Time To See With Our Ears
Posted on Feb 15, 2015 by David Whetter
Grace and peace to you from God our Creator, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, who abides in which of us. Amen
Just five weeks ago we began the Season of Epiphany. Now, the word epiphany comes from the Greek word epiphaneia, which means “disclosure” or “unveiling,” so in the early church the term began to be associated with those times when God disclosed, or revealed, to humanity who Jesus really was, his Son. So, during this Season of Epiphany we began by celebrating Jesus’ baptism, and then we read about how others after hearing him proclaim the gospel were compelled to follow him, and we read about his healing power and his ability to teach God’s Word with authority. And today, we end this season with the same story we end the Season of Epiphany with every year, the story of Jesus’ Transfiguration. All of these stories disclose to us Jesus’ true identity.
Now all three synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, tell the story of the Transfiguration, so obviously, it is one of those stories that everyone agreed needed to be told, but I wonder, what is it about this story that is so important. I mean, if it was so important, why did Jesus tell Peter, James, and John not to tell anyone? If it was so important, why didn’t he say, “Now, when we get down this mountain, I want you to make sure everyone knows what happened?” No, instead, as they headed down the mountain Jesus ordered them to, “tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead’ (Mark 9:9).
I think to understand this, and to make sense out of this critical story for us today we need to return to Jesus’ baptism. According to Mark, when Jesus was baptized, Jesus was revealed as God’s son, but it is unclear if anyone but Jesus actually saw the Holy Spirit descend on Jesus and if anyone but Jesus heard God say, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased” (1:11). At Jesus’ baptism, God spoke directly to Jesus and it was then that Jesus knew he had God’s spirit to do the work God sent him to do. Immediately following his baptism, Jesus is driven into the wilderness, so he might be prepared for his ministry and so, when he comes out from the wilderness he is well prepared. Jesus listened to God and followed God’s call for his life. Now following his baptism and time of preparation in the wilderness, as we heard several weeks ago, Jesus immediately began to proclaim the gospel and he immediately called Peter, James and John, the three disciples that were with him at the Transfiguration. These three disciples, along with Peter’s brother, Andrew, had been with Jesus since he began his ministry. Aside from hearing him preach and teach, they had seen him cast out demons, heal Simon’s mother-in-law, heal a leper and a man who had been paralyzed from birth, just to name a few things. They had seen Jesus do so much that that they even came to believe that Jesus was the Messiah, for just six days before the Transfiguration Peter had proclaimed to Jesus, in front of all the disciples, “You are the Messiah” (8:29). But, apparently, seeing all of this was not enough for the disciples. Having been with Jesus and having heard his teachings and having seen his power to heal was not enough. No, something more was needed, because we know what happened after Peter made his proclamation of faith that Jesus was the Messiah. Shortly after that proclamation, as Jesus explained to him that as the Messiah, he would have suffer at the hands of the leaders, he would have to die and he would be resurrected, Peter rebuked Jesus and said no. After seeing everything Jesus had done and making that incredible proclamation, the disciples still could not believe. So, six days later, Jesus invited Peter, James and John, to take a walk up the mountain and when they get to the top they saw with their eyes Jesus transfigured and they saw him speaking with Moses and Elijah.
Now, at this point in the story, we all know about Peter and his comment to build three dwellings so they could stay there and although that sounds silly to us, I am not sure if Jesus appeared to us in all his glory we could do any better. Think about it. We love to talk about Jesus and talk about how awesome it would be to be in his presence, but if he appeared to us in all his glory, all aglow, I think I, too, would be terrified. In the human Jesus, we are able to see God's face, but, as we are told in this story, the transfigured Jesus, the all-powerful Jesus, produced terror. And in their terror, God spoke to the disciples directly, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” (9:7)
Seeing Jesus apparently is not good enough for us. Knowing who Jesus is with our head, is not good enough. Seeing Jesus and knowing who Jesus is does not help us know what we are to do. Seeing Jesus does not necessarily strengthen our faith enough to withstand all those that will seek to persecute us and tear down our faith. It isn’t until we actually take the time to listen to him that we will come to know him fully and come to know his call for our lives. Yes, Jesus had been healing and teaching and proclaiming the gospel, and the disciple had seen it all, but they had not been listening. As I said just a few minutes ago, Peter had already proclaimed that he knew Jesus was the messiah, but upon hearing the truth of what that meant Peter rebuked Jesus. Peter had not been listening. Peter wanted to stay on the mountain and bask in Jesus’ glory. But Jesus had been trying to tell them that his glory could not be fully realized without his death and his resurrection and no one was listening to him.
You know in the Old Testament, God gives many commands to his people. We often sum them up as the Ten Commandants, but in the Gospel of Mark, God only speaks once to the people and he gives only one command, “Listen to Him!” As followers of Jesus we are called to not only see him in all his glory, but we are called to listen to him and do as he says. We, too, are to be transfigured into disciples that follow his teachings. We are to be those that speak for those without voice. We are to be those that seek to set the oppressed free. We are to be those that proclaim the gospel.
But, how do we listen to Jesus? How do we see with our ears so that we might be well prepared for his call upon our lives? If we are to be transfigured into his disciples we, too, must listen to him and so, as we end the Season of Epiphany, we now prepare to enter in to the Season of Lent. A Season in which we will seek change in our lives and in which we cry out to God, “Teach us, O Lord to listen.”
I invite you to join me this Wednesday evening, Ash Wednesday, as we gather to begin this Lenten Season. We will come together as a people of the Resurrection to begin a time of preparation and this year we will ask God to continue to teach us how to listen to Jesus. We are called to repent, to follow, to obey, and to worship. We are called to die to the ways of this world, to live generously, to live with tension as we await is second coming, and we are called to love. But how do we do these things? We begin by listening to Jesus.
This Season of Epiphany, we have seen who Jesus is through the scriptures with our eyes, it is now time to see Jesus by listening with our ears. Amen.