Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary
On Transfiguration Sundays, whatever Synoptic gospel is featured in that lectionary year, many congregations can predict what the preacher will say: “We can’t cling to our mountaintop experiences, trying (like Peter) to freeze-frame the glory; we must engage trouble in the valleys.” It is a reliable approach, one that allows us to treat the mountaintop scene as strictly symbolic of intense spiritual experiences in general, avoiding awkward details: a luminescent Jesus consulting with long-dead OT figures, an enveloping cloud from which a divine voice speaks, Peter’s babble about a construction project. But in Year C, with Luke’s version before us (9:28-36), preachers need to gather their courage, attend to Luke’s unique details, and explore this scene in all its strangeness.
To begin with, Luke alone says that Jesus took Peter, James, and John up the mountain to pray. It is while they are praying that Jesus’ appearance “changes.” (Luke does not use the word metamorphosis, for which “transfiguration” is the translation; he simply says Jesus’ face “changed,” and his clothes shone dazzlingly white [v 29].) Despite overwhelming fatigue—another detail unique to Luke—the three disciples see Moses and Elijah speaking with Jesus. Only Luke tells us that the subject matter is Jesus’ “exodus.” This reference to God’s saving liberation of the Hebrew slaves from Egypt has a double effect: first, it suggests that Jesus, too, will undertake a saving liberation. Second, it makes more logical Peter’s impulse to build three “booths.” The annual Jewish Feast of Booths celebrates God’s emancipation of the Hebrews from slavery and their sojourn in the wilderness. Peter may recall Malachi 4:5-6, predicting Elijah’s reappearance when God undertakes Israel’s final deliverance from the grip of her enemies. As he speaks, a cloud descends; the three disciples are “terrified” as they enter it. From the cloud comes a voice, a divine proclamation: “This is my Son, my Chosen! Listen to him!” (v 35). The cloud dissipates; the disciples see only Jesus.
Remembering that Luke is addressing his gospel to the long-suffering, late-1st century church is a key interpretive clue. Might Luke be aligning this mountaintop epiphany with Christian worship? First, there is a deliberate gathering in a deliberately chosen place for a specific purpose: to pray together. It is amid this praying that the hidden glory of Jesus becomes visible (v 29). Luke describes the disciples as fatigued, weighed down—an apt description of struggling churches after the Temple’s destruction, when this gospel was likely written. Yet, the weary disciples still can see and hear Jesus consulting with Moses (representative of the Law) and Elijah (representative of the prophets); the written tradition still speaks. The subject of which they speak is Jesus’ “exodus;” this aligns Jesus’ mission with the primary saving act of God in Israel’s past, the deliverance from slavery in Egypt. In other words, as we consult the written tradition, we find it validating Jesus’ understanding of his mission and guiding our mission as well. Engaging the Law and Prophets brings us into divine presence. Now we hear the gospel: Jesus is indeed Son of God, the chosen agent of God’s ongoing redemptive engagement with the world. God commissions us: continue to listen to Jesus! When it is over, Jesus alone is with his disciples; and Jesus is with us—with us in body and blood.
That Luke interprets this scene through a lens of worship is no surprise; it is a Lukan hallmark. In worship we experience “epiphany.” We discover and rediscover Jesus’ identity and our own; his mission and ours: we are God’s agents in evil’s undoing, God’s life-giving remaking of the world.
Insights into Biblical Greek Grammar and Syntax 