Immediate Word

Watching Mel Gibson being interviewed by Diane Sawyer on ABC TV on February 16, you could not help being caught up in Gibson's personal story of despair and faith that led to his producing The Passion. It brought to mind Paul's experience on the road to Damascus, Francis of Assisi's turn to poverty, Martin Luther's "tower experience," and John Wesley at Aldersgate. There can be no doubt that Gibson's movie is the result of deeply held faith rather than the desire for financial gain.

In this issue of The Immediate Word, Carter Shelley alludes to the controversy over Gibson's movie in reflecting on the Transfiguration of Jesus as recounted in Luke 9 (the Gospel lection for February 22), inviting us to consider the "passionate Messiah" who is at the center of our faith.

The Transfiguration lection bristles with puzzles: Moses and Elijah, the law and the prophets, two who were believed to have been translated into God's presence after death; the time references; the disciples' response; the nature of the story -- and much more. Carter draws us past these to a vision of God engaging evil and calling us to do the same, creating hope in the midst of human suffering.

Included, as usual, are team comments, illustrations, worship resources, and a children's sermon.


The Transfiguration of Jesus: A Prelude to the Passion
Luke 9:28-30 (37-43)
by Carter Shelley

Actor, director, and producer Mel Gibson's movie The Passion, depicting the last twenty-four hours of Jesus' life and death, has caused considerable furor and anxiety even before it begins appearing on movie screens a few days from now. Newsweek magazine made Gibson and the movie its cover story, while Christopher Hitchens of Vanity Fair magazine used the controversy as a way to take potshots at Gibson and other "religious fanatics," irrespective of their faith beliefs. A devout Roman Catholic, Gibson himself paid the entire $25,000,000 (or more) cost of the film to recreate for others the insights about Jesus' sufferings that Gibson himself came to understand more deeply twelve years ago through a personal faith experience. The man couldn't have bought the kind of attention and publicity the film is now receiving in print, on the radio, and on television. (Ironically, the amount of discussion and free publicity The Passion has already generated suggests that Gibson will recoup all of his expenses along with a profit in the millions.) A range of selected individual scholars and religious leaders have previewed the film with mixed results:

* It's too violent.
* It's inaccurate.
* It blends events from all four Gospels without recognizing the distinct theology and cultural context of each gospel writer.
* It's anti-Semitic and inflammatory.
* It blames the Jews for Jesus' death.
* It's emotionally gripping.
* It demonstrates the high cost Jesus paid to save us all.

Although the liturgical year hasn't reached Ash Wednesday yet, Mel Gibson's film The Passion will arrive in movie theaters on that very day, February 25. Chances are that ministers will be asked to comment upon the movie's content by members of our congregations soon after the film is released, not forty days later when the church calendar is closer to Good Friday. Consequently, this week's The Immediate Word examines the Passion of Jesus in the context of the Transfiguration of Jesus.

This hermeneutical strategy can help ministers establish a fuller theological context for the Passion of Jesus by looking at the significance of Jesus' Transfiguration as a prelude to both his suffering and his glory. Without God's validation of his ministry, "This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!" and its later vindication through the resurrection, the Passion of Jesus becomes yet another example of twenty-first-century gratuitous violence portrayed on film.

The Transfiguration of Jesus

The Transfiguration of Jesus marks the final Sunday after the Epiphany and directly precedes the first Sunday in Lent. Images of bright light, the liturgical color white, and the notion of God's blindly glory first introduced at Jesus' baptism by John the Baptist recur here as Jesus receives a second affirmation of his purpose and call. This event anticipates Jesus suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension, while simultaneously harking back to Jesus forebears, Moses and Elijah, each of whom himself has had a direct mountaintop encounter with God that confirmed God's ongoing intention to be the source of law, judgment, and - ultimately -- grace.

Even congregations with a strong liturgical tradition and a history of lectionary preaching are less likely to be knowledgeable about the Transfiguration of Jesus than they would be about other important aspects of Jesus' life and ministry that appear during the liturgical year. Most can provide some details about Jesus' birth, the Last Supper, Good Friday, and Easter, but it's unlikely that the majority of Christians could provide answers to questions about the Transfiguration. Thus it might be an interesting and educational exercise this week to include in your bulletin some questions about the Transfiguration that you could invite your congregation to attempt to answer before your read the Gospel text and before you preach. Then you might invite them in listening to the sermon to check their answers against the information you provide through the preaching of God's word from Exodus and Luke. In this way you provide a method for a more interactive preaching opportunity with the congregation rather than merely to the congregation.

Here are some questions one might pose: What exactly is the Transfiguration of Jesus? Who was present for it? What happened at the Transfiguration? What was its purpose? Does this incident appear in all four Gospels? Does it serve the same function in each Gospel? What details are different in the different accounts? Is it sort of a pre-resurrection event? What details of the Transfiguration seem to be similar to those of Jesus' resurrection? Why does this event come at the end of Epiphany and just before the beginning of Lent? What does it mean to describe the Transfiguration of Jesus as a prelude to the Passion?

These questions may guide your biblical preparation and sermon work. To provide a broader context and understanding, you'll want to explain the significance of Moses and Elijah being present at Jesus' Transfiguration and the parallel characteristics each of these individuals (lawgiver, prophet, and Messiah) experience when they encounter God's glory so directly. In his discussion of Exodus 34:29-35 in the New Interpreter's Bible Commentary (Nashville: Abingdon), Walter Brueggemann suggests a distinction between God's legal commands and judgments that "rely on speaking and listening," on the one hand, and God's glory disclosed as "pure dazzling light" inspiring holy awe, on the other (p. 953). Such an event is both rare and vital. Brueggemann describes it as "the awesome entry of heavenly, holy mystery into human experience" (p. 954). In Luke 9:28-36 the experience is theological in two ways. It reveals who Jesus is in relation to God and it reveals God's expectations for Jesus disciples then and now.

The Transfiguration offers Jesus vital affirmation and support from God after Jesus has predicted his suffering at Caesarea Philippi and before Jesus begins his journey to Jerusalem and suffering. The Synoptic Gospels each describe the Transfiguration in detail with God's confirmation of Jesus' mission of suffering central in each instance. The author of John, who presents Jesus as prescient and totally in control from beginning to end does not describe the Transfiguration as an actual event but more as a state of being in which God's glory always shines through Christ: "We have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14).

I quote Walter Brueggemann fully here, because his insights so beautifully compliment the themes Mel Gibson's film The Passion intends to convey yet can do so only explore partially due to the movie's limited emphasis upon the last twenty-four hours of Jesus' life:

This shift in focus in John also leads ultimately to the cross. The Fourth Gospel not only reassigns the glory of God to the person of Jesus, it also locates the glory of Jesus precisely in the cross (John 12:23). In the shame and shattering of crucifixion, Jesus' sovereign splendor is manifest. Here we are at the core claim of Christian faith, and we do well not to misunderstand. It is not urged that the cross is a step along the way to glory, as an instrumental achievement anticipating the resurrection. Rather, in the crucified one the glory of God is shattered and transposed, so that the vocation of suffering for others is made into the presence of God's power. (p. 955)

Luke's version of the Transfiguration clarifies Jesus' identity as Messiah and foreshadows Jesus' exaltation to heaven. Suffering itself is not an articulated subject of this divine-human encounter, yet its specter is present for Jesus. While the disciples do not want to connect this scary wonder with the powerlessness and sacrifice Jesus has mentioned to them at Caesarea Philippi. Years ago I created a cartoon for a church newsletter depicting Jesus, Peter, John, and James on the mountaintop with Jesus enveloped in a cloud, the words, "This is my Son, my Chosen. Listen to him!" outlined in bold. In smaller print I provided a bubble for each of the bubble-headed disciples. Peter's read, "I've got to cut out that after dinner wine!" John says, "Nobody asked me, but personally, I'd prefer a passionless Messiah!" James wonders, "Do you think Jesus would be interested in a tabernacle-building program?"

The Transfiguration of Jesus: A Prelude to the Passion

You've heard the story of the Transfiguration read just now. You've probably heard it before, though you may not remember it as well as Jesus' Passion and Resurrection or the beloved Christmas stories. In fact, due to the public brouhaha over Mel Gibson's movie The Passion, which will appear in theaters on Ash Wednesday, February 25, it's tempting to jump from the season of Epiphany directly into the events of Holy Week, just as we do each Sunday when we affirm The Apostle's Creed. Yet Jesus' ministry and our liturgical year remain a long way from the painful finale at Golgotha. For the Transfiguration of Jesus of Nazareth serves as an essential ingredient in understanding who Jesus really is.

So I'll ask again: What happened? Were you able to describe it? Could you visualize it just from the word "Transfiguration"? Did you remember who's present? Did you know why they were there? Having thought about it, having supplied some educated guesses in your bulletin, and having heard Luke's version just now: What happened? Was it a drunken hallucination by Jesus' disciples? Was it a magician's clever trick to fool his followers? Was it an act of God?

Exactly what happened? We don't know. We weren't there. We have to trust the testimony of the faith community, who recorded the event in three of the four Gospels. It is clear from the sober way the Transfiguration is described in Matthew, Mark, and Luke that the Gospel writers did not regard it as the result of a drunken evening or wizardry. No. They saw the Transfiguration as the divine confirmation of Jesus as the passionate Messiah.

Luke begins his account of the Transfiguration by identifying it as "about eight days later" -- later than what? Eight days after Peter's declaration at Caesarea Philippi that Jesus is the Christ.

"Who do the crowds say that I am?"
They answered, "John the Baptist; but others, Elijah; and still others, that one of the ancient prophets has arisen."
He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"
Peter answered, "The Messiah of God."

In response to Peter's correct identification of him as the Christ, Jesus describes his messiahship as a series of trials that will conclude with his death and resurrection. "The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised."

Jesus' words at Caesarea Philippi are the first in Luke concerning Jesus' Passion. Since his words seem contrary to the disciples' own dreams and ambitions, they must have wondered if they were hearing Jesus correctly.

"Hey Peter! Jesus didn't just say he had to suffer, did he? He didn't say he'd be rejected and killed, did he? He couldn't mean that! Not after all our hard work and his increasingly large constituency of followers!"

To fully appreciate the disciples' dilemma, let's consider their situation in our own context. (If you are a Republican, please insert "President Bush" for "Kerry"). Imagine if you will how you might feel if you had spent the past eighteen months of your life working for, canvassing for, beating the pavement for, and operating the phones for Senator John Kerry. Your candidate has made it past a rough and uncertain start against a seemingly invincible Howard Dean, to become the frontrunner in the Democratic race for the presidential nomination. Imagine that it's not February 2004 but July 2004 and your candidate has made it to the top of the heap. He is the nominee. He's overcome the challenges of Dick Gephardt, Joe Lieberman, Al Sharpton, Carol Moseley Braun, Wesley Clark, Howard Dean, and John Edwards.

You've left behind a family you love and a job you enjoy for countless fast food restaurants and a different hotel in a different town every night for eighteen months. You get to the last night of the Democratic Convention, the night when Senator Kerry will make his impassioned speech televised to the nation. Thanks to high unemployment, additional disasters in Iraq, and ongoing economic recession, Kerry's chances of defeating President Bush look very good. Then, two hours before he is to make his speech, Kerry calls an emergency meeting for his campaign staff.

He tells you, "I'm withdrawing my name. I have accomplished all that I desired."

And you are stunned. You shake your head hoping you have wax in your ears, then you along with so many others in the room you protest. "What?! Are you crazy!!!? After all we have been through to get here? You're on the threshold of greatness, and you want to throw it all away? You're insane. You could have it all!"

So thought the disciples. "Jesus, you can have it all. Don't mention suffering and death. That wasn't in our plan!"

But it is in God's plan. And with those fans and followers raising vocal objections to Jesus divine call, even a Messiah would require some confirmation that he's on the right track. So eight days after Peter's confession and Jesus' description of his coming Passion, Jesus and three of his disciples -- Peter, John, and James -- climb a mountain to pray.

Perhaps Jesus prayed that these men he so dearly loved wouldn't think he was crazy. "O God, who is more a fool? I or them?"

Perhaps Jesus prayed for disciples more biblical trained. "God, why couldn't you have given me men well-versed in the Isaiah Suffering Servant passages? Then they'd know what I am talking about."

Perhaps Jesus prayed for strength, for courage to keep heading towards Jerusalem. Perhaps he prayed for the strength to fulfill the will of God and continue to resist the desires of men and women.

We don't know the words Jesus prayed. We do know what happened next, which may offer us a clue to what Jesus prayed. The Transfiguration confirms Jesus' belief that God wants a passionate Messiah. It confirms Jesus as the Messiah for the disciples. It confirms Jesus as the Messiah for himself.

The Transfiguration confirms Jesus belief that God wants a passionate Messiah, a Messiah who will suffer.

"And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem" (vv. 29-31).

Talking with the giver of God's law and the greatest of the prophets, Jesus receives confirmation and validation that his call from God is more awful and more important than either of theirs. Ahead of Jesus lies the Last Supper, the agony in Gethsemane, the arrest, the beatings, the trials, his crucifixion, death, and burial.

The Transfiguration also confirms Jesus as the Messiah for the disciples. From reading this text we get the impression the disciples were observers rather than participants in Jesus' conversation with Moses and Elijah. "Now Peter and his companions were weighted down with sleep, but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, 'Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah' -- not knowing what he said" (vv. 32-33).

Peter can always be counted upon to speak his ignorance in our place. "Master! Let's stay up here. This is wonderful. You don't want to go back down to dusty old Galilee and all those people with their complaints and their aches and their arguments and their orthodoxy. Let's stay here!"

Such a spiritually safe life as Peter (and we) desire(s) is not to be had. On the heels of Peter's outburst: a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. Then form the cloud came a voice that said, "This is my Son, my Chosen, listen to him!"

The combination of the cloud and the voice must have been pretty scary for the disciples. Kind of a divine, "Shut up and listen to Jesus, you dolts. He is my Son. He knows what he is talking about!"

What if the voice had spoken the truth? Surely the disciples initial uneasiness only grew greater over the days that followed.

If Jesus is God's Son, God's chosen, then his teachings are the teachings of God. His healings are the healings of God. His disregard for senseless laws is God's disregard. Jesus messianic identity was genuine, and that rocky road to Jerusalem that Jesus had mentioned at Caesarea Philippi ... that also is true. This man they had followed had no intention of becoming a spiritual guru on a mountaintop or a victorious military and political leader.

Had the disciples been able to fully hear and grasp all they experience, they might have been able to stick to Jesus' side through all the horrors that are to come. Yet Peter, John, and James do not understand Jesus' role as a passionate Messiah until after his death and resurrection.

Jesus doesn't have the luxury of dawning understanding and insight. For Jesus the Transfiguration is an essential confirmation and validation of him and his mission. We Christians tend to adopt the Johannine view of Jesus as Messiah. In John's Gospel, Jesus knows exactly what is going to happen every step of the way. He is a man in command of every situation. He's never ruffled, never afraid, never unsure of himself. (Actually, he's a bit like Mel Gibson in his role as Robert Wallace in Braveheart or as The Patriot.)

Most biblical scholars believe Luke's Gospel was written 25-30 years before John's. We also know that Luke had Mark's Gospel available as a resource. Luke presents Jesus as a flesh and blood man. Jesus is one who recognizes what's to come, sure, but Jesus is human enough to dread what is coming and to need reassuring that he's not crazy. He really is God's Messiah. The voice from the cloud gives Jesus such confirmation. "This is my Son, my Chosen, listen to him!"

Jesus is God's passionate Messiah. But what does that mean to us today? Historically, we know Jesus was arrested, tried, convicted, beaten, mocked, crucified, and died a horrible death. What does it mean theologically? What kind of a God would call his chosen Son to such a violent and obscene end?

One of the best knowing understandings of Jesus' Passion is contained in one word: atonement. Jesus died to atone for our sins. He was sacrificed in our place. His death provided the bridge that unites us with God -- makes us "at one" with God. The idea that Jesus died because of our sins is hard to refute. The rejection of Jesus himself is a case in point. Obviously, we humans are too sinful and bullheaded to see or recognize the divine will incarnate in human form. But the idea that God is bloodthirsty and must have a scapegoat to be satisfied that our sins have been justly paid seems difficult to mesh with the God who forgave David's multiple sins, the God who sent prophet after prophet to urge God's people to repentance, the God who so loved the world that he sent his Son, and the God who loved this same Son so much that God did not leave Jesus comfortless when he prayed to God on a mountaintop. To understand Jesus' Passion solely as an act of payment cannot fully explain God's will or way.

What else does it mean to declare Jesus our passionate Messiah? Does it mean that with Jesus' death on the cross God eliminates evil and suffering from the world? We don't have to hark back to past events such as the Holocaust, Hiroshima, or 9/11 to know that's not true. Tragic situations and terrible suffering enter our homes daily through images on the evening news: war, famine, disease, hate, persecution, torture, etc. Jesus' Passion has not eliminated evil from the world. It raises its head with every racial slur, every grab for power, every murderous shot, or child abused.

In the Passion of Jesus of Nazareth, God doesn't exact punishment or eliminate evil. Instead, God engages it. The reality of life for Jesus, his disciples, and for us as we live in the world is not to deny the evil we see, but to engage it. In William Styron's novel Sophie's Choice, so beautifully presented on film by actors Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline, Sophie's great guilt and shame come from the fact that she has encountered much evil and never challenged it. Sophie's father advocated genocide for Jews, and Sophie said nothing. Her lover asked her aid in translating documents to publicize to the larger world Hitler's atrocities and she refused. Later Sophie is asked to steal a radio the use of which might save many people's lives, and she doesn't. Finally, Sophie is forced to make a choice no human being can make, saving one of her children while giving up the other to the gas chamber. Fear prevents Sophie from engaging evil: fear of her father, fear of arrest, fear for her life, fear for her children. Her lack of courage becomes a part of her tragedy.

God doesn't demand evil for evil. God doesn't eliminate evil from our world. God engages the pain and suffering of the world through the events of the Passion and through the ongoing events of history. The reality for Jesus, his disciples and us as we live in the world is not to deny the evil and suffering we encounter and not to endure needlessly, such as a spouse staying in a marriage with an abusive partner. We are not to anesthetize ourselves against the world's evil and suffering with promises of a better life in heaven, nor are we to soft-soap as God's will a tragedy by making it merely an educational experience or a blessing. We are called to expose human sin and evil in all its ugly manifestations: child abuse, racial bigotry, sexual molestation, murder, etc. We are called to challenge its justifications: pre-emptive strike, just war, nuclear arms, death penalty, sexism, segregation, etc. whenever possible.

That is what Jesus did. That is why Jesus' Passion was a certainty. Jesus dared to expose, challenge, and correct evil when he saw it. To engage evil and suffering is not always to come away victorious. Many have died trying. But we who proclaim Jesus Christ our Savior are saying that in Jesus' Passion, God engaged evil. Through Jesus' resurrection we are promised a hope beyond the cross or any other catastrophe humanity can devise.

Hope leads us back to the Transfiguration. For the Transfiguration sheds light on the hope beyond the pain and suffering. We know that life is not always fine and beautiful and acceptable for all on earth. But Christians are called to take what is hell and make it a heaven. Feed the hungry. House the homeless. Comfort the comfortless. Be a passionate Christian!


Team Comments

Carlos Wilton responds: Robert Frost has a famous poem, "The Mountain." At its heart is an ordinary conversation between two people that somehow manages to traffic in the profound. One says to the other,

It doesn't seem so much to climb a mountain

You've worked around the foot of all your life.

There's something sad about the farmer in the poem who says these words. He's spent his entire life staring up at the mountain, but never once ventured as far as the summit. All he knows about it -- and about a mysterious, beautiful spring near the top -- he's learned secondhand, from hearsay.

I wonder how it is for us when it comes to that most essential and enduring feature of our lives, our knowledge of God? Does all that we know of God depend on the hearsay of others -- or does it find its grounding in something we've experienced firsthand?

To adapt the title of Mel Gibson's film, where's the passion for us? By all accounts, he prides himself on having produced a film that portrays the earthy, gritty realities of the last week of Jesus' ministry in such a way that viewers feel they're actually there. (The viewers will have to decide for themselves if that claim is true.) Much of the buzz about the film in Christian circles has to do with its realism; even the pope is alleged to have said, after viewing it, "It is as it was." (The Vatican later denied the pontiff actually said those words.)

A common preacher's gambit, in preaching the Transfiguration texts, is to speak of "mountaintop experiences." If someone were to stop any of us on the street, and ask us what it's like to have a mountaintop experience, would we be able to share anything meaningful? Or would we be like the farmer in Frost's poem, who all his life suspected something very special was up there, but who never ventured to check it out?

It's a question Jesus' disciples Peter, James, and John would likely have had a hard time answering -- until that momentous day, that is, when they followed their master up the side of "a high mountain," huffing and puffing all the way to the summit. At the top, they saw something wholly unexpected: not the bubbling spring of Frost's poem, whose water seemed to run cool in summer and hot in winter, but Jesus "transfigured" before them. When it was all over, they knew that life, for them, would never be the same again.

Stan Purdum responds: In an interview CNN Headline News, the editor of Men's Journal was talking about an article in their March issue titled "The 25 Toughest Guys in America." Mel Gibson was in the top five for his perseverance in bringing out his Passion movie. Here is the blurb about the article from the Men's Journal website:

What makes a man tough? Is it brute physical strength? The ability to withstand pain? Or is it something more subtle: perseverance, focus, fearlessness? Whatever it is -- the physical, the mental, or some combination of both -- these 25 men have it, from Green Bay Packers QB Brett Favre to big-mountain snowboarder Jeremy Jones to explorer J. Michael Fay. Think you're tough? Check out these guys' stories and you might want to reconsider.

George Murphy responds: Naturally it is difficult to speak critically about a film we haven't seen yet. But in the case of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, a good deal of information has been released. And perhaps more important for the preacher is the possibility of using the general interest that has developed in the movie in order to connect in a quite natural -- indeed compelling -- way with the Gospel and the overall theme for this coming Sunday.

The traditional date for the Feast of the Transfiguration (still found, e.g., in the calendar of the Book of Common Prayer) is 6 August, a time when you're going to be lucky to have many people in church on a Sunday, let alone a weekday where the festival would usually fall. (It is though an eerie coincidence that this was the date of the bombing of Hiroshima. Two weeks before that, when the blaze of light from the first atomic bomb test filled the night sky, two lines from the transfiguration of Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita came to Robert Oppenheimer, the scientific head of the Manhattan Project and a student of Sanskrit: "If the radiance of a thousand suns should burst into the sky, it would be like the splendor of the Mighty One" and "I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.")

The reading of the Transfiguration Gospel on the Last Sunday after the Epiphany (and effectively the shift of the festival) originated in the Lutheran tradition and has now been widely accepted. It's a good idea. That is where the Transfiguration occurs in the Synoptic Gospels -- after the confession of Peter and the first prediction of the Passion, at the point when Jesus turns his face to Jerusalem. It is now what we focus on three days before Lent begins.

This might be seen as a brief respite -- almost a "vacation" -- for Jesus before having to get on with the grim business of suffering and dying. But Luke's account in particular blocks that possibility. He is the only one of the evangelists who gives any substance to Jesus conversation with Moses and Elijah, saying that they "were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem" (9:31). The word translated "departure" here, exodos, simply means "death" in 2 Peter 1:15. But here it is not just any death. The Greek word forces our attention to the Exodus, the rescue -- even the creation -- of Israel out of slavery, through the sea, into the promised land. It is the fundamental saving event of the Old Testament seen throughout the Christian tradition as the primary type of the death and resurrection of Christ. ("Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us.")

Luke's transfiguration account is thus not only a pointer to the Passion but an indication of its meaning: It will be the new exodus of the people of God. And the Transfiguration itself shows another aspect of that meaning. It is not only a human being who will hang on the cross, it is not just a great lawgiver like Moses or prophet like Elijah who will lead the new exodus, but one who here shines with the light of God -- what the Orthodox tradition calls "the uncreated light of Tabor." Mel Gibson is calling his controversial film The Passion of the Christ. He would have created even more controversy if he had borrowed the language of Ignatius of Antioch in his letter to the Roman congregation and called it "The Passion of My God" (The Ante-Nicene Fathers [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979], 1:76).

One way the preacher can make use of the upcoming Gibson film would be to say simply, "The Transfiguration story points toward the Passion of Christ. And when you see there the horrors of scourging and crucifixion, bear in mind that it is God who is willing to experience all of that for love of creation."

But what about the various criticisms of Gibson's effort? Even without having yet seen it, I think a few comments can be made legitimately.

Is it anti-Jewish in fixing blame for the crucifixion on the Jewish people? I don't think Gibson is trying to do that. He is simply presenting the Passion story following a harmony of the canonical Gospels. That doesn't mean that the question of anti-Jewish bias is to be ignored but that it has to be dealt with at the level of the biblical text itself. Among other things, Christians need to learn to take a more sophisticated approach to the Passion narratives and realize that the way they're told reflects the state of Christian-Jewish relations in the decades following Easter as well as the historical events surrounding the death of Jesus. It's been reported that Gibson has agreed to leave out one of the more controversial passages, the one in which the Jewish crowd says "His blood be on us and on our children" (Matthew 27:25).


But we should not go to the extreme of saying that Jews have no responsibility for the Passion at all. The Christian claim is that all of us, Gentile and Jew, are responsible. His blood is on all of us -- and that in a double sense. It is our sins that brought about his cross, and it is the shedding of his blood that saves us: "By his stripes we are healed." Mel Gibson himself is supposed to have a bit part in the film as a Roman soldier nailing one of Jesus' hands to the cross. (For the sake of historical accuracy I hope it's the wrist.) This seems to be a deliberate way of accepting his own share of responsibility for the death of Christ.

I mentioned the "harmony" of the Gospels used in many tellings of the Passion story. Biblical scholars will deplore this, and biblically literate people are aware of the dangers of such harmonization. The theological approaches of the four evangelists should not simply be homogenized. We should begin by hearing each of the four accounts separately, but I don't think that's the only legitimate way to hear the story. (Are the traditional "three hour" services in which the "seven last words" -- a mixture from the four Gospels -- to be forbidden?) What this points to is the need for greater biblical literacy, so that people will be aware of what's happening when the see or hear a harmonized account.

Some may ask if the Passion story should be presented in isolation from the rest of the Gospel accounts of Jesus life. In one sense of course, no. In fact, it should be seen as part of the whole biblical story. But the Passion is what the Gospels have been pointing to from the beginning. The Passion predictions that precede and follow the transfiguration indicate that, and in fact there are hints even earlier in the Gospels. Martin Kahler's description of the Gospel of Mark in particular as "a passion narrative with a long introduction" is accurate (Paul J. Achtemeier, Mark [Philadelphia: Fortress, 1975], p. 82).

And this is quite appropriate theologically. Luther made the claim that "the cross alone is our theology." He didn't mean that everything but the story of the crucifixion should be eliminated. But without it we have simply the story of a great teacher and miracle worker, not qualitatively different from the stories of Jesus' two conversation partners on the Mount of Transfiguration.

But does the film have to present the story in such a brutal and bloody way? Well, if it's going to be "The Passion of the Christ," yes. It was brutal and bloody, a deliberately painful and humiliating way to die. That was why the Romans used that form of execution for slaves and rebels -- to tell other slaves and potential rebels, "This is what happens if you mess with us." Proper homiletic reflection on this aspect of the Passion should involve more than simply saying "See how much poor Jesus suffered." It could also call attention to the political implications of the cross -- not only in the first century but today.


Related Illustrations
Submitted by Carlos Wilton

Russell Schweickart was an astronaut who flew the lunar module for the Apollo 9 mission. Like many of his fellow astronauts, he discovered that his life was changed by the experience of looking down at the Earth from outer space. Here's what he said about it:

"Up there you go around every hour and a half; time after time, after time, and you wake up in the morning over the mid-East, and over North Africa. You look out of your window as you're eating breakfast -- and there's the whole Mediterranean area, and Greece and Rome, and the Sinai and Israel. And you realize that what you're seeing in one glance was the whole history of [humanity] for centuries, the cradle of civilization. You go across the Atlantic Ocean, back across North Africa. You do it again and again. You identify with Houston, and then with Los Angeles, and Phoenix and New Orleans. The next thing you know, you are starting to identify with North Africa. You look forward to it. You anticipate it. And the whole process of what you identify with begins to shift.

When you go around it every hour and a half, you begin to recognize that your identity is with that whole thing. And that makes a very powerful change inside of you. As you look down you can't imagine how many borders and boundaries you cross -- again and again. And you can't even see them. Still, you know there are thousands of people fighting over some imaginary lines down there that you can't even see, and you wish you could say, 'Look at that! Look at that! What's important?' "

***

It's a simple law of physics that it takes two poles to make an electrical circuit. You can have all the positive energy you want, but if there's no negative connection, no ground, the current won't flow. In much the same way, it takes two individuals -- a believer and God -- to complete a spiritual "circuit." God's power is present in abundance, as it was on the Mount of Transfiguration, but if we don't present ourselves to connect with that power -- if we don't complete the circuit -- nothing happens.

***

Ann Smith, writing this week on the Ecunet computer bulletin board, shares these instances of transfiguring vision that she has known in her time:

"I started to reflect on the times I have been astounded at the greatness of God.... There are the obvious mountaintop experiences. But there are also others like:

"I was astounded at the greatness of God as I sat by the bedside of a woman dying of cancer. She gave me a glimpse of Heaven as she described her giving over of life and passing into the next life.

"I was astounded at the greatness of God when an elderly woman shared with me, 'Get out my brown shoes; I'm going dancing tonight.'

"I was astounded at the greatness of God when I walked out of the home in which I had been abused with only the clothes on my back, wondering what was going to happen next, and God already had it all worked out.

"I was astounded at the greatness of God when I saw a child whom the doctors said would never live past her first birthday running up to the altar last Sunday for a blessing."

***

The ancient Celtic Christians had an understanding of certain locations as "thin places." In the words of George MacLeod, founder of Scotland's Iona Community, "It is a thin place where only tissue paper separates the material from the spiritual." The Celts believed that there were certain places where heaven all but touched earth, where the boundary between this world and the next was gossamer-thin. Often these were high places - mountaintops -- or liminal, border places where land and sea came together -- coastal or island places. To walk upon a "thin place" very often means opening oneself to personal transformation.

***

Claude Monet, the French Impressionist painter, was famous for being an artisan of light. He had a way of first seeing, then capturing, light in his paintings that is virtually unrivaled in the history of art.

Monet has a famous series of paintings in which water lilies are the central feature. Countless museum-goers have walked by one or another of Monet's water-lily paintings, and given his work hardly a glance. Yet for those who linger, there is the possibility of glimpsing the living light Monet saw.

Hundreds -- if not thousands -- of people would have walked past that pond in Monet's paintings at one time or another, and all they saw, if they bothered to look, was a lily pond -- a pretty little pond, to be sure, but nothing necessarily out of the ordinary. How many people looked at that pond and saw what Claude Monet saw?

As one teacher of art has put it,

"... Monet treats every surface individually as its own colorful spot of light. He's not so concerned with painting a tree or a flower. What he's interested in is the light. When you look at the painting up close, it's a jumble of colored spots because that's the effect of the light as Monet saw it. And by focusing not on the objects but on the light reflected from them, he creates a work of great beauty and immense value."
-- Jeff Dugan, "Art to Heart," at http://www.arttoheartweb.com/benediction_Claude_Monet_Water_Lily_Pond.htm

***

A story from the Eastern contemplative tradition, quoted by Kathleen Norris in Dakota:

"Abbot Lot went to see Abbot Joseph and said: 'Father, according as I am able, I keep my little rule, and my little fast, my prayer, meditation and contemplative silence; and according as I am able I strive to cleanse my heart of bad thoughts; now what more should I do?'

"The elder rose up in reply and stretched out his hands to heaven, and his fingers became like lamps of fire. He said: 'Why not become all flame?' "

***

"You get the best effort from others not by lighting a fire beneath them but by building a fire within."
-- Bob Nelson, cited in Bits & Pieces


Worship Resources

OPENING

Music

Hymns

"Jesus Shall Reign." Words: Isaac Watts, 1719; music: John Hatton, 1793. Public domain. As found in UMH 157; Hymnal '82 544; LBOW 530; TPH 423; AAHH 289; TNNBH 10; TNCH 300; CH 95/

"All Praise to Thee, for Thou, O King Divine." Words: F. Bland Tucker, 1938; music: Ralph Vaughan Williams, 1906. Words (c) 1940, 1943, renewed 1971 The Church Pension Fund. As found in UMH 166; Hymnal '82 477.

"Christ, upon the Mountain Peak." Words: Brian Wren, 1962; music: Peter Cutts, 1962. (c) 1977 Hope Publishing Co. As found in UMH 260; Hymnal '82 129, 130.

"O Wondrous Sight! O Vision Fair." Words: Sarum Breviary, 1495 trans. John Mason Neale, 1851; music: William Knapp, 1738; harm. from Hymns Ancient and Modern, 1875. Public domain. As found in UMH 258; Hymnal '82 136, 137; LBOW 80; TPH 75; TNCH 184.

Songs

"Glorify Thy Name." Words and music: Donna Adkins. (c) 1976 Maranatha! Music. As found in CCB 8.

"We Will Glorify." Words: Richard Dewest; music: African American spiritual, harm. Carlton R. Young. Words (c) 1973 Church Pastoral Aid Society; harm (c) 1989 The United Methodist Publishing House. As found in CCB 20.

"He Is Exalted." Words: Twila Paris, Portuguese trans. anon.; music: Twila Paris, arr. Nylea L. Butler-Moore. (c) 1985 Straightway Music/Mountain Spring Music. As found in CCB 30.

CALL TO WORSHIP

Leader: God rules! Let the people tremble.

People: God sits enthroned upon the cherubim;

Leader: Let the people praise God's great and awesome Name!

People: Holy! Mighty Ruler! Lover of justice!

Leader: Extol God and worship;

People: For God is holy!

COLLECT / OPENING PRAYER

O God, who empties the Divine Self into servant and suffering: Grant us the grace to see that in our suffering for others your glory shines through all creation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

or

God, you are the one who knows true glory. You are the eternal one who is in all and above all. Yet you show your glory to us in offering yourself as our slave and our sacrifice. Grant that your Spirit may allow us to shine with your glory as we are willing to suffer so that others may live. Amen.

RESPONSE MUSIC

Hymns

"A Charge to Keep I Have." Words: Charles Wesley, 1762; music: Lowell Mason, 1832. Public domain. As found in UMH 413; AAHH 467, 468; TNNBH 436.

"Make Me a Captive, Lord." Words: George Matheson, 1890; music: George J. Elvey, 1868. Public domain. As found in UMH 421; TPH 378.

"Beneath the Cross of Jesus." Words: Elizabeth C. Clephane, 1872; music: Frederick C. Maker, 1881. Public domain. As found in UMH 297; Hymnal '82 498; LBOW 107; TPH 92; AAHH 247; TNNBH 106; TNCH 190; CH 197.

"Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross." Words: Fanny J. Crosby, 1869; music: William H. Doane, 1869. Public domain. As found in UMH 301; AAHH 252; TNNBH 103; TNCH 197; CH 587.

"Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone." Words: Thomas Shepherd and others, 1855; music: George N. Allen, 1844. Public domain. As found in UMH 424; AAHH 554; TNNBH 221.

"O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee." Words: Washington Gladden, 1879; music: H. Percy Smith, 1874. Public domain. As found in UMH 430; Hymnal '82 659, 660; LBOW 492; TPH 357; TNNBH 445; CH 602.

Songs

"Jesus, Jesu." Words: Tom Colvin; music: Ghana folks song; arr. Tom Colvin; harm. Charles H. Webb. Words and music (c) 1969; harm. (c) 1989 Hope Publishing Co. As found in CCB 66.

"We Are His Hands." Words: Mark Gersmehl; music: Mark Gersmehl; arr. J. Michael Bryan. (c) 1984, 1996 Bug and Bear Music. As found in CCB 85.

"Make Me a Servant." Words and music: Kelly Willard; (c) 1982 Willing Heart Music. As found in CCB 90.

PRAYERS OF CONFESSION / PARDON

Leader: Let us draw near to Jesus who came to save us and confess to him the condition of our lives.

People: Lord, we confess to you and before our sisters and brothers that we have not sought glory in service; we have not sought to be distinguished by our suffering for the sake of others. We have put our own wants and our own comfort before the needs of others. We have looked to you as the glorified, triumphant Christ and not as the glorified, suffering Christ. Restore us again to your glory and by the power of your Spirit send us out to redeem the world in your Name and Spirit. Amen.

Leader: Know that God in Christ is reconciling the world and desires to do that through you. Your sins are forgiven and you are empowered to be the Body of Christ in this world.

GENERAL PRAYERS, LITANIES, ETC.

We worship and adore you, God, as the very source and foundation of our being and the being of all the created order. Creation came into being because you spoke and in the word you entered into chaos and established order.

(The following paragraph is most suitable if a prayer of confession will not be used elsewhere.)

We have been more comfortable following Jesus in the triumphant entry into Jerusalem and in the glory of the resurrection. We have been very slow to follow him into the glory of his suffering for others. We amass things around us that we don't need while others do not have the very necessities of life. While others suffer abuse from individuals, groups, and governments, we sit comfortably in our homes and watch it on TV. Forgive us and lead us again to the cross, Jesus' and ours. By the power of your Spirit help us to live into the name of "disciple of Jesus."

We thank you that you have freely given yourself to us in creation, in our families and friends, in the Church and in Jesus Christ our Lord. Your blessings are beyond our wildest dreams. You have brought yourself into our existence and into our very beings.

(Other specific thanksgiving may be offered.)

In joyful recognition of your great self-giving love, we offer to you the cares of our hearts. We ask that as you embrace the pain of the world, use our hearts and love as part of that embrace. Give us the vision to see where we can be the physical presence of your love for those who suffer and grant that we may suffer with and for them so that your redemption may come to all creation.

(Other petitions may be offered.)

Grant that your Church may be true to the Spirit of our Lord for it is in his Name we pray, saying, "Our Father ..."

Hymnal & Songbook Abbreviations

UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
Hymnal '82: The Hymnal 1982, The Episcopal Church
LBOW: Lutheran Book of Worship
TPH: The Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
TNNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
TNCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
PMMCH3: Praise. Maranatha! Music Chorus Book, Expanded 3rd Edition


A Children's Sermon
by Wesley T. Runk
Luke 9:28-36

Text: They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. (v. 31)

Object: A briefcase that includes an appointment book or an electronic date book. Also some files marked important with some papers in the files

Good morning, boys and girls. Today is a very important day in church. It is called Transfiguration Sunday, and it reminds us of a day that was spectacular in the ministry of Jesus.

Jesus had taken three of his disciples, Peter, James, and John, with him on a mountain climb. When they reached the top they began to pray. And while Jesus was praying things began to happen. First, the face of Jesus changed and then his clothes became dazzling white. What do you think the word "dazzling" means? (let them answer) How do you think his face changed? (let them answer) "Dazzling white" means to me that Jesus was the brightest white anything could be. I think his face changed color to a brilliant white that looked almost like light. It was so bright and so white that Peter, James, and John could hardly look at him. Have you ever seen the sun reflect off of something like a car or a piece of metal and you could not look at it without it hurting your eyes? (let them answer)

Now it even became stranger. There were only the four men on the mountain, Jesus, Peter, James, and John. Then all of a sudden in this bright light there were two other men. They immediately recognized them even though they had never seen them before and they began to talk with Jesus. These men had lived more than a thousand years ago. One was Moses and the other was Elijah. They were talking to Jesus about a plan. The plan was something that Moses, Elijah, and Jesus agreed upon. It had to do with Jerusalem and the death of Jesus.

I have never been anywhere where something like this happened. I carry around with me this thing. Do you know what we call this thing? (let them answer) That's right, it is a brief case. What do you think is in a brief case? (let them answer) You are right, again. I have some of my most important papers and I always keep my appointment book. This book is kind of my plan for life. I look in it and I see when I am supposed to be somewhere and what time I am supposed to be there. Sometimes I write down the names of people that I am going to meet and a few words about what we are going to talk about. I also write down the names of people's birthdays or special days. It is a very important book to me. It is my plan for life.

Jesus and Moses and Elijah were there that day on the top of a mountain and they were talking about the plan for Jesus' life. In the plan there was mention of Jerusalem and the cross that Jesus would bear for our sins. They all agreed it would be painful but necessary for God's plan to give his love to us and forgive us all of our sins. It wasn't going to be a pretty sight but one that everyone would always remember.

The next time you see me carrying my brief case or you see someone else carrying a brief case you can be sure that inside of it is an important plan for living. But none of our plans are ever going to be as important as the plan that Jesus, Moses, and Elijah discussed that Transfiguration Day in the presence of Peter, James, and John. That plan was made for you and for me and for everyone who lived and lives on earth. Amen.
.

* * * * *

The Immediate Word, February 22, 2004, issue.

Copyright 2004 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.

All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503