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When they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. |
His approach was like that of an emperor, yet more than an emperor. The advance of a great sovereign was always preceded by royal heralds to prepare the people to behold his greatness. But His royal heralds were not well-spoken men in soft clothes. They were an Archangel and the Law and Prophets. His birth was attended not by legates from neighboring kingdoms but rather star-led wizards (to borrow Milton's phrase) bearing most precious gifts. Hovering above His arrival were ranks of angels with heavenly music ineffably filling the cold night air with its ethereal magic. Even the changeless, predictable motions of the firmament were altered that a miraculous star might burn in the night down on a spot of earth — where God had entered the human lifeworld.
Those who were present to witness this most extraordinary event in all human history which lay behind and all human hopes which lay ahead also saw one thing more. They saw a Human Infant, a Child of the poor surrounded by shepherds, accounted to be the lowest and least in society. They saw Him lying midst the dung of barnyard animals and in shabby quarters. The scene was extraordinary by Heavenly standards and earthly ones: the outcasts of the world standing in rapt silence with all the company of Heaven. For God had come.
Herod the king turned his kingdom upside-down seeking Him, killing all newborn male children in a grisly process-of-elimination, search-and-destroy operation. Religious authorities weighed his life and words searching the Scriptures, targums, and mishnahs to divine Who He might be. Scripture scholars of our own age agree that the question of identity forms a primary theme in the Gospels, calling it the "Messianic secret." Why, even in our lesson this morning, He enjoins His inner circle, The two sons of Zebedee and Peter, to say nothing concerning his identity:
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Now as they came down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying,
"Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead." |
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For we .... were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the
Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: "This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased." |
Not many months before this most remarkable story comes to its earthly conclusion He has asked His disciples one question which gestures over the sweep of all these things:
| "Who do you say that I Am?" (Mt 16:13-16, Mk 8:27-29, and Lu 9:18-20) |
Each year we at the Hermitage prostrate ourselves before the Holy Transfiguration of Our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ. We have noticed that, really, it is a feast whose breadth includes the Feast of the Holy Prophet Elijah on July 20 and the Feast of Moses the Holy Prophet and God-seer on September 4. For the Lord Jesus appears on the Mount of Transfiguration with Elijah at His one hand and Moses at His other. As these are the holy deathless ones, assumed directly into Heaven, as we considered at the beginning of this holy season, we behold another aspect of Jesus' identity: He is the resurrection of the body. Indeed, these are His very words:
| I Am the resurrection and the life. (Jn 11:25) |
We have considered Him to be the Desire of the Everlasting Hills and the repository of all our hopes and expectations. We see in Him the approach of our King, our Emperor, our God. The list is inexhaustable as the heart, soul, and mind that loves God can never hope to embrace the fullness of the Divine but will always have more inspired love letters to write. Which subject on earth might dare to match it?
Today, and yet again, we fasten these same hearts and souls and minds upon the Transfigured Lord. Standing with His inner circle on the frosty heights of Mt. Hermon, nearly two miles above sea level, we are woozy. The thin air makes our legs unsteady, yet we fiercely fix our gaze on the Beloved, the Only-begotten Son of our God. We see Him exalted. The Jesus of Nazareth so well known to His disciples, with Whom they ate and drank and journeyed and slept and wakened and prayed .... Him, this Jesus changes before their eyes Being the Divine Person, Who He never ceases to be, from that crib mongst barnyard straw to the present moment.
Who then Is This? A child of the poor? The Only-begotten Son of God and Eternal Word of Creation? A destitute vagabond and despised criminal? The King of kings and Lord of lords? Is this not the carpenter's son? Is this not the well-pleasing Son of God the Father?
He is all of these things and more than all. As St. Paul has written
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He is the Image of the invisible God, the Firstborn of all Creation;
for in Him all things in Heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers — all things have been created through Him and for Him. He Himself is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. (Col 1:15-17) |
| "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, Who is and Who was and Who is to come, the Almighty. (Rev 1:8) |
Yet,
the One Who is all things and our Master and our God,
He does not forget us.
The child lying amongst the dung has set His heart on our terribly broken world.
And
when He turns His sovereign and divine gaze upon us,
even from His Mount of Transfiguration,
we give thanks that,
through His many guises,
Lamb of God, Conquering Lion, Good Shepherd, our Lord God and our King,
He loves us,
even us.
And there is nothing that He made,
with own Hands and from His own Heart,
which cannot find its way back to Him.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.