Motivation

Motivation

Motivation is the firing-pin for the choices we make. What motivated Jesus to invite Peter, James and John to climb the mountain with him on the occasion we know as ‘The Transfiguration’? The simple answer is we do not know. Jesus gave no explanation. This Sunday we read St.Luke’s account of Jesus’ Transfiguration (9:28-36).

There were benefits to Peter, James and John resulting from their presence at The Transfiguration. Did their presence bring benefits to Jesus, too, and if so what might these be?

Jesus, aged 12, by staying behind at the Jerusalem Temple, had demonstrated his commitment to his heavenly Father (Luke 2:51). Years later and now an adult, Jesus stood on the bank of the River Jordan (Luke 3:21). Though not dissimilar in appearance to other male Jews of similar age; to those ‘with eyes to see’ Jesus was different. He was his own man, able to engage others by his quietness and directness.

Jews responded to John-the-Baptiser’s preaching by accepting his ‘baptism of water’ as a sign of contrition for their failures in living by The Covenant. Jesus’ choice to step into the River Jordan that day came from a very different motivation. His action, the outward expression of a total conviction, was the result of his preceding years. By it, Jesus declared to his heavenly Father his willingness to take on himself the sin of the whole world, past, present and future. He offered himself as the unique, living sacrifice who alone was capable of taking away the sin of the world. Each time we approach Holy Communion we acclaim Jesus’ uniqueness with the triple acclamation: “Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us.”

His redemptive act would stretch, without interruption, from that moment, through our age, to the end of the world. The proof is found in the words of his heavenly Father recorded by Matthew (3:17); Mark (1:11); and Luke (3:22). The acceptance of Jesus’ free choice is confirmed by his heavenly Father and the presence of the Holy Spirit. Jesus’ private, formative years, were ended. His public ministry had commenced. Jesus knew that, ‘His hour had come.”

It is important for us to appreciate that at no time in his earthly journey was Jesus acting out a prepared script to which he was privy. Jesus is truly human as much as he is truly God. Being truly human, he has to experience day by day the unfolding events of his life, just as do you and I. True, his vision is not impaired, as is ours, by personal sin. He had an innate and unsullied awareness of The Truth and equally of the presence of Evil. But Jesus’ daily life was as much a revelation to him as is ours to us. Were that not the case then the validity of Jesus’ humanity is questionable. Humans are limited to the present with some sense of history and hope for the unknown of the future. The only certain time we have is ‘this moment’.

Our limited knowledge about ourselves means people look to one another for affirmation. At the same time, there’s a risk allowing someone to be privy to our deepest self. A genuine declaration of love leaves the declarant extremely vulnerable. Where there is a positive, reciprocal response, the declarant is deeply affirmed. Such a depth of declared, reciprocated affirmation paves the way for the development of a bond, a union for life. Jesus was still discovering, day by day, the depth and detail of his vocation. That mountain top declaration, revelation, by God his heavenly Father was a two-way-street for Jesus. It reinforced what had been heard at his Baptism. But there was more. Jesus would also be affirmed by Peter’s declaration, “Rabbi, It is good for us to be here …” (Mark 9:2) and the unspoken but still real affirmation of James and John evidenced by their holding of the silence that Jesus requested about what he had allowed them to witness.

Jesus needed, as do we all, to learn the truth of his Baptismal vocation. For Jesus, his growing awareness of the Calvary which awaited him required both heavenly and earthly affirmation. The former was constant; the latter, unpredictable. By their presence at The Transfiguration, Peter, James and John affirmed Jesus.

Did Jesus, like us, experience moments of human wonder about the depth of his communion with God, his heavenly Father? In his pain-racked isolation on Calvary’s Cross Jesus was heard to cry out: ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ which is translated, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” (Mark 15:34; Matthew 27:46). This would not have been the first time he had voiced these words which form the opening part of Psalm 22, a psalm that ends on a triumphant note.

Peter, James and John’s privileged insight into this person who had engaged them with his genuine friendliness and who spoke with a ring of authority which could only emanate from the Truth, did not save them from themselves. Later, these three were to be found asleep-on-duty in the Garden of Gethsemane. The three, with the others Jesus had chosen, would abandon Jesus in the same Garden. Peter would publicly disown Jesus three times.

Yet Jesus had said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24) From their hiding places would Jesus’ apostles have remembered his words as they watched his agony of death unfold?

Each of us is born with specific gifts or talents that form part of our unique personality. Intuitively and from very early years, people demonstrate fluency for languages, a musical ability, skills in treating animals etc. Equally, our talent may be in drawing from others the hidden depths of their ability to care of which they were unaware until faced with our disability, autism, lack of sight etc.

If our abilities have always been part of who we are, we rarely regard them as exceptional. That’s why we may need someone outside of ourselves to identify them for us. What others see in us as exceptional, we may see as normal. In the understanding of the fullness of his unique vocation, Jesus needed others.

Perhaps in 2013, as we listen again to the Gospel of The Transfiguration we can approach it from a different angle. To what ‘mountain top’ might Jesus be inviting us? Through another’s affirmation of our God-given gifts and talents perhaps we’ll discover how to affirm those who, for whatever reason, are finding it hard to appreciate God’s nearness to them at this point in their pilgrimage to him. It’s worth bearing in mind that Jesus, immediately after his Resurrection, reinstated the very people who had slept-on-duty, abandoned and even denied knowing him. What Jesus did for them, he will do lovingly for us, too, so long as we allow him.