Today we celebrate the Last Sunday in the season of Epiphany, and it is also an important time of transition. Last week, during our class, we talked about the different seasons of the church, what they mean in terms of rhythms and rites, but also, and mainly, in terms of spirituality, and how these seasons can stir up in us different emotions – and this is certainly the case in our liturgical time now. We are leaving the season of Epiphany that follows Christmas, a season that is all about light and joy and how Christ reveals the true God to his people, and how Christ is revealed to the nations, to enter the season of Lent, as of next Wednesday, Ash Wednesday. What a change of scenery as we will dive into a time of prayer and penitence, where we will meditate on Christ’s sufferings, anguish and death. And so in between seasons, on this very Sunday, as a bridge between this happy season of Epiphany and austere season of Lent, on this Sunday of transition we have this strange, disturbing and quite beautiful story of the Transfiguration, and sometimes we don’t really know what to make of it…
So once again, I think it is helpful to go backwards and to have a look at the context to understand better what it is about. We have made quite a jump in Matthew’s Gospel from Chapter 5 – “The sermon on the Mount“ – to Chapter 17, from which is taken the passage we hear today. It would be of course too long to go through all what we have missed, but we may at least notice that our story today starts with this mention: “Six days later“, and we may wonder what it refers to. Well, if we look at Chapter 16 we will find this well known passage where Jesus sort of “tests” his disciples’ faith by asking them who they think he is. And as the disciples shyly report who others say Jesus might be, Peter singles himself out by his bold confession of faith: Jesus is “(…) The Messiah, the Son of the living God“. Jesus, amazed by this declaration of faith, blesses Peter and promises him he will be given the keys to the kingdom of God. But as it happens several times in the Gospel, Peter’s faith promptly shows its limits: When Jesus goes on announcing his suffering and death, Peter refuses to listen and denies immediately that such a thing would ever happen to Jesus – and so, as readers, we see that although Peter understands who the Messiah is, Peter still needs to understand what being the Messiah is all about. And then six days later, here we are: Jesus takes Peter with James and John to the high mountain and is transfigured before them.
What we need to know is that if we read this passage of the Transfiguration on this “in-between”Sunday, the text itself functions as a transition in the Gospel itself. Most scholars agree that this long passage, in which Peter acknowledges Jesus as the Son of God in Chapter 16 to the end of our lesson today where Jesus comes down the mountain, this passage is the whole turning point of the Gospel. Until now, Jesus has been mostly successful in his ministry, working miracles, healing the sick, teaching, he is welcomed and sought after. But now Jesus is headed to Jerusalem and will meet more and more opposition, until his enemies seize him and put him to death. Indeed, we leave a time of joy and expectation, and we are headed towards hostility, anguish and sufferings. Who would want to go down the mountain indeed to go back to those harsh realities? Peter, as we have heard, wants to set up a dwelling as he acknowledges: “Lord, it is good for us to be here“. In this passage, indeed we reach the top of Jesus’s glory. Now the disciples know he is the Son of God, and the voice of God confirms Peter’s own words in Chapter 16: “This is my Son, the beloved, in whom I am well pleased“. They now all see Jesus in full light, they see Jesus for who he really is. Indeed, this is the Last Epiphany.
So concretely what are we to do with that? Well, when I read this story I think we can probably see a lot of ourselves in Peter, especially eager as he is to cozy up in Jesus’s glory and never enter the time of trial and suffering. Who could blame him?
Peter has gone half way, acknowledging Jesus’s deity in his successful ministry but refusing to see Jesus as the Son of God as is revealed in his passion and on the cross. Peter does not see a point in suffering, and,we must admit, neither do we. We just know we don’t want to meet any suffering, and if there is a God, we think that certainly God should shield us from suffering. And yet. This is certainly not what the Gospel teaches us. I certainly do not believe that the Gospel teaches us that we need to suffer because it is God’s will for us to be miserable, but I certainly believe that, in this broken world where we don’t know God, it’s impossible to avoid suffering. Maybe a true Son of God could avoid suffering, but he wouldn’t be the Son of God we meet in Jesus. Jesus certainly does not avoid neither suffering nor death. On the other way around, Jesus tells the disciples he is on his way to meet them. And the voice of God tells us to “listen to him”.
So what is it that we haven’t been listening to? So far, I generally assumed that this voice of God in our Gospel today refers to all of Jesus’s teaching and we know that in Matthew’s Gospel, we have long passages of teaching: We should listen to everything that Jesus teaches us – and yes, there is certainly some of that. But as I re-read this passage in Peter’s shoes, I wonder if the voice does not refer to what Peter has been refusing to listen to, and to what all of us, most of the time, refuse to listen to: That Jesus has to suffer and to die, with the consequence that, if it is the way for the Son of God, this is also the way for all of us who are following Him. And we are afraid. And this is actually the first thing Jesus will tell Peter and his disciples: Do not be afraid and this is also to this promise that we need to listen today. As they go down the mountain, Jesus, again, reminds the disciples that he is to die, but mostly, and mainly, a part they didn’t seem to have grasped either, that he is to rise from the dead.
And maybe this is what is actually happening. Peter refuses to believe that Jesus would suffer and die because he cannot believe in the Resurrection, he cannot believe that there is anything beyond suffering, and beyond death. He lacks faith, maybe, but mostly, understandably, he is afraid. And the whole point of this display of glory is to show him – and to the two other disciples – that there is nothing they should be afraid of. And I think this is also how it’s like for us right? We may think that we don’t have enough faith when meeting with suffering, but maybe, like Peter, it has not so much to do with our love (or lack of love) for Jesus, maybe we just don’t understand and maybe we are just afraid. This passage has been read as a “displaced“or“anticipated” “story of Resurrection”, put right there, in the middle of the Gospel, almost as a “spoiler alert” but a good spoiler, one that makes it possible for us to carry on with the rest of the story, as difficult as it may be. It is, of course, an encouragement for all of us. Suffering and dying is not just about going downhill after we have lived our best life and now it’s all ending and there is no going back. The end is not the end in God’s eyes, in God’s vision (the vision that is given to the disciples today) it is only a passage they have to go through, a time of transition and of transformation, but it’s not the end. Not for Jesus and not for them. And so they shouldn’t be afraid.
“Do not be afraid”. According to my research, we find this expression 113 times in the whole Bible, and about a hundred times directly in God’s mouth, as God addresses the people and generally they are the first words God pronounces when God starts addressing the people. I find this fascinating, like it’s the key for us to listen without being afraid so the word of God can reach us, and it’s fascinating that it is the first thing God asks of us. Listen to him my Beloved Son who tells you not to be afraid. Do not first listen to him or just listen to him to know to behave and to obey, but listen to him to understand that there is redemption in your sufferings and resurrection in your deaths. And so we can undertake this journey to the cross and this Lenten journey in our liturgy and in our own life. We may enter suffering, the one we experience now, or enter the mystery of suffering in us and around us, to be able to see beyond, to see that the promises that are made to us come true. This is actually the last “Do not be afraid” of the Bible, Rev 2:10: “Do not be afraid of what you are going to suffer (…) Be faithful even if it means you must die. Then I will give you life as a crown of victory.”