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Looking back and ahead - Exodus 34:29-35, 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2, Luke 9:28-36 - Living by the Word - Column
Christian Century, Feb 15, 1995 by Darrell Jodock
In Luke 9 a voice from the cloud says, "This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!" Then the cloud disappears, Moses and Elijah are gone, and Jesus is alone. One implication is that Jesus has replaced Moses and Elijah.
In the epistle text, there appears to be a contrast between the apostles and Moses. Paul says that the splendor of God was veiled for those who listened to Moses. For the apostles, however, the splendor of God has been revealed. The revelation to Moses was annulled or "set aside," while to the apostles "the permanent" has "come in glory," and for this reason apostles and believers "have such a hope" and "act with great boldness"; they "are engaged in this ministry" and "do not lose heart."
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Now the problem: these two interpretations confirm and perpetuate a centuries-old pattern that exalts the new covenant by contrasting it unfavorably with the old. This pattern has contributed to the church's anti-Judaism and its "teaching of contempt." Basic to the teaching is the idea that Christianity has superseded Judaism. Jews are no longer in covenant with God but have been replaced by the Christian community. Judaism becomes a relic of the past, with no genuine vitality in the present and no viability for the future. Supersessionism implies that to be right with God, Jews should convert to Christianity. When they do not do so, they are accused of being stiff-necked and hard-hearted. How should a contemporary interpreter construe the relationship between the gospel and the religion of Israel so as not to perpetuate this "teaching of contempt"?
The question is urgent in a post-Holocaust Holocaust world. Although racial anti-Semitism is by no means the same as Christian anti-Semitism, centuries of anti-Judaism tilled the soil in which Nazi anti-Semitism took root and flourished. Contemporary Christians need to acknowledge that something went wrong when the pain of the first-century split between synagogue and church was passed to subsequent generations. When political power was added to one side of that ancient argument, the teaching of contempt shaped an entire culture. If the teaching of contempt is an essential element of Christianity, then it is morally untenable to be a Christian after the Holocaust. But I do not believe this to be the case. Supersessionism is not an essential element in Christian teaching and self-understanding. The polemics of the split were time-conditioned and are therefore revisable.
For example, the two appointed New Testament texts do not share the same historical setting. The Gospel of Luke was authored when church and synagogue were separating; Paul's letters were written earlier. Paul wrote as a Jew to fellow Jews. He was contending not with two separate religions, but with two movements within a dynamic, even chaotic, Judaism. Therefore we need to treat the epistle and Gospel texts differently.
When we carefully scrutinize what Paul is saying, we learn that veiling is attributed not only to Moses but also to unbelievers blinded by the "god of this world." We see that Moses' actions are misrepresented, for according to Exodus 34 he did not wear the veil when he spoke to the people. Paul seems to have anticipated misreadings of the books of Moses, for he expresses his concern in various places throughout his epistles. "The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." The same Spirit that called attention to the chosenness of Israel and announced the chosenness of Jesus also opens up the scriptures and transforms believers "from one degree of glory to another."
In these passages Paul celebrates a boldness that comes from the Spirit. This boldness witnesses to Christ rather than the apostles themselves. By following this approach today, we call attention not to the church and its self-exaltation at the expense of outsiders, but to the Christ who at his own expense exalted others, including us.
The Gospel text is an interpretation of the transfiguration event. Whatever may characterize Luke's interpretation, nothing in the transfiguration itself supports anti-Judaism. The same God who encountered Moses on one mountain transfigured Jesus on another. "While he was praying," Jesus joined Moses and Elijah in the circle of those who had seen God. If Luke's interpretation was influenced by the polemics of the latter part of the first century, then interpreters today need to reread the event in the light of what else is known about Jesus and his relationship to the Judaism of his day. Perhaps we can borrow Luke's emphasis on the continuity of God's activity. In our day, when the credibility of the entire tradition is at stake, the continuity among Moses, Elijah and Jesus is more important than the discontinuity.
Moreover, in Luke the transfiguration does not look back so much as it looks forward. It inaugurates Jesus' journey to Jerusalem - the goal that Moses and Elijah were discussing with Jesus. From here to the cross, Jesus will increasingly journey alone. For Luke the journey has universal significance: at his own expense Jesus opened the door for all.
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