Recognizing Who Is Really in Charge

Transfiguration Sunday           February 15, 2026

The texts for this sermon are Exodus 24:12-13,15-18; Psalm 2 and Matthew 16:13-14, 21-23; 17:1-7

Howard Thurman in his book Jesus and the Disinherited recounts the story of a Korean student during a quadrennial convention of the Student Volunteer Movement held in the early 20th Century. This young Korean woman was asked to talk about her impression of American education. She came to the edge of the platform and, with what seemed to be obvious emotional strain, she said, “You have asked me to talk with you about my impression of America education. But there is only one thing that a Korean has any right to talk about, and that is freedom from Japan.”

She concluded her impassioned plea for the freedom of her people by saying: “If you see a little American boy and you ask him what he wants, he says, ‘I want a penny to put in my bank or to buy a whistle or a piece of candy.’ But if you see a little Korean boy and you ask him what he wants, he says, ‘I want freedom from Japan.’”

I’m not sure how accurate she was about what an American boy might answer to that question, but I’m certain she knew that her countrymen would answer as she did.

If we were back in time and stopped a child in the marketplace of 1st-century Palestine and asked him what he wanted, he would have said, “The Kingdom of David.”  An adult may have been more specific by saying: “The overthrow of Rome and the restoration of the Kingdom of David.” 

This dream was woven into the DNA of every Hebrew. They were an oppressed people. Rome represented frustration, uncertainty, fear, a restless watchfulness, and wariness. A Roman soldier could commandeer any Hebrew to do his bidding. Every Palestinian Hebrew had to decide how they were going to relate to this enemy: accommodate? collaborate? resist?

The Sadducees chose to assimilate in hopes of forestalling destruction. The Pharisees chose isolation to minimize their contact with all things Roman. And the Zealots chose active resistance.

Being under Roman rule incited bitterness, hatred, fear, and even haunting despair. Roman rule represented humiliation and repudiation of identity.

Now, unlike many other oppressed peoples, the Israelites had something else in their DNA: the memory of God’s rescue, the promise of God’s faithfulness. And that they certainly harbored in their hearts,

It is into this context that Jesus comes.

Jesus comes to a people languishing under the thumb of Rome, dreaming of a self-determined Kingdom like that of David’s. Instead of giving them that self-determined Kingdom, though, God, through Jesus, does something else.

Jesus starts to teach them that their identity had to do with what was in their heart. Not their external circumstances. Jesus did not embellish the dream of the Kingdom of David, rather he said “The Kingdom of God is within you.”  He tried to help them see that God’s greater kingdom was already theirs. 

Jesus’s teaching focused on shifting their perception of self and of Rome. He tried to lift their eyes to realize that that inner Kingdom, the reality of it, could speak to the hypocrisy, hatred, fear that lived there now and answer it with a new sense of identity and courage.

This courage was not intended to rally them to take up arms, rather, it was to enable them to stand straight and walk tall in the face of Centurian forces.

So what does this have to do with the Transfiguration? Transfiguration comes within the context of Jesus’s declaration that he must suffer and die. Now, a declaration was not something his disciples could have predicted, and they were certainly not prepared for it. They rejected the idea, for it was incomprehensible to them.

Jesus, then, selects three of those disciples to accompany him to an away place. There, they witness a marvelous thing. They see two figures who according to their own tradition never died: Moses and Elijah. They believed that both Moses and Elijah had been taken up into heaven without death. They also understood them to be the icons of the Law and of the Prophets; of the Code by which to Live, the Truth by which to Live.

Then they see Jesus transformed into a being of glowing, piercing brightness. They fall to the ground. They hear a voice say, “This is my Son. Listen to him.”

What God gives them is a tremendous gift. It opened the way for a new, completely unforeseen perspective. It shifted the entire scheme of things. Rome was not the last let alone the greatest word. Rome need not be feared. Yes, it could cause the body to suffer, it could kill, but it could not destroy the conviction and faith within one’s heart; the trust in the God who rescues, the God who saves, the God who frees. It’s like God is delivering the message yet again that there is indeed a greater Kingdom and invites them to live there, to live there now invisible though it be.

Now we know that the meaning of this event was lost on those three witnesses, at least for a while. But they did come to comprehend the truth of it and indeed, live into it. 

And the Transformation event can fortify and guide us as well.

Today, I’d like us to consider what hope this text can give us as we see the fabric of our great country unravel on the global stage; as we witness leaders flout the values grounded in the foundation of our nation. I’d like us to consider what power this that God did through Jesus has to fortify those in our society who are oppressed, who are threatened, and assaulted. We’ve been confronted by this reality in stark, tragic unfoldings of late.  There is a greater Kingdom that is not remote but alive here and now.

We can appropriate this truth within the sphere of our lives. If we feel haunted by secrets or regrets, insecurities that erode our sense of worth, grudges that imprison us, bitterness that withers us, and we often resign ourselves that there is no remedy. We can assimilate to them, hide from them, lash out because of them. But, there is a greater Kingdom than the one that resides within our own hearts that is greater than all these wounding things.

The Transfiguration tells us that Jesus offers a life that can overcome all of what ails us; a life that sets us free in every respect.

I AM the way (the Law)  the Truth (the Prophets) the LIFE (here and now and everlasting). 

In Christ there is a way to live that puts things in balance. In Christ there is a way to live that speaks what is really True, In Christ there is released, whole, pulsing, victorious LIFE.

“This is my beloved Son. Listen to Him.”

Linda Quanstrom, Pastor

Cornelius UMC

Cornelius OR