Transforming the Beast

Scripture: Luke 9:2-36; 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2

People frequently ask me – because I used to work for Disney animation – what my favorite Disney movie was. My answer is always simple – my two favorite movies are Mulan and Beauty and the Beast.

And the reason I love these movies is because they’re movies about transformation. Beauty and the Beast in particular, if you remember right, started off with the handsome prince being turned into a horrible looking beast – the point – to make his outside reflect what was on the inside. A beast. An angry, ugly, snarling beast that cared nothing about anyone but himself. And the only thing that was going to change him back was to act in love towards another. His was a self-serving love at first—he wanted someone to love him so that he could change back—but that wasn’t how it worked. The beast soon discovered that unless he acted out of genuine self-lessness—that when he genuinely loved someone other than himself, it perhaps meant not having things the way he wanted them.

So through the course of the movie—and I apologize if you’ve never seen it, but it has been out for 20 years—we watch as the beast undergoes this transformation of his heart—where he goes from being a self-absorbed beast, to a human being who cares more for someone other than himself. When that happens… well, sometimes it’s easier to watch what happens….so here…

Well, just as the beast had become the beast to reflect what was in his heart, now he is transformed  back to reveal that the beast is no longer what is on the inside.

If only it were that easy in everyday life. That our outer looks accurately reflected what was on the inside of each and every one of us. Of course, there would probably be a lot more beasts wandering around town. But there would be so little to have to hide, as well. Because we all have that “inner beast” that we wrestle with, that God grabs hold of and transforms within us on a daily basis.

The strange thing is that while I sit here and I joke about us walking around having our outside reflect our inside—that’s exactly what Paul is stating we, as Christians, should do. That the veil, the mask, the things we use to try and hide our innermost selves—are to be taken away. That we all have “unveiled faces,” as we are being “transformed” into the same image—the image of Christ. A reflection of Christ in the world so that when people look at us—they see what is also inside of us—which is Christ. That the “beast” within us be transformed into something wholly and completely different. Not self-serving and all about what I want and what I need, what I like what best suits me… but what best meets the needs of others.

And that means that we are needing to be changed. And nobody likes change, right? We like our comfort zones. We like the familiar. We like things… well, the way we like them. The unknown, the unfamiliar, that which is “different” that which is a “change” in our comfort zone—it scares us. We don’t like it. It’s not how we’ve “always done things.”

So on the one level—we ask God to change us… but not too much. Don’t change something so much that I’m not comfortable with it anymore, God.

But that’s what happened in Christ as well—the veil was removed, and we are now able to see God more clearly. There is still a certain hidden-ness to God, things we still don’t know or understand—but God’s revelation in Christ made things far clearer. Moses was told to hide his face from God, that he could not look upon it, and when Moses came down the mountain and his face shone—much like Jesus’ face shone at the transfiguration—the people wanted him to put a veil over HIS face as well. But in Jesus—those veils are removed. The glory of God is revealed and shines forth and rather than being told to hide our faces—Jesus constantly invites us to “come and see.” Peter, James and Paul were invited along to see that glory revealed—the veil was lifted. Christ’s true and inner divine nature came forth and rather than wanting to throw a veil over it, Peter wanted to stay in the moment.

Kind of like whenever I watch that movie – that transformation scene is always my favorite. I don’t really ever care if I watch the entire rest of that movie – I just like to watch that transformation scene over and over again—and love it. Just want to bask in it. It’s just such a lovely scene. I just don’t want it to end.

That’s kind of what Peter is thinking in our gospel lesson for today as well. He sees this transfiguration of Jesus – this glorious light of God that is coming out of Jesus way up on this mountain top… and he wants to just stay there for a while. He says hey, let’s build some tents and set up camp here for a while because I kinda like it here. This is a nice scene. Let’s not mess with what is happening right now.

Unfortunately for Peter, Jesus isn’t going to let him just sit there with the rewind button and stay on this scene for very long. He’s going to force Peter to leave that place of comfort. He’s going to force Peter, James and John to go back down the mountain and into the valley where life is going to get messy yet again.

But the mountaintop was so nice Jesus! We were there with you and Moses and Elijah… and we saw God revealed in you… we liked that. Let’s just stay right there. Things are good on the mountaintop.

But Jesus says no. Get off the comfortable mountaintop. Because the work that still needs to be done is messy work. Rather than staying in your comfort zone, I’m going to send you down into a world where your comfort zone gets shaken.

And the realities of what is still going on in the world immediately face Jesus and the disciples. Once they come down the mountain and get back into the valley and continue on about the business of casting out demons, healing the sick, etc., Jesus knows from this point forward things are only going to get worse, not better as he makes his trek toward the cross.

And as we move down that mountainside with him, we too begin to realize that the euphoria of the transfiguration, the wonder of knowing that God is in our midst—begins to wear off.

Because you know that moment—don’t you? That moment when God seems so close and so near—when he’s revealed himself to you in a way that gets you excited and on fire for God. And we want that feeling to last. We want that closeness, that nearness to God to be ever-present.

We want the mountaintop experience to keep on going… but it doesn’t, and we find ourselves thrust back into a world where earthquakes still rock our world. Where gunmen walk into our businesses and shake our sense of security. When they walk onto university campuses and open fire. We are back into a world where we are constantly being shaken out of our safety and comfort zones. Where death, violence, and war run rampant. Where we are fearful and desire to regain some sense of control over both our lives and our world.

And sadly – when we get shaken out of our safety and comfort zones, we tend to do seemingly strange things. We run to and try to cling to the things we think we DO have control over. In the case of the disciples—in the following verses they begin to do things like start arguing over who is going to be the greatest among them. Or telling others who are going around casting demons out in Jesus’ name that they can’t do that because they’re not “one of them.” They lose their focus and they begin to miss the point of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.

And Jesus’ frustration with them is clear. He’s beginning his journey to the cross and they can’t even cast out a simple demon. They get distracted by literally themselves.

But God’s not done with these disciples and he will succeed in transforming them—to continue to mold and to shape them. And we know that he continues to work in and through us, transforming us as well to be able to show the world that transformation—to show forth Christ within us so that people DO see what is on the inside being reflected on the outside.