Who do people say I am? Some say
I’m a librarian, others say a musician. But who do you say I am? That question
is best answered, not by giving a resume of what occupies my time - librarian,
musician - but by relating stories of the milestones that have shaped me
personally and formed me spiritually. Peter, James and John, who became the
leading apostles of the early church, also had their spiritual and personal
formation shaped by milestone experiences, one of which was the transfiguration
of Jesus in their presence.
Now what do people say the
transfiguration was? Some say it was a vision, others say an illusion. But what
do you say the transfiguration was? Any serious student of the gospel accounts
will recognise that Matthew, Mark and Luke have recorded a time when Christ’s
divine nature was shown to Peter, James and John for what it was. The bible
describes the event as a complete and thorough transformation real in space and
time, not a vision or an illusion. And in Matthew’s version, a moment is
recorded when Jesus had to come over and touch the three disciples during the
experience to reassure them that what was happening was very real indeed. A
vision or an illusion can’t come over and physically touch you.
In the course of human history,
Jesus was unique; two natures in one person, a mysterious union that we can
never fully understand. And since his nature in person was unique, so was his
transfiguration. No other figure in human history has ever been, and will ever
be, shown in real space and time to be fully human yet fully divine,
accompanied by a clear audible testimony from God the Father. This is my son
whom I love. With him I am well pleased. Listen to him. That’s the point
the gospel writers are making in their re-telling of the story. They want their
readers – and that means us today -
to understand just who Jesus actually was.
How did the
experience contribute to the spiritual formation of Peter, James and John?
James never wrote anything about it, but Peter and John did. Here’s what Peter
wrote in his second letter. We did not
follow cleverly invented myths when we made known to you the power and coming
of our Lord Jesus, but we were eyewitness of his majesty. For he received
honour and glory from God the Father when the voice was spoken to him by the
majestic glory saying ‘This is my Son whom I love, with whom I am well pleased.
We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven while were with him on the
sacred mountain. And here’s what John wrote about it at the beginning of
his gospel. The Word became flesh and
lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only
son, full of grace and truth.
Both writers are emphasizing
their role as eyewitnesses to the full nature of Jesus the Son of God. They
were to become the leading apostles of the early church, and a primary function
of their ministry was to bear eyewitness testimony to who Jesus actually was.
And we might also include here St Paul’s experience of the glorious risen Jesus
the Son of God on the road to Damascus. Definitely a milestone experience in
Paul’s life that totally transformed him from radical persecutor of Jesus to
radical evangelist and apostle, and whose primary function was also to bear
eyewitness to who Jesus was, is, and always will be.
Peter, James and John spent an
extraordinarily special time alone with the Son of God high on a mountain away
from the madding crowd of the anxious world below. It shaped them personally
because the divine encounter showed them that God is a god of self-disclosure
by his own choice, and therefore is he is the god who risks.
God is a lover who seeks a response from us, his loved ones. Therefore it is necessary for God to disclose himself to us. How can a love response relationship exist unless each side is prepared to open themselves up to the other. God is open to being delighted or grieved, depending on the response he gets from us. Our love for God is fickle because we are imperfect human beings. But God’s love for us is perfect and constant; it is not occasional or depends on God’s mood. That is why we can depend on it. And we must learn to depend on it, learn to not seek our own way, learn through prayer and soaking ourselves in his word.
We have a choice; we can accept or refuse God’s
love for us. And the risk God takes in disclosing himself, in offering us the
opportunity for a relationship with him, is that we will choose to say no. When
a person refuses God’s presence, or attempts to replace it with something else,
the human condition suffers. If we do not soak ourselves in the peace of God by
spending time alone in prayer and presence with him, we begin to suffer from
What If disease, otherwise known as anxiety. A craving for meaning of life sets
in, and we fill it with anything and everything we hope will satisfy the god
shaped hole within us, but it never does. When you push God out the door of
your life, the ghosts of worry climb in through the windows.
Those who inoculate themselves
against God with everything else under the sun are constantly anxious for the
next dose of soul satisfaction. But what if it is all taken away from you one
day? What then becomes of your meaning of life? Who then do you say that you
are? The answer is summed up in the words of St Paul’s sermon to the Athenians,
In God we live and move and have our very
being. It’s that yearning for God
which cannot be satisfied outside of a relationship with him, whether people
recognize it or not.
We can’t all experience mountain
top appearances, Damascus Road conversions, or hear God as an audible voice.
God forms each one of us as he chooses. But it occurs to me that a common
factor among all who God chooses to shape and form for purpose is their
spending time alone with him. It was for Peter, James and John on that high
place. It was for Jesus himself when he spent 40 days in the Judean desert
entirely alone with his Father, preparing for his ministry to mankind and the
extreme suffering he had to bear for our sake.
And so it is with us and the What
Ifs of everyday life, the distractions, temptations and demands of the daily
routine. Time alone with God is to me an essential ingredient in spiritual
formation and the maturing of my relationship with him. With God I learn to
look at my anxieties and What Ifs and say to them, the Lord watches over my
going out and my coming in; the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
As we move through this season of
Lent, I would encourage you to reflect on what the milestones of your journey
with God are, and how they have formed you in your relationship with God. Consider
also the opening verse of psalm 121. If we take our eyes off the transfigured
Lord on the mountain and look to other mountains, then the mundane, the
ordinary and the what ifs will find us and strike us. So let us keep our eyes
on the risen, glorified and transfigured Christ, and he will indeed keep watch
and guard over us.
Philip Starks
Published under Creative Commons Copyright Licence
