Why Moses and Elijah?

Transfiguration; February 18, 2007

Luke 9:28-36

Why Moses and Elijah? When Peter, James and John have their remarkable vision of Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, they see him in conversation with Moses and Elijah. Why Moses and Elijah?

When you hear the name “Moses,” what do you think of? If you’re over fifty, you probably think of Charlton Heston leading the Hebrew people across the Red Sea. That’s a good start. And what about “Elijah”? If you’re under fifty, you might think of Frodo Baggins, who was played by Elijah Wood in Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” movies. That’s not quite so good a start.

There are two types of responses to the question, “Why Moses and Elijah?” One has to do with what they stand for and the other with their lives in relationship to the life of Jesus Christ. That sets out for you the two parts to this sermon.

Moses is the great lawgiver. In the Supreme Court building in Washington there are marble panels; one of them shows great lawgivers throughout history. In addition to Moses are Hammurabi, Confucius, Caesar Augustus and others. In the story of the Bible, the figure of Moses represents the Law of God: not simply the Ten Commandments and all the specific applications of them, but the whole story of Creation, the Patriarchs and especially the Exodus. Moses symbolizes the involvement of God in calling the Jewish people to be God’s chosen people and teaching them how to live as the faithful people of God. Although it involves a lot more than simply rules of behavior, Jewish people usually summarize that tradition in the simple word, “Law.”

Elijah is the great prophet. When Jewish people celebrate the Passover Seder, they pour an extra glass of wine for Elijah. Elijah is not the first prophet in Jewish tradition, but he stands out among the early prophets as the one who represents them all. When Jewish people say, “the Prophets,” they mean not only those men and women (yes, there were female prophets) who spoke the word of God, but they mean the collection of books that contain prophetic tradition.

It is common for Jewish people to refer to their collection of sacred writings as “The Law and the Prophets.” Moses and Elijah are symbolic figures that stand for the Law and the Prophets. So part of the answer to the question, “Why Moses and Elijah?” is that on the Mount of Transfiguration you have a clear message that Jesus Christ is the continuation – indeed, the fulfillment – of the Law and the Prophets.

The implication that makes a difference in our walk with God is this: you and I dare not ignore the Old Testament. In part, that is simply because Jesus is Jewish, and to ignore the Scriptures that shaped the religious identity of Jesus will give you a distorted picture of Jesus. But even deeper, it is because the God who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who offers Christ to us for our salvation, and who is revealed to us through Jesus Christ is the God who called Abram to leave Haran and go to Canaan, who led the Hebrews out of slavery across the Red Sea, who made David King, who used Cyrus to restore the people to their land. You do not know and you cannot understand Jesus if you do not know the Law and the Prophets.

This is not a “given.” There was an early Christian heresy called Marcionism. Marcion taught that the Gospel of Jesus had been corrupted by Jewish influences; he claimed that the God of the Old Testament was actually a lesser god, opposed to the God who is revealed through Jesus Christ. Marcion’s Bible was an abridged version of the Gospel of Luke and the letters of Paul; he rejected all references to the God of the Old Testament as being contrary to the Gospel of Christ.

Although Marcionism was rejected as a heresy centuries ago, I still hear echoes of it when Christian people speak. They will say things such as, “Oh, but that’s Old Testament.” The implication is that it is somehow inferior. But Jesus never repudiates his own religious tradition; he is a faithful Jew, attending the synagogue, keeping the rituals. Jesus does not describe himself as overturning the Law and the Prophets; he describes himself as fulfilling the Law and the Prophets. If we do not take the Law and the Prophets seriously, then we do not take Jesus seriously.

Another part of the answer to the question, “Why Moses and Elijah?” has to do with those two men themselves, the things they did and the places they did them. I believe it is no accident that this vision occurs on a mountain; mountains figure prominently in the story of the Bible and especially in the work of Moses and Elijah. You remember Charlton Heston – I mean, Moses – coming down the mountainside with the tablets of the Law. Twice Moses has important encounters with God on Mt. Sinai, also called Mt. Horeb.1 The first time is when Moses is tending sheep on Mt. Sinai and he sees a remarkable sight: a bush that is burning but is not being consumed by the fire. From this vision of a burning bush Moses hears the voice of God. The second time, of course, is when Moses spends forty days on the mountain in communion with God and returns with tablets of the Law. The presence of Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration reminds us of the voice of God in the burning bush and in Moses’ communion with God.

Elijah has important encounters with God on two mountains. One is Mt. Carmel, where he has a contest with the priests of the god Baal (I Kings 18:20-40). The priests of Baal build an altar and Elijah builds an altar. The priests of Baal take wood and lay it on the altar, then they take a bull and kill it and lay the meat on the wood. They dance around the altar, crying out to Baal, “O Baal, answer us!” As the day wears on, they are limping, but keep on going; you have to admire the sincerity of their belief. They even draw their own blood by cutting themselves. Elijah starts to make fun of them – the characters in the Bible are not always very nice; deal with it – and he says, “Hey! Maybe you should shout louder; he is, after all, a god! Maybe it’s his nap time! Or perhaps he’s gone on a trip somewhere and he isn’t having his messages forwarded!” Nothing happens. Then, late in the day, Elijah takes a bull and kills it and lays the meat on firewood on top of the altar of the Lord. He digs a trench around the altar; three times he has water poured all over the bull, enough water to drench the meat and the wood and to fill the trench. Then he says a simple, quiet prayer: “Show this people that you are truly God.” Fire falls from the sky, burns up the sacrifice and licks up the water in the trench.

Then, running for his life, Elijah also comes to Mt. Sinai. There on the mountain of God he has a vision of God, who speaks to him in the voice of sheer silence, and who tells him that he has work to do. So the presence of Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration reminds us that the Lord of Elijah is truly God and of the voice of God in the silence.

The Lord speaks, the Lord teaches, and the Lord is truly God. All this is wrapped up in the conversation of Jesus with Moses and Elijah. And one thing more: Luke even gives us a taste of what they talk about, namely “his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.” Interesting little word-note: the Greek word translated “departure” is “exodus;” Jesus is discussing his exodus with Moses and Elijah. That ought to ring bells of recognition for you.

And it reminds us of another mountain: Calvary. On Mount Calvary outside Jerusalem Jesus completed his exodus. The exodus that Moses led was from slavery to freedom and he took a people that was a nobody among the nations and forged them into the people of God. That exodus of Jesus on Calvary leads us from slavery to sin into the freedom of the Gospel and forges us into the people of God. All the Lord’s work on the mountains and hills of the Bible leads to Calvary, where Jesus on his Cross says, “It is completed.”

Sinai, Carmel, Transfiguration, Calvary: the voice of God in the Law and the Prophets is the voice of God in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. His exodus is the completion of God’s work on the mountains; he is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets.

You have made us part of a remarkable story, your word through the Law and the Prophets, fulfilled in our Lord Jesus Christ. Make us attentive to your voice and faithful to Christ’s exodus, which is our salvation. Amen.

Robert A. Keefer

Westminster Presbyterian Church

Clarinda, Iowa

[1] According to the Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, the same mountain is called “Sinai” in the Yahwist and Priestly traditions and “Horeb” in the Elohist and Deuteronomic traditions (vol. IV, p. 376).