You are being transfigured into Christ for the world, even if now you feel a failure or even feel resistance to God’s call. And all will be healed because of it.
Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Transfiguration of Our Lord, year C
Text: Luke 9:28-43a
Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Take your eyes off of Jesus shining like lightning.
Just for a few minutes. This is the feast of the Transfiguration of our Lord, so you’d think we should focus on that scene, ask questions about what’s going on, dwell on it.
But maybe instead of trying to put up a couple tents so we can sit and gaze at God’s glory shining from Jesus we might better consider the transfiguration of the disciples.
Because the comments I heard after last week’s sermon suggest that’s the part of the Gospel we need most.
Last week was hard. Heavy. Jesus put an assignment on you and me that for many seemed too much. “I’m not there yet,” many said afterward, Not ready to live Jesus’ commands: love your enemies. Do good to those who hate. Bless those who curse. Pray for those who mistreat.
It isn’t that you’re not willing to work against the cruelty and evil that keeps pouring out of our leaders, with more and more danger and threatening situations week after week. It’s the commands to love, do good, pray, and bless those who are doing it.
Whether it’s you or others that are the target of evil and cruelty, these are hard commands to swallow. How are you supposed to get hate out of your heart when people do such things? How can you not be angry?
In short, you’re not yet where Jesus commands you to be.
That’s why you need the disciples today.
If anyone is obviously not where Jesus hopes, it’s these disciples. A week before this event, Jesus, Peter’s beloved Teacher, called him Satan for rebuking Jesus. Peter didn’t like him saying the path of the Messiah, the path of Christ, was leading to suffering and a cross and death. Jesus said Peter was a Satan, an opponent of God’s way.
How Peter didn’t abandon following is a mystery to me. But if he’s anything like us, all week he’d at least have hidden on the outer edges of the seventy or so women and men following Jesus, hoping not to be noticed. Then today he botches it again, babbling about making tents. Luke charitably says, “he didn’t know what he was talking about.”
Peter’s so not ready to lead, so not ready to follow Christ’s path.
And at the bottom of the hill, it’s not going well either. At the beginning of this chapter in Luke, Jesus sent out the twelve leaders, giving them power to cure diseases, cast out demons, and proclaim the reign of God. They apparently had success. But now, those remaining at the bottom of the hill can’t do anything. No one can heal this possessed, epileptic boy with his destructive seizures. One by one they fail, one by one their despair deepens. Instead of having a successful healing to show Jesus on his return, they leave him a mess that clearly irritates him.
They’re so not ready to be Christ, so not ready for this work.
But how does Jesus handle these struggling followers?
Yes, he called Peter Satan, and probably sent Peter into a tailspin of doubt and anxiety and grief. But today, a week after that, when Jesus needs his leaders at his side, he taps Peter on the shoulder to join James and John. The three key leaders, as usual. You can’t overstate the grace and love of that choice or the relief and joy Peter must have felt.
Yes, Peter’s stumbling, his heart isn’t ready to consider a path of self-giving love, or sacrifice. He’s making big mistakes and will make more. But Jesus says, “I still need you on the path with me.” Jesus consistently keeps him in the fold, patiently waits for him to grow, learn, catch up. And one day Peter will be so joined to this path he’ll be killed for the love of God in Christ he embodied and proclaimed.
And the same is true of all the others. Jesus doesn’t berate them for fumbling the healing. All of them are still enfolded in his welcome and embrace. And in the next chapter he sends them out again, this time seventy of them, for more healing and casting out demons and proclaiming.
Jesus understands this call to follow, this path of Christ is hard. And he understands that changing your heart will take time. He’s constantly ready to forgive failures, hold out a hand to get you back on your feet, and send you out again.
If you’re not fully ready to love enemies, do good to haters, bless cursers, pray for abusers, Jesus gets that. He’s got patience and love enough to know you need to learn and grow on this path.
Martin Luther understood this beautifully.
He said, “This life is not righteousness, but growth in righteousness, not health but healing, not being but becoming. This is not the end, but it is the road.”[1]
That’s it. That’s all you need to know. It’s not if you’re ready and able to do all Jesus asks. Whether it’s standing against evil or offering love to those who do it, Christ’s path is all about becoming.
We’re not where we will be. You are not where you will be. But as long as you want to be on the right road, Christ’s road, that’s enough. And you’ll know you’re there when you commit to loving, doing good, blessing, praying for all, even those your heart says don’t deserve it.
The Triune God spoke on that hilltop to all who follow Jesus the Christ, saying:
“This is my Son, my Beloved, my Chosen: listen to him!” Listen to the words of life Christ speaks, the path that leads to hope and healing for all people.
Listen, and then act, as Jesus urged last week. That’s how your heart will be changed. Act as Christ. Act in love. Act as best you can even if inside you’re feeling unready. Because your neighbors desperately need you. They need me. God’s threatened and hurting children need all of us to step forward on this path, ready or not.
This is your transfiguration, that more and more you become changed into the love of God in this world. And as you go, even the first steps of love you make for others are already healing and life.
In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
[1] Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, vol. 32, The Career of the Reformer II, p. 24. “Defense and Explanation of All the Articles,” a response in March 1521, to Exsurge Domine, the papal bull of condemnation of his writings issued by Pope Leo X in July, 1520. This is from a translation by William Lazareth, not the Charles M. Jacobs translation in Luther’s Works.
