Jesus is Dazzling! By Cheri Holdridge (with an assist by Kurt Young)

    Have you ever seen anything you would describe as magical? I mean something that you simply cannot explain? I have seen a shooting star. I can’t explain that, but I know there are scientists who can explain a shooting star.

    I have seen some amazing magic shows. I am baffled by how the magician does the tricks. But I know they are tricks. If you know the magician, they can tell you the secrets behind the tricks.

    When I stand by the ocean I am filled with awe. It is almost magical.  I can’t comprehend how God created such beauty. But I suppose an oceanographer can explain most of the beauty of an ocean in scientific terms.

    But there is one thing that no one can fully explain – that is the deity of Jesus. How can Jesus be, on the one hand fully human, and on the other hand fully God? That is a mystery that we human beings really are not able to wrap our minds around.

    Today is the day in the church year that we call Transfiguration Sunday. On that first transfiguration day, three of the disciples caught a glimpse of what it meant for Jesus to be fully human and fully divine, completely holy and completely us, and they found him to be dazzling. They said that his robes were so white, that no one on earth could bleach them to be that white. They sparkled brighter than bright. Jesus was simply dazzling with glory. In that moment, they knew that he was making a connection to God, and that Jesus WAS himself fully God.

    As the scripture tells us (Mark 9:2-9 from the Message paraphrase if you’re following along from afar), Peter and James and John went with Jesus, up a high mountain and Jesus was transfigured before them. He was changed. There is really nothing in history to compare to this event. Then two figures of the Old Testament, Elijah and Moses appeared. They were talking with Jesus. They represented the law and the prophets. 

    Peter is so awestruck. He does not know what to do. So he offers to do something that Jewish people often do when something holy has happened, build a booth as a place of worship and honor for the event. He is so caught up in doing this that he comes oh so close to missing an even more break-taking event.

    God speaks - “A cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!’”  Wow! What would it be like to hear the audible voice of God from the heavens?

    David Lose writes this of the event: “I wonder how often we …. desperately want an encounter with God – some sense that we are not alone, that there is something More than what we can see and touch – and yet in those very moments that God draws near we find ourselves afraid, unsure, and feeling suddenly very out of control” (source: http://www.davidlose.net/2015/02/transfiguration-b/#comment-155602).

    What do you think? We want a mysterious and awe-inspiring encounter with the holy, but such a thing frightens us. So we back off. We convince ourselves it can’t really be true. We explain it away with science, or magic.

    And yet here we have this story. The disciples encountered Jesus, the holy of holies. They encountered something they could not explain: Jesus was not only a human being but he was God – fully divine. The disciples saw him in the fullness of his glory. The only way they could describe him was dazzling.

    God confirmed this was the Son, the beloved, with whom God is well pleased.
Jesus told them not to tell anyone what they had seen until after he had risen from the dead. We don’t know why he said it. Perhaps he knew others would not believe. The story was just too outlandish. But he knew that the resurrection would be so compelling that they would have to believe.

    So we have two amazing, magical stories: the transfiguration AND the resurrection. Both show us that there was something unique and God-like about Jesus.    

    So I wonder, can we allow ourselves to be awestruck like Peter, James and John? Can we decide not to worry about whether or not we can prove the transfiguration, or make sense of it? Some things are not meant to be explained, only believed. There was a day, before his death and resurrection that Jesus went up on a mountain and was so filled with his holiness that he was physically dazzling.  He was amazing, more than we can imagine.  And Peter, James, and John KNEW he was the Son of God. God spoke that truth: “This is my Son the beloved.”    

    So what difference does this story make to us? Some people say that Jesus was a great teacher, the best perhaps, but he was still just a human being. If we choose to believe this story, then we decide to believe that Jesus was more than the greatest human teacher. We believe he was God in the flesh. Jesus was THE ONE who was both fully human and fully divine.

    He knew what it was to be human, with our faults, our desires and our imperfections. AND he knew what it was to be God, with the fullness of love, the ability to forgive everything, and with the perfection that we can never fully comprehend. He was both perfect, and imperfect. Yes that is hard to wrap our minds around isn’t it. But that is the point.

    This is why the disciples were awestruck, because up on that mountain, they saw the fullness of God, with human flesh, Jesus. No one had ever seen the fullness of God before.  

    We get glimpses of God now, reflected in followers of Jesus. But they saw the fullness of God’s light and love. It’s a wonder they were not struck blind by God’s glory.

    But they went on to tell the story. Even though Jesus told them not to tell about this until after he had risen from the dead, they did eventually tell the story, because we have it recorded in scripture. They told the story of the day they saw Jesus transfigured into the fullness of God, with dazzling brightness, and they were awe-struck.

    This is the Jesus that we live our lives for. Jesus is one of a kind, the way, the truth and the life. I can’t really explain how he could be both fully human and fully God, but I trust that he is the one. And I invite you to put your trust in him. We need Jesus. We need a Saviour and Jesus is the one.