The Transfiguration, Peter, and how it feels in the inbetween.

The middle, the hinge point in Mark is the end of chapter 8, when Jesus tells the disciples what is about to happen to him and to the movement, and the beginning of chapter 9, when Jesus is transfigured on the mountain. This is the big moment of the story: the part that should have us talking. This is truly Jesus’s defining moment.

Last Sunday After Epiphany  |  Mark 9:2-9 

The Middle

If I were to ask you to tell me the story of Beauty and the Beast, I’m pretty sure you would talk about Belle’s coming to the mansion and learning to love the Beast. Or if I were to ask you about The Wizard of Oz, you would tell me about Dorothy meeting the Scarecrow, the Tinman, the Lion, and their journey to meet the great Oz.

We would start in the middle. If we were to tell the whole story, we’d have to tell how these people got into the situation they are in, but it is the situation we care about, isn’t it? Gaston and the cranky old woman trying to steal Toto are not who we care about.

This morning, we have jumped to the middle of the “Gospel According to Mark” and find ourselves up a mountain, witnessing the great light, hearing the voice of GOD, and are left like Peter, James, and John, wondering what is going on. And for as much emphasis we in the church put on the beginning of the story, what with all the coming of the Messiah and the birth of Jesus and all; and on the end, with the death and resurrection of the Christ; we are less inclined to focus on the middle, the very heart of the story. The part of other stories that is so memorable.

 

The middle, the hinge point in Mark is the end of chapter 8, when Jesus tells the disciples what is about to happen to him and to the movement, and the beginning of chapter 9, when Jesus is transfigured on the mountain. This is the big moment of the story: the part that should have us talking. This is truly Jesus’s defining moment.

And yet this turning point in the story is a moment that isn’t so clear. Jesus asks the disciples who they think he is and Peter says “Messiah,” Jesus affirms his answer. Then moments later, when Jesus is telling them what is going to happen, Peter gets in the way and Jesus calls him Satan. This same Peter will go up the mountain and see Jesus changed and again stick his foot in his mouth with Jesus.

No wonder we struggle telling the middle of this story.

Like Peter

If you need proof that the writer we call Mark is a master storyteller, look no further than the portrayal of Peter, the Rock, de facto leader of the disciples, first among equals, the one who would later establish the seat in Rome. It is Peter, the fisherman-turned-disciple who sort of gets it, who Paul might suggest sees through a mirror dimly. He gets some of it, but he doesn’t get it all.

The evangelist wasn’t writing about Peter because he wanted to make Peter look bad, but so that we would have a way into the story. So that we, with our misunderstanding and confusion and weakness, would be represented in the story. We can’t be Jesus, but we can be Peter. We are Peter.

Coming to St. Stephen’s I feel like Peter, I feel like Peter, here, in the middle of the story. Like there is all of this stuff that happened before and there is some amazing stuff that will come around soon, but here we are, in the middle, where the action is. Where things actually make less sense.

And sometimes our response to the dire news that Jesus gives us is tell him he’s wrong. Or when we are invited up the mountain, and we see GOD’s presence with us and we don’t die, and we think we’re supposed to build a dwelling for Elijah and Moses, rather than witness the event itself and do as we are told: “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” Listen! We feel like our work is to give order to Jesus and move him, to convince him to look our way, but here we receive a different invocation: we are told to listen to him.

The Middle

This middle moment up the mountain is paired with that first moment at baptism. Both with a miraculous GOD-sighting. Both with the loud voice proclaiming Jesus as GOD’s beloved. One at the beginning, now one in the middle, at the hinge point, the moment when things change, when the arc of the story is bending in a new direction. Jesus’s eyes will be set on Jerusalem, and there will be no getting in his way. No staying up on the mountain forever. Or for a week while they figure out what to do. They know what to do. Or, Jesus knows what he is to do. And they are supposed to listen to him.

This story is about change, new direction. We call it the Transfiguration because Jesus’s face is transfigured, but what exactly does that mean?

Hear the word transfigured is like transformed. They have a similar meaning. Where transformed means that something’s form has changed completely, transfigured means that something’s appearance has changed. Not simply that it is perceived as different, but that it looks different and feels different and may be different.

So who Jesus is before he goes up the mountain may be substantially who he is when he goes down the mountain, he nevertheless is changed. And to the disciples, he seems different. They can tell the difference.

Change

For us, the Transfiguration is a story about change–but not in the way we normally talk about it. Change in the way that doesn’t pretend like we didn’t grow up where we grew up with the people we grew up with playing the games we played. We did all that, we were those people. And yet through GOD’s grace, we are able to be different; different in a way that feels different, that people can notice.

Loving GOD, trusting GOD, makes us different than we are without it. Though we might not look any different to ourselves in the mirror, and while our families might see us through the rose-colored glasses of foggy family memories, the world can tell. We are changed.

For us, the transfiguration isn’t only what happened to Jesus but what happens to us; what happens to all of us. It is about change and changing. It is about being witness to GOD’s changing of our lives and witnessing with our own eyes, GOD’s transfiguring power with our friends. It is about experiencing change and seeing change. It is about what we experience, following Jesus up the mountain, and what he does when he leads us down, afterward. We, the witnesses, have experienced change, grace, the very breath of GOD and lived.