2nd Sunday of Lent - Year A - Transfigured In Life & “Jesus Walked This Lonesome Valley”
Throughout the Gospels, we often hear how difficult it was for the disciples to grasp who Jesus was. These followers of Christ were expecting a Messiah, but Jesus was not the political liberator they had imagined.
To deepen their comprehension, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up a mountain and is transfigured before them. The seeming appearance of Moses and Elijah during this experience aligned Jesus and his teachings with the Law and the Prophets, and helped the disciples to understand.
When the disciples tried to grasp the experience of Jesus’ Transfiguration, they may have recognized similarities to the account of God’s self-revelation to Moses on a mountain, a narrative with which they would have been familiar. Just as Scripture describes Moses’ face as shining after he encountered God (Ex 34:29-30), the disciples evidently thought that Jesus’ divine encounter caused his own face to shine “…like the sun and his clothes became white as light.”
Yet, despite the similarities between the experience of Moses and Jesus, the difference is revelatory. Moses’ face was shining because he had looked upon God. In his transfigured state, Jesus’ face was like the sun because he himself was the revelation of God. Peter’s determination to build tents for Jesus and the two Old Testament visitors revealed the disciple’s utter incomprehension of what they were experiencing.
Further, the sound of a voice from the clouds, a characteristic Old Testament sign of the very presence of God, was more than they could bear. They prostrated themselves in terror. Indeed, the experience of God is both awesome as well as terrifying. Yet, Jesus does not insist the disciples grasp and understand everything that day. Instead, he reaches out and touches them, a gesture that conveys compassion and healing of their confoundedness and confusion. As he often does, Jesus follows up by offering comfort, urging them not to be afraid.
This transfigured Jesus, who was made available to these apostles in all his glory, is also available to us. We, too, are offered a glimpse of Jesus as the Divine One, as the Son of God. But our flawed selves, riddled with disappointments, insecurities, addictions, and failures, often get in the way.
Yet, as he did with his disciples, so Jesus does with us. He will reach out, touch us and offer the same assurance that he offered them, urging us to let go of our fears. All we have to do is make ourselves available to him in concrete ways during this Lenten season. Seeking Jesus and being in relationship with him takes time to grasp what has been revealed, to behold his transfigured self. Then we, too, can begin to gradually behold this human brother, Jesus, also as the Son of God, the one “who destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”
For the season of Lent, we would like to share our latest video, “Jesus Walked This Lonesome Valley”, a traditional Lenten spiritual that meditates on the lonely road Jesus walked toward the Cross and invites each of us to enter that mystery in our own lives. This spiritual is especially fitting for Lent and Holy Week, offering a quiet space for reflection and prayer.
Video can be watched by clicking here or by clicking on the thumbnail below.
