Evolution of a Tradition
Second Sunday of Lent
Matthew 17:1-9
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030126.cfm
The transfiguration was the history of an evolving faith on one mountain top encounter coming together at once in a line of mountainous encounters with God.
The presence of Moses with Jesus connects the encounter back to the origin of law. Scripture refers to Moses as the greatest of the prophets, but I believe in the context of this gospel, Moses is representative of the law. Moses encountered God in numerous ways. Some of the most remarkable were his encounters with God on Mount Sinai. There, Moses learned God’s name as “I AM WHO I AM” though God coming to him as a burning bush. Then later, he receives the Ten Commandments from God on that same mountain where he sees the backside of God revealed in a cloud. When Moses descended the mountain with the law, the people in the valley had begun to worship Baal while he was away. They did not follow the guidance Moses gave them when he ascended the mountain. At the end of Moses' life, God showed him the promised land, welcomed him into death, and buried him.
The presence of Elijah with Jesus connects the encounter to the prophets. Elijah too had an encounter with God on Mount Sinai. For Elijah, the encounter is through a quiet whisper that asks him, “Why are you here?” After Elijah expresses his woes of being outcast from the people who had again begun to worship Baal, God tells Elijah to go back and gives him direction. At the end of his time on earth, God takes him up to heaven in a whirlwind and a chariot of fire.
Now, we have Jesus and the disciples encounter God on the mountain in the presence of these two historical figures of their faith. Figures who were given guidance from God and were not always listened to by the people they were called to serve. Now, in the presence of them and Jesus, God speaks to them as well by saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” God speaks to the disciples as he spoke to Moses and Elijah. God gives them confirmation on Jesus’s divinity and the simple instructions to listen. Jesus is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. Something new, something transformational was happening as it had with Moses and Elijah. The disciples were connected to a deeper tradition, and they would come to serve their role in our ever-evolving faith journey to and with God.
We may not have a literal encounter on a mountain, but may we carry on that tradition of bringing humanity more and more to God.
