Carrying God's Light Forward

Today is Transfiguration Sunday in the liturgical year, which ends the season of Epiphany.  Transfiguration Sunday focuses upon the gospel story where the disciples see a vision of Jesus upon a mountain, with Elijah on one side and Moses on the other.

It is normally thought that the vision means that Jesus is being compared to Moses and Elijah.  Seen in the light of the gospels and the New Testament as a whole, Jesus is actually being contrasted with them, or more particularly, what Elijah and Moses had come to represent.  Elijah, for Israel during Jesus' day, was representative of Israelite triumphalism and a desire for vengeance; the notion that being God's chosen people mean that Israel was superior to Rome and that God would bring vengeance upon Israel's enemies.  Moses, for Israel, was the one who brought the law, which, in Jesus' day, had become associated with the rote following of rules and regulations.

By being both compared and contrasted with Elijah and Moses, Jesus reveals the nature of the Church, as the new Israel, and the nature of the light that the Church is called to reflect.  The Church, as the new Israel, is not a community of arrogance which seeks vengeance upon our enemies.  We seek reconciliation with our enemies.  And we are not called to be a community that proof texts; where the law becomes our God.  The law of God is written upon our hearts and minds and we are guided by the directives of God's Spirit.

The season of Epiphany celebrates God's light that has come into the world in Jesus.  The story of the transfiguration reveals the nature of the light that we are called to reflect as the new Israel, the Church