Transfiguration Sermon

Transfiguration Sunday – Matthew 17 – January 27^th and 28^th, 2023

In the Name of Christ Jesus, the Light of the World +

So, what sort of God do you have? This Jesus Christ, Whose birth we have celebrated, Who has done signs and miracles, what is He like? That's the question we've been pondering this Epiphany season, and today, we hit the pinnacle of the season of Epiphany. There on the mountaintop, Jesus brings along with Him Peter, James, and John, and well Moses and Elijah too, and through the Prophetic Word of Matthew even us – and on that Mountaintop we behold Jesus' Transfiguration. For a brief time while He is on earth, Jesus' own Divine radiance shines forth unhindered. There He is, True God and True Man, God in Man made manifest! But the transfiguration is a bit more than that – it tells us what this Jesus, this True God and True Man is like. Jesus is the God who would come down from heaven for you, for us men and for our Salvation – and the Transfiguration shows us precisely what this means. Listen.

After six days Jesus took with Him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them, and His face shone like the sun, and His clothes were as white as light. There on the mountain, the glory of Jesus shines forth. Bright, glowing, awesome. We hear this description of Jesus, and we can think, “How wondrous! How strange!” Well, no – it's not strange, it's actually the normal for Jesus. There's a reason I've been calling Jesus the Light of the World. This is normal – He's God, of course He's glorious and radiant. This is why sinful people can't really bear to talk to Him through the Old Testament – this is why Moses' face is glowing with reflected glory after Moses spent too long on Mount Sinai talking to Him. This is why in Revelation we hear the New Jerusalem described this way: And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. This glowing, glorious Jesus is typical, is normal. It is who He is.

And there's more – And Behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with Him. Who is this Jesus? Well, He's the LORD, the God who spoke with the prophets of Old in the Old Testament. When Moses was on Sinai talking to the LORD, He was talking to Jesus. When Elijah hides in the cleft of the Rock and talks with the glorious but still whisper, he's talking to Jesus. Jesus is the LORD, He is the Word of God. And all that Moses wrote, all that the prophets proclaimed, that's Jesus' Word. The Old Testament is Jesus' book, just as much as the New Testament, because Jesus spent the Old Testament talking to His people of old and having them proclaim His Word to the people. Moses, here's My commandments; Elijah, here is what I say. And all the rest of the Prophets, all the Psalms and the wisdom – that's Jesus' Word. Jesus is Glorious! Jesus is the Word of God! He is the source of the Scriptures, the point of them all, because Moses and the Prophets testify of Jesus. How Great! How Grand!

Except there is one problem, one giant elephant in the room. 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. This seems so random to us – why make tents? I mean, that's not our normal reaction to seeing something great. Oh, thanks for coming by, can I get you something to drink, pitch you a tent? And it's strange because even in Israel pitching a tent wouldn't be normal hospitality. But here's where we need to think Old Testamentally – and what's a tent in the Old Testament? The great tent of the Old Testament was the Tabernacle – when the children of Israel were wandering in the desert, the Glory of the Lord moved around with them in the tabernacle, the great Holy Tent, the portable temple that was used before Solomon's temple was built. And the Tabernacle was where the Glory of the LORD, the Glory Cloud, the Shekhinah would sit – and when that was there, no one went into the Tabernacle (or the temple). This is what John was referring to in our Christmas Day lesson when he says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt [literally “tented”] among us.” Peter sees this glory, and it's too much for him to bear. He's a sinful man, and sinful man cannot bear the glory of God, cannot bear the wonders of heaven, cannot enjoy paradise. When there's the Holy God and Sinful Man, someone has to hide – either the man has to run away – like Adam and Eve in the Garden, Moses covering his face approaching the burning bush, Elijah hiding in the cave – or God has to hide His Glory – and dwell in the temple.

So, what Peter is actually saying is, “We shouldn't be here because we are going to die, but I can make a tent and You can go there and I can live. I will do what I need to do to make this something we all can survive, because the Glory of God needs to be hidden, needs to be covered up, or I'm going to die. And Peter's plan is a tent. But, the Father in Heaven decides to cut off Peter's plan. He was still speaking when, behold – poor Peter doesn't even get to finish giving his plan, when suddenly – a bright cloud overshadowed them – oh Peter, you aren't going to build a tabernacle – nope, you're in the glory cloud now that even the priests didn't dare to enter – and a voice from the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, with Whom I am well pleased; listen to Him.” And the voice of God. When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified. Of course they were, because they were dead men. This is the sort of story that killed people all through the Old Testament. You mess with God's Glory, you hear His unbridled voice – you died.

Now pause for a moment. Who is Jesus? What's He like? Well, we see here that Jesus by rights is glorious and powerful. That Heaven is His, that by rights He should be able to talk to Moses or Elijah or any of the other heroes of the Bible for as long as He wants. But there's a problem with this – Peter, James, and John – they couldn't handle that. They couldn't be with that Jesus yet, not until something is done about their sin, not until something is done about death and the power of the Devil.

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. So, who is Jesus, what's He like? Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven. Jesus is the God who will willingly step away from heaven, who will slough off His own glory, who will for a time give up chats with Moses and Elijah, who will take on Human Flesh that human beings can handle, can touch... who will even go to the Cross and suffer and cry out “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me!” - all so that He can actually touch His friend Peter, so that He can look at Peter and say “Rise, and have no fear.” That grand, wondrous Transfiguration – Jesus ends it for Peter's good. The Transfiguration is the image, the glimpse at what Jesus had constantly before He was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary. Who is Jesus? He is the God who will step away from heaven and glory and dive into the muck and mire and mess of sin all in order to rescue sinners, sinners like Peter, like you, like me. Jesus is the God who is will go the Cross and die just so that come the last day He can touch your corpse and say, “Rise, and have no fear” and finally you will – you will rise, you will finally have no fear. That's who Jesus is, the God who will go through anything to see you saved, to see you rescued from the power of sin and death, to see that you rise to life everlasting freed from sin and it's fear and anger and greed and lust and shame.

Because Jesus actually likes you and wants to be with you. Jesus likes Peter, He likes Moses and Elijah. They're friends. Abraham was called the friend of God. James and John were His buddies that He sat around the campfire with. And that's what you were created to be – and sin gets in the way of that, sin separates man and God, sin strives to separate you from God. And we can't bridge that gap, we can't mend that break – we literally physically and spiritually can't do it. So Jesus does it. He comes, and with His birth, His life, His death, His resurrection, that gap, that separation, is gone. The curtain in the temple that kept God safely away from us and us safely away from God – torn in two by God when Jesus dies. Everything in the Scriptures is the story of what Jesus will do to win you back, to rescue you, to restore you unto God. This is why He has seen you baptized – you're more than just a friend – you are now a Baptized child of God, you're family, you're a co-heir with Christ of all things. This is the wonder of the Supper – you sinful folks can't quite handle heaven in full yet, but I'm going to bring you there right now in a way you can handle. Yes, sing with all the company of heaven the songs of the feast. Sing with the angels Holy, Holy, Holy! Yes, let Me come to you, give Myself to you, hidden under bread and wine I give you My Body and Blood, all that I am, to forgive you, to strengthen you until that day of the Resurrection when you do get to see Me face to face without any fear.

Who is Jesus? It's His name! Yeshua – the Lord Saves. And you see the depths, the fullness of what this saving means. Jesus is the God who will step away from heaven, who will become Man, who will suffer and put up with all the junk of sin that you do, who will even fight down and go through death for you, all so that come the last day He can say to you, Rise, and have no fear – and you will, for Jesus has won you forgiveness, life, and salvation – and He gives these gifts to you now and He will do so forever. In the Name of Christ Jesus, the Light of the World + Amen.