Bible Tuesday for Transfiguration Sunday, 2016

Exodus 34:29-35

29 Moses came down from Mount Sinai. As he came down from the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant* in his hand, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. 30When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face was shining, and they were afraid to come near him. 31But Moses called to them; and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses spoke with them. 32Afterwards all the Israelites came near, and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. 33When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face; 34but whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would take the veil off, until he came out; and when he came out, and told the Israelites what he had been commanded,35the Israelites would see the face of Moses, that the skin of his face was shining; and Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with him.

This story is of the second set of tablets containing the Law. The golden calf debacle immediately precedes this chapter in Exodus, so a second set of tablets is required to replace those which Moses hurled down in pain and disgust.

On this second trip down the mountain, Moses is found to be quite literally radiant. His time in God’s presence has changed him too, making him shine with God’s glory. The people are even more leery of Moses, and Moses is left to either be stared for the radiance or for covering the radiance with a veil.

This Exodus story tells us of Moses’ very difficult position in life. First, Moses is a Jewish slave being raised as an Egyptian prince, but his adoption and different physical features do not allow for full acceptance as an Egyptian. When he finally does break from his adoptive people and attempts return to the Jewish slaves, he is rebuffed and rejected. Moses runs to Midianites where he is accepted and even marries into the clan but he is still an Egyptian Prince/Jewish Slave among Midianite goatherders. When God sends Moses back to the Jews and Egyptians, Moses is very hesitant to go in great part because he truly belongs to neither group, and has already been rejected by both groups. Now, in this story, God marks Moses as honored and set apart, making Moses the conduit between God and Israel, leaving Moses in the middle, serving both but truly a part of neither.

Why does Moses veil his face? Is Moses self conscious of God’s glory radiating from him? Since the Israelites have rejected Moses so soundly, I would think there might be some pride and comfort in God’s glory rubbing off on him a bit. If Moses was merely self conscious of his appearance, how would being the only guy in the whole Israelite camp wearing a veil over his face help that?

As a translational issue, The Jewish Study Bible makes these margin notes, “Radiant Hebrew “karan,” from “keren” or “horn” in the sense of projection and emanation as in Habbakuk 3-4, also translated “rays”. In the Vulgate (the first translation of the Greek/Hebrew scriptures into the common language of the people, which was at that time and in that place Latin), Jerome, in an over etymological translation, rendered “was horned”, [instead of “was radiant”] although he knew from the Septuagint that the meaning was figurative. Nevertheless, his translation led to the image of Moses with horns in medieval and Rennaissance art (especially Crannach’s wood cut illustrations of the Guttenberg Bible and Michelangelo’s Moses), and eventually coupled with the notion of Satan’s horns, to the anti-Semetic belief that Jews have horns.”

Psalm 99

1 The Lord is king; let the peoples tremble!
He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!
2 The Lord is great in Zion;
he is exalted over all the peoples.
3 Let them praise your great and awesome name.
Holy is he!
4 Mighty King,* lover of justice,
you have established equity;
you have executed justice
and righteousness in Jacob.
5 Extol the Lord our God;
worship at his footstool.
Holy is he!

6 Moses and Aaron were among his priests,
Samuel also was among those who called on his name.
They cried to the Lord, and he answered them.
7 He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud;
they kept his decrees,
and the statutes that he gave them.

8 O Lord our God, you answered them;
you were a forgiving God to them,
but an avenger of their wrongdoings.
9 Extol the Lord our God,
and worship at his holy mountain;
for the Lord our God is holy.

You were a forgiving God to them,
but an avenger of their wrongdoings.

“He is enthroned on the cherubim”-a reference to the heavenly beings depicted in statue on the ark of the covenant, which was God’s earthly throne. Throughout the Pentateuch or Torah, God is understood to be God of all. The Jewish people are charged with helping the nations know and love God so that they might recognize God as their God too. When King David selects the site of the Temple which Solomon builds, it is on the flat top of a hill, originally thought to be the highest point in the new capitol of Jerusalem. When the ark of the covenant was moved to the construction site, then God’s thrown was literally and figuratively “above all the peoples”.

The reference to forgiveness and exacting of retribution are curious and unique. Certainly God’s punishment to the third, four, or even seventh generation of those who sin is not new to the Hebrew scriptures, it is not usually coupled in the same verse with God’s forgiving nature.

2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2

12 Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with great boldness, 13not like Moses, who put a veil over his face to keep the people of Israel from gazing at the end of the glory that* was being set aside. 14But their minds were hardened. Indeed, to this very day, when they hear the reading of the old covenant, that same veil is still there, since only in Christ is it set aside. 15Indeed, to this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds; 16but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.

4Therefore, since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart. 2We have renounced the shameful things that one hides; we refuse to practice cunning or to falsify God’s word; but by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God.

While in the previous Exodus reading, Moses elects to wear a veil over his face out of modesty or embarrassment, in passage of his letter to the congregation in Corinth, Paul is interpreting that veil as something the Israelites required. The Exodus story is replete with incidences of the Israelites being afraid of God, and even of the pillar of cloud by day, fire by night, and cloudy presence on top of Mt. Sinai. In the Exodus story, the Israelites want an intermediary between themselves and God so they force Moses into that role. Paul here interprets that fear as a veil that lies between Israel and the Hebrew scriptures which prevents the Israelites from correctly interpreting the scriptures as fulfilled in God’s Christ, Jesus. Why may the Corinthian congregation members clearly see and interpret the Hebrew Scriptures? Because they Spirit of Christ, that is the Holy Spirit enlightens them. And, by the power and clear vision of the Holy Spirit, Paul admonishes this congregation to boldly speak the clear truth of God’s Word, Jesus.

Luke 9:28-43

28 Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus* took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. 29And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. 30Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. 31They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. 32Now 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.33Just 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. 34While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. 35Then from the cloud came a voice that said, ‘This is my Son, my Chosen;* listen to him!’ 36When 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.

37 On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. 38Just then a man from the crowd shouted, ‘Teacher, I beg you to look at my son; he is my only child. 39Suddenly a spirit seizes him, and all at once he* shrieks. It throws him into convulsions until he foams at the mouth; it mauls him and will scarcely leave him. 40I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.’41Jesus answered, ‘You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.’42While he was coming, the demon dashed him to the ground in convulsions. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. 43And all were astounded at the greatness of God.

All this talk of veils and God’s presence brings us to the Transfiguration of Jesus. Jesus has just fed the 5,000 and taught the disciples that discipleship is not fame and adulation but shouldering your cross and losing life as you know it. Just over a week later, Jesus takes the three inner circle disciples and shoulders his cross up the mountain. There the disciples see the real Jesus, Jesus’ real burden, unveiled for the first time. Jesus really is God and human. Jesus really does know everybody, even dead heroes of old! Like Moses, Jesus truly belongs to neither camp. Jesus is not dead on earth but alive in heaven with Moses and Elijah, nor is Jesus just a average Joe like the disciples. Because of the sinfulness of humanity and the unfathomable love of God, Jesus is pressed into the middle, to be a conduit between God and humanity.

Only Luke’s account of the transfiguration says that the disciples were just about asleep when the fun started. Somehow in his sleepy, confused stupor, Peter still manages to utter something senseless about tents and camping out. But the whole revelation of Jesus as God, of the dead who are alive, the thick cloud and heavy voice, leaves the disciples speechless, silent, dumbfounded.

Jesus finds the remaining disciples in the same state after descending the mountain. The disciples had just returned from deployment two by two where they had successfully healed the sick and cast out demons, but here was this possessed, epileptic boy and his father…and they were impotent. The target of Jesus’ exasperated exclamation is unclear: the disciples? the crowd? the father and son? all of them?

The sickness, the demon possession keeps father and son apart. Son is seized with senseless writhing. Father helplessly stands panicked watch. But Jesus reunited father and son with mere words of rebuke and touch of healing. Was Jesus craving for someone to heal him of his illness called humanity, messiah, so he, too, could just be well and go home?