Readings:
Exodus 3.1-6
John 12.27-36a
Quinquagesima. It’s a lovely word to get your tonsils round, isn’t it? Say it with me … Quinquagesima. That’s the ancient Latin name given to this Sunday, the last Sunday before Ash Wednesday. What does it mean? It ought to mean something really exotic, didn’t it? You know, something like “the Feast of St Quinqua, holder of the golden orb of Gesima, slayer of dragons, and defender of the poor”.
I’m afraid not. It just means ‘fiftieth’. Today marks the
fact that in 50 days from now, we will celebrate the rising of Christ from the
tomb at Easter.
But hang on. Some of you
are doing the math, and thinking to yourselves ‘that can’t be right! If Lent
starts on Ash Wednesday, and its 40 days long, how can today be 50 days from
Easter?
That’s because many of us
forget that the 40 days of Lent do not include the seven Sundays of Lent.
Sundays are days of celebration – each one a mini-Easter, during which the
triumph of Christ over the grave is remembered and praised. They are also days
of relief from the strictures of Lent. So for those of us who face the prospect
of 40 days of abstinence with dread, the church kindly provides us with one day
in seven when we are permitted to eat chocolate, or drink that glass of
beer! Then add the three days from today until Ashe Wednesday - and there
is your 50 days until Easter.
More importantly than any
ecclesiastical numbering system, today’s focus is really on the story of the
Mount of Transfiguration. Our Gospel reading of this morning reminded us of how
Jesus met on the mountain with Moses and Elijah – The Lawgiver and the ultimate
Prophet (before Jesus himself). They strengthened him and encouraged him for
the journey ahead…the journey to Jerusalem and the cross.
This evening’s readings
pick up the same theme. From
Exodus, we hear the story of Moses’ first encounter with the Divine, at the
burning bush. His face doesn’t glow, as
it did later when he met God on Mount Sinai, but there is awe and wonder in
this first encounter.
In the New Testament
reading, which was a Gospel reading, we observe Jesus at prayer. He is puzzling and worrying over the mission
to which God has called him, and seeking God’s affirmation that he is on the
right path. All he seeks is to glorify
God, and, in typical Hebrew fashion, to glorify the Name of God. And God replies
from heaven that, ‘Yes, I have glorified it – and I will do it again’!
Quite what God means, when
he says he has already glorified his name, is somewhat opaque. It could include any number of times in the
past when God has been true to his word and his promises, rescued his people,
or sent them aid from heaven (in the form of prophets, leaders and Jesus himself). These are all actions with glorify God’s
Name, by making the very name of God something which can be trusted, and relied
upon. But Jesus has a clear understand
of what glorifying God’s Name in the future means…
The Transfiguration is a
turning point. It’s a pivot-moment between Jesus’ ministry of
preaching and teaching, and his ministry of salvation which is about to unfold
in Jerusalem. It is such a
pivotal point that in Mark’s gospel,
the Transfiguration story appears right in the centre of his narrative. It’s as though we are asked to note everything that Jesus has said and
taught up to that point, but we are invited to really focus on what is about to happen.
The Israelites had been
struck down by a plague, because of their disobedience (again! They never seemed to learn, did they?). To re-build their trust, God commanded Moses
to fashion a serpent, out of bronze, and to lift it up on a stick for everyone
to see. Anyone who gazed upon the
serpent, lifted up, would be healed – and their trust in God renewed. (That, by the way, is why the medical
profession still uses the image of a serpent on a stick as a sign of healing –
look out for it, around pharmacies and the like).
Jesus describes his own ‘lifting
up’ as being like the lifting of the serpent on a stick. In John chapter 3, he says this:
“And just as Moses lifted up
the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that
whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”
This, is the focus that
all the Gospel writers want us to see. In
Jesus’s story, everything moves towards the Cross. When Jesus is lifted up on the Cross, his
sacrifice, his love for humanity, his willingness to give his all for us – this
has the effect of drawing us to him.
And, by believing in him, which means by following him, by living as he
calls us to live, by trusting in his teachings, and his way, we too can find
the path to eternal life.
Eternal life, the life of
heaven, is reflected in the face of Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. And eternal life is promised to all of us who
gaze, lovingly, willingly, faithfully, upon the face of Christ lifted up.
So, as we move towards
Easter, a quinquagesima from now, through the 40 days (and seven Sundays!) of
Lent, let us prepare our hearts to meditate once more on the deep, profound
mystery and the glory of the Cross.
Amen.
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