Visions

Luke 9:28-43

March 2, 2025 Transfiguration

 

Eight days earlier than this event of transfiguration,

Transfiguration 
James Janknegt

Jesus was telling his disciples that he would

undergo great suffering at the hands

of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed.

 

He also said he would be raised after all that,

but I’m sure that’s not what stuck in the minds of Peter

and the rest of the disciples.

 

I’m sure all that Peter and the other disciples heard

was that the mission of Jesus would end in failure.

That their leader would be arrested and killed that he would suffer.

That everything they were working for would not come to pass.

That they would be humiliated.

That everything was going to turn out bad.

 

If a CEO gave that kind of talk:

Your leader will be arrested, suffer and be killed -- and rise again.

lots of investors and workers would jump ship and

that company would soon be bankrupt.

 

If I gave that kind of talk in front of a congregation,

you all would wonder what was wrong with me

and what was the point of going on.

 

Maybe Peter and the rest of the disciples

were having some of those thoughts and conversations among

themselves. Wondering why they were doing this

if their leader was going to be arrested and killed.

Maybe they  even thought of leaving Jesus and abandoning

the whole thing before they were taken down with it.

But , in the middle of this swirling anxiety and doubt,

eight days later, Jesus brings his three closest disciples

up to the mountain to pray with him.

Probably a typical afternoon event for them.

 

But while they were up there, it says Jesus is transformed.

He is turned into a bright light, his clothes and his whole being.

And there with him are two old testament prophets,

Elijah and Moses. How they knew it was them,

I don’t know, but some how they knew.

Wow. It must have been awesome.

 And Peter says to Jesus.

It is good to be here.

Peter briefly entertains the notion that they

should just stay up there.

He offers to build three tents for Elijah, Moses, and Jesus.

And they could all just escape up the mountain.

But it also said that he didn’t know what he was talking about.

 

He knew that Jesus doesn’t offer an escape.

Jesus didn’t say, follow me to a place of safety and assurance.

Jesus said, take up your cross, and follow me.

 

Peter knew that Jesus ministry

was not on the top of the mountain,

Jesus ministry is down in the deep valleys.

 

And just to prove this, Jesus and the story takes

us down the mountain again.

And the disciples encounter a boy

with a demon that the disciples could not

expel. Back to the difficulties.

The disciples went back to the swirling anxiety

and doubt, and back to the uncomfortable situations.

But I feel sure that the disciples did

not feel the same as before they went up there.

 

The transfiguration was a gift for those disciples.

For a brief moment, on the way to the crucifixion in Jerusalem,

God gave the disciples a vision.

A vision of hope and glory and promise.

A vision of purity and love and resurrection,

to help them go on with the difficult task of following Jesus.

 

Today, these kind of visions might not be held

in such high regard. If someone said they saw

a vision of Jesus glowing white with Moses

and Elijah, we might tell them they were

mentally ill.

 

But we still rely on visions to help us through hard times.

Our visions today are maybe a little more pragmatic.

 

Today, God still gives us brief visions.,

Today, we still get visions of God’s kingdom on earth

to help us get through the hard times we experience.

And those visions keep us going in times of doubt.

 

We get visions of kindness, community, sacrifice, and joy.

We see people helping other people, welcoming

others, standing up for others.

We see people who are in desperate situations,

coming back to rejoin life and the world.

We see people standing up for justice,

even at great sacrifice to themselves.

We see peace where there was war,

joy where there was sadness, hope where there was defeat,

life where there was death.

These are our mountaintop moments.

These are our visions.

Martin Luther King jr. said later in the years to follow,

when he lost hope, he would remember the march on Selma.

Or the passing of the civil rights act.

Those were visions for him.

When my friend struggled in her difficult

nursing job, she said she would look at her graduation

pictures and remember her naive ambition,

and her desire to help people,

she would remember the hope she felt at that moment,

and it would get her through those hard times.

That was her vision.

 

My internship congregation was in an

inner city congregation in Milwaukee

in a very challenging neighborhood.

And it was a struggle to get a choir together,

But they did and it was a mix of older, white

congregation members and younger,

black neighborhood people.

And they sang at their first worship service while I was there.

And it wasn’t technically the best, but it was

very moving to know what had gone into it

and what it took to get everyone together. It was beautiful.

And the pastor, who was inspiration to so many,

got up to preach and he said, this day with this choir

will keep me going for years to come.

That was a vision for him.

And when I wonder what I’m doing here,

I remember that day that one of the

residents of Chimney Cove came over

to show us the note that told the residents

that the order to evict them had been rescinded.

That is a vision for me.

That was a moment that gave me clarity about what

I was doing here and what this

congregation could do in the community.

 

The world can be a confusing and messy place.

And it seems to be getting more confusing

and more messy at a rapid pace lately.

It’s a world of swirling anxiety and doubt.

It is a world full of controversy, full of sadness,

illness, full of uncertainty, and darkness.

It is a world full of crucifixion.

But God gives us these moments of clarity,

these moments of certainty, and hope,

and brilliant, blinding light.

And we can go back to them again and again.

They get us through the difficult moments.

 

This Wednesday is Ash Wednesday,

the beginning of Lent. 

It always follows Transfiguration.

Lent is the time in the church when

We walk with Jesus to his fate at the cross.

 

When we look right at that

at that confusing and messy, anxiety-filled

world of crucifixions we live in,

and we contemplate our role in it.

We reflect on our sin and the sin of the world

and we repent and work to change.

 

And this is also a time when we need to hold

onto our visions.

Those tastes of beauty, hope, certainty and light.

Like Peter and James and John got on that mountaintop.

 

We need to hold onto those moments that tell us

what the Transfiguration of this world could be like.

We hold, with faith, onto the fact that on the other

side of crucifixion there is resurrection.