Last Sunday after the Epiphany (Year B)
2 Kings 2.1-12; 2 Corinthians 4.3-6; Mark
9.2-9
St. Gregory’s, Long Beach
Live Streamed on Parish Facebook Page (beginning at 12:00)
Today we come to the last Sunday in
the season after Epiphany. As we noted at the beginning of our Epiphanytide
journey, the term Epiphany comes from the Greek, meaning “manifestation” or
“appearing.” And in our Christian context, the Feast of the Epiphany and the
season that follows focus on how Jesus’ true identity as the Son of God is
revealed. Well, what happens today in our Gospel reading is the epitome of
those revelations.
Just to set the stage, six days before
going up the Mount of the Transfiguration, Jesus had revealed to his disciples
for the first time that he would “undergo great suffering and be rejected by
the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three
days rise again” (Mk 8.31). Now, six days later, for some inexplicable reason
Jesus takes his inner circle, Peter, James, and John, up a high mountain. As we
heard, while there, “he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became
dazzling white . . . and there appeared to them Elijah with Moses” (Mk 9.2b-4).
As if Jesus being transfigured and the two greatest prophets in Jewish history
appearing out of thin air to chat with Jesus weren’t enough to demonstrate who
he was, a voice came from a cloud saying, “This is my Son, the Beloved: listen
to him” (Mk 9.7). You can’t get a much more dramatic or definitive revelation
of Jesus’ true identity. Well, you can, but we have to wait for Easter for
that.
Read more!