing of a blind man in the Gospel. In some ways the disciples are having sight restored too. They get a peak behind the curtain. However you want to think about this image, there is the ability to see when that were not able to see before.
Second, this cloud that overshadows them… Where else in the Scriptures can you think of this word “overshadowed” being used? It is with Mary. The angel Gabriel tells her that the “power of the Most High will overshadow you.” Lives are about to change in radical ways and it starts by being overshadowed.
So we have the Lord in our lives. We catch a glimpse of him in our neighbor. Out of our own cloudiness, we have an appreciation for the fact that God is there. It does not have to be a booming voice. It can be a quiet one too.
Thomas Merton was a Catholic priest whose light shone more brightly than most––especially through his writings. He had something to say about giving God glory. Listen to this little snippet from one of his books. He says:
“A tree gives glory to God by being a tree.”
And then he goes on to say:
“For in being what God means it to be (the tree) is obeying (God).
(The tree) ‘consents,’ so to speak, to (God’s) creative love.”
Let me encourage you to consent to God’s creative love. Let me encourage you to give glory to God. Let me encourage you to be the person God created you to be.
My last takeaway is the message God gave the disciples from the cloud. God told the disciples that Jesus was His Son, and we should listen to him.
Be what calls you to be. Let God fill your life with purpose and blessing and glory.
I have said these words in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Sermon preached by Fr. Tom at St. Thomas, Plymouth
February 15, 2015/Last Sunday after Epiphany
2 Kings 2:1-12
Psalm 50:1-6
2 Corinthians 4:3-6
Mark 9:2-9