Like many things in Mark’s gospel, the
transfiguration brings in many layers of meaning. For many years biblical scholars thought
Mark’s gospel was a history of Jesus’ ministry written by a well-intended, but
simple-minded author. Not so. The same goes for the disciples as they’re
portrayed in Mark’s gospel. They seem
like a bunch of loveable, but bumbling idiots at one level – as if instead of
Jesus choosing twelve apostles, he chose twelve stooges. But when you look at them more you see a lot
of yourself – a well-meaning, but struggling person; wanting and meaning to be
a faith-filled disciple, but feeling like you fall short all too often. And even if you don’t want to admit it in
your mind, I think most people have a sense of frustration. If God only gave a sign, or some proof, or
created some sort of supernatural source of belief inside them, then they could
be good disciples. Think about what
we’ve learned so far from Mark’s gospel about both the disciples and the
Pharisees. They’re really asking Jesus
for the same thing.
But faith is different. People want faith to be a business
transaction or a contract. Each party in
the contract has a clear list of privileges and responsibilities; rewards and
consequences are clearly spelled out.
I’m reminded of the joke about the
wealthy businessman who had a reputation for being mean and abusive to his
employees, his children and his wife. He
was notorious for lying and being deceitful.
His wife was a kindhearted loving woman who always prayed for her husband. The man suddenly became very sick and doctors
told him he would die, so he better quickly get his affairs in order. He asked for his wife’s pastor to come and
visit him.
The pastor arrived and the man said,
“I know you are an honest man, trustworthy and you will not lie to me. I have been a bad person all my life. I’ve lied.
I’ve hurt lots of people. I’ve
manipulated and exploited things. So I
have a question for you. If I gave
everything I own – everything: all my money, my cars, my house, my business –
everything over to the church right now, will I go to heaven? Tell me the truth. I know you’re an honest man.”
The pastor paused for a few seconds
contemplating his answer and said, “Well, it’s worth a try.”
Silly, but people want faith to be a
give and take mechanism. It’s a
relationship, which is unique in each person’s experience, and it’s layered and
complicated.
We see some layers and complications
in the transfiguration. You may remember
me preaching this before, but from one point of view, Peter’s offer to build
three dwellings on top of the mountain – one each for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah
is absolutely silly. I imagine a
delivery truck from Home Depot struggling its way up a steep mountain road
delivering lumber and roofing materials!
But from a different point of view, Peter’s offer is commendable. The three dwellings Peter offers to make are
tents, or booths. Peter is offering to do
set up work for a Festival of the Booths.
This was a late-season harvest festival.
It commemorated the years the people of Israel spent wandering in the
wilderness under Moses. And in Peter’s
day the festival had come to mean the end of time. It was believed that at the end of time there
would be a great Festival of the Booths.
So Peter sees Moses and Elijah and
Jesus and thinks the end has come. He
has willingly offered his services to them.
Notice he does not offer to build four or six dwellings. That would then include a place for himself
and James and John. If he had offered
that we could reasonably conclude that Peter wants the event to go on and on
and he will then live up there with these three great guys. But no, Peter’s offer is genuine. It is well thought out. It is commendable. And it is totally wrong.
If you were here last week you may
remember talking about two levels of sight, as we saw it took Jesus two
attempts to cure the blind man. We
talked about how there seems to be two levels of sight in the disciples
too. They seem to be able to see Jesus
as the Messiah – which was the image of glory and triumph and power. And then there is the second level of sight
which was seeing Jesus as the Son of God.
In Mark’s gospel Son of God –or Son of Man- is always a reference to
Jesus as the crucified one. It has to do
with suffering, loss and death. The
disciples do not have this level of sight.
At least they don’t have it yet.
They will get it after the crucifixion.
So Peter’s offer is commendable from
the point of view of this first level of sight.
He is offering the glorious and triumphant Messiah he sees standing in
front of him with Moses and Elijah his services.
But what does the voice from the cloud
say? Does is say, “This is my
Messiah”? No, it says, “This is my Son,
the Beloved…” So we have both – Jesus as
the glorious Messiah shining and bright white; and Jesus as the Son of God, the
suffering crucified one. I think we are
to understand both from the Transfiguration.
What are we to do with this
contradiction? What does it mean for our
lives?
Mark’s original readers knew what it
meant to be persecuted for their faith.
They were suffering for what they believed. When you’re suffering for something it is
easy to question the validity of it.
Would you stick with a financial advisor if every time you followed that
person’s advice your investments lost money?
And why would you invest your life in believing something that was only going
to cost you? Like St. Paul writes, “If
for this life only we have hoped in Christ we are of all people most to be
pitied.” (1 Corinthians 15:19)
Mark’s original hearers needed to know
that persecution and suffering were going to be part and parcel of faith. But, it was worth it. Because, again as St. Paul continues, the
promise of the resurrection was coming.
That would be joy and glory.
And yet, Christian faith is not
intended to be a strategy for suffering now in order to be rewarded later. That would be back to being a simple business
transaction – you’re doing what you think God wants so that God rewards you in
the end.
As we look at this for our own lives,
let’s always keep in mind something greater.
This message appears to be infused in every word of Mark’s gospel. Following Christ does have rewards now. They are not the rewards of being blessed by
God and having an easy luxurious life.
They are the rewards of working hard and doing something worthwhile,
even if that worthwhile doesn’t bring you glory.
Maybe I’m an oddball in this, but I
don’t think so. At the end of the day I
sleep better when I’ve done an honest day’s work; when I feel like I’ve made a
meaningful contribution to the world around me; when I haven’t knowingly
defrauded anyone or exploited anyone. Of
course hard work is not the same as suffering, and hard work does not equate to
being a faithful Christian. But it makes
a good example of investing yourself in something worthwhile.
I think you will suffer today for your
faith, although that suffering will be mild compared to what Christians
experienced in Mark’s day. Standing up
for justice and fairness will cost you socially. Christian faith is not always welcome in the
workplace, especially when Christian faith does not go along with questionable
practices. And there is the whole
cultural arrogance that suggests atheism is the only thing a truly rational
person would accept as truth. People of
faith are ignorant weaklings who use their faith as a crutch. We know this is not true, but it doesn’t
really matter.
And perhaps this isn’t suffering at
all, but it certainly isn’t glorious. In
the 1980’s theologian Fred Craddock wrote, “We think of give our all to the
Lord is like taking $1000 bill and leaving it on the table – ‘Here’s my life,
Lord, I’m giving it all.’ But the
reality for most of us is that he sends us to the bank and has us exchange the
$1000 for quarters. We go through life
putting out 25 cents here and 50 cents there…
Usually giving our life to Christ isn’t glorious. It’s done in all those little acts of love,
25 cents at a time.” (Leadership (Fall 1984) 47)
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