What’s the big deal about Jesus? (Mt. 17.1-9)

What’s the big deal about Jesus? (Mt. 17.1-9)

1 – A man of Mystery

     What’s the big deal about Jesus?  Over 2 billion people around the world claim to “follow Jesus”.  But many other people don’t get what all the fuss is about; in fact, many children in the West are growing up without any idea of who Jesus was.  The story is told about a Christmas play in a primary school in England.  At the end of the play, a young boy raised his hand – he had a question.  As he was acknowledged, he asked, “Why did they give the baby a swear-word for a name?”…  Whatever people think about Jesus today, it’s clear that he made a huge impression on those who followed him around the villages of Palestine 2,000 years ago.  The Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – were written by people who had either known Jesus personally or who knew people who had been close to Jesus.  The stories that we find in the Gospels – like today’s reading – are often strange stories.  They express the mind-boggling effect that Jesus had on those who were close to him.  Make no mistake about it – the Gospel writers weren’t just telling stories for the fun of it.  They believed that their stories about Jesus were the most important stories the world had ever heard – and they were willing to die in the effort to tell them to others.  Many of them did.

     In today’s reading from the Gospel of St. Matthew, we see Jesus and his inner circle – Peter, James and John.  These were the first three people to become Jesus’ disciples and dedicate their lives to following his example.  And yet, as we read the Gospel, we see that Jesus is often frustrated with their inability to understand who he is and the disciples were constantly being surprised by Jesus – he didn’t fit into their ordinary categories.  They called him their “master” – their teacher – and he was, but he is also much more than a teacher.  Some people called Jesus a prophet – a spokesman for God – but he is also much more than that.  What Peter, James and John experienced on the mountain that day shocked them into realizing that Jesus’ true identity went beyond their wildest imagination… 

     Let’s look at how Matthew tells the story.  In many ways, reading the Bible is like reading an epic tale comprised of several volumes (think of Harry Potter, The Dark Tower, etc.).  When you start by reading St. Matthew’s Gospel, for example, it’s like you’re beginning with volume 4 of the series.  Volume 4 is exciting, but you won’t fully understand what’s going on unless you go back and read the first 3 volumes.  In the case of the Bible, the “first 3 volumes” are what we call the Old Testament.  St. Matthew often compares and contrasts Jesus with a famous Old Testament character – Moses.  Moses was the one who led his people from slavery to freedom in the great “Exodus” from Egypt.  During this great getaway, God manifested his “glory” – his presence, his power – in the form of a great cloud that led Moses’ nation across the desert to the Promised Land, a country of their own.  When the people would make camp in the desert, a special tent was set up in the very center of the camp, and the cloud of God’s glory would hover over that tent.

     Look at how St. Matthew tells the story of the Transfiguration.  He describes Jesus’ clothing in a very similar fashion to the way God’s clothing was described in Daniel’s vision – our first reading.  As Jesus radiates with light and glory, and as Moses and Elijah appear from the distant past, Peter has the right instinct – let’s build 3 tents to contain this glory.  While Peter is still speaking, sure enough, what happens?  A bright cloud overshadows them and the voice of God is heard: Jesus is my Son; listen to him!  All the evidence is pointing in the same direction – Jesus is “the son of Man” – the human being who shares the very glory of God.  The disciples eventually came to believe that wherever Jesus was, God’s presence was there.  That’s why, when they sat down to write the story of Jesus’ life, they use imagery from the Old Testament that described the presence and actions of God himself.  St. Matthew’s favourite way to express this reality is to call Jesus “Emmanuel” – “God with us”.  The Bible often speaks of God’s desire to be close to his creation, for his creatures to know him.  In Jesus, the “word of God” through whom the universe was created became a human being, shared our reality; he came as close to us as he possibly could and spoke the truth to us.

2 – a Man who speaks with God’s authority

     In the Gospel of St. Matthew, Jesus is presented as the Master-Teacher.  Among the Jews at the time of Jesus, Moses was venerated as the one who had given “the Law” to God’s people – the divine teaching on how to live as the people chosen by God to represent him to the other nations of the world.  Already in the first century, one spoke of “the books of Moses”, the first 5 books of the Bible (Genesis to Deuteronomy).  As he composed his Gospel, Matthew divided the teaching of Jesus into 5 large sections (chapters 5-7, 10-11, 13, 23 and 24-25).  The message is clear – Jesus is a “new Moses”, a teacher of the people who is greater than Moses and worthy of even greater respect.

     So, Jesus is the One who instructs his disciples and shows them how to live and how to become authentic human beings.  Jesus wasn’t a university professor; he didn’t gather people in a classroom and give lectures.  What Jesus did was to say to certain people “Follow me” – come and share my life and “pick up” my way of doing things by observing how I speak, act and how I treat people.  Jesus gathered a small group of people around him and shared his life with them.  Jesus was always present with his disciples, sharing their experiences and facing challenges together with them.

     So what’s the big deal about Jesus?  As far as St. Matthew is concerned, Jesus is either the point of everything …or nothing special at all.  As a matter of fact, for all intents and purposes, Jesus died a failure – he was publicly executed on false charges of being a criminal, a revolutionary.  Whatever movement he had hoped to launch disappeared, and his closest followers went into hiding, thinking it was all over.  It should have all ended then and there.  But it didn’t.  Shortly after Jesus’ crucifixion, his followers started going around telling people that Jesus had been “raised from the dead”.  They claimed that Jesus had conquered death and was now alive and was immune from death.  They told stories about having seen Jesus alive after his execution, about having touched him and shared meals with him.  When you think about it, there are only a very few possible reasons why Jesus’ followers would dare make such extraordinary claims about him after his death.  Perhaps they just made it all up and just wanted to start a new religion.  If that was the case, you would think they would have covered up the embarrassing part about Jesus having been tortured to death as an enemy of the state.  But they didn’t.  They actually spoke of Jesus’ death as having been a victory – God’s victory over all the forces of evil and sin and even death itself.  Against all the odds, the Jesus movement took off very shortly after his death as his followers travelled throughout the Roman Empire of the first century proclaiming the “good news” that there was hope for the world, hope for everyone.  The reason for this hope was the one thing that changes everything; it was the final piece of evidence that demonstrates that Jesus was indeed the living embodiment of God’s glory – that one fact is the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.  Jesus is alive and even death should not make us afraid.  Death does not always win.  Through Jesus’ resurrection, death has been defeated and the seeds of a whole new world have been sown.  Amen.