2nd Sunday in Lent: The Transfiguration

Sunday, Feb. 28th, 2010

Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter, John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his exodus, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, ‘Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah’—not knowing what he said. While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, ‘This is my Son, my Chosen, listen to him!’ When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.

In my last reflection, I wrote about Jesus being the second Adam and about the significance of his time in the desert in relation to God’s whole plan of redemption for you. This week’s Gospel, the very familiar account of the Transfiguration, is brimming over with beautiful clues that a plan of salvation had been moving towards the person of Jesus since the beginning. The parallels between Jesus and Moses and Elijah are many, way too many to cover in a short reflection. It’s a whole bible study in itself really. What I’m going to focus on is one significant word in this scripture passage: ‘Exodus’.

"They appeared in glory and were speaking of his exodus…"

Instead of the word ‘exodus’, you will often read ‘departure’ or ‘death’ in other translations but ‘exodus’ is a more accurate translation. Exodus means ‘a way out of’.  Naturally, whenever we hear the word exodus, we think of Moses leading the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. Do you see where things are going here? Yes, Jesus is the second Moses and he came to lead God’s people out of slavery. Moses and Elijah were discussing with Jesus his imminent death on the cross - the ultimate ‘Way Out’ or exodus out of Egypt for the people of God.

In scripture, Egypt is symbolic of the world – worldly passions, worldly desires and worldly values, which are passions, desires and values not based on God’s precepts. Egypt is a broken world, a world where the fall of Adam is played out daily. People are enslaved in this world where self reigns supreme and people are wounded and broken because of it. Just as Moses challenged the Pharaoh and led the Israelites out of slavery, so Jesus came to challenge the ruler of this world and lead his people to freedom.

There is a tendency to snicker at Peter for wanting to set up tents for Jesus, Moses and Elijah but in fact, Peter was responding to what he was witnessing in a deeply respectful and relevant way. He wasn’t suggesting they all stay on the mountaintop, camp out, sing campfire songs and have a wonderful time. He was suggesting that they build structures equivalent to the Jewish “Tent of Meeting” which was a holy place for the presence of God to rest, a sanctuary or a tabernacle. Peter wasn’t far off the mark. When he saw that the appearance of Jesus’ face had changed and that his clothes had become dazzling white, he recognized that the God of Israel was indeed terribly present .

In the old Testament, the face of someone else changed in the presence of God and became so brilliant that he had to wear a veil so the people could look at him: Moses. Peter understood that something awesome and formidable was taking place and he wanted to treat it with great reverence and respect. When he made this suggestion, a cloud covered them all. In the Old Testament, a cloud often signified the presence of God as did a brilliant light or what they called ‘shekinah glory’. Out of the cloud of God's presence, God’s voice was heard saying, ‘This is my Son, my Chosen, listen to him!’ Was God just giving Peter some general guidance, similar to how a parent might admonish a wayward child? “Smarten up...listen to your Mother!” I don’t think so.

Moses mediated between God and the Israelites and brought to the people the Covenant God wanted to make with them.  In Peter’s Jewish understanding, building a Tent of Meeting, a place where God could reside and a place similar to where the Ark of the covenant (a wooden chest containing the tablets with the 10 commandments) was placed would have been an appropriate faith filled response to what he was seeing but Peter didn’t yet fully understand that Jesus wasn’t just a prophet like Moses and Elijah. Jesus was now the Ark of the Covenant. Jesus was the true Tent of Meeting, the tabernacle and the dwelling place of God. Within Jesus, there was a new Sanctuary and this sanctuary was to be totally accessible to all of his people, not just to the Jewish High Priest once a year. God was saying, “Listen to my Son and he will reveal to you my true dwelling place. He will reveal himself. He is not just bringing a New Covenant to you. He is the New Covenant.”

But what about you? What does all this have to do with you personally over 2000 years later? How can all this ancient history have an impact on your life right now? Perhaps we need to review what a covenant is. A covenant is an agreement that brings about a relationship of commitment. The key word here is ‘relationship’. That’s a two way street. Certainly, you are called to be committed to the Lord but you have to realize that the Lord is also desiring to commit himself to you. That is a covenant. It’s two parties making a commitment to each other. Marriage is a covenant. If it makes it easier to grasp, you can rightly assume that God wants to marry you; he wants to have a love relationship with you. He wants you to be his bride. You need to accept that and reciprocate in order to seal the covenant. A covenant of marriage does not take place if only one person is fully committing to this relationship of living and growing together.

The old covenant of the Old Testament was a legal one, a commitment based on law and a physical submission to the law. Circumcision, sacrifices, following the letter of the law and punishment for breaking the law were the basis of the old covenant. The New Covenant is a commitment based on the heart and the spirit of the law, not the letter. God was not satisfied with the old covenant based on law but it was what the maturity of the people could handle. My husband and I have four adult children. When they were growing up, we surrounded them with rules. “Don’t touch that. Don’t act like that. Be respectful. Do your chores. Do your homework. Don’t fight. Come home early. Eat your vegetables. Go to Mass.” We didn’t enjoy being rule enforcers but they needed that. Our love for them had to include definitive laws to help them grow. They didn’t have the maturity or self control to grow up without guidelines and an understanding that disobedience or thoughtless actions had consequences. Now that they are adults, what they learned by law as children is an integral part of who they are. For instance, we no longer have to teach and encourage them to be responsible people; it is part of their natures and characters to do that. They want to be responsible good people. We now have love relationships with them, relationships not based on enforcing rules and giving directions but on enjoying them totally for themselves. Of course, help, advice and comfort is always available from us if they ask for it.  Always, God had in mind the day when his people would be mature enough for him to establish a New Covenant of Love with them.

‘The days are surely coming, says the Lord,
   when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel
   and with the house of Judah;
9not like the covenant that I made with their ancestors,
   on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt;
for they did not continue in my covenant,
   and so I had no concern for them, says the Lord.
10This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
   after those days, says the Lord:
I will put my laws in their minds,
   and write them on their hearts,
and I will be their God,
   and they shall be my people.
11And they shall not teach one another
   or say to each other, “Know the Lord”,
for they shall all know me,
   from the least of them to the greatest.
12For I will be merciful towards their iniquities,
   and I will remember their sins no more.’ (Jeremiah 31:31-34 and also Hebrews 8: 8-12)

God is Love and has always been moving towards you. He is drawn to you. God is in love with you and never at any point did he want anything to come between you and him - but sin did. But, thanks be to God, Jesus came and offered the ultimate sacrifice so that you can ask for and receive forgiveness of all your sins and be free to live in God’s presence and grow to know him. How many times will God forgive you your confessed sins? Seventy times seven, which is a number equivalent to roughly a kabillion. More than we can ever imagine.

Jesus became, for you, the second Adam, the second Moses, the New Covenant and The Way Out.

It just gets better and better.