Peter’s Response

This coming Sunday the gospel reading is Luke’s version of the Transfiguration of Jesus. 

32 Peter and his companions had been overcome by sleep, but becoming fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. 33 As they were about to part from him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good that we are here; let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” But he did not know what he was saying. 

As before, Peter again responds, again without a full understanding.  Consider Peter’s proposal to make three tents (skēnḗ; also “booth” or “tabernacle”). What did he intend? It has been variously understood as traveler’s hut, the “tent of meeting” where God spoke with Moses outside the camp (Exod 33:7), a more formal tent used in the Festival of Booths (cf. Lev 23:42–43; Zech 14:16ff), and even as the Jerusalem Temple tabernacle.  It is this last image that Luke may have in mind as background – notwithstanding Peter’s intention.  It is the Temple tabernacle where the Shekinah, the fiery cloud that symbolized the continuing presence of God among the people, dwelt over the ark of the covenant.  The response to Peter’s proposal is three-fold (Boring, 364)

Continue reading

Moses and Elijah

This coming Sunday the gospel reading is Luke’s version of the Transfiguration of Jesus. 

30 And behold, two men were conversing with him, Moses and Elijah, 31 who appeared in glory and spoke of his exodus that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem. 

The presence of Elijah and Moses has been much discussed by various scholars. (1) Do they represent the different kinds of life endings (burial versus being taken up to God)? (2) Is their presence an indication of endorsement by great prophets and wonderworkers of old? (3) Is Jesus the fulfillment of the law (Moses) and the prophets (Elijah) – and so listen to him? (4) Or is it that Moses points to the expected great-prophet-like Moses, while Elijah suggests the eschaton’s (end days) arrival – roles fulfilled in Jesus.

Continue reading

Praying on the Mountain

This coming Sunday the gospel reading is Luke’s version of the Transfiguration of Jesus. 

28 About eight days after he said this, he took Peter, John, and James and went up the mountain to pray.

Characteristically Luke tells us that Jesus went to the mountain to pray. This is a key motif in the Lucan narrative. In the gospel and in Acts, Luke continually points to people achieving the proper attitude and posture before God through the discipline of prayer which Luke repeatedly highlights. He has two principal ways of doing this: 

Continue reading

Who is this Jesus?

This coming Sunday the gospel reading is Luke’s version of the Transfiguration of Jesus. The question that begs for an answer in the Lukan narrative is: who is this Jesus? It is the question that Herod asks, it is the question that the people are considering; it is the question that Jesus asks of his followers (“who do you say that I am”). In the Transfiguration scene, Luke provides a framework that lets the reader know it is less “an answer” but more a revelation that will only unfold in time. Joel Green’s [The Gospel of Luke, 377] insight here is informative:

Continue reading

Locating the Story

This coming Sunday in Lent offers Luke’s version of the Transfiguration. It is an event also described in Mt 17:1-9 and Mk 9:2-10 – readings that are traditionally proclaimed on the 2nd Sunday of Lent in their own respective liturgical years as well as on the Feast of the Transfiguration each August 6th.  The Lenten use of the reading, following the story of Jesus being tempted in the desert by the devil, breaks up the flow of Luke narrative at the beginning of Ordinary Time. Depending on the start of the Lenten Season the Sunday prior to Ash Wednesday includes at least the content of Chapter 5 (or as much as Chapter 6). A summary of the narrative leading up to our gospel pericope can fill in the gap.

Continue reading

A Final Reflection

This coming Sunday is the 2nd Sunday in Lent.  The scholar Pheme Perkins (632) provides a good final reflection for our Sunday gospel:

Despite providing the most dramatic evidence of Jesus’ relationship to God of any epiphany scene in the Gospel, the transfiguration cannot override the necessity of Jesus’ suffering and death. It does sharpen the paradox of the cross. Although God spared Moses and Elijah from the normal processes of death, not only does God’s own beloved Son die, but also his death is at the hands of his enemies. Even the affirmations of exaltation and entry into the glory of his Father (8:38) cannot nullify the scandal of the cross. God’s command to heed the word of Jesus gives his teaching the authority of divine revelation. Continue reading

Seeing, Hearing and Remembering

This coming Sunday is the 2nd Sunday in Lent.  4 Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus. 5 Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here! Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 6 He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified. 7 Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them; then from the cloud came a voice, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” Continue reading