When Our Eyes Deceive Us

While Our eyes have very practical uses (like walking in a room without stubbing our toes) they can sometimes deceive us about the ultimate nature of reality. For example, solid materials are mostly made of empty space on an atomic level. In a similar fashion, our eyes can lead us to faulty assumptions about Jesus. On the surface, he looks poor and unimpressive. But on another level, Jesus is anything but.

The story we’re going to look at here, Jesus has just confirmed that he’s the Jewish Messiah to his disciples. Then he has begun to explain that being the Messiah means he will be rejected, killed and raised from the dead. His disciples don’t know what to make of these predictions. Immediately following this is the story of the transfiguration, where Jesus shows his inner circle of disciples–Peter, James and John–his true, divine nature. 

After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.

Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.)

Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”

Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus. (Matthew 9:2-8, NIV)

What is the point of this story? It shows that there’s more to Jesus than meets the eye. Seeing Jesus with heaven’s eyes helps the disciples to interpret Jesus, his relationship to the Old Testament Scriptures, and their Christian vocation properly.

Corrective Lenses

My vision was very good right up until my early forties, when I had to start wearing glasses. Glasses help me see the world more accurately. In the same way, looking at reality through the lenses of the transfiguration helps us interpret reality more clearly in three areas I’m going to lay out.

Interpreting Jesus’ Suffering Death

Crucifixion was a brutal and shameful method of execution. It was the Roman Empire’s way of putting rebellious people (especially slaves) in their proper place. So Jesus’ death makes him look like one more helpless victim of the Roman war machine. But if Peter, James, and John consider Jesus in light of the transfiguration, that changes things. The disciples see Jesus’ divine nature. He’s more than just a man. They also hear a voice from the cloud (an image that is meant to remind us of God’s voice speaking from the cloud on Mt. Sinai during the Exodus story) says to listen to Jesus. In other words, when Jesus talks about his death and resurrection the disciples should listen to Jesus. That Jesus’ disciples didn’t figure it out before Jesus’ resurrection is not because God didn’t give them the tools to do so. The transfiguration ought to save Peter, James, and John from despair after Jesus’ death.

Interpreting Jesus’ relationship to the Hebrew Scriptures

In Jesus’ day many Jews believed God’s blessing was withheld because Jews weren’t rigorous enough in keeping the letter of the law. Such people might look at Jesus and see his way of law-keeping as lax (For example, Jesus isn’t enthusiastic about stoning adulterers). But the transfiguration helps us understand how while Jesus perfectly embodies the spirit of the law, he isn’t bound to obey its letter because he has authority over the law.

Moses and Elijah, who appear during this incident, are representatives of the law and the prophets (Moses is the law giver, and Elijah is the permanent prophet). The law and the prophets is a shorthand among Jews for the Hebrew Scriptures (our Old Testament). Moses and Elijah had both previously encountered God on a mountain before.

Moses had encountered God during the Exodus experience:

And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.” (Exodus 33:18-20, NIV)

The story goes on to say how God put Moses in the cleft of a rock and Moses saw his back, but not his face.

Elijah encountered God on Mt. Sinai while he was on the run from the wicked Israelite queen Jezebel. As he hides in a cave, God comes to him:

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 1 Kg 19:11-13 (NIV)

Notice how both Moses and Elijah encountered God on the mountain, but both of them saw him unclearly (Moses sees his back, and Elijah covers his face). The point of all of this is that what they saw unclearly (God) Jesus reveals perfectly. Therefore Jesus’ revelation takes precedence over theirs, and his example of holiness is actually more faithful than the vision of holiness people would get from reading the Hebrew Scriptures.

So as Christians, we honour the Old Testament as something pointing to Jesus, but we also realize that when it diverges from the example or commands of Jesus, Jesus takes precedence. Some examples. In the Old Testament there is an apparent connection between wealth and blessing and poverty and curses. As a result many Jews saw wealth as a sign of God’s blessing and poverty as a sign of curses. But Jesus is the beloved son and he is poor and suffers great affliction. Another example is how in the Old Testament, God sometimes orders violence (like the Israelites exterminating the Canaanites during the conquest of the Promised Land) but Jesus tells us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. Some Christians try to justify war and violence by appealing to the Old Testament, but Jesus, understood in light of this episode, does not give us that option. That is why we teach non-violence. Jesus is God’s ultimate self-disclosure. When we look at him we see clearly what the writers of the Old Testament saw imperfectly.

Interpreting Christian Vocation

In Jesus, the disciples see the perfect marriage of humble service and suffering love on one hand and glory on the other. Their rabbi isn’t wealthy or highly regarded by the seemingly important people. He is also the victim of violence. But this must be held together with the revelation that this humble man is also a resplendently glorious divine being. If Jesus can be both humble and glorious, then when we imitate his humility, we also share in his glory. Jesus is glorious because he is humble.

When we are invited to do humble, seemingly unimportant things, how do we respond? Do we think it should be done by someone else (someone less important than us)? Do we complain to God that since we only have one life to live, we should spend it doing important things? Things that seem less important are very important if they are done in obedience to God’s calling.

An example of this is the life of Albert Schweitzer. Schweitzer was a celebrated philosopher, theologian and musical scholar who was also a Lutheran minister and a world-class organist. In his early 30’s he gave all that up, went to medical school and became a medical missionary, setting up a hospital in a repurposed chicken coop in French West Africa. He worked there for much of the remainder of his life, and he died there at the age of 90. His life may seem a waste to people who feel he never realized his potential as an academic. But if his life of service was an act of obedience to Jesus, then it was truly glorious as Jesus is Glorious.

We must remember that Heaven sees glory differently than we do. Our natural eyes can no more perceive Jesus’ true nature than they can discern the fundamental nature of matter on an atomic scale. So can we see Jesus with heaven’s eyes? Can we perceive the glory of a humble, obedient life?