Lifting the Veil
Exodus 34:9-35, Luke 9:28-36
In the Spiderman comics, we meet Peter Parker, a rather ordinary, nice guy who is accidentally given super powers in which he has some attributes of a spider, and thus becomes Spiderman. He remains Peter Parker, student, friend, lover, but he is also Spiderman and can decide to use those powers whenever he desires or the need calls.
It may seem trite to compare Jesus to Spiderman, but this passage from Luke shows us a side of Jesus that has been hinted at but not fully revealed until now. We've seen the some manifestation of the divine part of Jesus as he has healed people and spoken with authority and fed thousands. But here on the mountain with Peter, James and John, Jesus' divinity is fully experienced by them and it fills them with wonder and ecstacy, so much so that Peter doesn't want to come down. Jesus is still Jesus, fully human, but now they can see more clearly than ever that Jesus is also God, fully divine.
In both the Luke reading and the story in Exodus where Moses returns from being in the presence of God with the tablets of the 10 commandments bearing enough hints of glory in his face to be seen by the people, the experience of God's glory is frightening. The people in the wilderness ask Moses to put a veil over his face because they can't bear the "shine" leftover from the presence of God.
(footnote: an early mistranslation in the Vulgate or Latin Bible of that Hebrew word for "shine" was "horns," so that readers thought Moses came down the mountain having sprouted horns. Thus the representation of Moses in some famous statues with horns -- see Michaelangelo--is a result of this mistranslation)
In the Luke, Peter, James and John are dazzled, but still engaged enough to talk (at least Peter is) until the cloud of God's presence (often in the Bible God's presence is described as a cloud. Curious) overshadows them and they hear the actual voice of God. Then they are "terrified." The whole experience left them so awestruck that, at least according to Luke, they couldn't even talk about it, at least until after the resurrection (hey, somebody talked to Luke!).
As at Jesus' baptism, where the voice of God says almost the same thing, the deeper, hidden identity of Jesus is revealed, and the response (as the response to the God-spangled Moses had been) is fear. Like Adam and Eve in the garden after they had eaten that apple, we tend to fear the unfiltered presence of God rather than welcoming it. Why? What do you think?
In the Spiderman comics, we meet Peter Parker, a rather ordinary, nice guy who is accidentally given super powers in which he has some attributes of a spider, and thus becomes Spiderman. He remains Peter Parker, student, friend, lover, but he is also Spiderman and can decide to use those powers whenever he desires or the need calls.
It may seem trite to compare Jesus to Spiderman, but this passage from Luke shows us a side of Jesus that has been hinted at but not fully revealed until now. We've seen the some manifestation of the divine part of Jesus as he has healed people and spoken with authority and fed thousands. But here on the mountain with Peter, James and John, Jesus' divinity is fully experienced by them and it fills them with wonder and ecstacy, so much so that Peter doesn't want to come down. Jesus is still Jesus, fully human, but now they can see more clearly than ever that Jesus is also God, fully divine.
In both the Luke reading and the story in Exodus where Moses returns from being in the presence of God with the tablets of the 10 commandments bearing enough hints of glory in his face to be seen by the people, the experience of God's glory is frightening. The people in the wilderness ask Moses to put a veil over his face because they can't bear the "shine" leftover from the presence of God.
(footnote: an early mistranslation in the Vulgate or Latin Bible of that Hebrew word for "shine" was "horns," so that readers thought Moses came down the mountain having sprouted horns. Thus the representation of Moses in some famous statues with horns -- see Michaelangelo--is a result of this mistranslation)
In the Luke, Peter, James and John are dazzled, but still engaged enough to talk (at least Peter is) until the cloud of God's presence (often in the Bible God's presence is described as a cloud. Curious) overshadows them and they hear the actual voice of God. Then they are "terrified." The whole experience left them so awestruck that, at least according to Luke, they couldn't even talk about it, at least until after the resurrection (hey, somebody talked to Luke!).
As at Jesus' baptism, where the voice of God says almost the same thing, the deeper, hidden identity of Jesus is revealed, and the response (as the response to the God-spangled Moses had been) is fear. Like Adam and Eve in the garden after they had eaten that apple, we tend to fear the unfiltered presence of God rather than welcoming it. Why? What do you think?
Labels: Transfiguration
posted by shelly @ 2:41 PM
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