TODAY’S GOSPEL FOCUSES on
Luke’s narrative on the transfiguration of Jesus. Readers of the synoptic gospels (Matthew,
Mark and Luke) will easily recall that the transfiguration story tells of an
event that took place near the end of Jesus’ public ministry in which his
external appearance changed. In the presence
of Peter, James and John atop a mountain, Jesus’ clothing became dazzlingly
white, and with him appeared Moses and Elijah who spoke with him. Peter was so overwhelmed by what took place
that he suggested that three tents be made: one for Jesus, one for Moses and
another for Elijah. Then after a cloud
overshadowed them, a voice was heard identifying Jesus as his Son, who must be
listened to. Then Jesus and his three
disciples went down the mountain to be with the people. Noting that the event offered the disciples
an experience of the true identity of Jesus, many preachers follow a line of
interpretation that stresses the need to follow up our “experience of the
divine” with the practical aspect of spirituality, which is service to the
people we meet every day. They say that
we cannot just contemplate on the divine; for that would be empty if divorced
from action on behalf of the poor.
While such line of preaching has something to commend it,
yet it fails to take into account that each evangelist has a different way of
understanding the event. If we look at
the version of Luke, we find that he has some theological insights that are not
shared by other evangelists, and one of them relates to the content of the
conversation between Jesus, Moses and Elijah: “They appeared in glory, and spoke
of his passage which he was about to fulfill in Jerusalem” (Luke 9:21). To understand what Luke means by this, it may
be recalled that earlier on, Jesus asked his disciples who did crowds say he
was. It appears that they had come to
uncover the reality of what he was through the public confession of Peter who
addressed him as the “Messiah of God.”
But when Peter used this title to describe him, there is scarcely any
doubt that he understood this title in the Jewish sense of an expected Messiah,
the anointed one, sent by God in the Davidic, kingly or political
tradition. He would be a political
figure identified with the “Messiah of Israel” (1QS 9:11 ) in the Qumran
community. In effect, having seen how
Jesus healed and performed miracles, Peter thought that Jesus was really God’s
anointed to restore the kingdom
of Israel
It is for this reason that Jesus tried to explain to them
the meaning of his messiahship by means of the prediction of his passion: “The Son of Man,” he said, “must first endure
many sufferings, be rejected by the elders, the high priests and the scribes,
and be put to death, and then be raised up on the third day” (Luke 9:22). And to make sure that his disciples, who frequently
misunderstood him and his teaching, fully realized the implication of his words
for those who wished to follow him, he continued his instruction on
discipleship: “Whoever wishes to be my
follower must deny his very self, take up his cross each day and follow in my
steps” (Luke 9:24). We do not know how,
according to Luke, the disciples reacted to Jesus’ teaching, for Luke records
none of it, unlike in Mark where we find Peter remonstrating with the Lord
(Mark 8:33). But one could make the
educated guess that his declaration would have proved a disappointment to them,
assuming they understood it. After all,
even after Jesus’ death, the disciples, according to Luke, thought that Jesus
would free Israel
The story of transfiguration, therefore, functions as a
corrective of Peter’s faith in Jesus’ messiahship and confirms what Jesus said
in the prediction of his passion. The
presence of Moses and Elijah, whic fulfills the requirement for
witnessing in Luke’s theology (cf Simeon and Anna in the Infancy Narrative of
Luke), serves to indicate that the Law (Moses) and the Prophets (Elijah)
testify to the identity of Jesus as the suffering Messiah. Understandably enough, Luke—and no other
synoptic evangelist—says that the two heavenly figures “spoke of his passage,
which he was to accomplish in Jerusalem 9:31 ). In the Greek Bible, the term translated in
English as “passage” is exodos, which could also mean departure, the
Exodus. Since the use of the word no
doubt echoes the Exodus of Israel from Egypt to the land of milk and honey,
what Jesus would accomplish in Jerusalem (Luke 9:31) was a new redeeming action
for his people. That is to say, just as
the Exodus of old freed the people from slavery to Egypt Jerusalem
The Exodus then
refers not only to Jesus’ passion and death, as some writers tend to think, but
also to his resurrection and ascension, as all these events took place in
Jerusalem. Since the passage that Moses
and Elijah spoke of includes the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, the
transfiguration serves also to correct the impression that Jesus was only a
suffering Messiah. For Luke, he is also
the Messiah of glory. Which is why
unlike other synoptic writers, Luke says that the disciples had a glimpse of
the glory of Jesus (Luke 9:32 ). Of course, the term “glory” in Luke is to be
connected to the risen status of Jesus, his being the Son of God. His identity as Son of God that the disciples
had a glimpse of was made explicit by the voice from the clouds, declaring him
as God’s Son, his Chosen One (Luke 9:35 ).
Luke’s understanding of the transfiguration should be
obvious. If the disciples saw Jesus in
his glory as God’s Son, it is to affirm that Jesus, far from being a Messiah in
the political tradition of his day, is one who enters into glory through
suffering, death and resurrection in the holy city (see Luke 24:26). (In that sense, Luke shares John’s view that
death and glorification is a single event, though, as Schweizer notes, Luke
stresses the death aspect of the event, while John emphasizes the
glorification.) The disciple of Jesus,
who must listen to him and him alone, is to share and follow the same
passage—death and glorification.
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