Listen to Him! – 27 February 2022
Luke 9:28-36
After six weeks of manifestation, of epiphany, today Jesus says: Peter, James, and John, come with me. We’re going to the top of the mountain. Just us, so we can be by ourselves.
Jesus takes these three friends with him, Peter who never seems to quite get the gist of what Jesus is talking about and who will later deny that he even knows Jesus; and James and John, who are more concerned about which of them is greater than they are about hearing anything Jesus has to say. There’s nothing exceptional about these three people. They have the same human hang-ups we all have. . . Peter, James, and John weren’t on that mountain because they were super disciples, but because Jesus had something to show them, something to show us.
Just when they think they might be dreaming, a cloud overshadows them and they hear these words: “This is my Son, my Chosen: listen to him.” . . . The last time you heard those words, Jesus waded into the River Jordan so John could baptize him. “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.” It’s the same voice; it’s the same message. . . .
God’s instructions from out of the cloud are: “Listen to him.” Not look at him; not build a booth around him; but listen to him.
. . . We are at the crux of the matter here, the end of the season of Epiphany, the Sundays when we discover and understand who Jesus is. This child sought by wise men from the East and found by following a star across the desert; this man baptized by John in the wilderness, another occurrence highlighted by words from above; this teacher with the persuasive powers to call people away from previous allegiances and into a new relationship with him; this preacher who endows new meaning to old words like blessedness and righteousness. –– Jennifer E. Copeland
Exodus 34:29–35
In speaking of Moses’ descent from the mount upon which he carved the stone tablets under God’s watchful presence, most English versions translate the text, “Moses did not know that the skin of face shone because he had been talking with God.” . . . Quite literally, Moses wore God’s glory, fading though it was, and all Israel witnessed that he had been in God’s presence. . .
The Hebrew verb for shone appears just twice in scripture, here and in Psalm 69:31. Literally translated “horn(s),” in its uncorrupted use it speaks of radiance, such as God’s radiant splendor (glory) connoting shafts of light bursting out in all directions.
Michelangelo portrays Moses with horns in a piece commissioned by Pope Julius (1506 A.D.), but his . . . face radiates not glory but rage. Nonetheless, Israel was unmistaken in their fearful, reverential awe when Moses descended from the mountain (v 30). –– James C. Dodge
2 Corinthians 3:12–4:2
Though Paul allegorizes the meaning of Moses’ veil (vv 13–15), he points to the end and fulfillment of the old covenant in Christ, and announces that eschaton has arrived. Unlike the fading evanescence from Moses, we with unveiled faces increasingly bear his likeness and reflect his glory (v 18). –– James C. Dodge
Jennifer Copeland, a United Methodist ordained minister, served for 16 years as chaplain at Duke University and as director of the Duke Wesley Fellowship. She is currently executive director at North Carolina Council of Churches in Raleigh-Durham.
James C. Dodge, who served as provost and adjunct instructor at Canby Bible College in Canby, Oregon, was also a business executive. He earned a doctorate through the Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies concentrating on the ancient and future catechumenate.
Homily Service 43, no. 1 (2009): 159–167.