Transfiguration Sermon

 

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

    The transfiguration of our Lord – where Jesus takes only three of the disciples with Him – Peter, James, and John – and there on the mount Jesus is transfigured – He starts shining, His divine glory begins to radiate forth, no longer hidden or obscured. And Moses and Elijah are there talking with Jesus! Ah, glory, glory Hallelujah! What could be a better thing to see, what could be a better experience? In fact, in modern parlance we will talk about the incredible emotional highs of having a “mountaintop” experience, where everything is just so awesome and wonderful, but alas, you can't stay on the mountaintop all the time, you've got to come back down. And we can hear this text and think wistfully, “Oh, to have seen that, oh that we were there! How awesome would have have been.”

    Before we continue with the sermon, I would like to just remind everyone of a simple fact. You and I – we're sinners. We are sinful people, and as we are sinful, we are prone to delusions and prone to overestimating what we would do in a situation. “Why, if I was there when those villains came in, I'd have shown them what for!” We tend to think of ourselves as braver or bolder than we are – we forget the andrenaline rush as fight or flight kicks in, the fast talking terror where we are slightly out of our mind, racing along, and our plans go flying out the window. That's reality. And it's reality for Peter, James, and John. They are not just disciples, not even just the top disciples, but they are also sinful men, and they see something strange.

    And [Jesus] was transfigured before them, and His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah talking with Him! It is a fantastic scene. It is wondrously awesome. Jesus is glowing, and two of the greatest heroes of Scripture are there – Moses and the Elijah, the prophet par excellence. This would be a lot to take in, would it not? This would be rather overwhelming. This is not something that anyone, especially not people like you or I, would ever plan for. And as such, we hear and see that Peter is overwhelmed.

    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.” Well, Pastor, Peter doesn't sound too overwhelmed. He says it's good and then he's quite willing to help. Sometimes we take the conversations in Scripture too much at face value – we forget how people talk. What Peter is doing right here is he is giving a polite excuse to get out of dodge and run away. You know what this is – “Oh, dear, your sister is here – how wonderful that she's here... um, you know, I should go get some stuff done in the garage.” Except Peter, and here I will give him great credit, is really sharp, and his plan is fantastic.

    Fantastic!? How is “let me pitch three tents” a great plan? Well, here you need to think Old Testamentally. What is a tent? The tent is the place of sojourn in the wilderness – when Israel was wandering around in the desert, they all dwelt in tents. There was even the festival of booths, where Israel would camp out for a few days to remember and celebrate how God was with them even in the 40 years in the wilderness. And in those forty years, when God dwelt with the Israelites, He didn't just wander around in the midst of them – the LORD stayed in the tabernacle, in the big tent. That's where His glory was safely kept – and Moses would be the one who would talk to Him – and in fact, Moses' face glowed with reflected glory, and it freaked the Israelites out, so they made Moses wear a veil – they made Moses wear a head tent. So what is Peter saying? It's great to be here and see all this glory – now if you will, please let me go off, find stuff to make some tents, and then come up here where I can stuff You and Moses and Elijah safely in tents so I don't have to see your glory here. “Dear, it's great that your sister is here – you know, why don't I get her and you and nice room at that spa resort an hour away so you can have a wonderful time with each other.”

    Do you understand? Peter doesn't say, “It's great to be here – Moses, tell me about the burning bush!” “Elijah, what was it like when the prophets of Ba'al were crying out?” Peter's not asking questions of Moses or Elijah; he's not intensely listening. He's finding a way out. And the thing is – Jesus didn't bring Peter up on that mountain so Peter could come up with brilliant ways to duck out – Jesus brought Peter there to see, to listen, to hear. And in fact, to emphasize that point, while Peter is still speaking, as Peter is making his pitch, “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.'” The glory of the LORD, the cloud that covered the tabernacle, arrives – and the voice of God booms forth – the voice that only Moses during the Exodus could bear – and that voice says, “Listen to Jesus. Pay attention to Jesus.” You aren't here for tents or busy work – you are here to listen to Jesus.

    And the disciples do the only sensible thing. When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified. Well, I know personally, that when I'm dreaming about having my own mountaintop experience, I always want it to end with me hitting the dirt in abject terror. But the disciples are, face down in the dirt. Duck, cover, close your eyes until it's all over so you don't have your face melted off by the glory of God. Utterly sensible. And the disciples would have laid there for a long time, except something happens. 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. Now, imagine the relief, the deep sigh as the fear and worry just leaves your body. They saw just Jesus – and just the normal Jesus they were used to. The Jesus they were used to walking around with and listening too, just as the Father had told them to.

    Don't misunderstand me – the transfiguration was an incredible, astonishing experience. Peter is even willing to point out how amazing it was – We ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with Him on the holy mountain. Yeah, if it's a contest about who has had the most amazing religious experience, Peter points out that his experiences will top your experiences. But here's the thing – it's not about our religious experiences (which often are much more terrifying than glamorous) or even about our emotions or our reactions. No, as Peter points out – And we have something more sure, the prophetic Word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. It was something else to see Jesus in His glory face to face – but in this life time, while we are still sinful folk, we aren't ready for that. So God has given us something more sure – the Prophetic Word – the Scriptures and the preaching there upon. While we are in this dark place, while we are sinners in a sinful world, it is by the Word of God and preaching that we can hear Jesus, listen to Jesus, receive Jesus in a safe way.

    This sets the stage for everything that Christ Jesus is getting ready to do – this sets the stage for Lent and for Holy Week. Because here we see the base problem of sin laid out for us. Sinful man just cannot bear being in the presence of a Holy God and His glory... and the thing is, that's what we had been created for. To be with God – to enjoy the gifts God gives, but also to be able to pause and talk with God in the cool of the day whenever He comes around. And as sinners, we can't. And so the whole program, the whole plan of what Jesus is doing throughout the entirety of Scriptures is that He will come to you in ways that you can handle – through the Word, through preaching – through the Word tied to water, through the Word tied to bread and wine. But He will come to make it to where there will be a restoration of sinful man, where we will be rescued from our sin, from the debilitating impact of sin, where we are less than what we were created to be... and Jesus will rescue us and restore us and make us new to where we can be with Him in His glory and talk with Him and enjoy His presence fully and unabated.

    And do to that, Jesus is going to have to defeat sin and death. Jesus is going to have to veil His power and come into this world, and He's going to have to face down temptation, and He's going to have dive on into death to pull us out of death. That's the purpose of the Cross. And as for us – we're to watch Jesus, to listen to Him, to be focused on Jesus and what Jesus is saying and doing. We see Christ the Crucified – we hear Him in the prophetic word, and our sins are forgiven. And all of this is to build our faith, to make us ready for that time when we will see Jesus face to face, when we will pass through death unto everlasting life with Christ Jesus. And Jesus is patient, and He prepares you, and He gives you growth – and in ways typically that you can handle, here in His Church. The wild, mountaintop experiences are thankfully few and far between, and most of us will never see them – and that's a good thing, actually. Because Jesus works for you in the Word through the Holy Spirit, working forgiveness, life, and salvation in you. And you will see it – you will see Jesus chatting with Moses and Elijah and Peter and James and John – but you'll see it in the life of the world to come, when Christ has made you ready for it, to be part of it, to enjoy it for all eternity. This is what Jesus is doing, and the Father is well pleased that He is. Listen to Jesus. In the Name of Christ Jesus, the Light of the World +