Transfiguration: But WAIT! There's MORE!

Last Sunday the Transfiguration of Jesus ended Epiphany, the season that looks for the light of God coming into the world, and ushered in Lent, the season of descent into darkness and death in Jesus' crucifixion.  As we are in Matthew, the story is told by him in Chapter 17: 1-8.  The story is told in Luke and Mark, also.  Not in John, but the reason for that is for another blog.

The story is that Jesus takes his closest students (disciples), Peter, James, and John up a mountain.  They see his being, his"figure" changed, thus the name of the event -- Trans (changed) -figuration (figure or being).

But WAIT!  There's MORE!

Two others who were not there appear -- Moses and Elijah of Old Testament fame! They converse with Jesus.

The disciples are awestruck and rather afraid.

But WAIT!  There's MORE!

Suddenly they are wrapped in a cloud and a voice booms out, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him."  It is the same voice that speaks when Jesus is baptized.  It is the voice of YAHWEH verifying who Jesus is and what is to be done with him.

The disciples go from awestruck and rather afraid to terrified.  I mean, it's one thing to have a vision of the two greatest Biblical figures of their Bible appear, but the voice of God, God's self?  They may have had to change their pants.  They go from falling on their faces in respect to digging for China out of fear.

But WAIT!  There's MORE!

Suddenly, Jesus comes over the touches them and . . .

And . . .

Everything is normal.  It's the same old Jesus in his travel-worn robes telling them, "Come on.  It's time to go down the mountain and continue to Jerusalem -- to my death and resurrection."

Well.
What is so "But WAIT!  There's MORE!" about that? 

Matthew and Mark, and to some degree, Luke all write it's "But WAIT!  There's MORE!."  But you and I don't see what they're trying to say because translation committees want us to make sense out of verse 8 so they translate it something like the Jerusalem Bible translation:  "And when they raised their eyes they saw no one but only Jesus."

A word to word translation is more like, "They saw NO ONE, NO/NOT THE LEAST, himself (Jesus) ALONE/ONLY."

So what's so "But WAIT!" about that?  It will probably be "all Greek to you."  It has to do with a difference between Greek and English grammar.  

Remember how your English teacher taught you that a double negative equals a positive in English?  "I don't want no more guff" really means "I want more guff."

In Greek, which has no punctuation like periods or,in this case, exclamation points, the piling on of the same word or expression means that what is being said is more important.

You will sometimes read that Jesus says, "Truly I say unto you . . ."  In the Greek that is usually TWO "truly-s."   The King James Version translates as such, "Verily, verily I say unto you . . ."  It means to the reader, "PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT'S COMING NEXT!"

So, back to Mt 17:8 and why "But WAIT!."  In this little verse the Gospel writers have no less than THREE emphasis words about what the disciples see at the end of this extraordinary spiritual event.  "PAY attention to this!"  "PAY ATTENTION to this!" "PAY ATTENTION TO THIS!"

"They saw NO ONE, NO/NOT THE LEAST, himself ALONE/ONLY."

Do you get what they're trying to say?

• You can have all the revelation you want out of Scripture -- Moses represents the Torah/Law and Elijah represents the Prophets -- our Old Testament, THE Bible for Matthew's readers.
• You can even have the mystical, disembodied voice of YAHWEH witnessing about Jesus.
• But it is Jesus who is the one of God who is the center and source of all that is needed and given for the believer to receive the Kingdom of Heaven, to be with God, to be saved from sin, death, and the power of the devil.  Jesus -- no one, no/not the least, himself alone.

The Jerome Bible Commentary puts it well, "[Jesus] is no less Messiah when his Messianic glory is hidden in the incarnation and the passion."


So, "No more WAIT!  There is no MORE!"  Here is Jesus with us and that's all that we need.