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Matthew 17:1-9
March 2, 2014 – Transfiguration
“Pep Talk”
Even Jesus needed encouragement – how can we encourage others?
It’s been a month since the Super Bowl and I have to admit, I miss football
season. It’s the only sport I really follow.
One of the things I often wonder about when I’m watching a game on TV is
what the players and coaches are saying to each other on the
sidelines.
Other fans are curious too. So now you see those guys with the mics
attached to something that looks like a satellite dish. These parabolic
microphones are designed to pick up some of that chatter.
Some people are so curious that if they can’t hear it, they’ll make it up.
There’s a series of YouTube videos called “NFL Bad Lip Reading,”
very funny.1
If one of those guys with the mics were standing on the mountain while
Moses and Elijah were talking to Jesus, I wonder what they would
have picked up?
First, you know who Moses and Elijah are, right?
Moses went up the mountain to get the Ten Commandments from God; he
led Israel out of slavery in Egypt.
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Elijah was a great prophet in a time when most of Israel, including the
rulers, had turned away from the one true God.
What do these long-gone figures say to Jesus? Think about it: there has
to be a reason they show up. In Luke’s version of the story, it says
that they were speaking of Jesus’ departure – literally, his exodus.
Matthew doesn’t claim to know what they were talking about. But the idea
that they spoke of his “departure” makes perfect sense to me. And it
makes perfect sense for the season, standing at the edge of Lent.
To talk about Jesus’ departure, Jesus’ exodus, is to talk about the cross.
Today’s a day of bright light, a brief shining moment – Peter wants to
preserve it by building some huts up on top of the mountain. But he
quickly learns he can’t. Today’s glory is just a glimpse of what’s to
come – Jesus will not shine again until Easter Sunday morning.
Jesus knows that better than anyone. And as he thought about the road
ahead, I can’t help but wonder if he wasn’t feeling just a little bit sorry
for himself. If Matthew had had one of those parabolic microphones,
I wonder whether we might have picked up on Moses and Elijah
offering Jesus a little pep talk?
Have you ever imagined that the Son of God, the Savior of the World,
might have needed a little encouragement?
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We usually read the Transfiguration as though it took place for the
disciples’ benefit, and for our benefit – so we could all see who Jesus
really is, in all his glory. We assume this big light show must be for
us. But I don’t think it was. According to Luke’s version, it seems
that Peter, James, and John came pretty close to sleeping through it.
They almost missed it.
So if you ask me, the Transfiguration is not about the disciples at all – but
about Jesus. I picture him, standing on the mountain, looking at the
cross, in need of a good word from someone.
I can imagine Moses and Elijah saying: “You can do this. Don’t be afraid.”
I don’t know how that sounds to you, to think about Jesus struggling with
his mission. Maybe it’s a little unsettling. To me, it’s comforting.
It tells me that if Jesus knew fear, if Jesus knew discouragement, if Jesus
wondered how he was going to handle what was ahead, then it’s ok
for me to feel that way sometimes too.
This passage tells me that it’s ok to feel like you’re going to come apart
sometimes, because Jesus knew that feeling too.
Feeling like you’re barely holding together doesn’t represent a failure of
faith. Instead it represents the reality of human nature – the same
human nature that Jesus shares with us.
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And I would say that having a few doubts about yourself isn’t a sin. It’s just
what happens to all of us. Who knows? Maybe it’s part of God’s plan
to keep us humble, to make sure we realize we can’t do anything
without help.
All of us face moments when our courage fails us, when we say to
ourselves, “I don’t know if I can do this.” All of us have times when
our hearts are pounding, when we’re not able to breathe right, when
we’re almost physically ill.
It’s like those moments before surgery or your first chemo treatment, or
before you go in to talk to your boss about something that’s bothering
you, before you sit down to take the SAT, or the CPA, or the bar
exam, before you have an uncomfortable conversation with your
spouse, or your child, or your best friend.
Sometimes all of us need a little pep talk. Sometimes all of us need a
Moses or an Elijah in our lives just to encourage us, to remind us that
God is good, to tell us once more that we are made for a purpose.
Because it’s easy for us to lose courage, to become discouraged. That
word courage goes back to a root that points to the heart: literally, to
be discouraged is to “lose heart.”
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And isn’t that where we feel these fears the most, right here? That’s when
we need for someone to step in and hand our heart back to us, so we
can keep moving forward.
That’s why we need our own Moseses and Elijahs. You know why these
guys were perfect to come and comfort Jesus? Because both of
them knew what it was like to have a mission, a task to accomplish
with their lives. And both of them knew what it was like to put
themselves out there on behalf of others, and to get shot down time
and time again.
You want to talk about discouragement? On the way out of Egypt, people
kept asking Moses, “What’s the deal? Weren’t there any graves in
Egypt that you had to bring us out here in this desert to die?”
Elijah spent a good part of his life on the run because the people he came
to serve were so wicked that they wanted him dead. To do what he
was about to do, Jesus needed encouragement from folks who had
been there.
If Jesus needed a Moses or an Elijah in his life, we need one too. It’s no
crime, and it’s no sin to lose heart every now and again.
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If sometimes you didn’t feel like you were out there on your own, I’d wonder
if you were really taking any risks in your life. I’d wonder if you were
really trying to do anything worth doing. I’d wonder if you’d ever
asked God what you ought to be doing, because in my experience,
Christians are not called to easy stuff.
Who needs faith to do easy stuff?
Who needs God to do easy stuff?
Our challenge is to learn to move beyond what’s easy to what’s real, to the
work that Christ really needs for us to do. And I don’t think it’s a
crime to become discouraged along the way.
But it is a crime to see someone in need of our encouragement and to fail
to offer it. Now I know there are some great encouragers in this
congregation – people who frequently find someone to send a card or
an email to simply to say, “thanks for what you do.”
I’ve seen a lot of that here. I won’t mention names because I don’t want to
embarrass them. But they shouldn’t be embarrassed. They should
be glad – and we should be glad - that they’re doing God’s work
among us.
Even Jesus needed his Moses and his Elijah, don’t forget that. And don’t
forget that we are called to be Moses and Elijah to one other. Amen.
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By Joe Monahan, Medford UMC, Medford NJ
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zce-QT7MGSE&list=RDrRqKYXcL-2U
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