The Transfiguration

“A change is gonna come.  O yes it will.”  Sam Cooke

Jesus anticipates the trouble brewing in Jerusalem.  He shares these premonitions with his companions.  He will be mocked, spit upon, tortured, and killed.  He senses that his followers would deny him and flee.  The vision of abandonment is chilling.

A few days later Jesus knew to climb the mountain with his close friends.  It is hard to breathe the thick air of horror.  How do they recognize Moses and Elijah in conversation with Jesus?  A lowly carpenter in dialogue with the prophets of old?  It is too much to fathom.  They must act.  “Let’s build tents as dwellings for the holy ones.”  The voice from the cloud fills them with wonder and fear.  They cling to this glimpse of glory as they descend to the troubles below.

Glory can shoot across the sky like fireworks.  In Daniel’s visions, the throne of the ancient one is ablaze, and multitudes serve him.  Earlier Daniel pictures hostile empires as beasts that devour God’s people. The Son of man is promised dominion over nations.  This epic view of glory takes a quiet form in the gospels.  Jesus draws strength from the comforting words of elders.  He encounters the truth of resurrection from the prophets of old.  Death does not have the last word.  Life keeps rising within us; these embers don’t die out.