February 26, 2010
Sunday Scripture
Second Sunday of Lent
BY FATHER DONALD DILGER
The Second Sunday of Lent presents us with one of two annual opportunities to study the transfiguration of Jesus. The other opportunity is August 6 — the Feast of Transfiguration. At one time this gospel may have been selected to inspire hope in Christians after 10 days of rigorous Lenten observance. The rigors of Lent have been softened over the past forty years. Obligatory observances are now minimal, but Lent is a standing invitation to undertake voluntary acts of self-denial leading to repentance, of which we all stand in need.
There are four sources for the transfiguration of Jesus — Mark, Matthew, Luke, and the Second Letter of Peter 1:17-18. They all differ as one might expect of four authors writing at different times, with different aims, in differing circumstances. Matthew and Luke use Mark as a source, but true to form, they change Mark at will. Here we are concerned with Luke’s version. Mark began, “After six days, Jesus took Peter and James and John . . . .” The six days may reflect six days after Jesus warned his disciples that they too would have to take up the cross. But Luke clarifies and confuses matters by writing, “Now eight days after these sayings . . . .’’ We assume that Luke has in mind a tradition found only in the Gospel of John. Jesus appears to his disciples eight days after the resurrection. This spins the transfiguration into a preview of Jesus’ resurrection to glory.
Peter, John and James, the Big Three, accompany Jesus. They were with Jesus when he resurrected back to life a little girl who had recently died. Thus Luke, who has already spun the story into a preview of Jesus’ resurrection, by including the witnesses of that miracle, reminds us of the resurrection of others thru Jesus. Luke alone, of all versions of the story, notes that the transfiguration occurred while Jesus was praying. This is typical of Luke. Jesus prays more often in Luke than in the other gospels. Although Mark and Matthew also include a fleeting visit of Moses and Elijah speaking with Jesus, Luke adds the subject of the conversation, ‘They spoke of his Exodus which he was to accomplish at Jerusalem.” In this way Luke includes the suffering and death of Jesus within the transfiguration scene. Why? Jesus’ glory comes with a price —- suffering and death. This affirms a statement of Jesus just before the transfiguration, “If anyone wishes to follow me (to glory), let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.”
The Big Three witness the glory of Jesus and his heavenly visitors. Peter notices that Moses and Elijah are leaving. He does not want to let go. The enjoyment of such glory should last. He proposes building three shelters on the mountain for Jesus and his visitors. Luke notes that Peter didn’t know what he was saying. Meaning: Peter had much to endure before glory would last. A cloud, the Divine Presence, overshadows the scene. A voice proclaims from the cloud, ‘This is my Son, the Chosen One. Listen to Him!” The heavenly witness to Jesus’ divine identity is heard again as it was at the baptism of Jesus.
In the Gospel of Luke, and only in Luke, the baptism of Jesus is the beginning of taking up the cross. This was explained in the column for January 11, the feast of the baptism of Jesus. Luke alludes to the cross by adding, “the Chosen One.” This refers to a passage from Isaiah in which a servant of the Lord, who suffers, dies and is raised for his people, is called “the Chosen of the Lord.” The command, “Listen to him!” originates in Deuteronomy 18:15-18. Moses reveals to the Israelites that God will raise up “a prophet like himself.” Moses warns the people, “Listen to him!” In Acts 3:22-23 Luke identifies Jesus as “the prophet like Moses.” In the context into which Luke placed the transfiguration, immediately after Jesus’ insistence that those who follow him must carry the cross, the message is this: “There is no glory without the cross!” Lent is a time to carry that cross.
This strange story of Abram’s vision includes one of the most foundational statements for Paul’s theology of justification (being made righteous or acceptable to God) by faith. Abram and Sarah had no child. In their old age God promises a son. Abram was old, tired, and complaining to his Friend, (Isaiah 41:8), the Lord, that he and Sarah had not been given a son. The Lord promises a son, even though Sarah was beyond the age of child-bearing. Against all odds, “Abram believed the Lord, and he (the Lord) credited it to Abram as righteousness,” (accepted by God, justified). In the ensuing vision Abram sees God binding himself to uphold the promise.
Who but St. Paul has the chutzpah to write, “Join with others in being imitators of me?” We do well to imitate him in many ways. But should we imitate him in his attack on his critics which now follows? He calls them “enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction. Their glory is in their shame.” Small wonder that Paul wrote much about love in his letters. He preached not only to us but to himself. This reading also relates to the transfiguration, “He will change our lowly body to conform to his glorified body.”