Sunday 19 February, 2023

Exodus 24:12-18

Psalm 2

Matthew 17:1-9

2 Peter 1:16-21

Reflection:  Transfiguration; the Christian Hannukah
-   Matthew 17:1-8

provided this week by Andrew Corish

Today we are considering the Transfiguration story.

It is an important story. It appears in all 3 synoptic gospels in much the same form and place.

The story is that Jesus took his executive group of Peter, James and John, up a high mountain. There he is “transfigured”, and his face shone like the sun and his clothes became dazzling white.  Then the two great “pillars” of the Jewish scripture; Moses the lawgiver and Elijah the leader of the prophets, appear in person and speak to Jesus.  Peter then pipes up and offers to build three “dwellings”, one for each of them, in tribute.  These dwellings were the “booths” or ”sukkot”; being simple lean-to structures, which the Jews built during their Harvest festival called Sukkoth, to remind them of the time they worshipped God in temporary shelters in the desert during the Exodus.  It seems to be a suggestion by Peter, that by offering to build the three sukkot, Jesus was one and equal with Moses and Elijah.  But God speaks from the cloud as he did to Moses and to Jesus at his baptism and uses the same words from the baptism, namely, ”this is my son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him.”  This seems an endorsement by God that here with Jesus, you have something even greater than Moses and Elijah. 

So what to make of the Transfiguration story? 

The first thing is that it seems a retelling of the Moses’ story in Exodus 34 when Moses comes down from Mt Sinai with the 10 Commandments and his face and clothes shone, because he had been talking with God, so much so, he had to wear a veil.  It also brings to mind the important little book of the prophet Zechariah who was clothed in rags but is clothed by God in splendour. 

Secondly, progressive theologians have suggested it is intricately linked to the Jewish Dedication or “Hannukah” festival.  In 175BC the Syrian ruler of Israel, Antiochus Epiphanes was trying to stamp out Judaism.  In a final act, he desecrated the Temple in Jerusalem by having a pig’s head put on the judgement seat in the Holy of Holies room at the centre of the Temple. That was too much for the Jews to bear and they rose in rebellion, led by Judas Maccabeus, (Maccabeus being the Hebrew word for “hammer) He led a successful guerrilla campaign and eventually drove out the Syrians in 164AD.  The Temple was restored and an 8-day festival of Dedication instituted in the middle of December each year, when the Jews celebrated the “light of God”, the “shekinah” returning to the Temple.  This festival was called Hanukkah and was very popular thereafter and has been celebrated to this day.

Then go forward to 66AD. This was when another Jewish revolt began. This time led by the Zealots in Galilee to overthrow the Romans as the Maccabees had done before them.  However, the guerrilla campaign this time proved a terrible failure.  Rome responded viciously, initially crushing the Galilean rebellion and then turning the armies on Jerusalem. They destroyed the city and the Temple and obliterated the country of Israel from the map in 70AD.

Interestingly Mark wrote his Gospel, probably in Caesarea Philippi in Northern Galilee in about 70AD. It was a time of terrible tension. Judaism hung by a thread. 

It is suggested by Progressive Theologians that Mark structured his gospel to provide Jesus stories and materials, to coincide and be read in the Synagogues, according to the Jewish liturgical calendar. That is, he provided Jesus stories for each of the major Jewish festivals.  Their festivals were Passover at Easter, Shavuot or Pentecost in May, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur the day of atonement, Sukkoth, the Harvest Festival in October and Hannukah in December.  His gospel wasn’t meant to be a biography or memoire of Jesus at all. It was Jewish stories and festivals reinterpreted to incorporate Jesus stories into them.

So in Mark 9 it is suggested that Mark wrote the Transfiguration story to be read in winter and coincide with Hannukah celebration in the synagogue.  In it, Mark provided a wonderful vision to the remaining people of Israel.  God has not abandoned his people. Rather he has given them a new vision and vocation. The Temple was gone with its animal sacrifices. Instead, Jesus had become the new sacrifice, once and for all. The “shekinah”, the light of God now shone on Jesus, as it had formerly shone on Moses.  The Jews had a new purpose and vocation.  That in their suffering and humiliation, through this new great prophet Jesus who had arisen, they could now bring the love of God to the whole world.

But things did not go well from there.  In the period of 12 to15 years prior to Matthew producing the second gospel, relationships deteriorated between the Jews and Christians.   In his gospel, Matthew incorporated 90 per cent of Mark, including the Transfiguration story. He adopted the same structure and purpose as Mark. Except Mark had written material for the synagogue from the Rosh Hashanah Harvest festival in October to Passover in Easter. Matthew front loaded his gospel to provide additional material for the period from Easter to October, including the Sermon on the mount where Jesus reinterpreted the 10 Commandments, to coincide with the Shavuot -Pentecost ceremony which celebrate Moses providing the 10 Commandments.

Unfortunately, the Jewish leaders did not accept the generous offer of Mark to provide a way forward for Judaism following the destruction of Israel and the Temple.  It was a difficult time for them. The fundamentalists increasingly took control and began excluding “people of the Way”, the Jesus movement, from the synagogues. In response, the concept of the “Betrayal”, Jesus betrayed by one of his own and the Jewish people , increasingly took control.

But did Judas do that? That was part of the deterioration of relations.  Judas is another translation of Judah or the Jewish people.  Paul knew nothing about Judas or didn’t say so. All he said was “on the night he was betrayed” which could also be translated as “handed over”. 

So Christians were excluded and excommunicated from the Synagogue in 88AD which caused terrible pain and suffering. In return, Jews were excluded from the church and reviled and blamed.  We lost the wonderful Jewish insight, wisdom and spiritualism from the church.  Greek and Roman literalism and fundamentalism and antisemitism took control.  The church has never recovered.  So many of the problems of the worldwide church stem from this fundamentalism and literalism and we have suffered from the lack of Jewish wisdom and insight. Is it too late to get back together?

So, you may not like this and are quite entitled to reject it as rubbish. But hopefully in the Uniting Church we are open to consider different ideas. 

I have to say, I was really struck when I did my last sermon on Romans.  This was Paul’s gospel. He was writing in the 50s.  He said he had checked it out with the church leaders in Jerusalem and his ideas had been endorsed.  His gospel was nothing like the story of Jesus in the 4 official gospels. 

And so with Mark, writing at this time of terrible crisis in Israel.  Mark provides Jesus stories to be read in the synagogues as Jesus’ responses to the great Jewish festivals.  To show Jesus is the way forward, the new great prophet and Messiah.  His pattern is copied by Matthew and Luke.  It does seem it is not so much that Jesus’ ministry took place over a period of 12 months. That was the length of the Jewish Liturgical year.  Then John’s gospel was the writings of a Jewish mystic but also was never intended to be taken as literally true.
So what do I get from this passage of the Transfiguration.

I think perhaps I feel we should pay more attention and respect to the Jewish writings in the Old Testament and their festivals.  I think it helps to try to read the gospels with Jewish eyes in the first century, to the extent we can manage that.

I think we need to accept that the Gospel is always changing and we need to be ready and willing to change with it.  Bishop Spong wrote great books titled “Biblical Literalism, a Gentile Heresy” and “Liberating the Gospels, reading the gospels with Jewish eyes” and suggested that most of the Gospels are wonderful, symbolic, full of truth and wisdom, but perhaps not literally true. 

I love the message in the Transfiguration. That the light of God that used to shine in the Temple, is now shining in Jesus. It can shine in us as well, in our hearts. That is the real test of being a Christian. That in everything we believe and say and do, that the light of God shines in us, for all to see. 

Amen.

Andrew Corish