An Open Secret
“An Open Secret”
Reading: Mark 9.2-10
February 19th, 2012 – Seventh Sunday in Epiphany
Rev. J. Manny Santiago
He was transformed in front of them…
Mark 9.2b
Introduction
Throughout the entire gospel of Mark, there is a recurrent phrase: “say nothing to anyone.” This time, in the story of the Transfiguration, again we find Jesus asking Peter and John “not to tell anyone what they had seen until after the Human One had risen from the dead.” Why? Why is Jesus so concerned with other people knowing what he does? After all, most of Jesus’ miracles happened in public. Why then, is Jesus so concerned with keeping the secret?
Missing the point
Let us put things in context.
How many times have you heard a joke and everyone around you laughs except for you? “I don’t get it,” you say. Or perhaps, there is a presentation at work and after the speaker does her job, you look around to find faces that demonstrate how satisfied they are with the explanations but you still wonder what the whole thing was about? “I really don’t get it!” It can be at times frustrating or confusing to try to make sense of things that do not make much sense. Such is the experience of the Transfiguration.
More often than not, we think we are familiar with the story. Jesus brings two of his closest disciples to the mountain; right there, Jesus is transfigured in front of their eyes and both Moses – the symbol of the Law – and Elijah – the symbol of the Prophets – appear. It is a story about the “passing of the mantle” so to speak. Simple. Or, is it?
I believe that there is much more than a simple “passing of the mantle” story in this narrative. We have missed the point.
When I approached this story again, I did it with an open mind. After reading it, and reading it, and reading it, I discovered that I did not get it! Why? Why Moses and Elijah? Why a transfiguration? Why at the mountaintop? Why John and Peter? Why did Jesus ask them to keep the event to themselves? Why did Peter offer to build a shrine for Moses and Elijah and Jesus? The questions started to flow and I realized that, often times, we are so accustomed to read a story from one perspective that the story tends to lose its meaning.
Transfiguration
It is my hope that you can delve into this passage on your own and try to find your own questions and your own answers. One of the goals of weekly Sunday is, after all, to peak your interest in Scripture. I do, however, want to dig a little bit more on the theme of Transfiguration and what does it mean to us, over 2000 years removed from this strange sighting.
It would be easy for me to stand here and tell you: “you know what? The story of the Transfiguration is a common hero’s tale. It should be discarded as something that never happened and thus it should have no relevance for us today.” This would be the easy way to deal with this. However, I believe in reclaiming the stories that have formed our faith and look at them from – perhaps – a new perspective. I do not want to “miss the point” of the story.
When Peter experienced the transfiguration of Jesus, he had a gut reaction… “Let us make shrines!” Peter wanted to keep the experiences, and by extension the story’s main characters, preserved for posterity. He wanted that experience to stay there, without moving, without transformation, without change or renovation.
Just last night I had a conversation with two marines I met while having dinner with my fiancé. We chatted for a while about everything… One of them was from Puerto Rico and was just coming back to Washington where he is stationed. He was telling me that he was getting ready for his next deployment which will start in March and last until October. His friend was telling me that they had just come back from their last deployment, where they spent about seven months in the open seas. They were telling me how, when they board that ship, they take a mental picture of what they are leaving behind. The world as they know it will be completely changed when they come back. What they are leaving behind is the present and this is the last reality they will keep with them as they embark in their next deployment. When they come out of that ship, where they had no contact whatsoever with the outside world, the world had drastically changed. It is not the world they left behind. But they cannot control this. It is the way things are…
Peter did not want this to happen. Why? Because his experienced had been so dramatic, so transforming, so remarkable that he deemed it worth of keeping! What he forgot, though, is that things are not to stay the same. Theologian Paul Flesner wrote the following regarding Peter’s and the church’s reaction: “We're not much different [from Peter] 2,000 years later. We want to institutionalize the dramatic so that we can find a spiritual shot in the arm when we need to counteract the boredom of the routine. We build tents out of tradition so that we can contain Jesus and the heroes of faith, and then sit back and ‘enjoy the show.’ Some Christians even insist that dramatic experiences are the normative ones and that one's faith is lacking if they don't happen regularly.
“Jesus didn't respond to Peter's idea. And he doesn't respond to our attempts to build tents, either. That's because he knew that even greater things were going to happen that would reveal the magnificence of God's glory.”[1]
An Open Secret
Peter missed the point; he did not get it, because he was too focused on the experiential of the moment, not knowing what to do with it. The message of transfiguration was not that we should enshrine the experiences of church, but that we take strength from them in order to continue the journey of transformation.
The secret is not that hidden from us: it is actually out in the open! The secret is that Jesus had an experience of transformation! In fact, I like that the newer translations of the Bible read “Jesus transformed in front of them.” This is a more accurate translation of the word used in the original manuscripts. Tradition has enshrined this experience so much that we even call it “Transfiguration” as if this is an experienced reserved for Jesus only and completely out of reach for the rest of us. But that is not true!
Jesus had an experience of transformation. Metamorphosis is the Greek word used to describe what happened in that mountaintop. Metamorphosis is the experience of complete transformation. Jesus saw his role as the one who was to bring transformation to the world – at least to the world that surrounded him – by embodying the will of God as expressed both in the Law and the Prophets.
Peter wanted that experience to be Jesus’ only when in fact God was calling him, and the rest of us, to be part of the experience. “Come with me to the mountaintop” Jesus had told John and Peter. Do not stay down here. You, my followers, are to experience this transformation with me. This is the message of transfiguration. We too are to embody God’s Law and God’s prophetic message to the world. We too are to take part of this mission to transform the world surrounding us in order to reveal the secret. We too are called to reveal the glory of the Reign of God! Amen.
NOTES
[1] Flesner, Paul E. Missing the Point, Transfiguration Sunday, from “Sermons on the Gospel Readings.” http://www.sermonsuite.com/free.php?i=788014125&key=i4wlQO9rlmjrhgec
