Transfiguration
– January 23rd and 24th, 2021 – Matthew
17
In the Name of Christ Jesus, the Light of the World +
But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and have no fear.” Thus far our text. Rise, and have no fear. What an odd thing to hear. Not an odd thing to hear from Jesus, but what an odd thing for us living today in the 21st Century to hear. And no, I'm not speaking to just the events of the last week, or of the last year, but pause for a moment and ponder how much of our lives have been encased, ensconced in fear. Our political parties live on fear – fear of what the other party might do. And there's been the fear of Terrorism that we've felt keenly since 9/11 – a terrifying “war on terror” - what a ridiculous sounding thing. But even before that – fears of what technology will do, fear of communism and nuclear holocaust, fear of a world war, fear of the great depression and drought. I think that's all of our lives – not too many of us were flapping it up in the roaring 20s. Almost a full century where, in spite of our progress and our growth in wealth and power, we've been surrounded by fear. When was the last time you could look at the news – on-line or the nightly news or opening up the daily paper back in the day – and there wasn't someone saying to you “you need to have this fear! You need to be afraid of this!” And some of those fears are real, and some were overblown – turns out egg yolks aren't in fact going to kill us all. It's hard to tell in the moment what is a true fear and what is over blown hype – and there's always more and more fear being poured upon us and pushed upon us and dumped upon us. The mantra of this world, of our day and age is this: be afraid. Thus life for sinners in a sinful world.
Epiphany is the season where we focus on Jesus revealing that He is true God. Whether He's a lad in His Father's house, or there's the voice from heaven at His baptism, or water to wine, or if there's a later Easter plenty of other miracles – the high point, the apex of Epiphany is today, the Transfiguration. And there's a lot going on in this text that points to Jesus being True God, so much wonder and awesomeness, but my friends, don't miss the true high point, the true thing that just emphasizes that Jesus is True God above all others. Let's look for it.
And after six days Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. The beginning of the revelation starts here. We miss it, because we don't live in old fashioned paganism, but going up on a mountain was a key, a sign that something divine and wondrous was going to happen. Temples were always on mountains, not valleys. So hearing this, we'd expect something cool to happen. And He was transfigured before them, and His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became white as light. Well there you go – the Transfiguration – Jesus starts shining, glowing! Well surely there's the proof that He's true God. Well, it is a neat thing, and we often think of this as the highlight (yes, I did say highlight) of the Transfiguration – but things like this have happened before. Angels shine, Moses glows with the reflected glory of God after he comes down from Sinai – it's cool, it is Jesus' own Divinity and not a mere reflection shining, but there's more beyond this.
And
behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with Him.
This is even cooler! This is even more profound. Moses is there.
Elijah, the greatest prophet is there. Basically two of the mount
Rushmore folks from the Old Testament are suddenly there and they are
talking to Jesus. You have Jesus speaking forth and dealing with
eternity – you have the Word of God dealing with folks who wrote
the Old Testament – this is a mighty, powerful revelation of who
Jesus is, that He is indeed True God! And one might be excused for
thinking that the story could end right here on this fantastic high
note and swelling music and isn't this just so cool. But it doesn't.
Peter
chimes in. And Peter said to Jesus, “LORD, it
is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here,
one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.
Now, there's a logic to what Peter suggests. This is around the
time of the festival of booths, where the children of Israel would
camp out and remember the wandering the wilderness. Peter offers to
get ready for this. And yet, it is one of the most idiotic, absurd
things in all of the Scriptures. Imagine that you were suddenly at
some profound event – let's say the announcing of the Declaration
of Independence – and Jefferson is there reading it off to all of
Philadelphia, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all
men are crea...” “Oh, wait, excuse me TJ, do you want me to go
get lunch on? Ham, would ham be good?” That is how absurd Peter's
suggestion in. Jesus is talking to Moses and Elijah – you would
give your eye-teeth to hear that conversation – and Peter busts
into the conversation and tries to make an excuse to break away and
go somewhere else. Utterly absurd.
Actually, it makes sense. Still absurd, but it makes sense. Peter is afraid. It's too much, it's too profound – it's too much for sinful Peter to see Jesus shine forth a bit of His glory, it's too much for Peter to see Moses and Elijah, it's too much to hear. So Peter does what sinful man always thinks to do – run away. But God has a sense of humor. The Father sees this playing out, and well Peter, since you saw fit to interrupt this conversation, allow Me an intrusion as well. 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.” It ratchets up even higher. The Glory Cloud shows up – remember from two weeks ago in the Old Testament when the temple is dedicated and the Glory of the Lord descends upon the Holy of Holies and the priests can't get in to do their work? Well, congrats Peter, you are now inside that cloud – something Moses and Elijah couldn't bear to do in their earthly days. And then it gets even higher – the Father Himself speaks – Listen to Jesus. Up and up it goes, the revealing that Jesus is true God!
And
down, down, down go Peter, James, and John. When
the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were
terrified.
They assume the position, and they expect to die. Duck and cover –
you cold war kids know the drill. Under the desk, close your eyes,
await the flash of light and the end. The fear, the terror, the
reality of being a sinful, mortal human being, and condensed and
compressed into one fantastic, terrifying point. And that's where
the disciples are.
And now, finally, finally we are ready to get to the high point of this text, the point where Jesus fully shows Himself to be True God. 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, my friends, is the point, the apex of the Jesus revealing who He is. The shining, the saints of old, the glory – that's actually all secondary. All of that could in fact be terrifying and bad. But right here, this is the thing. Jesus touches them and says, “Rise, and have no fear.” This Jesus, this man who is also true God – He has come for you, for your good, to be God for you, for your benefit. He has come to rescue you and deliver you from the fear that swirls around in the world.
Fear is the specialty of the world. It is its power, the leverage it wields to push and prod and drive us all over. And so often we are caught up in those fearful games. But you do not belong to the world, you do not belong to Satan and his terror, you do not belong to death. Because Christ Jesus has come to you, and He has attached His Word (Listen to Him!) to water, and He has touched you, claimed you as His own. You belong to the Triune God, not the world. You belong to He who is the Resurrection and the life, not to death. You are clothed in the robes of Christ's righteousness – and your sin is no more, for it has been obliterated upon the Cross. This is the truth, the reality of who you are. And yet, we are still in the world. And the world will keep on spinning fear at us. It has all our days till now, and it will for the rest of the days that God grants us here. What that fear will look like, how real and dangerous it will be – I don't know. But here is the thing, my friends. Even if that fear ends up becoming real and close and dangerous – even if it condenses down to a fine, dagger sharp point and closes in upon you, even when it drives you to close your eyes in death – so be it. Jesus Christ is True God, and He is True God for you. And do you know what this True God does? He touches His disciples, His friends, His loved ones, and He says to them Rise and have no fear. And it doesn't matter what the world throws at you – you will hear Jesus speak these words to you, and you will rise, and you will have no fear, and instead you will simply delight in all His gifts of the life of the world to come, along with Moses and Elijah and Peter and James and John and all the saints who have gone before us and all the saints who have yet to be baptized into our joyous throng. And for now, our lives as Christians, just practice and preparation, reminders of what is to come. You will hear it for Jesus, True God and True Man, has died and risen for you – Rise and Have no Fear. In the Name of Christ Jesus, the Light of the World +
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