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The Transcendent Christ

Feast of the Transfiguration : 10 August 2014  : Matthew 17: 1-9

One of the most popular books ever written about Jesus was Ernest Renan’s "The Life of Jesus." It depicted Jesus as a good man, living a beautiful life, offering inspiring moral teaching. It denied that he ever worked any miracles, had anything of the supernatural about him, indeed he was shown to be thoroughly human, and was certainly not the Son of God. It also separated him from his Jewish origins in a rather worrying racial way. All of this went down a treat with Renan’s 19th century reading public, particularly those who were unsure about God, but who were, at the same time, reluctant to leave Jesus behind.

Every generation seems to have a go at remaking Jesus in terms of its current pre-occupation’s and interests. Take Pasolini’s "The Gospel According to Matthew," made in the 1960’s, in my opinion the best film about Jesus yet. Pasolini was a Marxist, so he used ordinary people as the actors, shot the film in black and white, and focused on Jesus as a man of the people intent on delivering them from all that oppressed them. The first 15 to 20 minutes covering the nativity, the baptism in the Jordan, the temptation in the wilderness, and the calling of the disciples are superb, but after that the film slowly drifts away from the full stature of its subject, as Jesus becomes a ranter and a raver on public platforms. The final scenes covering the tragic denouement in Jerusalem, and the resurrection, simply don’t work because Pasolini can’t get his head around this being the pivot point of Jesus’ ministry.

Critics of Christianity dismiss it as just a projection of people’s hopes, fears, desires and fantasies of consolation. We can see all of this going on in the depictions of Jesus that have taken place in our lifetime, such as "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "God spell." The making of idols to suit ourselves is a persistent temptation, both for religious people, and also for those on the fringes of organised religion, who speculate about that remarkable human being, who 2,000 years after his historical existence is still the greatest culture hero of western civilization.

The immediate followers of Jesus had the same problem. They loved him, followed him, attended closely to what he said and did, but still struggled to understand him, because he did not fit in neatly to the categories of what they expected in an inspiring religious leader. However, as today’s incident gets under way they have formed some definite opinions about who and what they are dealing with. And just before the Transfiguration the leader of the pack, Peter, got very close to the real identity of Jesus with his "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." But even then, his educated guesswork fades out of focus as he rejects the follow on declaration that this Messiah is destined for torment and death.

Six days later – notice the back reference to the days of creation - the inner group of Peter, James and John are taken up a small local mountain for a teach in that will astound them. Icons depicting this incident show the three of them sprawled in disarray, fear and confusion at the base of this part of the mountain. They could just about cope with seeing Jesus deep in conversation with the faith heroes of Israel’s past, who have apparently made a brief return from the dead to give him the benefit of their wisdom. But when the voice speaks from the cloud in "this is God talking" mode, they are overwhelmed.

What the revisers of the Jesus story in recent times often fail to understand is that the immediate followers of Jesus were in awe of him. He scared them, in a good sense. He constantly took them by surprise, brought them into situations where they thought they were in over their heads, and exposed them to experiences that left the hairs standing up on the back of their necks. Here was someone who "performed the life of God" supremely well, a Rowan Williams phrase.

Yet he made and makes God accessible. What would be abstract, hard to grasp, beyond human comprehension, is summed up in someone right in front of them, an approachable and attractive human being. This why the gospels are such a good read. They tell a story and paint a personal portrait that we can relate to.

And that is where the trouble often starts. Some are content to stop there with the human Jesus. Others then contain him within their own limited thought categories.

The same thing happens with Christianity itself. It fits in and adapts itself so well and in such a versatile manner to just about every human culture it comes into contact with. And with that goes the distinct possibility that every culture that accepts it will swallow it whole, and adapt it to its own needs, reducing the gospel to a pale reflection of its own agendas. The gospel then becomes a prisoner and a servant of its surrounding seductive culture.

This is why the Transfiguration is so significant. Here Jesus breaks up the reductionist categories his disciples had fitted him into. The story his inner group had told themselves about him has to be disassembled and then reassembled as a hefty dose of new reality is brought before them in a compelling manner. Their stunned surprise at this overwhelming supernatural experience of him brings to their attention the transcendent Christ, another dimension of him that they had not yet taken account of. Sure, this is still the human Jesus they are dealing with, but "in the Transfiguration, what the disciples see is ... Jesus’ humanity opening up to its inner dimension," another Rowan Williams phrase.

At the same time this is a glimpse into the end of time, into the world of the fulfilled kingdom, into the way Jesus will be experienced when matter and time no longer resist Divine grace but are transparent to its action. As in the resurrection appearances, Jesus has come before Peter, James and John as an inhabitant of the future age. His future glory must be taken account of in the complete reckoning of all that he is, and of what he is capable of doing.

This interrupter dimension of the Transfiguration experience broke open the limited and limiting expectations and comprehensions of the inner group. It forced them to think again – to abandon former unhelpful ways of making sense of him – and to try and take him on his own terms. There was much more to him than they had bargained on. They were set free for a fuller and richer experience of him.

This interrupter dimension of the gospel is what it is always trying to do within cultures that try to swallow it up, and digest it as comfort food for its own purposes. When the Church is aligned with this Transfiguration dimension of the gospel it challenges its surrounding culture with a Christ who transcends its limited and self serving grasp on religion.

What happened to the disciples we must allow to happen to us. Contemplating this scene with the eyes of faith, we must allow it to discombobulate us, to disturb our cosy, comfy version of the Christian religion. Christ is at his most useful to us when we allow him to tell the story of our lives from his point of view, and not from ours. We too are at the base of the mountain, lost in wonder, love and praise at what is going on, but also full of the fear of the Lord, awe struck at his holiness, and at his utter difference from us. We must take him on his terms, and not on ours.

The worship of this Church, with its sense of theatre and beauty and well ordered choreography, is an attempt to reflect this numinous dimension of the Christian religion. Worship which is too matey with God, or which tries to tame him with saccharine sentimentality and all too human wish fulfilment, as in "Jesus your my boy friend" choruses, lets the side down because it leaves out the Transfiguration dimension of transcendent glory blazing in our midst, both scaring the hell out of us, yet also bringing us into the presence of the sacred. "Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness, let the whole earth stand in awe of him."

But the numinous isn’t just a satisfying experience in its own right, as if we were collectors of glamorous supernatural and mystical groovy feelings. What took place on that mountain top was about equipping its participants and observers for some very difficult and disturbing slices of reality. They are out there waiting for us too. We wont be spared suffering, tragedy and disappointment just because of a good experience of worship on Sunday. But we will be inspired and strengthened to live through it, and to transcend our expectations of ourselves in the process. For what we now know as result of the Transfiguration is that God will never allow himself to be exiled from the dark places of the world.