Wild beauty
Jane Denniston
April 24, 2024
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Matthew 17: 1-13 (NRSVA)
1 Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. 2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. 3 Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. 4 Then Peter said to Jesus, ‘Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.’ 5 While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!’ 6 When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. 7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, ‘Get up and do not be afraid.’ 8 And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.
9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, ‘Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.’ 10 And the disciples asked him, ‘Why, then, do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?’ 11 He replied, ‘Elijah is indeed coming and will restore all things; 12 but I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but they did to him whatever they pleased. So also the Son of Man is about to suffer at their hands.’ 13 Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them about John the Baptist.
This is the moment where the veil of heaven is pulled right back and Jesus is revealed as the one in whom earth and heaven are held together. In a sense you could say that this is the fulcrum around which the history of God’s relationship with humanity pivots. Here we see illustrated the eternal nature of Jesus and his ministry. A moment in which past, present and future are bound up in a single instant. As though time had split at the seam and eternity was showing through. Jesus is the one who was before the beginning of time: he was, and is, and is to come. But as well as connecting to the past, Jesus’ own past, and his nation’s past, the past which tells the story of God’s relationship with his people, the transfiguration also looks to the future. Jesus is glorified, shining like the sun in a foretaste of post resurrection life! Like a shaft of sunlight breaking through storm clouds, a rainbow in the rain, his untamed beauty revealed.
And still today as we enter his presence, in that same way time itself is suspended. If our eyes are open to see, we can witness the veil of heaven pulled back. If our hearts are open to his wild disregard for rules of time and space we will experience the ordinary stuff of life revealed to us as being alive with the vital presence of God.
But then, those who are given the vision of heaven on the mountaintop are sent back to the tough and often thankless task of bridging the gap between what they have seen, the vision of what could be, and what lies before them, the fractured reality of what presently is. This is our challenge.
Prayer:
Lord of heaven and earth,
we give you thanks and praise
for the privilege of standing on the mountaintop with you.
As we descend the mountain
into the bitter reality of life today
in all its brokenness,
environmental, political, social,
give us strength to meet the challenge,
of bringing the light of your transformed and transforming presence
into the darkness of the world, Amen
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