The Sunday before Lent Year B
Taken from Twelve Months of Sundays Year B
Description
The Sunday before Lent
2 Kings 2.1–12
2 Corinthians 4.3–6
Mark 9.2–9
Mark sees the Transfiguration as an anticipated fulfilment of the promise in the previous verse (‘Some here will not die until they see the kingdom of God come with power’). The thin curtain separating God’s dimension from ordinary life is pulled back, and mortals gaze on abiding heavenly realities. The coming of God’s kingdom will involve earthly events; but those events will be precisely moments of revelation, unveiling God’s power and presence.
Past and future telescope together into a dazzling present. Elijah and Moses (that way round, oddly, in Mark’s account, highlighting Elijah as the forerunner and thus Jesus as the Coming One) stand for Prophets and Law...
Taken from Twelve Months of Sundays Year B by N T Wright