Meditation on Matthew 17:1-7 (Revised Common Lectionary reading for February 23, 2020)

by Rev. Wilson Pruitt

Psalm 99:4 Mighty King. lover of justice, you have established equity; you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.

What is the limit of the justice of God? Too often, the church in the world is presented as navigating the Scylla and Charybdis of Realism and Idealism, but this is a deeply unfaithful dichotomy. And I mean ‘unfaithful’ in the literal sense of “lacking faith.” Is the justice of God limited by the Overton Window of our political institutions? This is one of the first responses to any language of prison abolition. The theological and biblical account is clear throughout. No biblical author ever writes in favor of chains. What is left is the limit of the Christian imagination of God’s justice and for too long the limit has been narrow. People have not seen God as a lover of justice for all but for some. We can see this contrast between limited justice verses expansive justice with Matthew’s account of the transfiguration. 

Matthew 17:1 Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves.

Matthew 17:2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white.

Matthew 17:3 Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.

Matthew 17:4 Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.

Peter misses the point. Peter wants to stay on the mountain. He thinks the vision is for him. Should we stay on the mountain or go back down? Are visions of God offered for the select few or all? Is justice offered for few or for all? Christian Abolition is a claim of faith about the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that God’s justice demands the chains be broken and that human notions of justice are passing away. Even the justice Paul describes in Romans 13 that is often held up to justify state authority is positioned next to the Justice of God. Authority comes from God, as all things come from God, but Paul is not telling the Church in Rome to be complacent or blindly follow but to “get rid of the actions that belong to the darkness and put on the weapons of light” (Romans 13:12b). Chains are an action of darkness. Freedom and reconciliation are weapons of light. 

Matthew 17:7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” 

We do not need to fear being faithful. We need not fear stretching God’s justice beyond the limits of current human institutions. Instead, we should be afraid of being unfaithful to the fullness of God’s justice and love.