Transfiguration Sunday –
Matthew 17 – January 16/17th, 2016
In the Name of Christ
Jesus, the Light of the World +
They
were afraid. When people got a glimpse of the unbridled Glory of
God, when sinful men got a taste of this, they became terrified. We
see this both in the Old Testament and the New Testament. In the
Old, Moses comes down the mountain from having talked with God while
getting the 2nd
copy of the 10 commandments, and what happens? When
Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the
testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did
not know that the skin of his face shown because he had been talking
with God. Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold,
the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.
Even Aaron, the high priest, Moses’ own brother is terrified of
merely the reflected Glory of God. They even finally talk Moses into
keeping a veil over his face because Moses’ glowing face freaked
them out.
And
then in the New, we have the Gospel lesson today – the
Transfiguration. Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up on a mountain
– and Jesus is transfigured, He begins to glow, and Moses and
Elijah show up – and Peter, Peter is bold, as bold as only Peter
can be. Lord, it is good that we are here.
If you wish, I will make three tents, one for you and one for Moses,
and one for Elijah. It was the time of
the festival of booths, the festival of tents – where basically all
the faithful Jews would camp out and remember the wanderings in the
desert. Peter’s able to handle seeing the transfiguration – he
just wants to keep busy, busy and focused somewhere else. Maybe
Moses and Elijah are just here to celebrate the feast with us –
I’ll keep busy. I’ll set up some tents. He
was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them,
and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom
I am well pleased; listen to Him.” When the disciples heard this,
they fell on their faces and were terrified.
And then the voice of God comes from the cloud, and it’s too much,
and the disciples cower in fear. A transfigured Christ – we can
keep busy, we can work through this amazement – but God’s voice –
duck and cover, duck and cover.
We
will in modern American Christianity talk about God’s glory a lot.
We like to talk about God’s majesty and strength. Glory, Glory,
Hallelujah. Awesome God who does cool stuff, yeah! On and on. But
here is what happens. When our focus shifts to God’s power or
glory, we forget one simple thing. God’s glory is too much for
sinful man to handle. We see this in the Old Testament, we see this
in the New Testament. When people see God let His Glory, His
Godliness shine forth – it is terrifying. Now, think for moment,
imagine a situation with me. Let’s say, in the middle of this
sermon this evening/morning, my voice starts to get unnaturally loud
- and the earth starts to quake – and thunders and lightnings come
– and angels appear behind me – what would happen? Honestly,
what would your reaction be? I’d be freaked out, but too scared to
stop talking. Y’all would probably dive under the pews. If a
touch of God’s unbridled Glory popped out here, even here in
Church, we would be terrified. It happened to Isaiah in Church, and
he was terrified. “Woe is me, for I am a
man of unclean lips!” That’s what
would happen. The unveiled glory of God is terrifying to us here on
earth.
And
why? Because we are sinful people. When we are walking around in
normal life here on earth, we can get cocky. We can get a little
proud in how good we are. We’re decent people – show up to
church, put money in the plate – we can compare ourselves to other
people, the godless hordes out there, and get to feeling pretty good
about ourselves. That’s because all too often we examine our lives
not in terms of God’s Word, not in terms of His absolutes, not in
terms of have you done all that you ought – but rather we compare
ourselves to others selectively, remembering only their faults and
weaknesses, and comparing that to our successes and strengths. Thing
is – when God shows up, when God shines forth His glory, we see how
shallow and poor we are in comparison to Him, we see that we fall
short, and we crash, we flee in terror, we run and hide – just like
Adam in the garden when God calls out to him after the fall.
So,
why do I bring this up? What is the point in talking about this?
Because today, in seeing Peter, James, and John – Disciples,
Apostles, heroes of the faith – on their knees cowering in fear, we
see the fundamental problem of our lives. Sin isn’t just doing bad
stuff. Sin isn’t just being naughty. It’s not just that we
happen to sin – it’s that we are sinful – that we are full of
sin. We are sinners – people who on account of their wicked and
corrupt natures end up sinning. And there’s nothing we can do to
change that – we are sinners, that’s who we are. Period. And
because we are sinners – by our nature we are shut off from God.
Like we say in the meaning to the third article, we can’t by our
own reason or strength go to God, we can’t come to Him – why?
Because on our own we are sinners. Sinners don’t saunter up to a
holy God and ask Him how His day was. When a kid is in big trouble,
does he want to go chat his your parents? No! How much more so the
sinner with God? Our sinfulness, which we all have from the day we
were conceived separates us from God – and we can’t fix it. We
can’t do anything about it – when sinful people stumble upon
God's unbridled glory, we have no choice but to cower.
But
Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and have no fear.”
And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.
This is why Christ Jesus comes. Epiphany is
the season where we see, where we remember that Jesus is indeed God –
God come to us humbly as a servant, coming to us as a Human, coming
to us in a away where He can be with us without terrifying us. Jesus
hides His glory most of the time so that He can come to us sinners.
The way in which we know God, the way we understand Him, isn’t in
His almighty power – we can’t grasp that, and what little we can
terrifies us. We don’t understand God’s majesty, and when we see
it we become afraid. But God reveals Himself to us in Christ, in
becoming man, in becoming One of us and coming to us in a way that we
can handle. And so, because of this great wisdom and love of God, we
see no one but Jesus only. He is how, He is the only way we
understand God. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life – we can't
get to the Father apart from Him. Paul preaches Christ and Him
Crucified. Hear how Hebrews describes this. Long
ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the
prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom
He appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the
world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint
of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the Word of His power.
After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of
the Majesty on high. Jesus is true God,
in Him we get everything there is to get, all the power, all the
glory – but behold how God works. He comes to us while we are
still sinners, while we are still sinful, but He comes in a way which
we can tolerate, in a way which doesn’t completely destroy us. And
what does He do? In our Gospel, Jesus doesn’t stay up on the
mountain, He doesn’t just bask in His own glory. Rather, He goes
to comfort the disciples – He tells them not to fear. Why can
Jesus say this? Because He knows He is going to the Cross.
We
can’t handle, we can’t deal with our sin. But Jesus can and
Jesus does. He takes on our flesh, becomes one of us for the express
purpose of going to the Cross. This is why He comes, to go to the
Cross – to make purification for sins, to justify us – to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness – this is the work of the Cross. This
is why He comes, to rise again, to walk forth from the tomb bringing
life in His train – so that He can say, “See, I have won for you
the forgiveness of sins and now give to you life Eternal.” Jesus
comes to work, Jesus comes to get down to business – Jesus comes to
touch us while we are by our sinful nature His enemies and give us
life. But God shows His love for us in
this that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
This is what Jesus does.
And
this is what Jesus does for us still today. Think on this – as
I’ve already pointed out, if we were to see God’s unveiled glory
while still on earth in this sinful flesh, we would freak out. Yet
God still deigns to come to us and bring us forgiveness. How? Not
through earth shaking power. Not through fire and brimstone and
flashing lights. God comes to us in ways that don’t destroy us –
God gives Himself to us in ways that we can handle. He comes in His
Word – through hearing His Word. And not echoing, booming sounds –
but Words spoken and read by normal people in normal ways. He comes
in Baptism – think on that – a washing which cleanses all our
sin, which unites us to God, which joins us to Christ’s death and
resurrection. When Christ died the earth shook, the clouds blotted
out the sun, when He rose nothing could contain Him – and yet we
are connected to Christ’s death and resurrection by water and the
Word – in a manner so gentle even infants can bear it. He comes to
us in the Lord’s Supper. Think on that – God gives us His own
Body and Blood – we take and eat, we take and drink for forgiveness
– and how can we receive this? Because He gives us His Body and
Blood in a way that we can handle, that we can receive – through
bread and wine. He comes to us sinful men to forgive us our sins in
ways in which we can handle.
Yes,
Jesus reveals His glory upon the mountain of transfiguration. We see
God’s glory revealed, we have confirmed for us that Jesus is indeed
true God. But Jesus doesn’t just stay there – His ultimate
purpose isn’t to show how wonderful He is. Rather, He leads His
disciples down the mountain, and He walks undaunted and boldly to the
Cross, where He wins for us forgiveness. And Jesus continues His
work today as He comes to us in His Word, in Baptism, in His Supper.
He comes to us gently, so that we receive Him without fear and simply
rejoice in the forgiveness of sin. The world looks at this – looks
at God at work in His Word and shrugs. The world sees Baptism and
mocks it – How can water do such things? The world hears that
Christ gives us His own Body and Blood in His Supper and calls Jesus
a liar, says it’s just a chunk of bread, a bit of wine and nothing
more. The world foolishly craves glory and power. But we have been
called into God’s house, brought into His family; we have received
His forgiveness, and so we see and know and thirst for the
forgiveness which He gladly and continually provides for us in His
Church. And because we have been forgiven, we look forward to the
resurrection of the dead, when we and all believers in Christ will be
raised to glorious and eternal life, and once again enjoy perfection,
and delight forever more without fear, in God’s Glory in His
Heavenly Kingdom. In the Name of Christ Jesus, the Light of the
World + Amen
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