After Jesus tells his disciples of his death, Peter took Jesus aside and said that it must not be true. I often imagine Peter at this point--after Jesus has told them the most startling, powerful news he had so far--taking Jesus aside, almost like those self-imposed father figures, y'know the ones who have taken it upon themselves to be your advisor/mentor. I can imagine Peter doing with Jesus and saying, "Ok, level with me. This is a new parable or something, right? You can be straight with me, one on one, just the two of us. You don't really mean what you said, right?" Have you had this kind of experience, where someone tries to "set you straight?" Don't you just feel like you need a shower. And I love Jesus' response: "Get behind me, Satan!" That shut Peter up and put him in his place. So right after that, Jesus takes Peter and a couple other disciples out to a mountain, where the Transfiguration happens; a moment in which Jesus is transformed into blinding white light and is lifted into the air. The story goes that the disciples saw Elijah and Moses on either side of him (these were two people who did not physically die, but were taken up into heaven). When Jesus comes back down, the disciples are astonished, and Peter is true to form. "Jesus," he proclaims, "this is great! I know exactly what to do! We'll build altars and shrines to commemorate this spectacular event! We'll build one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah...," and right then the skies darken and the voice of God comes forth, telling them that Jesus is his son and to listen to him. You really can't get put in your place any more than that.
What's Peter's deal? Chapter 9 reads that Peter says this to Jesus because he didn't know what else to say. That's certainly understandable, we've all been in situations where we're speechless, and we have that uncomfortable feeling where we have to fill the silence with something, so we say whatever we can think, which oftentimes turns out to be not good. Because we hate silence, we hate the awkwardness of not doing anything. Perhaps like Peter, we do not allow ourselves to embrace the wonder of what is happening around us, and it is too much, so we have to dial it down with speech. Peter can't seem to simply take what Jesus says and embrace, he has to put his own spin on it. Not only does this reflect the human reality that we often can't seem to simply let the powerful mystery of silence at the present time be what it's supposed to be, but perhaps more importantly Peter is doing something else with his response to Jesus' transfiguration.
In Peter's time, when someone had a holy experience, they would build a monument or some physical structure commemorating that this spot of land was now holy, so that others would know what had happened. So on one hand Peter was just doing what was commonly known among his people to honor God. But on the other hand, Peter is arguably doing something here that we are also guilty of at times. In saying that a monument, an enclosure should be built in what this experience was--much like Peter taking Jesus aside and telling him that his proclamation of his death and resurrection can't be true--Peter is trying to domesticate Jesus, trying to enclose and confine, and define him by the standards of culture, tradition, and humanity. And Jesus won't have it.
We can do this often with our rituals, traditions, mission statements, condemnation of others...we can't put Jesus in a box, our box. And we walk all over the beautiful mystery of what Jesus is revealing to us. We try to rationalize or explain or domesticate the power of what Jesus is doing rather than simply receiving and being a part of it.
Later on people begin bringing children to Jesus to be blessed, and the disciples scold them for doing this, but Jesus tells them not to stop children from coming to him. In this time children were not really seen as people because they had not fully developed, they couldn't help with the family work or contribute to the family survival, so they weren't seen as people. But Jesus saw them. The Gospel of Mark writes that Jesus hugged these children and blessed them, saying "Whoever doesn't welcome God's kingdom like a child will never enter it." Having a son for a year now, one of the things I love about Ben is his lack of restraint when it comes to embracing things and people. Sure it gets him in trouble, or dirty, but his enthusiasm to want to love things and people, without any fear or embarrassment, to me is what Jesus means by welcoming the kingdom of God like a child. My guess is if and when Jesus were to appear to the world today, the first to be able to not only recognize him but also go to him would be children. If we as adults can learn and remember what that is like, I believe we would embrace the mystery of Christ more fully and not want to fill that sacred silence with our dumbfounded words.
In the everyday work of ministry, I am no better at this. It's not that difficult to overlook the mystery of the sacred and holy even while being in a church all day. Sometimes it's because of being inside a church all day, and not out with God's people, that I can overlook that sacred and holy of Christ. One of my intentions is to be better about that, and to be out in the community which I serve, interacting with God's people.
God of Great Mystery and Holiness, who reveals such wonder and beauty and truth for which we can be healed and brought back to you, helps us to drop the need to always define who you are and what you do and to simply be a part of it as you would intend us, that we might take what you reveal and not contain it, but spread it to the world, as Jesus did. AMEN
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