Symmetry in Abraham's Test and Jesus' Transfiguration and Sacrifice: 2nd Sunday in Lent

Listen to the homily here.

Notes:

The test of Abraham and the Transfiguration

·      Symmetry in our salvation history

One word: “terrified”

·      During the transfiguration of Jesus Christ, an experience of Jesus’ divinity, Peter, “…hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified.”

o   Scared, yep.  Confusion, yep.  I mean, what did they see?

·      While this word was not in the book of Genesis as we listened to Abraham’s test, would he be terrified?

o   Yep.

Another connection

·      Who was the test about?  Isaac, Abraham’s, “beloved son”

·      And what did God say during Jesus’ transfiguration?  “This is my beloved Son.  Listen to him."

A third

·      Abraham’s Test

o   Isaac carried the wood, up a mount—a height—with his father

o   Abraham’s test was a sacrifice for his son

§  “‘Abraham, Abraham!’
‘Here I am!’ he answered.
‘Do not lay your hand on the boy,’ said the messenger.
‘Do not do the least thing to him.
I know now how devoted you are to God, 
since you did not withhold from me your own beloved son.’”

o   God then gave him a ram to offer a sacrifice

o   Do you know where this place is, still today?  Jerusalem—called “The Dome of the Rock”—in the Islam mosque

·      Transfiguration

o   “As they were coming down from the mountain,
he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone,
except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead.”

o   Now we know:

§  Jesus carried the cross with his Father

§  But he was sacrificed for whole family

o   Do you know where this place is today?

o   The Sepulcher

·      Do you know far it is from Abraham’s test and Jesus’ death?  700 meters

The best book ever shows the whole story of salvation history.  So does geography, the holy land and Jerusalem

·      Let us continue to walk up to the mountain of faith, hope and love as we prepare for Easter