Where Have All The Visible Miracles Gone?
Sermon
PREPARATION AND MANIFESTATION
Sermons For Lent And Easter
Today we celebrate the miracle of transfiguration. It is a great story - a great way to continue our Lenten discipline of preparing for the Easter season. Jesus takes three of his disciples up on a mountain with him, and before their very eyes he is swallowed up by the glory of God's great might. In the presence of such glory, his clothes turn white as light and his face shines like the sun. Then Moses and Elijah, two men of God who had been dead for more than 1,000 and more than 800 years respectively, appeared before Jesus and his disciples, and they started talking with him. By now the disciples were really uneasy, scared. They had never seen anything like this. Then to top it off a voice from heaven could be heard: "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him (Matthew 17:5)."
Yes, it is a great story. Yet we have here a text that presents itself as a most difficult pericope on which to prepare a sermon/homily. To be sure, the miracle of the transfiguration reveals to us God's great power. Who else could do these great and mighty things but God? Indeed the power and glory of God are greater than we can even imagine. What great miracles he is able to do!
Questions like these are being posed to us Roman Catholics as well as to many mainline Protestant denominations by the charismatic movement. Basically charismatics say that the rest of us Christians have been so modernized and sophisticated that we are a bit embarrassed by the Bible and the tradition. It is time to return to these sources of our faith!
If you are serious about a revival of passion for the sources of our faith, then you cannot help but notice that, in scripture as well as in the subsequent tradition of the church, God was always doing great natural, visible miracles. Christians inspired by the Holy Spirit spoke "in tongues." God revealed his majesty and spoke from heaven, like in the transfiguration. Those things happened in the past; they were performed by God; why not now? And if you say that miracles do not happen today, that God does not often do them anymore, are you not denying God? These are the questions posed to us and our Protestant friends by the charismatics.
Perhaps you have never been exposed to charismatics and had these questions directly addressed to you. Yet have you ever wondered why great natural miracles like the transfiguration are not more often happening today among Catholics? Have you ever wondered why more parishes in our diocese do not have healing services today the way that Jesus and the disciples used to do it? Ever wondered?
I used to raise these questions. Ever since childhood I used to wonder why God did not perform a host of natural miracles like he once did. I asked and asked until one day I got the courage to ask one of the great unsung Christian theologians of our day - a Scandinavian layman by the name of Emil Ellingsen. (Note: Priest may substitute his own father's name and nationality.) "Dad," I said. (I always called him "Dad.") "Dad, how come God does not do any miracles anymore?" The great theologian took his time with the question, looked at me very intently - as is his custom. He looked at me, and then in his slight Brooklyn accent, he said, "Because God knows we don't need 'em so much anymore, Mark."
We do not need them anymore. That answer has stayed with me, and I have especially kept it in mind during the last few years, not so much because it was an answer given to a seven-year-old child by a father whom the child very much did and still respects. That is a good reason to remember my father's answer, but it is not a sufficient justification for using it in a sermon/homily. There is a better reason for sharing my father's response with you. It is worth sharing, because, when he told me that God does not do many natural miracles anymore because we do not need them, he was taking the Bible more seriously than I think he even realized. I say that because hidden in the story of the transfiguration and in the accounts of some of the other great miracles of the Bible is the answer to our question of how come we do not need so many miracles anymore.
If we are going to discern the hidden answer, to which I have referred, in the account of the transfiguration, I need to give you a little background on what was going on in Jesus' life before it happened. According to the Gospel of Matthew, just six days before the transfiguration happened (Mark agrees, though Luke claims it was about eight days), Jesus' apostle, Peter, had been the very first person ever to proclaim Jesus as the Son of God, the Messiah. Of course, plenty of people had seen the great things that Jesus had been doing; they were aware that he was a very special gentleman. Yet until the day that Peter confessed to Jesus, "Yes, You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God (Matthew 16:16)," no one else had had the courage to say about the man Jesus that he was a God. On that fateful day somebody knew who Jesus really was.
Immediately after our beloved Peter confessed his faith in Jesus, something strange happened. Jesus made the first prediction he ever made that he would have to go to Jerusalem and die on the cross. Peter listened, and then he shouted out, "God forbid Lord! This shall never happen to you (Matthew 16:22)." Of course, Jesus got a little upset with that kind of insubordination, even if it came from the first among his apostles (see Matthew 16:18-19).
Of course, it was only natural that Peter got upset. He had just put himself on the line, stuck his neck out, by saying in front of everybody that he believed that Jesus was the Son of God. And then in the next breath Jesus says that he is going to have to die. But how could the Son of God die? Why it was as good as Jesus saying that he was not the Son of God. Who could possibly believe that Jesus was the Son of God if he had to die?
This was also a problem that Jesus and God the Father were encountering. People were just beginning to believe that Jesus was the Son of God, but it was a very fragile faith - one that could easily be shaken. Perhaps when Jesus was crucified on the cross, everyone would come to doubt his claims to such an extent, believe so firmly that it was all a hoax, that they would never hear the message of the resurrection - the real proof that Jesus was the Son of God.
Of course, the resurrection would prove to everyone that Jesus really was God's Son. However, at this point in Jesus' life, the resurrection is still several years off in the future. Consequently God faced the problem of what to do until then. To keep faith in Jesus alive he showed the disciples just how special, how extraordinary, Jesus is. He showed them by means of the miracle of the transfiguration. The miracle, then, was God's way of preparing the faithful in Jesus' time for Easter.
According to Matthew (and also according to Luke) when Jesus was transfigured, his face and clothes shone so brightly, became so white and so pure, that it almost seemed like he was a different person. It was as if he had risen from the dead. Of course, that was the whole idea behind the miracle of the transfiguration. It was intended to be a pointer to the resurrection, to Easter. And because it is a pointer to the resurrection, the miracle of transfiguration also testifies to the divine Sonship of Jesus.
There is a more general lesson for us in the miracle of the transfiguration; it is a lesson concerning how to understand all the other great miracles of Jesus (and the more modern, post-biblical ones performed by God). Just like the transfiguration, these other miracles have been performed for the same purpose - to point to the resurrection, to show that Jesus is the Son of God.
Of course, these miracles are only pointers to the resurrection. That is why we do not need them quite so urgently or in quantity any longer. Jesus and God do not want us to get too preoccupied with them. That is quite evident from all the gospels, and especially from today's text.
Immediately after the transfiguration occurred, Jesus told his disciples that under no circumstances were they to tell anyone what had happened that day until he rose from the dead (Matthew 17:9). This theme of secrecy, keeping the story of great miracles secret until the resurrection, crops up again and again in the New Testament. Jesus would perform a miracle, he might heal someone, and then he would tell everyone to keep it quiet until the resurrection.
Why did our Lord urge such secrecy? Jesus did not want people to believe in him because of those miracles. He does not want to be known as a healer, but rather as the Son of God - the man who rose from the dead. The only reason for the other miracles was to keep faith alive among his followers, to point them to the resurrection.
It is now quite evident why we do not need any more transfigurations, why we do not require many visible miracles today. Why not? We are not in dire need of them because the greatest miracle, the one to which they all point (the miracle of Easter), has already happened. We have received all that we need in order to believe. We do not need any more.
The miracle of the transfiguration is a self-negating biblical account. We need not devote too much attention to it or to other miracles. We must avoid teaching or thinking about Jesus as a miracle worker. For the miracles are mere pointers - pointers to the miracle of God's love revealed in the resurrection.
Miracles like the ones reported in scripture still happen, less frequently and usually less visibly. Some still do happen: The miracles performed by and in the name of our modern day saints; the miracle of life, of a newborn baby; the miracle of the bread and wine becoming our Lord's body and blood; the miracle that God can use ordinary people like us to serve in his church. In these cases as well, we need to interpret such events in light of Easter. In reminding us of the new life given by Christ, these natural miracles are only truly miraculous when they serve to prepare us for that new life in Christ, to make us yearn for it. Just like the miracle of the transfiguration, these modern miracles are mere pointers to the greatest miracle - the miracle that God loves us.
Yes, it is a great story. Yet we have here a text that presents itself as a most difficult pericope on which to prepare a sermon/homily. To be sure, the miracle of the transfiguration reveals to us God's great power. Who else could do these great and mighty things but God? Indeed the power and glory of God are greater than we can even imagine. What great miracles he is able to do!
Questions like these are being posed to us Roman Catholics as well as to many mainline Protestant denominations by the charismatic movement. Basically charismatics say that the rest of us Christians have been so modernized and sophisticated that we are a bit embarrassed by the Bible and the tradition. It is time to return to these sources of our faith!
If you are serious about a revival of passion for the sources of our faith, then you cannot help but notice that, in scripture as well as in the subsequent tradition of the church, God was always doing great natural, visible miracles. Christians inspired by the Holy Spirit spoke "in tongues." God revealed his majesty and spoke from heaven, like in the transfiguration. Those things happened in the past; they were performed by God; why not now? And if you say that miracles do not happen today, that God does not often do them anymore, are you not denying God? These are the questions posed to us and our Protestant friends by the charismatics.
Perhaps you have never been exposed to charismatics and had these questions directly addressed to you. Yet have you ever wondered why great natural miracles like the transfiguration are not more often happening today among Catholics? Have you ever wondered why more parishes in our diocese do not have healing services today the way that Jesus and the disciples used to do it? Ever wondered?
I used to raise these questions. Ever since childhood I used to wonder why God did not perform a host of natural miracles like he once did. I asked and asked until one day I got the courage to ask one of the great unsung Christian theologians of our day - a Scandinavian layman by the name of Emil Ellingsen. (Note: Priest may substitute his own father's name and nationality.) "Dad," I said. (I always called him "Dad.") "Dad, how come God does not do any miracles anymore?" The great theologian took his time with the question, looked at me very intently - as is his custom. He looked at me, and then in his slight Brooklyn accent, he said, "Because God knows we don't need 'em so much anymore, Mark."
We do not need them anymore. That answer has stayed with me, and I have especially kept it in mind during the last few years, not so much because it was an answer given to a seven-year-old child by a father whom the child very much did and still respects. That is a good reason to remember my father's answer, but it is not a sufficient justification for using it in a sermon/homily. There is a better reason for sharing my father's response with you. It is worth sharing, because, when he told me that God does not do many natural miracles anymore because we do not need them, he was taking the Bible more seriously than I think he even realized. I say that because hidden in the story of the transfiguration and in the accounts of some of the other great miracles of the Bible is the answer to our question of how come we do not need so many miracles anymore.
If we are going to discern the hidden answer, to which I have referred, in the account of the transfiguration, I need to give you a little background on what was going on in Jesus' life before it happened. According to the Gospel of Matthew, just six days before the transfiguration happened (Mark agrees, though Luke claims it was about eight days), Jesus' apostle, Peter, had been the very first person ever to proclaim Jesus as the Son of God, the Messiah. Of course, plenty of people had seen the great things that Jesus had been doing; they were aware that he was a very special gentleman. Yet until the day that Peter confessed to Jesus, "Yes, You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God (Matthew 16:16)," no one else had had the courage to say about the man Jesus that he was a God. On that fateful day somebody knew who Jesus really was.
Immediately after our beloved Peter confessed his faith in Jesus, something strange happened. Jesus made the first prediction he ever made that he would have to go to Jerusalem and die on the cross. Peter listened, and then he shouted out, "God forbid Lord! This shall never happen to you (Matthew 16:22)." Of course, Jesus got a little upset with that kind of insubordination, even if it came from the first among his apostles (see Matthew 16:18-19).
Of course, it was only natural that Peter got upset. He had just put himself on the line, stuck his neck out, by saying in front of everybody that he believed that Jesus was the Son of God. And then in the next breath Jesus says that he is going to have to die. But how could the Son of God die? Why it was as good as Jesus saying that he was not the Son of God. Who could possibly believe that Jesus was the Son of God if he had to die?
This was also a problem that Jesus and God the Father were encountering. People were just beginning to believe that Jesus was the Son of God, but it was a very fragile faith - one that could easily be shaken. Perhaps when Jesus was crucified on the cross, everyone would come to doubt his claims to such an extent, believe so firmly that it was all a hoax, that they would never hear the message of the resurrection - the real proof that Jesus was the Son of God.
Of course, the resurrection would prove to everyone that Jesus really was God's Son. However, at this point in Jesus' life, the resurrection is still several years off in the future. Consequently God faced the problem of what to do until then. To keep faith in Jesus alive he showed the disciples just how special, how extraordinary, Jesus is. He showed them by means of the miracle of the transfiguration. The miracle, then, was God's way of preparing the faithful in Jesus' time for Easter.
According to Matthew (and also according to Luke) when Jesus was transfigured, his face and clothes shone so brightly, became so white and so pure, that it almost seemed like he was a different person. It was as if he had risen from the dead. Of course, that was the whole idea behind the miracle of the transfiguration. It was intended to be a pointer to the resurrection, to Easter. And because it is a pointer to the resurrection, the miracle of transfiguration also testifies to the divine Sonship of Jesus.
There is a more general lesson for us in the miracle of the transfiguration; it is a lesson concerning how to understand all the other great miracles of Jesus (and the more modern, post-biblical ones performed by God). Just like the transfiguration, these other miracles have been performed for the same purpose - to point to the resurrection, to show that Jesus is the Son of God.
Of course, these miracles are only pointers to the resurrection. That is why we do not need them quite so urgently or in quantity any longer. Jesus and God do not want us to get too preoccupied with them. That is quite evident from all the gospels, and especially from today's text.
Immediately after the transfiguration occurred, Jesus told his disciples that under no circumstances were they to tell anyone what had happened that day until he rose from the dead (Matthew 17:9). This theme of secrecy, keeping the story of great miracles secret until the resurrection, crops up again and again in the New Testament. Jesus would perform a miracle, he might heal someone, and then he would tell everyone to keep it quiet until the resurrection.
Why did our Lord urge such secrecy? Jesus did not want people to believe in him because of those miracles. He does not want to be known as a healer, but rather as the Son of God - the man who rose from the dead. The only reason for the other miracles was to keep faith alive among his followers, to point them to the resurrection.
It is now quite evident why we do not need any more transfigurations, why we do not require many visible miracles today. Why not? We are not in dire need of them because the greatest miracle, the one to which they all point (the miracle of Easter), has already happened. We have received all that we need in order to believe. We do not need any more.
The miracle of the transfiguration is a self-negating biblical account. We need not devote too much attention to it or to other miracles. We must avoid teaching or thinking about Jesus as a miracle worker. For the miracles are mere pointers - pointers to the miracle of God's love revealed in the resurrection.
Miracles like the ones reported in scripture still happen, less frequently and usually less visibly. Some still do happen: The miracles performed by and in the name of our modern day saints; the miracle of life, of a newborn baby; the miracle of the bread and wine becoming our Lord's body and blood; the miracle that God can use ordinary people like us to serve in his church. In these cases as well, we need to interpret such events in light of Easter. In reminding us of the new life given by Christ, these natural miracles are only truly miraculous when they serve to prepare us for that new life in Christ, to make us yearn for it. Just like the miracle of the transfiguration, these modern miracles are mere pointers to the greatest miracle - the miracle that God loves us.
