It is Good that We are Here

English Standard Version Chapter 9

Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep, but when they became fully awake they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. 33 And as the men were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah”—not knowing what he said.

Introduction

It is a feature of our Sunday Lectionary that, in most years, there is a Sunday just before Lent when we hear about the Transfiguration of Our Lord. The Calendar of Commemorations has a separate Feast of the Transfiguration, which takes place on the traditional day of observation, the sixth of August. This year, of course, the sixth of August falls on a Sunday - this Sunday, in fact - and so we get a second chance to contemplate the Transfiguration of Our Lord.

By way of a brief recap, before we get into the actual narrative of the Transfiguration, Jesus has recently fed the five thousand and asked his disciples who they think he is. Simon Peter proclaims that Jesus is the “Christ of God.” Jesus immediately tells them to hide this knowledge and reveals for the first time that the religious leaders in Jerusalem will kill him. Following the confession and foretelling of his death, the disciples are instructed to deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow Jesus. At the end of this teaching is a curious statement: Luke 9:27 “But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.”

This sets the stage for what will happen to the three disciples who join Jesus as he ascends the mountain to pray.

The Transfiguration

Luke’s Gospel tells us that, about eight days after Jesus tells the disciples about his death at the hands of his opponents in Jerusalem, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John to the top of a nearby mountain to pray. While Jesus is praying, the three disciples with him fall asleep, but when they wake up, they see that Jesus has transformed in appearance - his facial features change and his clothing becomes so white that Mark’s account says they are “intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them.”

On its own, Jesus’s changed appearance would be striking and bizarre, otherworldly, clearly a manifestation of the divinity of God that Peter had just confessed a few days earlier. Rather than leave it at a change of visage and clothing, however, God further drives home for the disciples who it is they are following. Moses and Elijah transformed and glorified, appear with the now-glorified Jesus.

Speaking for the three disciples, Peter doesn’t know what to make of this scene. The only thing he can think to do is to build three tents - one each for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. The response to this suggestion is the literal voice of God telling the three to listen to the Son of God.

It is Good that We are Here

While Peter’s words have a fumbling, casting about quality to them, he does say something true and prophetic. The first words that come out of his mouth are, “Master, it is good that we are here.” He could not have known how good! While his suggestion to build tents comes from a desire to be relevant, these words undersell the benevolence of God in bringing these three human witnesses to the place where Jesus’s Glory is revealed for the first time.

Even as far off as he is in his response, Peter recognizes the importance of what is going on. S. Cyril of Alexandria supposes that Peter must have indeed thought this was the moment the Kingdom was arriving on Earth. His utterance “It is good that we are here” captures his awe despite his flawed human reasoning: he recognizes that he is witness to something meaningful enough that it could very well be the moment he and all Israel have been waiting for since the Messianic promise was first given to King David.

What he could not appreciate in his words is how they are filled with our praises that Jesus brought Peter, James, and John with him so they could witness this event. For what other purpose did they have on the mountain?

The Transfiguration as an event in the plan of Salvation seemingly requires a human audience. That isn’t to say that everything happened solely to be witnessed; the fact that the conversation among the Prophets of Israel and Judah went unrecorded because the disciples were asleep for part of it points to a purpose behind the Transfiguration event that doesn’t require human witnesses. And yet, if the disciples weren’t there, if it were simply Jesus momentarily taking up the glory he had set aside at the Incarnation, how would we know of the benefit to us?

The Purpose of Witnesses

I am reminded of the questions people sometimes pose about the manner of Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection. Why did Jesus have to be executed publicly? Why is so much made of his burial? Why is it necessary to believe that Jesus rose bodily from the dead? The answer to these questions can be summed up by saying that God knew the limitations of our human understanding and how quickly we would turn the slightest ambiguity and uncertainty into mountains of doubt.

If Jesus had gone away and died in an anonymous grave somewhere and then suddenly reappeared after a few days, people would say he didn’t die. If Jesus weren’t buried in a sealed tomb where everyone knew the location, the charge that the disciples stole his body would have had more traction. As it is, S. Matthew’s gospel tells us that this is precisely what was said among the Jews who did not believe in Jesus, at least through the first generation after the Resurrection. Finally, if Jesus wasn’t raised from the dead… well, S. Paul lays out the problem here very well: our preaching, mine, and Fr. Ben’s, and our faith, mine, Fr. Ben’s, and yours, is all in vain.

It seems to me that something similar is in play regarding the Transfiguration. Without the Transfiguration, a nagging piece of the question of “Who is Jesus anyway?” feels missing. Without the revelation of his glory, there is an opportunity to doubt that the words Jesus says about himself are being interpreted correctly.

If Jesus went to the mountain’s peak and left all of the disciples at its base, all we would know is that he had gone away to pray again. For all we know, this happened every time he prayed secretly; however, without any witnesses, that is pure conjecture.

In God’s goodness, Providence, and love for the world, Jesus invites the disciples in as witnesses to the Transfiguration. Whether or not there are other purposes to the Transfiguration, or whether or not this has happened before without human witnesses, the point of these disciples being present for the Transfiguration is to see Jesus Christ in the fullness of his glory.

Peter sees the confirmation of his confession that Jesus is the Christ of God. And even though Peter’s excitement over the arrival of the Kingdom was somewhat premature, the Transfiguration was nevertheless the fulfillment of Christ’s words just before: “There are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.” For the kingdom of God is Christ in his Glory, and here we see him granting audience to humans glorified in his presence.

The Disquietude of This World

The Collect for this week asks that God give us the gift to behold through faith what Peter, James, and John saw with human sight. Before this petition, the Collect makes a somewhat interesting connection between this gift of sight and our relationship to the world around us.

Mercifully grant that we, being delivered from the disquietude of this world, may by faith behold the King in his beauty...

BCP2019, “Collects of the Christian Year,” pg 630

The Collect makes receipt of the vision by faith dependent on our “being delivered from the disquietude of this world.”

I don’t know about you, but there are many times when I do not feel like I am far from the world’s troubles. Every time I turn around, there are new reasons to be concerned about what’s happening in our community, city, state, country, and planet.

I am tempted to be dismayed about putting the Collect on my lips when I think about that. If I am troubled by the state of the world around me, am I even qualified to ask for the gift of the Blessed Vision?

Thankfully, I don’t think “being delivered from the disquietude of this world” is the same as being unconcerned about the world. The “disquietude” that the Collect talks about is the tendency for the world around us to be so filled and preoccupied with its concerns that it cannot begin to contemplate the things of God.

I’m sure you’ve heard of the “rat race,” the never-ending slog that workers in predominantly corporate America throw themselves into in hopes of better pay, higher esteem, and more significant benefits, but without any actual end goal aside from running the race, maybe a little bit better. This comes to mind most as I contemplate what this Collect is discussing. Anything that gets pursued or fixated on at the expense of our relationship with God contributes to and reflects this “disquietude.”

So how are we “delivered” from this disquietude? Over the long term, sanctification is how we are ultimately delivered from being distracted and derailed by the troubles and unrest of the world. If we are faithful followers of Christ, having been baptized in the Holy Name of the Trinity, taking in his flesh and blood in the Eucharist, and living a life faithful to his commandments, then we are “being delivered,” as the Collect says.

When we choose to pray, meditate on the Scriptures, and faithfully attend worship on Sunday and as we can through the week, these are times when the Spirit works to deliver us from the specific unrest we face in our lives. In these times, we can see “by faith the King in his beauty.”

Beholding the King in His Beauty

What does it mean to see “the King in his beauty?” The promise for those who are saved from sin and resurrected to new life in Christ is that they will dwell in the presence of God forever, seeing the glory that was once deadly to sinful humanity. Moses longed to see the face of God but could only see his back as he passed by. This is the promise, and the opportunity to witness the Transfiguration granted to the disciples is the down payment of that promise: in the Transfiguration, the disciples are given the ability to gaze on the glory and face of Jesus Christ, the face of God, and do not suffer death because of it.

The Collect is also urging us onto something more immediate, I think. The Christian tradition is filled with accounts of saints and scholars who received visions, insights, and other glimpses of the beauty of the Gospel. Some saints have had direct visions of Jesus in their prayer lives. Others have received knowledge that somehow revealed the elegance of the salvation story. The common thread in these stories is that these saints had a deep prayer life and remarkable faith.

This is why the Collect connects “being delivered from the disquietude of this world” with “beholding by faith the beauty of the King.” We can only hope to begin to see the beauty of the King when we seek the peace of the Lord.

There are many ways to start cultivating peace: praying the offices, using a prayer rope, rosary, or prayer beads, fasting, meditating on Scripture, and even just walking outside and praying as you walk. Regardless of the specific tool or method, they each start with an element of leaving the world’s unrest behind. As it is, the disciples must go up the mountain with Jesus to see the Transfiguration.

Over this week, I encourage you to consider ways to enable your movement away from the world’s unrest. I’m not looking for a lifelong commitment to monastic asceticism or anything. Jesus didn’t spend his entire ministry on the mountaintop, and most of us are not called to the life of the cloister.

Ask the Spirit to guide you into practices that will be beneficial and encouraging to you, which will help you escape the world’s unrest for a time. As you do that, come back to the Collect. It may be that “being delivered from the disquietude of this world,” you will be afforded the ability to “behold by faith the beauty of the King.”

Amen.