We are now in the second week of Lent. The Gospel for Sunday, Week 2 of Lent, is the Transfiguration of Christ, as recorded by St. Mark in his Gospel (9:2-10).
The
First Reading at Mass is from Genesis 22, the story of the sacrifice of Isaac.
Although Isaac was not killed after all (God’s mercy), a sacrifice consists in
the offering and not in the slaughter, so the sacrifice of love was indeed
made.
From
the earliest days of Christianity, the Church Fathers saw this sacrifice of
Isaac as a type, an image, a foreshadowing of the Passion and death of Christ
on the Cross. St. John Chrysostom (AD 344/354-407) wrote, “All these things
were types of the Cross. That is why Christ said: Abraham rejoiced that he
might see My day; he saw it, and was glad. How did he see it, considering that
he [Abraham] was born so many years before? In type and in shadow.... The
reality had to be depicted beforehand in type.”
To
show just some of the parallels we will compare the Scriptures on the Sacrifice
of Isaac, followed by the Scriptures on the Sacrifice of Christ, as follows:
Isaac
carried “the wood” of his own sacrifice up the mountain (Gen 22:4-6) – Jesus
the Son carries the wood of His Cross up to Golgotha (Jn 19:17).
Isaac
says, “My Father,” in the face of his sacrifice (Gen 22:7) – Jesus prays,
“Father,” in the face of His sacrifice (Mt 14:36).
Abraham
declares that “God will provide Himself the lamb” for sacrifice (Gen 22:8) –
Jesus is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29).
Isaac
willingly offers himself in sacrifice in obedience to his father (Gen 22:9) –
Jesus willingly offers Himself in sacrifice in obedience to the Father (Jn10:18).
God
provided a “ram” caught by his horns in a “thicket” [thorns] instead of Isaac
(Gen 22:13) – God provides His Son wearing a crown of thorns on His head (Mt27:29).
The
sacrifice of Isaac takes place on Mount Moriah (= Jerusalem) (Gen 22:2, 4; 2Chron 3:1) – The sacrifice of Jesus takes place in Jerusalem (= Mount Moriah)
(Mt 27:33; cf., 2 Chron 3:1).
Now
there is another parallel in the Bible with Isaac and Jesus, this time relating
to the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ. At the Transfiguration (as at Jesus’
baptism) the Father’s voice from heaven says, “My Beloved Son” (Mark 9:7). The
same phrase (five words in Greek), “your beloved son,” is used by God in
speaking to Abraham about his son, Isaac, in the Greek version (LXX) of Genesis 22:2, 12, and 16 (three times!). (This Greek version was used by Jesus, the
Disciples, the Early Church, and is still used by the Orthodox Church and many
others today.) The repetition by God of these five words as to Isaac and to
Christ is no mere coincidence.
We see here the continuity of Scripture: God was showing gradually over time, in events and history, in image and type, what was to come at the center of all of history, the sacrificial Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Christ, the Son of God. With the Transfiguration, it is slightly different. The transfigured Christ shows an image or type, in His human flesh – the same human flesh that we share – of what His humanity was to become after His Resurrection, Ascension, and Glorification. That Transfiguration is a “type” or preview, of what, for all those who are “in Christ,” their humanity will become at their resurrection.
Dibby Allan Green