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Sermon - The Second Sunday in Lent (B) - 8th March 2009
St Alban's Anglican Church Epping 7, 8 & 10am
Readings: Mark 9:2-9
Lent is a unique time of year where we spend time thinking about our faith, about Christ himself and the impact of this man’s life upon our lives. I remember when I was young I used to regularly read the New Testament. But I was overwhelmed by all it had to say. I knew the miracle stories. I knew the teaching passages. I knew about Jesus death and resurrection. But I had trouble putting it all together. I was always unsure I had understood what it was all about. As I grew older I realised that because it was a complex story it would be difficult to hold it all together. When I had the chance to study the Bible full time, though I had some questions answered, many more came up and I gained a deeper appreciation of its sophistication and beauty.
Now why I am raising this is because this was the disciples’ problem. When we get to the Transfiguration we find the disciples in great turmoil. It helps if we understand that the story and the sequence of events around it are exactly the same in Matthew, Mark and Luke. It is completely absent from John’s gospel. But in the first three gospels the sequence is the same. First Jesus asks the disciples what people are saying about him, Then Peter declares him to be the Christ, then Jesus talks about his trial, his death and his resurrection. Then Peter rebuked him. Then Jesus rebuked Peter. then a week later we have the events of the Transfiguration. This is how it goes in each gospel and the events are intensely disturbing for the disciples.
By this point in Jesus’ ministry the disciples had seen many things. They had seen some remarkable miracles. they had heard some astonishing teaching. They had developed a deep respect for Jesus. They had reached a point where they realised he was no ordinary man. They had just begun to understand that he was the Messiah. For the Jews of those days, Messiah had great political significance. The Messiah was expected to be a military leader. The Messiah was expected to remove the Romans and restore the Temple. The Messiah was expected to bring in a golden age. So when the disciples understood Jesus to be the Messiah they had great expectations about his agenda. In their own minds they had already decided what Jesus would do. And this becomes the point of conflict. Jesus is agreeing that he is the Messiah, but then he explains that as Messiah he will not do what they are expecting him to do.
Rather, what he has to say seems to make no sense at all. He talked about his trial, his death and his resurrection. The trial was certainly no surprise. The disciples expected the Pharisees to be a problem. But to die seemed ridiculous. What good would a dead Messiah be to them. That was useless. And then there was the resurrection. The Jews except for the Sadducees believed in resurrection. But they understood that resurrection would come at the end of history. Remember Jesus’ conversation with Martha after Lazarus had died. Jesus said, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” That was the common Jewish belief. Resurrection would come at the last day. But now Jesus is saying he will rise on the third day. Not at the end of history but in the middle of history. The disciples had never heard of any of this before. It is all new.
So Peter lost his temper and rebuked Jesus. And Jesus responded with those gentle words, “Get behind me, Satan!” This was obviously a very low point for them. And so we have these event six days later. Jesus and the disciples were in the Galilee region and Jesus took Peter, James and John and led them up a high mountain. Mountains were always significant to Jews. They were seen as the meeting point between heaven and earth. In the Old Testament it had been on mountains that men had met with God. And while they were there Jesus was transfigured. In other words, Jesus’ heavenly glory was revealed to them.
In the Old Testament God is often described in terms of bright light and the colour white. And this is how Jesus is described. And then Elijah and Moses appeared and they were talking with Jesus. Luke tells us what they were talking about. In our English Bibles they tells us they were discussing Jesus’ ‘departure’. But that is a weak word. The actual word used was Jesus’ exodus. When the Israelites left Egypt they were on their exodus to the promised land. And here is Jesus discussing his exodus, where he would fulfil all the promises of God opening the way back into heaven.
But look at how Peter understood these events. He was still thinking of the Messiah as a kind of general. He was still looking for a war. When the Israelites left Egypt for the promised land they lived in tents in the wilderness. But they were like an army on the move and we know they fought battle after battle until they took the promised land. Now Peter wants to set up three shelters or tents. The word we might want to use is a bivouac or a base camp. Now Peter had Jesus and Elijah and Moses on his side they would be invincible. What as army they would be!
But God intervened. As in the Old Testament God appeared in a cloud and made his declaration. “This is my Son, my beloved.” This is similar to his announcement at Jesus’ baptism. But there is the additional command. “This is my Son, listen to him.” Peter had to drop his expectations of the Messiah. He had to reconsider. He had to start listening to what Jesus was saying. The work of the Messiah was to die and to rise again. The Messiah would win a great victory certainly. But it would be done in a new way. It is a new story. It is the story of death and resurrection. And this story affects our own discipleship.
Jesus says, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Following Jesus can sound attractive until we realise the destination is Golgotha, the place of the skull. The message of Jesus is the message of Easter. God’s command to the disciples and to us is if we want to understand Jesus then we must listen to Jesus. Easter is at the heart of the truth about Jesus.
At the end of his life Peter wrote, “We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honour and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain. And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”
It is so tempting for us to make up our own minds about who we think Jesus was and why we think he came. But the challenge for us is to read his words and to listen to what he is saying to us, to apply those words to our lives. We will not always like what we hear. Like Peter, we may want to argue and fight against it. We may feel uncomfortable with what we hear. But that’s not surprising.
Jesus is calling us to live contrary to the way the world lives, to put the needs of others before our own, to forgive when it isn’t earnt or deserved, to reject the idea of an eye for an eye, rather to do good to those who hate us. All this goes against our human nature. But it is the morality of heaven and we are now citizens of a new community – the new Jerusalem. We are to live under the Lordship of its new King and Messiah. So during Lent we can reflect on our lives. We can think again about giving up our old ways, to take time for repentance and meditating on our new citizenship.