Transfiguration (Mark 9)

“And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them.” From the Gospel according to Mark, chapter 9, verse 3.

     In the name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

     “And he was transfigured before them.” We commemorate the Transfiguration twice a year, on the last Sunday after Epiphany, and on August 6. Some saints get double mention, usually on the day of their deaths, and also on the day or days their relics were discovered or moved. Double commemorations like these are meant to emphasize the importance of the event or person concerned. And so it is with the Transfiguration. It occurs at the end of Epiphanytide as a summing up of what has been revealed in this season: Jesus as the divine and human Son of his Father, and the relationship of the Father and the Son with the Holy Spirit. We can also understand it as a transition to Lent, and a foreshadowing of the Resurrection, which is definitely another transfiguration and an even greater revelation of the nature of Jesus. And Transfiguration occurs again in August, close to the end of the church year in the Orthodox calendar, and just before the celebration on August 15 of the Falling Asleep of the Mother of God. The proximity of the two feasts is not accidental; it emphasizes, again, who Jesus is and keeps before us the role of his Mother in the history of salvation. His Mother shares, in effect, in her Son’s transfiguration.

     “And his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them.” Light is often associated with divinity. In our time, accustomed as we are to bright, steady light whenever and wherever we want it, we are perhaps too used to it. We can turn night into day, and we have so much light in our cities at night that we can’t see the stars. We can banish darkness. And so perhaps we don’t realize how stunning light can be, and what a powerful symbol it is for God. Peter and James and John, however, are dazzled by the very bright light of the Transfiguration, brighter than any light they had seen. This is no ordinary light; our Orthodox friends call it “the light of Mount Tabor,” or “the uncreated light,” which is nothing less than the divine radiance. And they soon see what this light is revealing to them: the presence of Jesus with the prophets Moses and Elijah.

     But this is only the beginning of the revelation. Peter says, “Let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” This tells us that, at this moment, Peter understands Jesus to be of the same rank, or on the same level, as the prophets. He seems to have forgotten that he, back in chapter 8, had proclaimed Jesus to be the Messiah. The other disciples at that point compared Jesus to Elijah, or John the Baptist, or other prophets whom they don’t name. They were not ready to see Jesus as Messiah, except Peter.

     It is conventional for preachers to say at this point, the tent-building proposal, that this is another example of Peter’s basically well-intentioned but somewhat clueless reaction to what is really going on. After all, Mark the Evangelist immediately says, “He did not know what to say, for they were terrified.” I’m skeptical of Mark’s comment, since Peter has just said, “It is good for us to be here!” That doesn’t sound like terror, or cluelessness, to me. I suspect, and this is my own speculation of course, that Mark thinks that the disciples ought to be terrified, and so he says that they are. But the disciples themselves say no such thing. Perhaps the Evangelist would have been terrified. I think that something else is going on here. Peter is not clueless. Peter and the others are sufficiently mature spiritually, that they are capable of seeing the divine light, and the prophets too. They have been helped by Jesus to be open to the reality of God, by teaching, miracles, and example, so that when Jesus takes them up the mountain, they are ready for the next step.

     A few times already in Mark’s Gospel, demons have recognized Jesus as the Holy One of God, or the Son of God. But now God himself announces Jesus’s sonship, in the cloud that overshadows Jesus and the disciples. I’ve been thinking about this “cloud” and what it represents. Of course, it probably is a real cloud; mountains make their own weather, and they are frequently obscured by clouds. The cloud can also describe the state of mind of the disciples; they are in a new situation, and so they may be experiencing a certain darkness, after the experience of the Transfiguration, which may have blinded them momentarily, as those of us who come from wintry places remember being dazzled, perhaps blinded, by sunlight on snow.

     “And from the cloud there came a voice, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him.’” We recall the words of God to Jesus at his baptism, when he says, “You are my Son, the Beloved. With you I am well pleased.” Then, only Jesus hears it. Now, Peter, James, and John hear it. Before this point, demons had proclaimed the Sonship of Jesus; now God himself says it, again, so that not only Jesus can hear it, but his closest disciples as well. It is interesting to think about why God let the demons know this before the disciples; I’m not going to speculate about this now, but it is worth keeping in mind that humans are not the only creatures in the universe capable of perceiving the reality of God.

     “Suddenly, when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus.” Jesus, in other words, is more than a prophet. They are not on the same level as he is. The disciples don’t see them, because they don’t need to, because their understanding of Jesus has gone beyond them. Peter has already understood that Jesus is the Messiah; now they all realize that Jesus is more than the Messiah, more than the Anointed One. Prophecy, and the coming of the Messiah, are only steps on the way to a full understanding of the ministry of Jesus, the Son, the Beloved.

     There is still more. “As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.” Jesus is telling them that there is more to discipleship than dazzling visions. Only after Jesus rises from the dead will they have a full understanding of what the vision really means. They are to keep it a secret, until the right time. The right time is after the Resurrection. The purpose of the vision is to prepare the disciples for what is to come, to strengthen them and to give them confidence in the dark days to come. The light of the Transfiguration will always be there, even when the disciples can’t see it. If they can recall it, keep it in mind, they will see their way through all the way to the Resurrection.

     And so we will see our way through to the Resurrection, strengthened by the faith that has been handed down to us, faith founded in the experiences of the disciples, who saw the transfigured Lord and heard the voice of his Father. The light of the Transfiguration continues to shine, no matter how dark the cloud is on the mountaintop. That light will lead us through Lent and Holy Week, to the Resurrection and beyond. That light leads us to the mountaintop, where we will hear the voice of the Father, when he says, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!”

     In the name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. (2.II.15.Adv.)

    

    

    

Cures and the Kingdom (Mark 1)

     “And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.” From the Gospel for today, the Gospel of Mark, chapter 1, verse 34.

     In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.

     The whole of the first chapter of Mark’s Gospel is a presentation of the authority of Jesus, of the authority of his teaching, and his authority over demons, or unclean spirits. However we name them, they are important to the story. The people of the time that the Gospel was written believed in them without question; people in our time may or may not believe in them, but their roles in the story have something to tell us about Jesus in any case.

     At the very beginning of the Gospel, in verse 1, well before the beginning of today’s reading, Mark writes, “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Mark is the only Evangelist to title his book Gospel, or Good News. Even the very form of the book itself is new; the combination of teaching, miracles, and biography of a sort, is a new thing in the ancient world. Everything about Mark’s book is new, from its name to its contents to its structure to its purpose. This newness emphasizes the newness, the uniqueness of its main character, whom Mark gives the title Son of God. Mark repeats it when he records that God himself gives Jesus this title, later in the chapter, in verse 11.

     Further in the chapter, Mark writes, “They went to Capernaum…he entered the synagogue and taught. They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes;” again the emphasis on the authority of Jesus, and his uniqueness. Even the unclean spirit which possesses a man in the synagogue knows who Jesus is, and addresses him as “the Holy One of God.” Jesus rebukes the spirit, which leaves the man, and the people say, “What is this? A new teaching --- with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.”

     This brings us to today’s reading, which continues the themes which Mark has presented so far, and adds something new. Jesus cures Simon’s mother-in-law of a fever. It is perhaps disconcerting to a modern person to hear that the first thing she does after Jesus “lifts her up” is to begin to serve them, that is, to wait on them. It is best not to take this too literally; the deeper point is that Simon’s mother-in-law has been restored to health, and to full participation in family and society. This reinforces Mark’s point that Jesus’s work is, among other things, the restoration of spiritual and physical health in everyone whom he encounters. There is no particular argument being made here about the role of women. And as a side note, which I hope won’t distract us, it is worth remembering that this text shows that Simon is married. But I’ll save remarks about the marital status of the disciples for another homily!

     “They brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured many…and cast out many demons.” This is quite a scene! Imagine the crowd, the eagerness, the need, the hope! Imagine the excitement, the awe even, as Jesus exercises his authority and diseases are healed and demons are driven out. It is worth noting what has attracted the crowd: the chance for healing. It is Jesus’s power over the unclean spirits that has got everyone’s attention. Remember what the people said in the synagogue at Capernaum; “He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him! At once his fame began to spread.” It is not his teaching, at this point, which attracts the crowd; it is his authority over the unclean spirits.

     “And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.” The demons know who Jesus is, when humans do not. The demons know spiritual authority when they see it, and they aren’t reluctant to say so, as we heard earlier in the chapter, when unclean spirits proclaim Jesus to be the Holy One of God. Jesus is not going to let them do this again. Some scholars have said that this means that Jesus doesn’t intend to claim that he is the Messiah. This is untrue. Jesus never denied the title of Messiah or Son of God when he heard them. So, why is he holding back the demons now?

     He is holding them back because it is premature to allow his Messiahship to be proclaimed. At this time, people in Capernaum and all through Galilee associate Jesus with miraculous cures and power over demons. Not with anything else, especially not with his teaching, which, since we’re only at the beginning of Mark’s Gospel, has been summed up in one sentence only, in verse 15: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” But Mark makes it clear that what is attracting the crowds is the miracle-working, not the teaching. The teaching, if I’m reading the text correctly, has made hardly a dent in the minds of Jesus’s hearers. He needs to do something about this, if he isn’t to be overwhelmed by his celebrity as a miracle-worker.

     “In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.” I don’t know how Jesus gets away without being noticed, since the house is surrounded by everyone in the city. But get away he does. I would like to know about the content of Jesus’s prayer, but, since the Evangelist says nothing about it, we are left with the bare statement that Jesus prays in solitude. And the solitude is a clue. Jesus extracts himself from the crowd looking for miracles, for signs and wonders, and places himself in God’s presence in solitude and silence. The teaching here is that the source, the basis of Jesus’s teaching and his authority is his closeness to God in solitude. He doesn’t allow himself to be distracted by mass spectacle and wonder-working. He doesn’t allow Simon and his companions to drag him back to the crowd. This is a teaching for the disciples:  large-scale wonder-working is not the main point of Jesus’s work, or their work either.

     Jesus says, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also, for that is what I came out to do.” The message is the teaching of the kingdom, so briefly announced at the beginning of the Gospel, and nearly overtaken by the desire of the crowds for cures and demon-expulsion. The demons aren’t left behind though, as Mark says, “he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message…and casting out demons.” The message comes first. The casting out of demons is a sign of the power of the message. The message is never subordinated to anything else.

     Religion is often at risk of being turned into magic, into a collection of quick supernatural fixes for real this-world problems. The crowd in today’s Gospel wants to keep the message down to this level, so to speak, to effect magical cures and not much more. But there is more, and Jesus wants us to see the bigger picture of which the cures and so on are only parts, only signs of a larger reality which Jesus calls the Kingdom. Jesus is calling us to put spectacle and wonder-working in their place, as signs of the fulfilment of time, and the coming of the Kingdom.

     In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.