Death, Transfigured

Sermon for the Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ (August 6, 2023) at St. James’ Episcopal Church in Hyde Park, NY. A video of the entire worship service is available here.

What are we talking about? View the scripture readings and the Collect of the Day: The Transfiguration

A window depicting the Transfiguration at St. James’ Episcopal Church in Hyde Park, NY. Note the marks of the crucifixion in Jesus’ hands and feet.

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Jesus took with him Peter and 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 departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Luke 9:28-31

Edited Transcript

May only truth be spoken here and only truth be heard. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Please be seated.

I want to begin by putting this mountaintop story in context.

The Gospel reading begins with the words, "Eight days later." So maybe we are wondering, eight days later than what? What just happened, that precedes this trip to the mountain for prayer?

So what had just happened is that Jesus had told the disciples something he hadn't told them before, at any point in his ministry on earth.

He'd called these guys to follow him, and they've been traveling. On their travels, he's been healing people. He's been teaching people about scripture and crowds have been following him. He's just fed 5,000 people. So he's been doing these miracles, and his power and his strength seemed to be growing.

But then he tells them something he hadn't said before, which is this: This time of healing and teaching and miracles and growing in power and growing in numbers, this growing movement, is not going to continue on this trajectory.

Instead, he is going to be going to Jerusalem where he will die.

And not just any death, but a gruesome and humiliating death: he's going to be crucified. And then, on the third day, he'll be raised again.

So he's dropped this bombshell on his disciples. And you can imagine, if you put yourself in their shoes: you're following somebody who is powerful and charismatic and is opening up a new way of living that seems to be changing lives and hearts and minds. And then he says, This won't last. I'm about to die.

It's no wonder that Jesus himself, and the disciples, need time to reflect and pray.

So that's the context for the story of the Transfiguration.

Now eight days after Jesus reveals this very near future, when he's on the mountaintop praying, his appearance is transformed and light shoots out of his face and out of his clothes. And two men appear, Moses and Elijah. This appears in all the Gospel accounts of the Transfiguration.

Our tradition has understood that it's important that it's these two particular men. Moses, on the one hand, representing the Law; Moses, who went up onto Mount Sinai, brought the commandments back from God and showed God's people how they were to live. And then Elijah, who represents the Prophets; the prophets who, generation after generation, were filled with the Holy Spirit and came to God's people to give God's people God's guidance for them.

And so Moses and Elijah stand side by side with Jesus as he is revealed in this shining glory. And the tradition would say, that part of what's happening is that they are showing Jesus' authority, who he is. They are part of the revelation of who Jesus is. Remember Jesus says in another Gospel account, in the Gospel of Matthew, he says, the single greatest commandment is "love God and love your neighbor as yourself. On this hang all the Law and the Prophets." So in the middle you have Jesus who is revealed as the fullness of both the Law and the Prophets. Everything God has done is fully revealed as the Way of Love in Jesus. And so he has the Law and the Prophets on either side, literally backing him up. And if anyone doubted that this was indeed the Messiah, here they are.

And we have this depicted in a window here at St. James' Church. There's a window here that depicts the Transfiguration. You can see, Moses holding the tablets on one side and Elijah on the other with his hand raised in blessing. And you can see the disciples basically falling off the mountain because they can't believe what's happening. Isn't one of them losing his shoe? Or there's just a foot sticking out the window? This is a big moment.

This big revelation of who Jesus is comes right after he reveals his impending death: his crucifixion and death, and then even more wildly and mysteriously that he will be raised again on the third day. And that got me thinking: what if Moses and Elijah are here not just to lend the authority of God to Jesus, but...I think, something more tender is happening here.

This is the point at which Luke has introduced Jesus' own mortality. Jesus is contemplating his mortality and his loved ones, the ones who love him, are also contemplating that.

All of us who've ever had to come face to face with our mortality... I mostly spend my time avoiding thinking about my mortality. If you've ever come face to face with your own mortality or with that of someone you love, you know how heavy, how dark that can feel. Even for those of us who have faith. There is nothing attractive, glorious, or beautiful in that contemplation of the reality that we and everybody we love will die.

And here, Jesus and his disciples, at this point in Luke, they've gone up on this mountaintop and they're praying in contemplation of that death, his death. And this is the death of all that they had hoped for. This is the death, not only of one human, but of the Messiah, the one who was bringing healing and hope to the world.

Now if you have ever been present at a deathbed, or maybe you've heard stories, maybe you've talked to hospice chaplains or to nurses, people who spend time with the dying... You've perhaps heard about people on their deathbed seeing someone who had already crossed to the other side of the veil: a parent or a sibling, or a best friend or a spouse. And at that moment, as death appears, the loved one also appears as if to say, You won't be alone here. As you come with me, you'll be with God, and we will be together.

And it began to occur to me that maybe that is also what is happening with Jesus on the mountain. Moses and Elijah are not just there to lend allegorical authority, but what if also they're there as companions to Christ as he begins his journey toward Jerusalem and toward his death?

We've talked through this summer about the faithfulness of God, and perhaps Moses and Elijah here represent the faithfulness of God, the love of God, and the company that Jesus has as he makes this journey, which in the Gospel of Luke calls an "exodus." (That's the word translated as departure in our text.)

So Moses, who led an exodus—led the liberation of God's people out of slavery and oppression and into freedom, into being who they were called to be by God—and Elijah—who was taken up by God and assumed into heaven— they are there to walk side by side with Christ in his exodus, which is not only his.

Because for Christ as he walks toward Jerusalem, his journey is a journey that he takes for us, before us into death and back out again.

It's striking that Luke uses the word exodus and not some other word for journey or death. Because Christ in his journey, accompanied by those who led God's people into liberation, is also freeing all of us from the power of death and from the fear of death.

And that journey that he takes in company also means that he is with us on our journey. And that none of us journey alone.

So Christ's contemplation of death is transfigured: from what was frightful to what is glorious in God.

Because Christ took this journey, the power of death no longer has power over us.

And I want you to take a look at this window again. Christ already has the marks of the nails in his hands and feet in our window. Once I wondered if this was a mistake--because he hasn't been crucified yet.

But I think there's a meaning in this, because the glory of Christ is not fully revealed until the reality of his mission is known. His mission—which is to free us, to bring us out of the power of death—is revealed in the Transfiguration.

And so this artist that made this window depicts Jesus already having experienced death, and yet glorious!

Jesus doesn't make that journey, that exodus alone. And nor, friends, do we, or will we.

So my prayer today, every day, is that when we have the courage to face those places of fear, darkness, and death, that by the power of God, even those, through Christ, will shine with the glory of the faithfulness and the love of God, which goes before us always. Amen.