Word for the Week: Holding Out for a Hero
Jesus’ face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.
Matthew 17:2-3
Malachi, the last prophet in the Old Testament, had promised that Elijah would come again to warn the people of the coming Kingdom of God. Some wondered whether John the Baptist, or even Jesus himself, was Elijah come back. The longing that one day the promised messiah would come to vindicate and rescue his people was a powerful undercurrent during the time of Jesus’ ministry.
Elijah was a hero, a powerful prophet, but a very human one. He faced up to a wicked tyrant who might have executed him, and then fled in fear and despair. Elijah saw God’s power at work in answer to his prayers, then sank into doubt and depression. Moses was the hero of the Exodus, the mediator of the covenant and the law. But he too was human, doubting his ability to do what God planned for him, not trusting the Lord’s word at Meribah.
The news today is full of leaders and personalities. Some are media celebrities – footballers, soap actors, singers. Some are religious leaders, powerful clerics who are given unquestioning obedience, though there are not so many of these where European cynicism about religion prevails. Some are politicians. Many are given more than human stature, until they fall from grace. Then they may well be vilified and humiliated. To recognise and honour abilities and gifts of leadership, but at the same time allow for human frailty and failure is difficult in a culture that wants simple ‘yes or no’ definitions of issues and of heroes.
So one message of the transfiguration is that heroes of the faith are still human for all their gifts. Like us, heroes of all kinds need a saviour. There are many lessons for us in the lives of both Elijah and Moses, but don’t hold out for a perfect hero. Jesus is the only one and as he is transfigured before them, Peter, James and John, Elijah and Moses all bow in worship before him.
Margaret Killingray
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