Sermon on Luke 9:28-43a

Pastor Jennifer Garcia

I always resonate a lot with the disciples’ confusion at Jesus’ Transfiguration. Peter, James, and John followed Jesus up a mountain to spend time in prayer. By the time they got up there, they were tired from their hike. Then, they were roused by the sight of Jesus’ face and clothes changing—the Gospel of Luke says it was like lightning!

As the disciples blinked their eyes, trying to figure out what was going on, they saw Moses and Elijah chatting with Jesus. Their minds barely had a chance to catch up with the conversation when the prophets were leaving. Peter blurted out that they should set up sacred places to commemorate the moment, which was apparently not the right suggestion, because then a cloud rushed in, and a divine voice told them to just listen to Jesus already!

That’s a lot! And as much as 2,000 years have gone by and plenty of people have studied the Transfiguration, I still don’t feel like I get it much more than the disciples did.

But here are a few things that help me try to make sense of the Transfiguration:

First, Jesus has just started predicting his death and resurrection, which is what the first line of our reading refers to when it says, “eight days after these sayings.” Peter named Jesus as the Messiah, and now that his disciples recognized him as more than just a rabbi, Jesus started preparing them for what was to come, and the news was tough.The Transfiguration reassured them that God was powerful and active in the world.

Second, the divine voice says almost the exact same thing as it said at Jesus’ baptism. His baptism grounded Jesus in his ministry throughout the first half of the Gospel of Luke, and his Transfiguration grounded him in his mission through the second half—to the cross and beyond.

Third, Moses and Elijah were talking with Jesus about his “exodus.” It’ll sometimes be translated as “departure,” but the word “exodus” gives us a glimpse into Jesus’ mission. Just as God liberated the Israelites from Egypt, Jesus liberated us from sin and death in his death and resurrection.

And fourth, when we look at this story through the lens of liberation, we can see that the exorcism story that follows is a microcosm of the healing Jesus brings the world:

1.    Jesus came down from the mountain to where people were hurting, just as God became human with a humble beginning in a difficult time when a lot of people were hurting.

2.    When people couldn’t fix things on their own, Jesus came and “healed the boy, and gave him back to his father,” just as Jesus came to heal us and reconcile us with God.

In the Transfiguration, Jesus showed us his divinity but immediately came down the mountain to free us from what’s holding us captive.

What’s holding us captive today?

What’s distracting us from God?

What’s cutting us off from our neighbors?

What are our idols today?

It can seem strange to us when we read Bible stories about people worshiping idols. We can think that doesn’t apply to us because we don’t bow down before statues, but there are plenty of idols today.

One is money. It’s easy to become consumed by acquiring more and more stuff. It’s easy to trust our money to get us out of difficult situations instead of trusting God. It’s easy to enjoy the dopamine rush of buying something new instead of seeking what truly satisfies.

Another idol is comfort. Our drive for comfort can cause us to compromise our morals to keep us feeling secure. It can keep us from taking action for the sake of our neighbors because it would inconvenience us or might even put our safety at risk.

A deeply entrenched idol in our society is individualism. It’s not a bad thing to work hard or be proud of what we accomplish, but if we buy into the illusion that we can truly be self-made individuals who pull ourselves up by our bootstraps (a metaphor that’s literally impossible), we can forget that we’re dependent on God and interconnected with our neighbors.

Another idol is tribalism. Human brains like to categorize people. It’s something that kept us safe when we were identifying friends who could help us survive and threats like lions and tigers and bears (oh my!), but it can lure us into us/them thinking. We can become suspicious of others, mistrusting people of a different race, class, political party, or even who root for a different sports team. At its worst, it even causes us to dehumanize other people, which can fuel violence. We can see the consequences of that throughout history.

These and other idols can hold us captive.

As we prepare for Lent, which starts this Wednesday, what can we ask God for liberation from?

Maybe instead of giving up chocolate for Lent, maybe we can spend time praying for someone it feels hard to pray for as we grapple with the idol of tribalism.

Or we can write thank you notes to remind us of the people who have helped us become the person we are as we reckon with the idol of individualism.

Or we can challenge ourselves to get out of our idolized comfort zone for the sake of our neighbor—calling out a sexist, racist, or transphobicjoke, introducing ourselves to someone who lives by us, or calling your political representatives about an issue you care about. (Can you tell I’m an introvert when all my examples involve talking to people?)

Or if you do feel called to give up chocolate or the like, can you calculate how much you would have spent on that during the forty days of Lent and donate that to Lutheran Disaster Response or Global Refuge (formerly Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service—we’ll be having someone talk to us about their organization in a couple weeks) or of course the Caring Hands pantry?

If you choose to do a Lenten discipline this year, can it help you loosen your grasp on an idol in your life and cling more to God?

And of course, it is God alone who truly frees us. We can practice behaviors that turn our attention to God, but it is God who liberates us.

Transfiguration isn’t about looking down on the disciples who didn’t really get it—I certainly can’t judge, because I still find it perplexing myself.

One thing the Transfiguration is about is reminding us that Jesus is God. Jesus is fully human, so he can fully empathize with our human struggles, and he is fully divine—he’s powerful and good.

And the Gospel of Luke’s version of the Transfiguration story reminds us that Jesus, awe-inspiring as he is, didn’t stay on the mountain with the prophets and the cloud and the divine voice. He came back down to where his people were and brought them healing and liberation.

This story reveals who Jesus is:the long-awaited Messiah, who the prophets like Elijah and Moses paved the way for.

This is the beginning of the second half of his ministry, which leads to the cross and the resurrection. This is the beginning of Jesus setting us free from sin—like the idols that distract us from loving God and our neighbor—and liberating us from death, which cannot keep us from being held in God’s arms forever.

God liberates us regardless of whether we take on a Lenten discipline. There’s nothing we can do to make God love us any more or any less. If you decide to experiment with one this year, great! If you’ve done one faithfully for decades, great! If it’s one too many things to worry about this year, great! If it’s helpful, go for it! If not, rest in God’s love for you. It’s enough.

Jesus sets all of us free, and full of that love, we’re able to love God and our neighbors and participate in God’s Beloved Community here on earth.

We, along with the crowds in our story, can be “astounded at the greatness of God.”