The Lazy Lab Hunting Club is a faith-based organization. As such, I have asked various church leaders throughout the country to provide instruction as it pertains to important dates within the church’s liturgical calendar. This month’s topic for consideration involves the transfiguration of our Lord. The feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ celebrates the revelation of Christ’s divine glory on Mount Tabor in Galilee (Matthew 17:1-6; Mark 9:1-8; Luke 9:28-36). After revealing to His disciples that He would be put to death in Jerusalem (Matthew 16:21), Christ, along with Ss. Peter, James, and John went up the mountain. There, Saint Matthew writes, “he was transfigured before them. And his face did shine as the sun: and his garments became white as snow.” Rev. Katie Day (Rev. Katie Day – Pleasant Hill Presbyterian Church (pleasanthillpc.org)), the Senior Pastor on Staff at Pleasant Hill Presbyterian Church (https://pleasanthillpc.org/) and our LLHC Counselor, was asked to provide her thoughts on the topic articulating the importance of the Transfiguration to us as Believers and what people may achieve when they are inspired, as the Saints were.
Referenced Scripture comes from Matthew 17:1-9
Truly seeing, even just a glimpse, is a great gift. Getting a glimpse of someone’s heart in a vulnerable moment, or witnessing something incredibly raw and real, or watching a child discover something for themselves, or catching the perfect pristine beauty of creation in a sunrise or sunset – all of these are examples of times we get to truly see, with eyes open wide. It’s a gift. And, like all gifts, we often don’t know how to receive it.
Which is what happens to Peter, presumably, on this mountain-top, when his heart fills to overflowing with excitement and joy at witnessing the beauty of his friend Jesus transfigured in glory and the mystery of the great prophets of old, Moses and Elijah, and he blurts out his great suggestion: “This is good! Let’s stay! We’ll build homes for you – for the three of you – right here!”
Peter would stay in this mountain-top miracle always – it seems everything is illuminated and perfect, and it all makes sense, or maybe nothing at all makes sense, which is why it’s OK to stay there. Why would he ever want to go back down to messy life in the city below? But we can’t stay.
Luke tells us Peter is weighed down with sleep, perhaps offering that as an excuse for his inappropriate suggestion.
Peter’s weighed down with more than sleep, though – worries and responsibilities that go along with his new life as a disciple, a reluctance to hear what Jesus is beginning to say about his coming death and resurrection. We’re weighed down, as well – with anxieties and doubts and trauma, with family problems and health issues and money and relationships and vocation and self-esteem – all of these things weigh down our eyes as if with sleep, making it hard to see clearly.
And then, a cloud, overshadowing, and a Voice: “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” What can you – what could anyone – say after that?
Lent begins this next week, with Ash Wednesday, when we contemplate our mortality, something we have in common with Jesus at this point in his story, as he faces his coming death. And so, we must come down from the mountaintop girded up for what is to come, for the work that remains to be done down in the messy and beautiful real world, work that Jesus will guide and direct his disciples to carry on after his death and resurrection.
We have seen Jesus in glory: dazzling, almost too beautiful to bear. We, like Peter, unsure of the right words to say, have longed to stay in the presence of the transfigured Christ flanked by heroes of the faith from the past, perhaps longing for an easier, safer task than the work to which we’ve been called, claiming, “It is good for us to be here!”
And we, too, have heard the voice: “This is my Son – listen to him.” Maybe not in a cloud, maybe not on a mountain, but maybe in a prayer, or in the words of a song, or maybe in the face of a friend or neighbor. Peter, James, & John didn’t speak of what they saw and heard and maybe we won’t either. These things are hard to talk about. But maybe, as we prepare ourselves for this Lenten journey to Jerusalem, as we head down that mountain whether we are ready go or not, maybe on that road we will look at one another and truly see, and we will glimpse the holiness in the humanness, and maybe Peter’s words will be transfigured as well, and we will say to each other “it is good for us to be here,” here on this journey down the mountain, as we join together in this work Jesus calls us to of healing, feeding, sheltering, caring, praying, and learning to see.
Thank you for sharing and educating us, Katie! To God be the glory…
