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<DIV align=center><STRONG>Understanding Matthew 17:1-9</STRONG> </DIV><FONT
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<DIV align=justify></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><FONT size=4><EM>Matthew’s gospel bears the structure of
a shattered Pentateuch. It is composed of five books, each consisting of
narrative and discourse, and each ending with a similar transition formula,
"When Jesus completed these words, he went…."<SMALL><SMALL>1</SMALL></SMALL> The
fifth and last book is contained in 19:2 through 25:46, but the Gospel does not
end here. The remaining chapters 26-28, which narrate the death and resurrection
of Jesus, shatter the five-book design. </EM></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=justify><FONT face="Times New Roman"><FONT
size=4><EM></EM><BR></FONT></FONT></FONT>The story of Jesus’ transfiguration is
found towards the end of the narrative of Book IV. It not only climaxes Jesus’
ministry in Galilee and especially his training of his disciples for future
ministry; it offers the reader a glimpse of the final outcome of Jesus’ career
and by inference the identical glory that awaits his disciples. The incident is
introduced by a significant time reference, "And after six days…." Jesus’
transfiguration will occur on the seventh day of the week, the Sabbath. It is a
symbolic representation not only of his own consummation but of the culminating
Sabbath of history, that time in the future when Jesus, as the founder of a New
Humanity—that is the meaning of the christological designation, "the Son of
Man," which Matthew employs often—will be transfigured with all the members of
his New Israel. </DIV>
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<P align=justify>Jesus leads Peter, James and John "into a high mountain, by
themselves." These three disciples did not form an inner circle among the larger
group of twelve male disciples who in the gospel tradition represented the
patriarchs of the New Israel. </P>
<P align=justify>Historically speaking, they are present because this unit of
tradition probably originated in the early Jerusalem church when they, according
to Galatians 2:9, constituted the leadership of the Mother Church. Once again a
mountain is the site of this incident. It is another architectonic center or
navel of the earth. But here the mountain is not preceded by a definite article.
Within the narrative world of Matthew’s gospel it poses a contrast to "a very
high mountain" of the wilderness of Judea (4:8) on which Jesus was tempted to
worship Satan in order to receive "all the kingdoms of the world." The kingdoms
of the world, however, will enter into a new moral order of justice and peace,
not by worshipping Satan, but by following Jesus into the reign of God that his
death and resurrection constitute. The transfiguration "on a high mountain" in
Galilee adumbrates Jesus’ apotheosis by his resurrection from the dead and with
it the reign of God that he will receive as a result of his co-enthronement with
God, according to his testimony at his trial before the Sanhedrin (26:64). </P>
<P align=justify>In place of Mark’s description of Jesus’ metamorphosis, "And
his garments became very shining white such as a bleacher on earth is unable to
whiten," Matthew has substituted the language of an apocalyptic theophany, "His
face shone as the sun and his garments became as white as the light." In this
transformation Jesus is being disclosed to his disciples as the Son of God!
Moses and Elijah, the Old Testament representatives of the Law and the Prophets,
both of whom are associated with the Old Testament architectonic center of Mount
Sinai, suddenly appear and Jesus begins to give them an audience, "They were
seen speaking with him." The content of their dialogue is not revealed, but the
sight of the three engaged in discourse evokes from Peter the christological
identification of Jesus as the last prophet of history. He must be ranked with
Moses and Elijah. He is the prophet Moses predicted in Deuteronomy 18:15; he
must be the final prophet of the old moral order. In contrast to Mark’s version
of this incident, Peter expresses his willingness to construct three
tabernacles, but only "if you wish." Matthew has deleted Mark’s comment on
Peter’s ignorance and fear. His proposal, however, is embarrassingly interrupted
by the heavenly voice speaking out of the cloud, "This is my beloved Son in whom
I began to take pleasure. Keep on listening to him!" The significance of Jesus’
metamorphosis is validated by God. Jesus is more than a new Moses! He is more
than the final prophet of the old moral order! As God’s Son he is superior to
both representatives of the Old Testament. He is God’s agent and surrogate who
inaugurates the reign of God! In a reaction typical of theophanies the disciples
fall on their faces in great fear. Jesus reaches out to them with a calming and
reassuring touch, bidding them to "Be raised up and stop being afraid!" The
first of his two imperatives employs the resurrection verb, egeirô, and could
also be rendered as "Be resurrected." In the light of their experience on this
very high mountain the disciples are to begin to participate in the destiny
which this transfiguration foreshadows. By following Jesus into death and
resurrection and engaging in the work that he has inaugurated, namely the reign
of God, they will eventually have a share in the reality of his apotheosis that
this metamorphosis anticipates. As Jesus states at the end of his interpretation
of his parable of the wheat and the darnels in 13:43, "Then the righteous will
shine as the sun in the reign of their Father." </P>
<P align=justify>The epiphany of the transfiguration, as Jesus instructs his
disciples, is not to be communicated to anyone until after the "Son of Man" has
been resurrected from the dead. That is the time when the "Son of Man," or the
New Human Being, will come into his reign, but a reign that he will share with
his disciples. Jesus’ transfiguration is an eschatological anticipation of the
new creation that he will inaugurate after his death and its attendant
dissolution of the old creation and its history. Matthew 27:52-53 bears witness
to this cataclysmic event, "And the earth was shaken and the rocks were split
apart." At the death of Jesus the old creation collapses into primordial chaos
in fulfillment of apocalyptic prophecy. A new creation is constituted as the Old
Testament saints are resurrected: "The tombs were opened and many bodies of the
holy ones being asleep were resurrected (egeirô)." The long awaited new creation
dawns but is not established until Jesus leads these resurrected saints out of
their tombs on Easter morning (27:53). At the Great Commissioning of 28:16-20,
Jesus joins the eleven disciples who have encountered him on the mountain in
Galilee, and by attaching himself to them as they go forth to fulfill his final
command, he becomes the twelfth and thereby establishes a New Israel. He not
only shares with them "All authority in heaven and on earth," but he
incorporates them into his divine I AM. As the Greek word order of 28:20 reads,
"See, I with you AM even to the consummation of the age." </P>
<P align=justify>Herman C. Waetjen </P>
<P align=justify>1. See 7:28-29, 11:1, 13:53, 19:1 and 26:1. The last of these
transition formulas contains the added word, "all," indicating that the end of
Jesus’ teaching, and indeed the five books of narrative and discourse, have been
concluded. </P>
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