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February 21, 2010 |
| Transfiguration | ||
The lesson today deals with the transfiguration of Jesus in the presence of his disciples where he and his clothes became as bright as light. The lesson begins with an assignment. As we go through the verses in this lesson prepare arguments, based on those verses, to rebut the following claim:
The transfiguration was a vision and did not really happen
Understand?Notes
There is a church organization that makes this claim based on Matthew 17:9, where Jesus says, "this vision". They have to twist the meaning of Jesus' words in that verse because of a more fundamental claim they make, that when we die we are dead until the resurrection, nothing of us continues on after death.
This claim is based on a single verse in the Old Testament. Instead of letting the Bible speak to them, they have decided to force the Bible to fit into their pre-conceived notions. As a result of their interpretation of that single verse they must twist piles of other verses to support it.
You may be wondering how believing "nothing continues after death" leads to the transfiguration being a vision and not a real event. The answer comes from the two men that come to talk to the transfigured Jesus – two men who are long dead at the time.
In this lesson, the passage covering the transfiguration will be presented using the accounts from the three gospels that cover it. At the end of the passage, we will compare arguments.
For reference, visions in the Bible are mostly associated with dreams while sleeping or trance like states while awake,
In the previous lesson we saw Peter show that he understood that Jesus was the Messiah. But immediately after that he tried to correct a statement Jesus had made. Therefore he never fully understood what it meant to be the Messiah, i.e. God in human form.
The scriptures that were written prior to Jesus' time do not make it clear that the Messiah would be God. Even Jews of today reject the idea that the Messiah will be God, demi-God, or anything other than man. So it wasn't a surprise that the disciples would struggle with this.
To make it clear who he was, Jesus takes a few disciples to a secluded place for a demonstration. "[This] was intended to support their faith, when they would have to witness his crucifixion; and would give them an idea of the glory prepared for them, when changed by his power and made like him."1
Mt 1After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.
Mk 2After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. 3His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them.
Lk 28About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. 29As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning.
We can easily imagine the disciples sitting and leaning against rocks or trees, their thoughts drifting while Jesus prays. Then at least one of them notices a glow begin and become bright and he alerts the others. First they have to figure out where the glow is coming from and then they realize it's coming from Jesus. They are stunned.
At this time the only sources of light known to mankind were the sun, moon, stars, lightning and fire. They had no knowledge of electroluminescence, bioluminescence, phosphorescence, light-emitting-diodes or any other modern sources of light. So they struggled to describe something they had never seen before in terms of the light sources they knew. We would do the same in that circumstance and we would likely also struggle to decide which source is most similar.
"By describing Jesus' clothes as bright, Luke makes associations with the glory of God's presence as in Exodus 34:29-35 (the Greek [and Aramaic] has no mention of lightning in this context, unlike the NIV)".2
Mt 3Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus. 4Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah."
Mk 4And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus. 5Peter said to Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah." 6(He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.)
Lk 30Two men, Moses and Elijah, 31appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. 32Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. 33As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, "Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah." (He did not know what he was saying.)
We do not know but we can imagine many reasons why these two, Moses and Elijah, are the ones to appear with Jesus. Moses was the bringer of the Law and the savior of God's people, taking them out of Egypt to the promised land. Elijah was probably the greatest of the Prophets. Both were associated with miracles like Jesus was performing.
"Symbolic readings take Moses and Elijah to represent the Law and the Prophets respectively, and their recognition of and conversation with Jesus symbolize how Jesus fulfills 'the law and the prophets' (Matthew 5:17-19)."3
It is clear that Peter understood who these two men were. Perhaps the other disciples did as well. Modern readers of this passage often wonder how this was known. The Gospels do not answer this clearly. Perhaps it was revealed to them by the Father, just as he revealed to Peter that Jesus was the Messiah in last week's lesson.
In wanting to put up three shelters, it is also clear that Peter sees Jesus as co-equal with Moses and Elijah. He still doesn't understand what it means to be the Messiah.
Matthew is the most kind and Luke the least in their editorializing of Peter's need to say something when silence would have been a better choice.
Mt 5While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!"
6When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. 7But Jesus came and touched them. "Get up," he said. "Don't be afraid." 8When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.
Mk 7Then a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: "This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!"
8Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.
Lk 34While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. 35A voice came from the cloud, saying, "This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him." 36When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone.
In Matthew's and Mark's account it isn't clear who the "them" is that the cloud enveloped. Luke's account has more detail but is still not completely clear. In saying "enveloped them, and they were afraid as they entered" it isn't clear if the second "they" refers to the "them" or the first "they". The Aramaic translation of Luke makes it clear that the disciples were not enveloped by the cloud.
The words of the voice from the cloud (the Father) are recorded slightly differently in each account. But there is one phrase they all agree on, "Listen to him". Remember that this was part of the problem in last week's lesson, where Peter refused to listen to Jesus and even rebuked him for his words.
"The disciples' reaction to the voice from the cloud is what we see elsewhere in scripture when God appears to humans (Ezekiel 1:28; Revelation 1:17). It is always a fearful thing to encounter the Living God."4
Mt 9As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, "Don't tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead."
Mk 9As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. 10They kept the matter to themselves, discussing what "rising from the dead" meant.
Lk The disciples kept this to themselves, and told no one at that time what they had seen.
My ideaNotes
Some are puzzled by Jesus' frequent instructions not to tell people what they had seen. I think that Jesus walked a fine line. He wanted to provide just enough teaching and miracles so that, by faith, pure hearted people would believe. But in doing this he has to leave room for the stone hearted to find reasons to doubt. If he provided evidence that was undeniable, such as the event here, it would overwhelm the people and leave no room for doubt, even for the hearts of stone.
It's similar to the parable of the sower and the seeds, but under different conditions. If you provide enough water and food, a seed can grow anywhere, even on a rock. Ask for acceptance
1. Jesus took them to a place "where they were all alone" so that the disciples could observe this event but no one else. If it was a vision it could have happened anywhere.
2. The writers of two of the accounts say "he was transfigured before them" showing they understood from the stories told by the disciples who were present that it was a real event.
3. Though the disciples were sleepy they were not sleeping and at least one of them was watching Jesus as the transfiguration began. Therefore there was continuity of perception, not what you would expect of a vision.
4. The disciples knew they "were very sleepy" but were also aware that "they became fully awake" but after that they still "saw his glory".
5. Peter speaks to Jesus. Plainly he believes the event is real.
Prior to this event the disciples had come to the understanding that Jesus was the Messiah, though they didn't understand all of what that meant. At the same time Jesus told them that he would suffer, die, and be raised again. But they were not ready to accept this.
During the transfiguration event the voice from the cloud tells them Jesus is his son and they need to listen to Jesus. Then Jesus tells them to wait until he rises from the dead. But they reason among themselves that this must be another of Jesus' parables. They still haven't listened to Jesus but are trying to understand everything from a human context.
For us the message here is also to listen to Jesus. And we also need to be prepared to abandon our natural tendency to rely on our own understanding. Like a soldier in battle, we need to follow as instructed, knowing that there is a battle plan we do not understand.
Another way that Jesus communicates with us is through his word, the Bible. We need to listen here as well. When we read it we should think of ourselves as students desiring to learn, not trying to defend our own point of view.
1 http://www.biblegateway.com/resources/commentaries/Matthew-Henry/Matt/Transfiguration-Christ
2 http://www.biblegateway.com/resources/commentaries/IVP-NT/Luke/Christological-Confession-Road
3 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transfiguration_of_Jesus
4 NIV Standard Lesson Commentary, Christ the Fulfillment, Unit 3, Lesson 12