Matthew 17:1-9
Overall view: Jesus wants us to experience who he is
Introduction
Have you ever made a new friend?
If we know someone for any length of time, the relationship usually grows. Broadly speaking, there are three levels of knowing a person.
First, we notice the surface details — what they do, how they dress, whether they’re shy or outgoing, young or old. We form impressions, often without realising it. Many relationships stay here. We call these people acquaintances, and perhaps that’s why we say, “first impressions last.”
With more time and trust, we move deeper. We learn what gets them out of bed in the morning, what they hope for, and the people and moments that have shaped them. We begin to see a fuller, flesh-and-blood person. These are our friends.
Spend even more time together, and we may go deeper still. We come to understand how they see themselves at their core. These are the people we can speak to about anything, who seem to know us better than we know ourselves — close friends, a partner, a spouse. Vulnerability and shared history mark these relationships.
Generally, getting to know someone takes time, openness, and intention. One study suggests friendship often requires over 100 hours across at least three months to form.
Our Gospel story today shows that Jesus wants to take his friendship with us deeper. He invites us not to stay at the surface, but to see and experience who he truly is at his core.
Jesus wants to transform our perspective
The disciples have spent quite a bit of time with Jesus and are getting to know him. In the previous chapter, Peter has confessed his belief that Jesus is the Messiah, even the Son of the living God. Jesus says, yes you are right, and this means that he will be killed and on the third day raised to life, which Peter takes exception to. That doesn’t make sense. He doesn’t yet see Jesus at that deeper level of knowing the core of who he is.
After a bit, Jesus takes Peter, James and John on a hiking trip. A shared experience in itself. What I didn’t notice straight away about this story is Jesus intentionality. This experience is specifically for the 3 three disciples. Jesus led them, by themselves, was transformed before them; Moses and Elijah appeared before them, and the bright cloud covered them. Both Moses and Elijah are big names in the Jewish faith and figures connected with the end of the age. They add theological weight to the scene, revealing more of who Jesus is as Messiah-Christ.
Jesus intends for his friends to ‘see him in a new light’, quite literally.
They know all the stories about Moses on Mount Sinai and God’s radiant Glory. Here, they witness the glory of the divine presence in Jesus.
As we go deeper in our relationships with others, we see them more as humans instead of just as a title or a category. When we find out someone we know for their high energy, high standards and high expectations, really enjoys, say, keeping birds, we see a gentleness not seen before.
It seems Jesus wants his friends to better understand his humanity through this experience of his glorious shining divinity.
At first, this doesn’t make sense. But the disciples need to begin to grasp his coming death in light of who Jesus truly is. Fully Human and fully God.
Jesus knows that seeing him differently, clearly, will begin to transform their perspective.
In a few weeks, Jesus will be on another hillside, not clothed in glory, but bloodied and stripped naked. In place of Moses and Elijah will be two criminals. Instead of a bright cloud, there will be darkness at midday. There will be no heavenly voice, declaring Jesus as God’s Son, just a bewildered Roman Centurion, surprisingly conceding that Jesus must have been God’s Son.
Who Jesus is on this transfiguration mountain transforms their understanding of Jesus on the cross and the empty tomb.
His suffering and embrace of weakness and death are not defeat; it is the Creator’s solidarity with the created. His resurrection was the long-awaited rescue for God’s creation project gone astray.
Jesus wants to transform our perspective of the world, of our experiences, by experiencing and knowing the depth of his glorious identity and perfect humanity that God’s people will one day share.
…by listening to him
This heavenly voice that comes out from this glory cloud affirms that Jesus is indeed God’s beloved Son, and says, “Listen to him”
I don’t know how you imagine this voice. It is an imperative, it is interrupting, and the voice invokes awe and terror. But I think we should note that the message is one of divine love, wanting others to know the identity of the dearly loved Jesus.
God has a name and a face in Jesus, but also has a glorious and holy presence.
Perhaps the words ‘listen to him’ sound controlling. But if the goal of the whole encounter is to experience who Jesus really is, then it is profound wisdom.
Like if you are at a theme park and going to experience this roller coaster ride, the command to lock your seatbelt is wisdom that needs to be followed before you can go anywhere.
Listening – really listening- is an important key in going deeper in any relationship.
But Listening is difficult; perhaps that’s why when we gift someone our listening, it has the potential to build trust and bring us closer.
There are also different levels of listening. I’m sure you know some of them.
There’s ignoring, which is not listening at all.
Pretend listening: “uh-huh, whatever you say, dear”.
Selective listening: “What was that?, I heard my name”,
Attentive listening or listening to reply or perhaps foster connection: That’s interesting, when I travelled there, things were quite different.
Empathetic listening or listening to understand: mmm That’s interesting, Jesus, what do you mean when you say you will be killed and on the third day be raised to life?
When we really listen, we are changed as the listener, and our connection with the other is deepened.
We listen to Jesus when we study or meditate on the scriptures. Encountering Jesus in the pages of the Gospels or in the rest of the grand unified story that leads to him.
We listen in prayer, Prayer in imagination. We listen in imagination when we place ourselves in the stories of the Bible and encounter the Spirit of Jesus through the stories of scripture
Prayer in the silence. Waiting in the presence of God. An interviewer once asked Mother Teresa of Calcutta what she said when she prayed. She said something like “I mostly listen”. What does God say? They said. Smiling, she said: “He listens too”. This form of listening prayer, for her, was allowing herself to experience all of who Jesus is and let it change her.
We can also listen for Jesus in our conversations with others, in the Glory of God displayed in creation around us.
Jesus longs for us to know him fully, and for us to be fully known. We deepen our friendship with Jesus by listening, really listening to his voice.
We respond: hospitality, awe, and reverence or something else
Peter, James and John respond in different ways to the radiant and transformed Jesus and the scene before.
Peter first recognises the significance of what he is seeing and offers to put up three shelters, possibly tents or temporary shelters of branches. We can understand his suggestion in different ways.
Maybe he’s trying to memorialise the event, and wants to hang on to the ‘spiritual high’. We know that life with God isn’t a continual mountaintop experience, where we’re enraptured by divine bliss. Perhaps the implication for us is to remember that Jesus indeed still wishes for us to experience him, but that at some point, there is still God’s work for us to do.
Another way to see Peter’s offer is that he’s doing his best to respond appropriately to the situation by offering hospitality like Abraham and Sarah, who offer hospitality when confronted with the three divine strangers in the Old Testament. In other words, he could be saying: Jesus, take as long as you need here, do what you need to.
As the voice from heaven steps up the intensity of the scene even further, and three of them respond the way they only way they know how when one is so close to a heavenly being. Falling face down in awe and reverence.
Encountering the glory of God compels a response.
You may have seen some of the winter Olympics that’s on presently. It’s interesting to see how the athletes on the podium respond to the glory of winning.
Most wear beaming smiles. Some shed tears, overcome with emotion. Some raise their medals high, maybe pump a fist. Some make gestures toward heaven, or hold a photo of a special person in their life. Sometimes, others, lower down the podium, are more subdued. Things didn’t turn out as they hoped. But the Glory of the podum always elicits something of a response.
Likewise, when we’ve encountered someone, experienced more of who they are, listened to them, shared an experience with them, we’re faced with a response. We can choose to make room for that person in our lives to varying degrees or something else. The direction the relationship will take will depend somewhat on our response.
It’s the same with how we respond to the experience of who Jesus is. When our perspective is starting to transform, when we hear his voice, what’s our response?
Do we recognise its significance and say ‘stay a while’ Jesus? Let’s take our time here. I’m ready to show you hospitality and get to know you more. Do we respond in awe and adoration? Are we left in awe, resting in the all-encompassing divine presence?
Maybe in the midst of that, there’s disappointment with Life and with God, we need to share with Jesus. That’s ok too.
Closing
Jesus reaches out to us as he did to his three friends, and says, “Don’t be afraid”.
We often refer to those three friends as Jesus’ inner circle, that third level of friendship. Unlike us, Jesus has space for us all in his inner circle, and wants you and I to experience all of who he is, and transform our perspective, by our listening, and longs for us to respond to his offer of friendship in kind.
Amen.