Responses to Sunday 2 March 2025 sermon
Dear Friends,
My thanks to all those who shared their thoughts about the passage last Sunday 2 March 2025, I’m glad the technology worked and I plan use it again in the future; I hope that excites you!
By far the most frequent question concerned verse 36, “When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.” Why? Was this secrecy, confusion, or fear? Was it understood that this was a private moment not to be shared or were Peter, John, and James simply left bewildered by the event, or were they unsure of how this information would be received and therefore reluctant to share it?
It can be difficult to know why people make the choices that they do, even more so when they lived thousands of years ago; but this doesn't prevent us from finding significant spiritual enrichment through asking the questions. My instinct is to point to the concept of “the Messianic secret”, which is most often associated with the Gospel of Mark but is present within Luke as well. In certain passages, Jesus explicitly forbids people to share his messianic identity with others. Indeed, immediately before the Transfiguration in Luke 9:18-27, we have Peter declaring Jesus to be the messiah, followed by Jesus explicitly laying out his death and resurrection with the command not to tell anyone else. There is a sense that Jesus’ identity needs to be hidden until his resurrection.
However, that simply leads us to once again ask, ‘why?’ Perhaps people will misunderstand what it means to be the messiah until Jesus can show them through the events of Easter. Perhaps Jesus is trying to counter the ‘Palm Sunday effect’ and suppress the hype. Perhaps it is simply a response to the fact that Jesus’ identity was disputed and, to those who believe, stories could be told about miraculous revelations that, for believers at least, confirm his special status.
This leads us to the other theme in your comments. There is something supernatural about the Transfiguration. It is a window to a world beyond, where figures from the past can be participants in contemporary conversations. It shows us something of divine realities within earthly existence. Perhaps that is the core message of the Transfiguration story; somehow holiness stands before us.
Thank-you to everyone who left a reflection or a comment. Long may the conversation continue!
Every blessing,
Alex Johnson
(Probationer - Kinross-shire Parish Church)