Second Sunday of Lent B March 8, 2009

Gospel, Mark 9:2-10  People in ancient times believed the world to be stationary. The place of God or gods was up above, controlling what happened down below like a puppeteer with puppets or a child with playhouse moving furniture and dolls about. To get closer to God or gods, people went up on mountains, natural or artificial (high altars or pyramids). Such was the case with Abraham going up on Mt. Moriah, Moses at Mt. Sinai, Elijah on Mt. Carmel and also Mt. Sinai, and Jesus in this gospel passage.

The figures of Moses and Elijah, both of whom had gone up mountains to converse with God, accompany Jesus in this transfiguration scene. They represent the Law (Moses) and the Prophets (Elijah), the two main branches of God’s revelation to the Jewish people. How Peter ascertained the identity of Jesus’ visitors, we don’t know. He may have had an intuitive sense of their identity or had figured it out from listening to the conversation.

Why build tents? The most common interpretations of this passage suggest that Peter suggested tents so that they figures of Moses and Elijah would remain for some time…that it was a way of giving dignity to each of the figures to have their own tent…that the Jewish way of entering into an intimate conversation was to meet within a tent. The word “tabernacle” refers to a tent. The prayer shawl (“tallit” or “tallis”) with which Jewish men customarily place over their head during prayer is symbolic of entering a tent to converse with God.

The voice of God the Father speaks to the apostles, confirming Jesus’ identity as manifested visually in the transfiguration. The Father had previously spoken a somewhat similar message at Jesus’ baptism, directed to the audience in Matthew (3:17) but to Jesus in Mark (1:11) and Luke (3:22). To the words spoken at Jesus’ baptism, the Father adds, “Listen to him.” This phrase takes on special meaning as we recall the presence of Moses and Elijah there on the mountain with Jesus. As the Jewish people had been directed to listen to Moses, Elijah and the other prophets as representatives of God, now the word of Jesus is given a priority as God’s most authoritative voice.

On Jesus' command the three apostles will not tell the others about what took place on the mountain, but the restriction did not extend to conversations among the three of them. How often would Peter, James and John discuss those and other events such as the raising of the daughter of Jairus (Luke 8:51-56) to which they were privy.

The Greek word translated as “transfiguration” is “metamorphosis”, a word which elicits thoughts of a caterpillar emerging out of its cocoon as a beautiful butterfly. In zoology, metamorphosis technically refers to a major change of form of the same being (egg - larva - pupa - adult). The (temporary) metamorphosis of Jesus was from his natural human body to his glorified body.

As with Peter, James and John, none of us can fully comprehend the reality of God. We receive glimpses, enough for us to continue on with day-to-day life in this world with faith and hope beyond our comprehension based on Jesus’ word.

Reading 1, Genesis 22:1-2,9a,10-13,15-18  What was Abraham’s test? First of all, it was a test of obedience to God’s command and making God’s will his priority. Would Abraham do what was totally contrary to the wishes of his heart to fulfill God’s command? Second, it was a test of Abraham’s hope. In an age when people had not yet come to believe in eternal life after physical death, the only way one “lived on” was through one’s offspring. Isaac was Abraham’s only hope of having offspring through his wife Sarah.

Along with the testing, God used this dramatic incident to teach Abraham a profound truth about God. Many cultures of the ancient world believed that, to please or appease their gods, human sacrifice was required. The choice of sacrificial victims varied. Some offered young virgins for their purity or soldiers captured in war for their bravery. In Abraham’s cultural background, or in religious practices of neighboring cultures, the victims may have been the first-born sons and daughters. Abraham may have hoped that his God would be different, but sadly accepted the fact that God wanted the same sacrifice as other gods. By staying Abraham’s hand and telling him to sacrifice a ram in place of his son, we see the transition from human sacrifice to animal sacrifice as a symbolic substitute. In the story of the Exodus, Israelite first-born are spared by the blood of the sacrificial lamb. The presentation of Jewish first-born children at the Temple of Jerusalem was a buying them back from God with the animal replacement. God taught Abraham that He is not like the conceptualizations of gods prevalent in other societies…that God is a personal, loving God who will not require human blood sacrifice to be appeased.

Reading II, Romans 8:31b-34  Abraham was willing to offer his first-born son to God. Paul may have been thinking of Abraham as he wrote to the Romans that God gave his first-born son as a sacrificial offering out of love for us. We call to mind that well-known text from John 3:16 that “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.” With such great love, will God then turn and be against us?

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