Jesus Lights The Way Through Darkness To Love

Jesus Unmasked

“Jesus Unmasked” is now a FB live as well as a podcast! Adam and Lindsey unmask Jesus from exclusive theology and violent cultural lenses. But, during Covid times, Jesus would wear a mask! Loving others as Jesus loves us requires us to wear a mask too. O, Shiny Jesus! This is the Gospel for Transfiguration Sunday, the Sunday before the Lenten journey begins. Coinciding this year with Valentine’s Day, it’s a magnificent day to remember that the light of love shines through all of us. What is the Transfiguration? Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up to the top of a mountain, and there he is illuminated. As he radiates near-blinding light, suddenly at his side appear Moses and Elijah, the Law and the Prophets. It is a mystical experience in which Jesus’s disciples see Jesus at the center of their past and future; for a brief moment they see a flash of who they are and what life means in Jesus’s light. Jesus stands in continuity with the law and the prophets, but also in contrast. For after the clouds pass, Moses and Elijah disappear and only Jesus remains. He has taken the best of all Moses and Elijah stand for into himself, without the violence or bloodshed of their stories. A voice from heaven speaks, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” And Jesus’s light guides our understanding of all that has happened and all that is to come. The illuminated Jesus guides us through our Lenten journey, our dark night of the soul. When Jesus comes down from the mountain, he is headed to Jerusalem, where he will die. Lent is our journey to Jerusalem, when we take a hard look at the injustice in the world that continues to harm God’s living image (all people)… and when we open our eyes to the ways we participate in this injustice. But along the way, we follow the immense beauty and love radiating from Jesus, taking that light into ourselves until it shines from the inside-out. We warmly invite you to join the conversation every Wednesday afternoon at 5 CT / 3 PT on the Raven Foundation Facebook page!