A lamp shining in the darkness

Sunday 23^rd February – next before Lent.

Exodus 24: 12-18. The theological function of this passage which transcends the historical and contextual problems, is to emphasis the importance and divine origin of the law. The gravity of the situation is emphasised by the use of the familiar portentous time frame “forty days and forty nights”. In Semitic cultures, high places were synonymous with Holy places and the presence of God often represented by a cloud.

2 Peter 1: 16-22. Peter assures his readers that he was an eyewitness to the events chronicled in the gospel reading, so he speaks (writes) with authority. He witnessed the transfiguration and heard the voice of God confirm that Jesus was his beloved son.

Matthew 17: 1-9. The transfiguration of Jesus pulls out all the stops to amplify the divine nature of this event. It happens on a mountain, God speaks from a cloud, the words of God are the same as heard at Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan, and crucially Moses, representing the law, and Elijah representing the prophets are presented as subservient to Jesus in the economy of salvation.

One of the most pivotal and revelatory episodes in Jesus’ ministry that should I think sit more properly in the season of Epiphany. We are prepared for it by the choice of Old Testament story of Moses receiving the ten commandments on Mount Sinai in Exodus. However pivotal that event was in Jewish history, and no matter how important the prophets were in trying to convince people to return to the law, both Moses and Elijah representing all the law and the prophets, are here both shown as subordinate to Jesus, as the supreme revelation of God’s will and purposes.

Jesus is revealed as the fulfillment of both the law and prophesy. Moses and Elijah were present when out of the cloud, the voice of God proclaims

“This is my son, the beloved, with him I am well pleased”

Exactly the same words that accompanied the Baptism of Jesus, the event that propelled him into ministry.

Jesus shone with the uncreated light of God within him, and Jesus tells Peter, James and John not to tell anyone about the incident until after he had been raised on Easter Sunday.

All of this you could say was very poignant, very spiritual but a very cleverly constructed story to try and convince people that Jesus was who Christians claimed him to be, and Peter is well aware of that which is why he asserts with all the power that he can muster in his letter the following,

“We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty”

He then describes what he saw with his own eyes.

Thus, Peter is presented as an authentic apostle carrying authority, unlike the false prophets that were plaguing the early church.

The rest of Peter’s letter deals with the deceptions and false teachings of these false prophets, and Peter uses the fact that he is a chosen eyewitness to the truth as a badge of authority and authenticity.

In short, listen to me, not them, because I am a chosen ambassador for the truth of the gospel.

Peter presents this supernatural episode as “a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (v19)   

So, a guarantor, a promise that the glory of Jesus will again be seen when he returns, in whatever form that promise takes.

We are all accustomed nowadays to abundant light at any time at a flick of a switch but to a pre-electric society this promise meant a lot more.

To wait through the night for the coming of the morning star is one thing but to wait with the comfort of a lamp, a reminder of the promised light to come, and a real help in the darkness, is another thing altogether.

The transfiguration then is a source of Christian confidence; The glory of Jesus witnessed in the transfiguration is a guarantee of the glory due to all creation in the end.

Through confidence in what occurred on that holy mountain, Christians live hopefully in the present, by the lamp of the transfiguration.

All things will be bathed in divine light and as Julian of Norwich wrote in the middle ages,

“All shall be well and all manner of things shall be well”