Transfiguration - Mark 8: 27-9:8

If I had to sum up this particular section of scripture I would call it “adventures in missing the point”. Just as last week we saw that the religious leaders were letting tradition obscure their ability to understand what is truly important, now it is the disciples turn to miss out on what Jesus is trying to teach them. 

First, Jesus and his disciples are on their way from one village to the next when Jesus asks a question, “Who do people say that I am?” In other words, I know that people have been talking about me - what have you heard. And the disciples start to list-off what people had been saying from town to town. You’re Elijah! You’re John the Baptist! You’re one of the prophets! But then Jesus turned the question from what they heard to what they believe - “who do you say that I am?”

Maybe the rest of the disciples were silent, but Peter always eager to please just had the words “You are the Messiah!” Burst out of him!

And at first glance, Peter is absolutely right. Jesus is the Messiah sent by God to be a fulfillment of the convent promise made to Israel. Peter got the correct answer to who Jesus is, but he didn’t understand what it meant to be called the Messiah, the Christ. 

Peter expected that the Messiah was who was going to come and restore Israel through military intervention. He was looking for the Messiah to be a conquering military hero. But that wasn’t God’s definition of restoration. Instead, Jesus came to restore people to the Kingdom of God, not through military conquest, but my sacraficial love. 

Which is exactly what Jesus goes on to say to his disciples - that the Son of Man will undergo suffering, that he will be rejected, and be killed, before rising again in three days. And Peter, the same Peter who just moments before had claimed that Jesus was the Messiah, started to rebuke him. Surly this isn’t true Jesus! Surely you don’t understand what you are saying. 

And Jesus ultimately rebuked Peter in return, telling him to “Get behind me Satan.” Jesus wasn’t calling Peter Satan, instead he was saying who the influence was behind Peter’s words as he focused more on the things of this world than on the things of God. 

We, too, are sometimes like Peter. We, too, have adventures in missing the point. We understand that Jesus is the Messiah, is the Christ, in our heads, and maybe we even say it with our lips, but we are still confused about what exactly that means. Jesus in his rebuke of Peter is saying that ultimately what it means to be the Christ is determined by God who appointed the Messiah in the first place, not by what people of this world believe or are saying about him. 

But even when we do not fully understand, we are still called to follow. Even though Peter missed the point here, he wasn’t kicked out of being a disciple. Jesus continued on as his role as teacher, telling the disciples what is to come. 

One would think that Peter would have learned his lesson, but a mere six days later he again finds himself in a situation where he misses the point. 

Peter has been on this roller coaster of a ride since Jesus called him and now he is hiking up a mountain, having no idea what to expect. And how could have any of the disciples expected this? In a split moment they saw Jesus shining before them talking with Moses and Elijah, the pillars of the Hebrew faith. Not only are they seeing this unexplainable sight, but they heard the voice of God. They…heard…the…voice….of…God. Excluding the prophets in the Old Testament, not many people could claim to have heard God since the patriarchs. And Peter knew that this was huge. We have to give him credit for that. But then, he seemed to just miss the point, by suggesting to erect three dwellings for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. And then they had to come back down the mountain, as Jesus told them not to tell anyone what they had saw until “after the Son of Man had been raised from the dead.” Judging from the happenings in this story, it’s likely that Peter still didn’t understand with this phrase meant.

What is so ironic about Peter’s zeal about commemorating the moment is that he totally missed what God told him to do. God’s message to the disciples in this story wasn’t anything radically new - this is my son; listen to him. Yet Peter didn’t listen. Instead of absorbing the moment and taking it in for all that it was worth he got busy. We have a tendency to be like Peter as well at times. Instead of listening to Jesus we set out to do things for Jesus, instead of simply asking Jesus if this is in fact what he wants us to do. We get caught in this trap both as individuals and as churches. We want to do the next big thing for the Lord, when really if we would simply listen, Jesus is calling us to do something else completely. 

The epistles of Peter tells us that while this wasn’t a long experience,  not even lasting a whole day, that it was seared in the disciples memories. Peter was impacted enough to write about what happened to him on the mountain. Listen to the words Peter wrote again. “We had been eye witnesses to his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’ We OURSELVES HEARD this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain.” Peter had experienced God in such a way that it impacted his world. 

But, once again, we too miss the point from time to time do we not? We’ve all had mountain top experiences in our life of faith. Pause for a moment and think about a time when you undoubtedly knew that you were in the presence of God. We each have a unique story that tells of how God has interacted with and blessed up. Those moments when you feel engulfed by the total presence of glory. But how many times like Peter do we want to memorialize the moment, just sitting in God’s glory, instead of using that to fuel our journeys. 

Just one chapter earlier, Jesus had told his disciples what is to come. He had told them that he was to suffer and die. But they wanted to sit there, in an experience that seemed much more pleasant, then go out and face what is to come. This divine moment of realization in the transfiguration wasn’t the point in and of itself. It was simply a stop on the journey to continue to fuel the disciples to go forward. 

Peter shows us in this piece of scripture that we can both be right and wrong at the exact same time. That we can say all the right words with our lips, but our hearts don’t fully understand. Or we can think we understand, but our hearts aren’t in the right place at all.

Thankfully, we don’t need to have it all figured out in order to be a disciple, as Peter shows us. We are still going to miss the point from time to time. The question is if we are still willing to follow Jesus. Even when we don’t understand. Even when it isn’t going as smoothly as we think it should? Do we still follow the call of Christ that transforms and transforms this world, all for the sake of the Gospel? Amen.