Transfiguration Sunday – True Colours
Readings: Mark 9. 2-9
Have you ever used the phrase, their true colours? More often than not, with the exception of a certain 80’s pop song, it’s often used negatively isn’t it. This person seemed really nice but when the bus was late they showed their true colours and berated the bus driver for making them late. The phrase points to how often we are careful in managing how we present ourselves, what we show of ourselves to others, but in times of stress or conflict the us that we carefully try to keep out of public view slips out. That isn’t to say that the way we present ourselves day to day isn’t the real us, and the real us is the one exposed by anger or stress or pain, but rather the carefully managed way we present ourselves is only part of the story, isn’t the full picture.
In our Gospel reading today we see Jesus’ true colours. And what do we see? Far from a hidden dark side, instead what we see is dazzling white, his clothes shining whiter than any bleach, than even Dazz could get them. In this moment it’s like the curtain is pulled back. At Christmas we sing of how we ‘veiled in flesh the Godhead see’, and here it’s like the veil is lifted. Here we catch just a glimpse of who Jesus really is, that he is fully divine, as well as fully human. Often we can major on the latter, and that’s no bad thing, it matters, but so does his full divinity, the fact that Jesus is truly God, and here we can be in no doubt. The brightness with which he shines, the glory which is revealed is not reflected glory, it is his very own.
The Transfiguration is a moment of awe and wonder, we can reflect on it for its own sake, but once we put it into its context the picture becomes much more vivid. Why Jesus shows his true colours now is just as important as the fact that he does it at all.
So why now? Why the Transfiguration at this moment?
If we flip back a little in our Bible’s we’ll find that right before this episode Peter has just made the profound declaration of who Jesus is, that he is the Messiah, the long promised Saviour. Peter doesn’t fully understand what that means yet, but he has recognised who Jesus is. And in response Jesus, for the first time, starts talking about his impending suffering and death. And he also speaks of his resurrection. He speaks too of how any who want to follow him must themselves take up their cross (a theme we’ll pick up soon in Lent). And it is only then, once he has spoken of his mission and the true cost of following him, that his true colours are revealed. That we discover that, in the words of John’s prologue, in him is light. It seems that only once he has become clear about his mission, that he can become clear about who he is, the two are tied up together.
If he was to reveal his glory before he has spoken about his mission, of his death for the sins of the whole world, then the disciples may have seen in his glory an all-powerful one who can obliterate the Romans, the one who comes with vengeance to destroy and to tear down. If all the disciples see in the Transfiguration is a display of power, then they’ll continue to think in terms of the wider expectations of this time, of a warrior Messiah, a conqueror who will lead them into battle.
But equally if he speaks only of his death but doesn’t reveal his glory, the disciples, and we in turn, might read what happens to him as Jesus being overtaken by events, as being captured by men, of being tortured and killed against his will. We may look at his coming death as though Jesus were helpless, wishing that someone would intervene. But instead Jesus says time and time again that his life will not be taken from him, instead he will lay it down, that this is no accident, that he is not helpless but chooses this path, turns his face towards his death and pursues it.
And what the transfiguration does is reveal to us that this is true, look at all the power and glory of Jesus, look at his radiance, his majesty. And in taking that in now, when we in 6 weeks hear the crowds mocking him, telling him to save himself, to come down from the cross and prove himself, we know that he can, that he could have. That should he have wanted he could have stepped down from the cross, slipped through the crowds and lived out the rest of his days happily. But he doesn’t, he won’t, instead he will lay aside all his power and majesty and glory, lay it all down to die for you. To die so that you can come home to him, so that you need not fear death, so that for us who believe death becomes the gateway to everlasting life.
Peter as this amazing moment is happening suggests building shelters, of making their home here, he wants to capture the moment, draw it out from a moment into something much longer. But no sooner has he spoken than the cloud covers the vision and God speaks. This moment cannot last, indeed it should not. Should they stay atop the mountain Jesus’ mission will remain unfulfilled and the world will perish. Jesus does not shine for his own sake, he does so to strengthen his disciples for what is coming, assure them that what he says, that no-one takes his life but that instead he chooses to lay it down, that that is really true.
And so he will descend the mountain, he will lay it aside for us. Because if we’re honest there’s a reason true colours has negative connotations, none of us want to be fully revealed, none of us would want the curtain of our lives pulled back, our actions when we think no-one is looking, our thoughts, none of us want those revealed. If we were told that our true colours would be revealed to our friends like Jesus’ are we’d be horrified rather than excited once we truly thought about what that means.
And so Jesus has come so that as he lays aside his glory and majesty he can bear our darkness and mess and brokenness instead. And as the sky turns not bright but black upon a different hill it is because he is bearing it all down into death, into the hell it deserves. So that, we can come back to him, so that day by day, through the working of the Spirit, our lives will start to look more like his life, day by day we shall become more like him. Not for our glory but for God’s glory, for he rejoices to take our sin and darkness and to give us instead his light.
And as day by day, through the working of the Spirit, as we grow in holiness one step at a time, as we grow to be like him we discover why. For when Christ shall come again, when we shall once more see his as he truly is. As his true colours are revealed not just for 3 disciples but for the whole world to see, we will find that at last our true colours are revealed, but not our darkness and sin, for Jesus has taken that from us, instead as our true colours are revealed we will shine with the mercy and grace of God, the God who has transformed us, brought us from darkness into his marvellous light.
My brothers and sisters, as Jesus is Transfigured, as the curtain is pulled back, as we catch just the smallest glimpse of Jesus full nature, we realise this. When Jesus shows his true colours it isn’t the revelation that he is less than we had hoped, that he is fickle, or angry, or cruel. Instead when we see Jesus’ true colours we discover that he is so much more than we could ever have hoped, and that he is pouring it all out for you, for us. For we who do not deserve it, and yet he does so anyway. So that when our true colours show in this life, our darkness and sin, he can wash us whiter than snow. So that at the last he can present us to his Father perfect and without fault, shining with the reflected brightness of his glory.
Amen.