Sermon for the Transfiguration – Mark 9:2-9

Do any of you know who Daniel Day-Lewis is? British actor. He’s in this new movie Phantom Thread, where he plays a fashion designer who’s some sort of tragic figure. He’s been acting for a few decades, and he’s got a laundry list of big awards. He’s a serious actor. I haven’t seen the movie, but I just happened to catch an NPR interview with a film critic who was talking about him, and apparently there’s a kerfuffle about him saying this is his last film, period. Supposedly, after learning all about fashion design for this role (that’s what serious actors do), he decided that’s it. He’s packing up and jumping ship for fashion design. The critic was pretty let down about this. He’s one of the best actors of all time. What possessed him? I mean, fashion designer? Can you say “irrelevant”? Oh, I’m really going to miss him. Like he died or something.

Of course, we don’t know the whole story. We’re not in his head. But you know what it sounds like? It sounds like an identity crisis. Think about it – you discover your skill. Cooking, building, remembering, you can fill in the blank. You fall in love with it. You work passionately at it. It’s a part of who you are. Then people notice and they start to expect it from you, but you don’t mind that at all. For a while. But something starts happening. Maybe you feel a little resentful, like people only care about you because you give them what they want. Maybe you feel used. Maybe you feel fake, like you don’t know what you’re doing anymore and you’re just going to let everyone down. Maybe you start wondering what’s the point? Am I actually helping anyone? Maybe you feel like no one knows the REAL you, like no one actually SEES you. Have you ever felt like this? Have you ever had an identity crisis? I bet we all could tell some hilarious stories about things we’ve done about it.

Know who else has an identity crisis? Jesus. I know it’s hard to imagine. After all, he’s God! He casts out evil spirits. He makes the blind see. He makes the deaf hear. He makes the lame walk. And that was just yesterday! Get in line, because he’s booked up! He’s always surrounded by these crushing throngs of people in the throes of desperation. They know what they need, and Jesus is the only one who has it. Jesus’ identity and vocation seem pretty clear, don’t they? It’s clear to the crowds for sure. They know he never turns anyone away. Have you seen some of the folks he lays hands on? I guarantee that if you’re the one Jesus is healing, this is the only reason Jesus matters. Your life is about to radically change for the better! Thanks be to God! Surely, this is what you should expect from the Son of God, since the gospels are full of miracle stories.

Except, there’s something odd about the gospel of Mark. Over and over, he does a miracle, then STERNLY commands “don’t say a word to anyone!” What sense does that make? Isn’t the whole point here for everyone to know Jesus is the Son of God? To demonstrate God’s power? That’s what miracles are for. We talk and sing about them all the time. I mean, how do you evangelize if your can’t tell everyone what amazing things Jesus has done for you? But, Jesus has a problem – these miracles are actually CAUSING his identity crisis. They get all the attention, but they’re not what Jesus came to do. They’re drowning out Jesus’ actual message. They actually KEEP people from SEEING Jesus. This is controversial. I mean, yeah, he’s going to heal brokenness, and God knows we’re broken. But we’re so convinced we know exactly what’s wrong with us or wrong with the world. We build up all kinds of expectations, and that’s the ONLY thing we end up wanting Jesus to do for us. We don’t want anything else.

But Jesus expects the disciples to get it. He asks them “who do people say that I am?” John the Baptist. Elijah. A prophet. Jesus digs deeper. “Who do you say I am?” Peter says Messiah. Right word. But what Peter really means is “you are the leader of the rebellion that’s going to bring down this wicked empire that’s crushing our people with injustice.” Now, we desperately need that, but we still haven’t gotten down to the core issue.

So Jesus actually comes out and tells them the real reason he came – to suffer and die and after 3 days rise again, But Peter can’t handle the truth, even after all this time they’ve been together. Peter doesn’t understand. We don’t understand. How do you lead a rebellion when you’re dead? But Jesus doesn’t give up. He takes Peter, James, and John up a high mountain, and that alone tells you Jesus has a plan! Who else went up a mountain? Moses and Elijah. Jesus knows we’re all convinced you have to climb a mountain to meet God. And right there, Jesus is transfigured before their very eyes. But it’s not about dazzling clothes. It’s about meeting the glory of God manifest in this man Jesus, and he lets it shine full bore like the sun. When this same glory shone on Moses’ face, he had to veil himself because it was blinding to anyone who looked. But this is different. Jesus is no Moses with a law. Jesus is the raw power of God to bring life out of death. But this is also the God who comes down among us, just so we CAN see him and touch him. And if that wasn’t already too much, the voice of God thunders out of the clouds – this is my Son, the beloved, listen to him. But wait – we’ve already heard this. We heard it at Jesus’ baptism. We’ve ALREADY been here before, but it wasn’t enough for us. The transfiguration shouldn’t have been necessary in the first place. Jesus gives us everything, but we still don’t see God, because we only look for a god who acts like we expect, with our preconceptions of justice and power. And they don’t save.

So like Peter, James, and John, we blink and see nothing but the same old dusty Jesus. But we don’t really SEE Jesus. Jesus absolutely has an identity crisis, but it’s not his, it’s ours. That’s why Jesus brings them down the mountain and orders them to say nothing about it, because he knows it doesn’t matter. Brothers and sisters, that’s our good news! It was never about transfiguration or glory. We don’t have to look for signs or climb mountains to find Jesus. Jesus always comes to us exactly where we are, BECAUSE we don’t recognize him. He always makes the first move, and never asks permission. That’s why Jesus ALREADY told us the greatest news of all, BEFORE the transfiguration, BEFORE we could ever be ready to hear it. The only reason he came was to do for us what we could never do for ourselves, to suffer and die for our sake. He became sin for us, so that we could be free at last. And here’s exactly how he does it. He forgives us all our sins – what we’ve done and left undone. What we know, and even what we don’t know. His one little word reaches into the depths of our questions and doubts, and binds them, because they will never have the last word for us. Jesus is our final word, and his word says you are mine. That’s the whole point of the resurrection. Jesus has to be resurrected, because you don’t get any more final than that.

Even still, we know how things go, day in and day out. People still put the same old expectations on us, and we fall short. We still wonder whether anyone actually SEES us for who we really are. So it goes for Jesus, so it goes for us. But by faith, and this is God’s doing, not ours, thanks be to God, we know that Jesus has made us to be his heart, hands, and voice in the world. Our identity is the forgiven children of God, even though we don’t always feel like it. And that has strange power. There’s power is knowing that even though we never quite give people what they want, by some miracle we give them what they don’t even realize they actually need. This is how God is steadily reconciling the world to God’s own self, and it’s through us by the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, this doesn’t mean that we just accept the unacceptable. God gave us mouths to speak truth to power, and sometimes that truth tumbles out. Even Jesus turns the tables of the moneychangers in his Father’s house. It may not be today or tomorrow, but Jesus promised that the Spirit would give us the words to speak. And it’s true! It already happened! We already say it to each other. I forgive you. At the end of the day, that’s the only thing we’ve got that’s worth anything at all. We might not know what we’re supposed to do, or know whether anyone else understands us, but we know we’re forgiven children of God, and that will be enough for the day. Amen.