Matthew 17:1-9

¹Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. ²And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. ³Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. ⁴Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” ⁵While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” ⁶When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. ⁷But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” ⁸And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.

⁹As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

Kenneth Rosen[1] was digging post holes in Utah, and he didn’t like it. It was cold. Really cold. Below freezing cold. Hair freezing into icicles cold.  

Kenneth Rosen didn’t like digging holes, particularly digging post holes. But that was what he was asked to do. Whenever he was outside, his job was to dig holes. Mix cement, and then place the post in the hole. He was not a fan. He was developing calluses on his hands. It was hard work. His New York City life was never going to require the skill of digging holes and placing posts. And it bothered him that he wasn’t even getting paid to do it. Point in fact, his parents were paying for him to have the privilege of doing this hard work. 

It might be worth knowing that Kenneth Rosen was at a drug rehabilitation center at the time. Not the first he had been in at the young age of 17.

This wasn’t the only thing he did at this center. There was also therapy. There was cooking and cleaning his cabin. And there was also inside work that could be done, which would allow Kenneth to stay inside- much preferable to the freezing outside temperatures. Except, that the main inside work was training wild horses. And Kenneth had never been around horses in his New York City childhood, and he was scared of them. And so, much of his time in Utah was spent choosing between work he did not want to do and issues he did not want to face. Exactly why he was there.

Kenneth wrote:

I was into drugs and disregarding authority figures. The ranch sought to use equine therapy, combined with working therapy, to teach teenagers like me how to manage their anger, anxiety, depression, and unhealthy impulses.

Kenneth didn’t write about his experience at the time, he waited until many years later, and when he did, it was to make this point: He couldn’t understand it at the time, but the work he did in Utah would reap massive rewards, just not in the moment- it would be later he would figure out all that he had learned. All that he needed to leave his old life behind and embrace his new, healthy life. 

After he had gone back to the city. After he had grown up and become an author and reporter- for major magazines and newspapers. Then he really understood the lessons he could not understand when he was learning them.

He said of his teacher:

He was trying to teach us how to face the obstacles in our lives back home. Learning to do things we didn’t want to do would be more beneficial to us than we could currently imagine, he said. As it turns out, he was right.

The payday came…. later when I left the program. I was now equipped with the knowledge that with the right set of tools and the right preparation, it was possible to set a goal and reach it, one post hole at a time.

I learned that if I was to have a good cattle drive free of worry and stumbles, then the extra work I put in beforehand would save me time and sweat on the trail.

I’ve been thinking about Rosen’s article this week because I suspect that the disciples were a little bit like him. Jesus was teaching them, but in that moment, they had no idea how what he was teaching was going to be helpful.

My nephew likely wonders why I ask him, at age 8, if he has learned about the theory of relativity yet when what I’m really trying to say is that I wish I had paid more attention in science classes- I didn’t think I would need them- that they were just a hoop through which I needed to jump- and now I wish I knew more about science, remembered more. 

The disciples weren’t sure they needed what Jesus was teaching. They didn’t believe what he said was going to happen was going to happen, when just before this Jesus tells them he will die and rise again on the third day.

The disciples cannot hear it. They refuse to hear it. They are having none of it.

Because… if they knew anything about Jesus, if they knew anything about Messiahs

The Messiah for whom they had been searching

The messiah for whom they had been waiting. 

Messiahs did not die early. They lived. 

They escaped death, sometimes in miraculous ways, like David from King Saul. 

They lived full lives, even when they drifted, like Moses, who was 120 years old and spry for his age.

They beat the odds, like Ruth and Naomi, the forbears of Jesus, who left a land of famine to make their way in a new place that was their old place.

That’s what God’s chosen did.

What they didn’t do, was die early. 

That was truer for the Messiah than anyone.

They believed that Jesus was the Messiah,

but when Jesus tells them he is going to die, they have to be wondering,

“Maybe we got it wrong? Maybe Jesus isn’t the one after all?”

Jesus takes them to the mountain top, and what happens there removes all doubt.

A supernatural event. Moses. Elijah. The Voice of God. 

The symbols of the Law and the Prophets are in one place, with Jesus.

It was like being verified on Twitter or Tik Tok, the thing that would put an official blue check next to his name. Or the degree that adds letters behind your name.  Or an award that lends credibility.[2]

Before transfiguration, the disciples could not let go. Could not let go of what they thought would happen. Could not let go of what they wanted to happen. And their refusal to let go was turning the light away from what God had in store, what God had envisioned.

And God tells them. Not to hold one. Not to look back. But to listen to Jesus. To trust the words and actions of Jesus—even, and maybe especially, when we didn’t, even when we don’t, understand it. To let go of what we thought, and listen to Jesus.

How often does life not turn out the way that we thought it would?

Or the world seems horribly, horribly wrong.

What’s heavy on your heart?

What weight are you carrying that is terribly heavy?

While there is no shortage of things I could put in this category, I’ve been a part of several conversations about the report the CDC released this week on the record levels of depression and anxiety in our teenagers that have been at the center of so many conversations, with colleagues, parents, and more.[3] Reports that confirm what so many have already observed, without clear resolution as to why or with a mental health system equipped to handle it.

This moment of Transfiguration reminds us that there is a bigger picture.

Now, talking about transfiguration’s reminder of the long game may seem as though what is happening now does not matter or happens for reasons that God has yet to unfold. Let me be clear, I do not believe that God brings tests into our lives or causes terrible things to happen.

But I do believe that there is more. That we do not see everything clearly. That the hard moments are not our only moments. And that we are still developing the tools we need, that following Jesus, listening to Jesus, will teach us things for that long game that we might not understand in the moment.

“Listen to him,” God tells them. It’s such a miraculous moment, it’s not surprising that the disciples want to stay there.  When I’m on a mountaintop, I’m not usually in a rush to leave that view, that experience behind. But God didn’t ask them to stay, God told them to listen.

Jesus isn’t going to stay in that place, Jesus is moving forward. Jesus is leaving the mountain to go where the ministry is happening, in the villages and on the roadways and around the tables with the people.

Peter, James, and John cannot stay. They must let go, even though being up there must have been sweeter than manna from heaven and water from the rock.

How do we learn to want God’s will more than our will? It starts by listening to Jesus, and knowing that this moment is not the only moment.

The Transfiguration, Matthew tells us, happens six days after Jesus tells them they must lose their lives in order to save them. 

That number of days is significant, because it’s the only time something happens in the gospels in six days. And it tells the disciples, it tells those who were listening that the story isn’t over yet.[4]

On the sixth day of creation, it’s good, but it’s not complete yet.

Moses was in God’s presence for six days, before he received the Word from God.

Six is the signal that the story is not over, Jesus’s work is not complete. There is still much to learn, much to which we can listen from Jesus. 

We’re not told we’re going to understand it all of the time. We’re told to listen. Let go. Move on. Listen.

What do you need to let go of in order for God to have the room God needs in your life to make a difference?

It might be worth noting that God doesn’t have the final word in this passage, Jesus does. And it comes right after God speaks. 

The disciples are terrified. This work is hard. And they don’t understand it. 

And so, Jesus comes over to them. Touches them. And says to them. 

“Get up and do not be afraid” Then they moved off of the mountain.

Friends, may we do the same.

Because it isn’t the seventh day. It’s the sixth day, and God isn’t done with us yet.

Alleluia. Amen.

[1] Kenneth R Rosen, “At a Therapeutic Ranch, No Payday Until Later,” NYTimes, March 24, 2017.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/24/jobs/youth-hard-labor-horses.html

[2] What happened on that mountain was such a big deal, that some scholars believe that this is the moment when Jesus actually becomes the Messiah, when he recognizes and embraces his divine nature as well as his human one.

It’s told in Matthew, Mark, and Luke and Transfiguration is one of the earliest festivals celebrated in the church, its roots going back to the fourth century leading us to now, when Transfiguration Sunday leads us into Lent, a transition from Epiphany into the wilderness, which leads to Holy Week.

[3] https://www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/newsroom/2023/increased-sadness-and-violence-press-release.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/13/health/teen-girls-sadness-suicide-violence.html

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/cdc-data-shows-u-s-teen-girls-in-crisis-with-unprecedented-rise-in-suicidal-behavior

[4] http://lectionarygreek.blogspot.com/2011/03/matthew-171-9.html

Found on Pulpit Fiction https://www.pulpitfiction.com/notes/transfigurationa