Homily The Transfiguration of the Lord - Sunday 6th August 2023

Homily

The Transfiguration of the Lord

Sunday 6th August 2023

How many of us would react as Peter did when Jesus told him he would suffer dreadfully under the persecution of the chief priest, the elders, and the learned writers. Jesus even told his close followers that he would be put to death. Peter tore his hair out with anxiety, he may have not even been listening to him when he also revealed that he would be resurrected three days later. Peter’s mind was so clouded by the thoughts of losing his friend he blurted out, “Heaven forbid, Lord, this cannot happen.”

All of Peter’s thoughts came to a screeching halt of what Jesus said to him next.

“Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me. You don’t think like God but as a human.”

Peter was doing exactly as many of us do when we are faced with a problem beyond our comprehension. We stress out. We become blind by such overwhelming possibilities, and we want to take control even when it is beyond our means to do so. What Jesus then told Peter and other his disciples, was to let go.

I am watching a television series called ‘Manifest’. One of the main characters obsesses on trying to solve the problems he faces, tries to do everything on his own, and is constantly being told by his family and friends to let them in to help. When he doesn’t, he continually gets things wrong.

In our own lives, how many of us struggle to allow others in. Our headstrong ways want us to fix things, to make them right, but all we do on our own is get things wrong. We constantly make mistakes, going our own way.

Jesus tells us that we must renounce ourselves, to give up our selfish ways. No matter how much we try to save our lives we will not be able to. If we gain the whole world when our lives end, we will lose everything. We are given crosses to bear throughout our lives, but these are set there to test us. To see if we will try to solve the problem alone or allow others in to support us. Most importantly, the test is to see if we will let Jesus in to save us. Life is the most precious gift God has given us.

By tell Peter to stop thinking in a human way, and allow God to do things his way, Jesus, the Son of man was going to come into the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he would reward each one according to our behaviour. (Matthew 16:27)

Peter, and the brothers James and John, were Jesus’s closest disciples. Many times, he took them aside to explain parables and accompanied them to witness miracles. Later, when Jesus grappled with thoughts of his impending Passion, he took the three disciples to be with him, though their spirit was keen, their flesh was weak.

Jesus took him and the two brothers up a high mountain six days after rebuking Peter for his human thinking. They witnessed Jesus’ transfiguration, Moses and Elijah standing beside him and heard the voice of God reveal that Jesus was his Son and to listen to him. Peter confirms want happened in his second letter, seen as a farewell letter before his own death, where he teaches about the Second Coming.

Jesus had shone like the sun and what he wore dazzled brightly. The two men who Jesus spoke with were Moses and Elijah. Moses had been given God’s Ten Commandments, The Law, and Elijah was the prophet taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire with horses of fire. Daniel’s description of heaven sees God sitting on a throne of blazing fire, with wheels ablaze with fire, and a stream of fire pouring out of his presence. A million Angels waited on him and there were, in Daniel’s estimate, 100 million people waiting to see the son of man arriving on the clouds of heaven. There could easily have been 8 billion or more. He would be granted sovereignty, glory, and kingship over all the peoples of the world, and nothing would be able to stand again his empire.

At the end of Matthew’s Gospel, after Jesus’s resurrection, the eleven disciples made their way up a mountain as he had instructed them. Jesus appeared before them, saying “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations; baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe everything I have commanded you.”

As we seek to know the truth, God provided Moses with the Law and Elijah was one of his prophets. Both show the way to Jesus, as the Paschal Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. The Bible shows us, both in the Old and New Testaments how we should follow Jesus and not our own way. The Bible is also graphical in telling us what can happen if we follow our own way and the disasters we can bring upon ourselves. We only need to watch the news about what humans have done to our planet to cause global disasters. If we try to solve the problems without God, we will simply become stumbling blocks. Now is the time to recognise Jesus as God’s Son, let go of wanting to control everything, and listen to him.

Amen.

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