Joke: Priest Sees Jesus Standing Outside His Office Looking In

I’ve never seen a miracle, at least not in the biblical sense like seeing an angel. I’ve never seen an ocean part, or someone walking on water. I’ve never had a vision of the Lord Himself. I think miracles still occur, if by miracle we mean something that only God could have done. I think that children are miracles in a sense. Here’s this little person who just a few years ago didn’t exist. And now he or she is here. I think that is miraculous. But in the other sense, I’ve never seen a miracle.

Some people say they have. An example in recent history is the appearance of Mary at Fatima. The story of Fatima is that Mary appeared to some kids, back in 1917. The kids went and told their parents. Then Mary appeared again some time later and told the kids to gather up the entire town on a certain day because there would be a glorious display in the heavens. And they did and several thousand people reported that they saw the sun move around in the sky and making curly-cues and changing colors.

And there are other reports from mystics and saints who also say they have had mystical experiences in which they either saw God or witnessed some kind of event that was divine or miraculous in nature.

So, someone has a vision of God, or witnesses a miracle. Such people seem to be in the minority, a very small minority. By far the majority of us don’t get to see such things. I’d like to see some miraculous thing like Fatima. But again, most of us don’t get to. So what does it mean for the rest of us? What good is it to us if someone else got to see something that we didn’t?

The one constant, the one thing miraculous sightings have in common is that these people reported what they saw. Usually, it seems, when someone sees something miraculous, or something really extraordinary, they tell it-- look at how many UFO sightings are reported.

Peter, James and John go up a mountain with Jesus. They are eye-witnesses not only to His Transfiguration, but also the glorious appearances of Moses and Elijah, two figures from Israel’s distant past. But they come down the mountain and don’t say anything? Very peculiar.

Jesus told them not to tell anyone what they had seen and heard, until He had been raised from the dead. And so they didn’t. There’s nothing in the narrative about any of them telling. But how could they keep it quiet?

Imagine the other disciples asking them: So, what did He take you up there for? What’d you guys do up there? What’d you see? To which Peter, James and John simply shrug and say “nothing”.

It begs the question: why not? Would you tell? If you saw something like that, wouldn’t you tell someone? You might preface your telling of this sight by saying something like, “you’re not going to believe this, but you should see what I saw” or “you’re going to think I’m crazy, but …” Wouldn’t you tell someone? Your best friend, your spouse, your mother, somebody?

Not Peter, James and John – they kept silent.

But then they did eventually tell. We have the account of the Transfiguration in Matthew’s Gospel. If Peter and the others never told it, we wouldn’t have it now.

So what made them tell? They kept silent, but then they eventually told. Why? What made them finally tell, presumably long after the fact?

The Transfiguration is a puzzling part of the Gospel narrative.

There are many ways to look at it and many ways to understand it. For one, it’s an epiphany in itself, a revealing of Jesus as the Son of God. The voice from the cloud introduces him as such: This is My Son, My Chosen, listen to Him.

The presence of this bright or luminous cloud from which the voice of God identifies His Son is very significant. All through the history of Israel the luminous cloud image stands for the glory of God. In Exodus the pillar of cloud led the people on their way. Also in Exodus we read of the building and completing of the Tabernacle, and a cloud came and covered the congregation and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. The same thing happens again when Solomon’s Temple was dedicated: the luminous cloud filled the house of the Lord. And even later, at Jesus’ Ascension, He is taken up into a cloud. This cloud always signifies the presence and glory of God.

Peter James and John saw this on the mountain with Jesus, but didn’t telluntil long after the fact.

Furthermore, this scene tells us something about Jesus in His role as the Messiah: Moses and Elijah are in this scene to represent the Law and the Prophets.

It’s the idea that the Law and Prophets point to Jesus, and the prophetic books of the Old Testament foretell of the coming Messiah. And now here He is.

The cloud comes along and God says this is My Son, My Chosen. When the cloud leaves, only Jesus is there. This is taken to mean that Jesus has fulfilled the Law and the Prophets. The New Covenant, the New Testament is here, the old is fulfilled in the coming of Christ. The voice from the cloud says, “Listen to Him” meaning Jesus. It doesn’t mean that we no longer have to listen to Moses and Elijah, it’s just that in listening to Jesus we are listening to Moses and Elijah. Jesus summed everything up when He told us to love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength and love our neighbor as ourself, on these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets

Why not tell this?

Because it’s one thing to say that Jesus is God’s Son, it’s one thing to say that Jesus fulfills all the Law and the Prophets, it’s one thing to see His glory.

But none of that is the complete, fully true meaning of who Jesus is. That can only be known in the Cross and the Resurrection of Christ.

We didn’t get to see this miraculous appearance of Jesus in His glory, but Peter James and John did and what this scene means for us is that it’s a message from Peter, James and John from the other side.

Peter James and John finally tell of their mountaintop vision of Jesus’ glory only because they have seen the Risen Christ. This is a message from the other side, from the future relative to this point in the Gospel narrative. The Gospels were written long after the facts. The Transfiguration happened sometime between 30 and 33 AD. The Gospel of Matthew was completed sometime toward the end of the first century, in the 80s or 90s. The account of the Transfiguration is told in Matthew’s Gospel narrative before Jesus even enters Jerusalem. At this point in time, the disciples had no idea that Jesus was going to be crucified and resurrected. The meaning of the Transfiguration didn’t occur to them until Jesus was raised from the dead.

They remembered what happened to them. They remembered what they saw. They told it. It was either recorded on some papyrus, or memorized by someone, probably several people. When the church community founded by Matthew decided to document the gospel in the 80s or 90s, they included this account of Jesus’ Transfiguration. By that time, its meaning was clear to them.

That Jesus went to the Cross for us, to die for our sins to redeem us and win us back to Himself, that Jesus rose from the dead to be our Lord for eternity and that we who believe in Him and follow Him will also be raised – that is the full and complete truth about who Jesus is and what His Messianic role means to us.

It’s the message left to us from Peter James and John that Jesus is Risen. Now this account of the Transfiguration makes sense, now it can be seen as a forecast of what is to come.

It’s the message that became the proclamation of the early Church and remains so to this day: Christ has died, Christ is Risen, Christ will come again. Amen.