Bible Tuesday for the Transfiguration of Our Lord, 2015

2 Kings 2:1-12

When the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha had set out from Gilgal. Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here, for the Lord has sent me on to Bethel.” “As the Lord lives and as you live,” said Elisha, “I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel. Disciples of the prophets at Bethel came out to Elisha and said to him, “Do you know that the Lord will take your master from your head today?” He replied, “I know it too. Be silent.”

Then Elijah said to him, “Elisha, stay here, for the Lord has sent me on to Jericho.” “As the Lord lives and as you live,” said Elisha, “I will not leave you.” So they went on to Jericho. The disciples of the prophets who were at Jericho came over to Elisha and said to him, “Do you know that the Lord will take your master from your head today?” He replied, “I know it too. Be silent.”

Elijah said to him, “Stay here, for the Lord has sent me on to the Jordan.” “As the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you,” he said, and the two of them went on. Fifty men of the disciples of the prophets followed and stood by at a distance from them as the two of them stopped at the Jordan. Thereupon Elijah took his mantle and, rolling it up, he struck the water; it divided to the right and left, so that the two of them crossed over on dry land. As they were crossing, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?” Elisha answered, “Let two thirds of your spirit be passed on to me.” “You have asked a difficult thing,” he said. “If you see me as I am being taken from you, this will be granted to you; if not, it will not.” As they kept on walking and talking, a fiery chariot with fiery horses suddenly appeared and separated one from the other; and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elisha saw it, and he cried out, “Oh, father, father! Israel’s chariots and horsemen!” When he could no longer see him, he grasped his garments and rent them in two.”

The stories of Elijah appear in the books of Kings and Chronicles only. Particularly in Kings, the stories are written in a formulaic style. This is especially true in the writing above. Three times does Elijah tell Elisha that he is being called away by God. Three times do the disciples of the prophets show up, twice to warn Elisha and once to watch. Then a wish is granted by the master to the student, but conditions are placed upon it.

Elijah and Elisha cross the Jordan east of Jericho, which is near Mt. Nebo, the sight of Moses’ death and burial by God. Elijah has been written about in the books of Kings and Chronicles as a new Moses. Here Elijah’s earthly life ends in the same general area as Moses’. Because Elijah is taken to God without dying, many Jewish traditions surround him as the harbinger of the messiah. The was true is Jesus’ day also, illustrated by bystanders wondering if, as Jesus cried, “Eloi, Eloi lama sabbachthani!” was he in fact calling to Elijah.

This story also depicts how closely a disciple was to his master. As Elijah is caught up in the whirlwind, Elisha cries out, “Father! Father!” and rends his clothes in grief and loss.

Psalm 50:1-6

1 The mighty one, God the Lord,
speaks and summons the earth
from the rising of the sun to its setting.
2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
God shines forth.

3 Our God comes and does not keep silence,
before him is a devouring fire,
and a mighty tempest all around him.
4 He calls to the heavens above
and to the earth, that he may judge his people:
5 ‘Gather to me my faithful ones,
who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!’
6 The heavens declare his righteousness,
for God himself is judge.
Selah

The psalmist depicts God as supreme ruler of all that is, summoning the elements of creation to swirl about Him as He gathers the faithful to Himself. No beings need bear witness to God, giving credence to His declarations of godliness to be adjudicated, because God is the judge!

2 Corinthians 4:3-6

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,”[a] made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.

In chapter 3 of II Corinthians, Paul addresses how it is that some Jews and some Gentiles are not agog with the gospel of Jesus as soon as they hear it. Paul says one reason is that it is veiled from them. He ties this to the ways that the Israelites were afraid to speak to God directly for fear that God’s might/purity/perfection would kill them as it drew near to their imperfection. So, they sent Moses to talk to God and when Moses did, his face would get all shiny so that the Israelites would stare at him and he would get embarrassed. So, Moses would draw his headdress across his face to veil it when it was shiny. Paul says that in the same way, the truth of the prophecies of the Hebrew Scriptures being fulfilled in Jesus has been veiled to the Jews. That veil is only unveiled when the Jews are willing to look at Jesus as someone more than an insurrectionist.

Then Paul moves on to this text. Here the veil is the idolatry of “those who are perishing.” When folks look to their own accomplishments, reputation, wealth, status, etc., for their place and worth in life, the truth of Jesus is veiled to them. When folks turn to the rules of their religion, and strict adherence to those rules, as the way of salvation, then the radical acts of God/Jesus dying and rising, thereby forgiving and saving, are veiled to them.

Mark 9:2-9

After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. 3 His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. 4 And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.

5 Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” 6 (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.)

7 Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud, “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”

8 Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.

9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

Six days prior to our text, Jesus told the disciples that he needed to go to Jerusalem to be betrayed, Peter objected, and Jesus said, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel,*will save it. 36For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? 38Those who are ashamed of me and of my words* in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

So, six days after that painful revelation to the disciples, and even more painful and enigmatic teaching, Peter, and the sons of Thunder, James and John, are taken on a hike by Jesus. Up they climbed, high enough to escape everyone else, “a high mountain”. The disciples turn to Jesus and see that he is talking to two other men: Moses and Elijah. How the disciples knew who they were, we are not told. Jesus’ clothes are brilliantly white during this truly wonder-full conversation. The disciples thought they had arrived. “This is the time, the place, the people we and our ancestors have been waiting for all these many ages, and now we have arrived. Let’s set up some tents and LIVE here!” So Peter, awestruck and fumbling, opens his mouth and the whole scene vanishes. God interjects, “This is my BELOVED SON!!! LISTEN to him!!!” And then it was over and back down the mountain they went.

Once when Jesus was being grilled about the resurrection of the dead by the Temple leaders, he answered that God said to Moses at the burning bush, “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” not “I was” but “I am”. Jesus goes on to argue that God speaks of these patriarch as if they are alive, therefore there is resurrection and eternal life. Here, at this transfiguration, Peter, James, and John get to witness exactly what Jesus was talking about, Moses and Elijah are alive!

Why did this scene happen? Did Jesus need to have a powwow with these legendary Jewish leaders before he went up to Jerusalem to be executed? Did Jesus/God miss his heavenly friends or did they need him? Certainly the disciples were greatly encouraged by seeing Jesus talking to these two heroes of old. Silencing a thunderstorm, giving sight to the bind, hearing to the deaf, forgiving sins, raising folks from the dead, and now a conversation with Moses and Elijah!

Then cloud covers the scene and from the cloud the disciples are admonished, “This is my son, whom I love. Listen to him!” When God gave the law to Moses, God appeared and spoke in just this way, in the fog. Now the disciples are in the fog, figuratively and literally and God speaks words of clarity, stating Jesus identity and telling the disciples what they should do. Neither one sinks in until after Jesus’ resurrection, if then. For them and us.