Here are the passages for February 22, 2009, the Transfiguration of the Lord Sunday (Year B). All links are to the TNIV via BibleGateway.com, but if you prefer another translation, feel free to use that instead (either with your own Bible, or via the drop-down menu at BibleGateway.com).2 Kings 2:1-12
- This is one of those passages that, by virtue of what we are told, I am left to feel like there is also a lot that we are not told. How, for example, did Elisha learn that Elijah was to be taken from him on that day, as he asserts he already knew in verse three, and again in verse five?
- Did Elijah know that Elisha knew this already? Did Elijah tell Elisha this himself? If so, why are we not told this explicitly? Why did Elijah say that he was being sent to Bethel in verse 1, and later to Jericho in verse 5 and to Jordan in verse 6, with no indication that, if Elisha actually obeyed Elijah's instructions to stay behind, this would be a final good-bye?
- Why is there not a parallel group of prophets in Jordan asking Elisha if he knows that Elijah is about to be taken, as there was in both Bethel and Jericho?
- Why is Elisha's inheritance (of a double-portion of Elijah's spirit) contingent on whether or not Elisha sees Elijah taken away? Is this a test of some kind? If so, a test of what? Obedience? Ability? Is the question of whether or not Elisha sees Elijah taken away supposed to represent something else altogether? What is the significance of Elisha's seeing this event?
2 Corinthians 4:3-6
- Who is the "god of this age"? Why does Paul use the word "god" here?
- Why do Elijah and Moses, in particular, appear with Jesus? Why not other Biblical figures? Why not just one of them?
- How do the disciples know that it is Elijah and Moses who are appearing next to Jesus?
- Why does this event take place? What purpose is served by Jesus being transfigured in front of these few disciples? Why does it happen now, instead of at some other time in Jesus' ministry? Why does it seem to happen only the one time?
3 comments:
i thought the 22nd was the Sunday of CTK, since Lent begins on wednesday following the 22nd.
maybe i am wrong. i know that is how it is done in other denominations.
Christ the King comes at the other end of the Lectionary Calendar. It's the last Sunday before Advent. You can see reflections for the most recent Christ the King Sunday here (which you might note I originally did have on the wrong date, although it was for different reasons.
(Actually on that count, you ARE right in talking about the 22nd, but I seem to have somehow been talking about the 15th here. I don't know how that happened, although as I've already established, it isn't the first time. But, yes, these reflections ARE for the 22nd...)
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