P ♰ C

by Jean Allen

How would you feel if you had been present at the transfiguration and then, on the way down the mountain, Jesus ordered you to tell no one about the vision until he had been raised from the dead? Besides wondering what the heck he meant by ‘raised from the dead’, would you have felt disappointed and crestfallen? Up until he said that, were the disciples envisioning themselves telling the others of this amazing experience, thinking about how astounded and envious the others would be? Were they just a little excited thinking about how the others would be impressed that Jesus had chosen them in particular to witness it, perhaps seeing them as more elevated and more important?

Very natural thoughts like these take us back to Christ’s temptations in desert. There was that one temptation to equate the spectacular with God’s approbation and Jesus knew that equation could lead him and others down the false road of self-glory. Jesus’s life was filled with the spectacular but Jesus did not need the miracles he performed to assure himself that God loved and approved of him. At his baptism he received all he needed to know who he was. “This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” He didn’t need the spectacular to prove his value and worth.

On the Mount of Transfiguration, God spoke his approval again. “This is my son, the beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” Jesus listened to his Father and now the Father was telling the disciples that the key to knowing their own worth and value was listening to Jesus. That’s where they would realize their utter validity; not through spectacle but through knowing they were loved no matter what. But they had to learn to really listen to Jesus, not just hear his words (which were often confusing to them), but to really listen to the love Jesus had for them.

It took Jesus rising from the dead and for the Spirit to anoint them before they really heard the love Jesus had for them.

A wee bit slow on the uptake but they finally got it.