The Transfiguration: Proof of the divine or something deeper?

 

August 6, 2023

Today’s Gospel reading tells us the story of the Transfiguration, the feast we celebrate today. To many of us, this event seems to offer a clear ‘proof’ that Jesus is divine, and so justifies our choice to be Christian.  

But why is it so important for us to have ‘proof’ that Jesus was/is God?  Maybe because, for many, Jesus was just God disguised as man and not really a man in the full  meaning of that term. John’s Gospel expresses this thought when it calls Jesus the WORD of God, and says the “Word became flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1”14).  And because of this need of ours to stress Jesus’ divinity, we tend to downplay Peter’s first sermon in which he clearly speaks of Jesus as a Man who did many deeds of power and whom God raised up after having freed him from death. (Acts 2: 22-26)

The Church is careful not to confirm either stance and states that Jesus was TRULY God and TRULY Man.  And that nuanced stance may be seen in the fact that we have four canonical Gospels, - John’s Gospel which holds that Jesus was the Word of God who came down to become Man, and the other three Gospels (and Acts of the Apostles) which speak of Jesus being a Man who was raised up to sit at the right hand of God. Incidentally, Jesus himself prefers to call himself the Son of Man, even immediately after the event of the Transfiguration as we have read in today’s Gospel.

This is a problem in almost all religions, where there is a natural tendency of the followers to deify their religious founders - perhaps in order to strengthen their faith? And so Gautama Buddha was a man, who is now elevated to being the ninth avatar (incarnation) of Vishnu like Ram and Krishna, who themselves may have been human kings of their respective times.  It is reported that Nehru, the first Indian Prime Minister and companion of Gandhi, told Richard Attenborough, to quickly make his film on Gandhi before Indians made him into a God. Even today, for many of us, is it perhaps true, that it is the divinity and the magic of his miracles that is the bedrock of our belief in Jesus, not the Gospel (which means ‘good news’)  of his teachings and life.  And so, for instance, one of the reasons why many Christians got deeply offended and asked for a ban on a novel like the DaVinci Code is because it had the audacity to premise the novel on Jesus’ love for Mary Magdalene, - because even the suggestion of such an affection would make Jesus too human for the comfort of many of us.

And yet, it would seem that none of the things that Jesus did (e.g. his miracles, including raising others from the dead, his forgiving of sins, or the claim that Jesus allowed people in one instance to worship him), made him especially divine. For example, there were prophets like Elijah and Elisha (e.g. 2 Kings, 4:18-37) who did many miracles including healing of the sick and raising the dead, and so did Peter and Paul in the New Testament. Again, as far as the forgiveness of sins is concerned, Jesus never says, ‘I forgive you’, but ‘your sins are forgiven’, which could, of course, mean that Jesus is only informing the sinner of an action of God. In any case the Jewish priests could, at the time of sacrifice by a worshipper, pronounce that that person’s sins were forgiven.  So, Jesus could be claiming, if at all, a priestly privilege. As for the claim that Jesus accepted the worship of people, the fact is that the act of worship (which meant the prostrating of oneself before another) was something offered even to kings in Jewish history (Mathew 18:26). So was Jesus accepting this obeisance as a future ‘king’? After all it is Jesus himself who articulates a distinction between himself and God, when he tells people not to call him good, because only God is good (Mathew 19:17)

So how should we look at this story of the transfiguration? First of all, we cannot overlook the fact that there is reason to question the historicity of this story. One of the important reasons is the fact that though John was himself reported to have witnessed the transfiguration, the story is completely absent in John’s Gospel.   

So, could the story of the transfiguration be perhaps a symbolic story? A symbolic story points us to a deeper truth, just like the symbolic story of the Temptations (which again is not found in John’s Gospel) point us to the truth of the kind of temptations that Jesus faced in his life.  What then could be the deeper truth behind the story of the Transfiguration?

In all 3 Gospels, the story of the transfiguration comes at a time in the Gospel when Jesus has just told his disciples that he himself would have to die and the disciples too would have to follow him on this path. This was not what the disciples had been taught to believe about the MESSIAH. According to the Jewish understanding they had been brought up with, the belief was that the Messiah would come to lead them all to glory and would be the new king of the Jews. So, what was all this talk about being killed? All this defeatist language was a big shock to them. Many many years later (by the time the Gospels are being written) this lesson has finally been driven home, namely that the Messiah is not a political saviour but is one who saves us by his redemptive suffering.  And that the Christians of the early Church who were facing much persecution, should not expect NOT to suffer just because they are followers of Jesus, but that their own suffering could become redemptive for them and for others. And so, in Mathew’s Gospel from where today’s Gospel reading is taken, we see the story of Jesus progressing from a story of triumph and great acclaim, to one of lack of understanding and opposition, and eventually to suffering and death - and that is not the story of a powerful Messiah or God.

And like for us today, suffering is often seen as a punishment of God, and not the hallmark of a person close to God. Rather, magic and power, the ability to do miracles, etc,  are what convince us that a person is saintly and close to God. Consequently, it was essential for these Gospel writers to establish that Jesus was truly the Messiah and so introduce what could be perhaps a symbolic story that re-iterates and confirms for the early Church for whom they are writing, that despite his suffering and death, he is still the One that they awaited, the one close to God.  

So maybe our take-away from the transfiguration story is not a further proof of Jesus’ divinity, but the insight that even one who suffers and dies and apparently loses to the religious and political powers that be - could really be the one who is close to God, if s/he has spent his/her life in loving his/her neighbour in practice.  In our own times we have seen that in the life of Fr. Stan Swamy, who fought for the tribals, and was incarcerated and died in jail, or in the life of Gladys Staines who could forgive the ones who massacred her husband and children.  And then perhaps we too can grow in our understanding of what the Gospels tell us about being Christian.  

The Gospels tell us the story of a Jesus who did not condemn even the worst of sinners, who loved even the most rejected of his time, who stood up against powerful forces who were exploiting the less powerful in the name of religion, and who eventually died to teach us to live a better life. Surely such a person was truly a ‘Godly’ person. And being a Christian is to be called to live like that Jesus.  

Does it matter, then, whether Jesus worked many miracles or whether “his face shone like the sun…” as in the story of the Transfiguration?

First Reading: Daniel 7: 9-10, 13-14

“As I looked, “thrones were set in place,  and the Ancient of Days took his seat.
His clothing was as white as snow;  the hair of his head was white like wool.
His throne was flaming with fire,  and its wheels were all ablaze. A river of fire was flowing, coming out from before him. Thousands upon thousands attended him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him.  The court was seated, and the books were opened.

“In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.

 

Second Reading: Second Peter 1: 16-19

For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain.

So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

Gospel: Matthew 17: 1-9

Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became bright as light. Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will set up three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”  While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!”  When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear.  But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.”  And when they raised their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.

As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”